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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Grumpig - Dragon


Date Reviewed: 1.21.04

Ratings & Reviews below

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.

Ralphy
Ralphy-
I am really starting to like Psychic now. If there was a Academy Awards for Pokemon Cards, the Psychic type would be nominated for biggest comeback, along with Demi Moore. Not for her acting, but for her fling with that Ashton boy. And, Psychic would win.
 
Unlimited- The award would have to be for biggest comback in formats outside of Umlimited, becasue no Psychic card will ever take over the Unlimited format again. With the resistances that Wiggly, Chansey, Clefable-y, and the likes have. Well maybe if you max out on Tyrouges, but even then, I don't think so. 1.5/5 here.
 
Modified- Fighting started a bit of a comeback, but that seemed to fizzle out a bit, so not much will be weak to this bad boy as of yet. I do like this card though. Psychic boom could easily be doing 40-60 a turn for 2 energies in this format, and if you can work out the energy ratio, 50 and auto confusion is real nice, and for psychic and 2 colorless. I like the one retreat cost too. 3/5
 
Limited- The good the bad and the ugly. 80 HP, nice, semi-splashable attacks, one retreat, splashable basic, and possible status, good. Low HP basic, weakness to own type, bad. No resistance, ugly. Well, it isn't too ugly, but I have to put something there. All in all, a 3.5/5 in Draft.
Hedge  Grumpig

Nice combo with Amphy expedition. Seen it work, you know, to kill wobbuffett.

Srry for the shortness, I have constitutions at school this week and it’s very time consuming. =/

~Hedge
Otaku

Name: Grumpig
Set:
Dragons
Type:
Psychic
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Spoink)
HP:
80
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(PC) Psychic Boom [20+]
Does 20 damage plus 10 more damage for each Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon.

Attack#2: (PCC) Mind Trip [50]
If Grumpig and the Defending Pokémon have the same amount of Energy attached to them, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused.

Name: Spoink
Set: Dragons
Type:
Psychic
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Bounce [10]

After your attack, you may switch Spoink with 1 of your Benched Pokémon.

Name: Spoink
Set:
Dragons
Type:
Psychic
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Hop [10]

Attack#2: (PC) Psybeam [10]

Flip a coin.  If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused.

Attributes: Grumpig is a Stage 1 Psychic Pokémon.  There is currently only one “Grumpig”, so in that respect, it’s on its own.  Being a Stage 1 is better than being a Stage 2, but worse than being a basic-you can’t just drop it into play.  There are two Spoink to choose from-neither is great.  Bounce is under-priced, until you realize since it’s the only attack, it had better be good.  The latter Spoink’s Psybeam is over-priced by a Colorless Energy, which is also not happy-choose what one you want.

It is Psychic, which kinda hurts it-on the bright side, (in Modified) Psychic-weak Pokémon are everywhere, but that’s because most Psychic Pokémon are weak to Psychic, and Psychic is the strongest type right now.  Second, while Grumpig would be easier to add in than, say, Gardevoir ex, it is harder to add in than Mewtwo ex.  In Unlimited, Psychic just doesn’t get used to much because so many resistant Pokémon are around.

Moving on to HP, we see a solid 80.  This is not a huge advantage for a Stage 1, but its still on the happy side of minimum playable HP.  It should survive at least one strong attack (in Modified-it’s hosed in Unlimited, so assume I mean Modified unless otherwise stated)… unless it’s from its Weakness, Psychic.  Then it will probably be OHKO’d. >_< Oh well.  Probably the worst Weakness it could have (and not in line with the GB games, where Psychic Pokémon are Resistant to each other.  Next is its Resistance, which is… nothing. -_- Rarely will a Resistance break a card.  Bad TPC.  Moving on, we come to retreat, which is one.  It’s not the best, but it is the second best, and easy to pay for.  And as you’ll soon see, we want a way to be able to discard energy from this…

