Pojo's Pokemon news, tips, strategies and more!

Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles


Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play


Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel


GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual


Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar


Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List


Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
-
Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us


Magic
Yu-Gi-Oh!
DBZ
Pokemon
Yu Yu Hakusho
NeoPets
HeroClix
Harry Potter
Anime
Vs. System
Megaman



Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Zangoose

EX Holon Phantoms

 

Date Reviewed: 06.26.06

Ratings & Reviews Summary
Unlimited: 1.25
Modified: 2
Limited: 3.85

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


Otaku

If you prefer a shorter review, skip straight to the Scores and Summary.

 

Name: Zangoose

Set: EX Holon Phantoms

Card#: 34/110

Rarity: Rare

Type: Colorless

Stage: Basic

HP: 70

Weakness: Fighting

Resistance: None

Retreat: C

Attack#1: (C) Scratch [10]

Attack#2: (CC) Fury Cutter [10+]

Flip 2 coins.  If 1 of them is heads, this attack does 10 damage plus 10 more damage.  If 2 of them are heads, this attack does 10 damage plus 20 more damage.  If all of them are heads, this attack does 10 damage plus 40 more damage.

 

Attributes: Zangoose is an “isolated” Basic Pokémon; that is it has no “pre-Evolution” (like Pikachu has Pichu) or a Stage 1 form to Evolve into.  This means that Zangoose has to do whatever it does well as there is Evolution to drop and make it bigger with better attacks.  Still, as a Basic Pokémon, it is quite easy to search out from your deck with Pokémon and Trainer effects, and can be dropped into play on a whim (some effects even automatically Bench the Pokémon for you).

 

Zangoose is a Colorless Pokémon.  The upside is Colorless Resistance is pretty rare while Colorless Weakness is more along the lines of fairly uncommon, so most of the time using a Colorless Pokémon feels “old school” (when it mostly existed as a “neutral” Type).  The downside is that anything can fake being a Colorless Pokémon for a turn with a Crystal Shard, and many decks use a Pidgeot from EX Fire Red/Leaf Green still (though I’ve heard some talk that usage is down).  Both eat at one of this card's viable uses (more or less ignoring Weakness/Resistance).

 

70 HP appears to be the bare minimum for a Basic.  In Unlimited, this mainly just means that it takes a good, solid set up to trigger your Focus Band. ;)  In Modified, it means that it will usually take a fully set up Stage 1 or 2 Pokémon (or mostly set up Pokémon-ex) to nail you in one hit, while most lower Stages will take two or three turns.  Zangoose Fighting Weakness isn’t as bad as it could be thanks to the HP: 30 points of damage from a Fighting Pokémon first turn with a minimal set up is doable, and almost easy by the players second turn.  40 points of damage (base) is usually going to take a turn longer: either for a better set up or just accumulated damage.  There is sadly no Resistance, so I’ll move onto the Retreat Cost of one.  Good for Modified, passable for Unlimited (where free retreating Basic Pokémon are a common sight).  Retreating with Zangoose should almost always be an option.

 

Abilities: (C) Scratch is a bit disappointing, almost, doing only 10 points of damage.  It is a “fair” price at a glance, but with no Stage 1 form available, the attack really could be a bit more potent and still be fair.  Fury Cutter is a good example of how an attack on a card like this should be.  Speaking in terms of possible out comes, one in eight times, it will give a sub-par 10 damage but also hit for 50 points of damage one in eight times.  Three out of