Abilities: First up is Psychic Boom.  A nice solid attack-pay for 25 damage, but get 20 plus 10 for each Energy they have attached.  Most big Pokémon have big Energy requirements to go with them, and hey, Metal Pokémon hate these kinds of attacks, as it basically means Metal Energy does nothing against it.  If you are wondering what I mean, each Metal Energy attached to a Metal Pokémon will block 10 damage, but due to Psychic Boom’s effect, it also adds 10 damage, so in the long run, it’s like it isn’t even there.  Next up is Mind Trip.  Just by its base damage, it is slightly discounted: you pay for 35 but get 50.  Next, if you and the Defending Pokémon have the same amount of Energy, they get hit for Confusion.  Don’t estimate it even though retreating out of it no longer requires a flip-you only get one retreat per turn, and even in Unlimited, this can screw up someone bad.  I used Confusion to stall a game that was almost a lock for an opponent into a tedious hour long affair (sorry Baboon).  Note that it is Energy, and not Energy card.  Still, most big Pokémon will need 3 or more for their “big” attack, so they will be vulnerable.  Sadly, the attacks don’t support each other. If they don’t have the Energy to make Psychic Boom nice, they probably won’t have enough to trigger Mind Trips extra effect.  They probably should have put Mean Look or something for the first attack, so that Mind Trip would be more effective.

Uses/Combinations: Aquapolis Tentacruel’s Strange Tentacles Poké-Power will let you make sure the Energy’s match up, guaranteeing Confusion (or if you load Grumpig up, a KO with Psychic Boom).  Mirage Stadium can help make that Confusion stick, where as Aquapolis Ariados or Octillery could be used to make retreating out of Confusion more painful.

Ratings

Unlimited: 1.75/5-Sorry to sound like a broken record, but “it does stuff”.  With Slowking and Broken Ground Gym, Mirage Stadium, or Rocket’s Training Gym in play, it could be a fun Rogue deck, but Resistance and better Psychic Basics are everywhere.

Modified: 3/5-Just as Espeon was sort of a weaker version of Gardevoir ex, this seems a toned down Espeon.  The difference is that Espeon was a Rare, where as Gardevoir ex was a Pokémon ex (whatever you would consider their rarity), while Spoink is a Holo-rare.  This would have been a killer uncommon card.  I suppose it’s more reliable than Espeon though.

Limited: 3.5/5-Special Conditions are better in Limited events.  It also only needs one Psychic Energy, making it easy to splash (I didn’t mention this in the others because there are better splashable Psychics in the constructed formats).

2-on-2: 3.25/5-A touch better here since you have to targets to chose from, making it easier to maximize Grumpig’s attack results.

TMP: 3.15/5-Like 2-on-2, but with Grumpig able to be attacked twice.

Summary

Good attacks that just don’t compliment each other make for an average card.

-Otaku (nintendotaku@hotmail.com)

perfect0ne  Grumpig

I have bad memories of this card...

Unlimited- Here, he is pathetic since he is OHKOed by mewtwos, sneasel resists him and OHKOs him, clefable and wiggly resist him, and he needs too much energy.
rating--- 1

Modified- If you go first and are able to start using Psychic and have a strength charm, you may get a surprising KO that will make it hard for your opponent to recuperate. Mid-Game he isnt too strong. Most likely they will have a hitter that will OHKO him and if he does get off an attack, he wont do a threatening amount of damage. Against a Gardevoir ex (powered up) his psychic attack hits for 120! Late Game he can prove effective if he can confuse them enough- forcing retreats and loss of energy. Possibly use Mirage stadium with him. He also handles wobbuffet with either attack- making him safe to use with an ex pokemon.
rating--- 3.5

Draft- I ran into a grumpig here >_<. On the second turn I was facing 40 damage to my grovyle, which died. Then I had a Magneton who was able to finish it barely. Grumpig is a beast... too bad nothing else that is psychic type is any good in this format for Dragons (besides girafarig for its colorless attack anyway).
rating--- 3.875

2 vs. 2- With his Mind Trip attack and Psychic attack, you have 2 targets for him to choose. With more available options, he can be all the more useful.
rating--- 3.675

Multiplayer- Same idea as above. You could try having you partner use a cleaner or a status inducing deck to help. The more variations, the better...usually.
rating--- 3.675

 


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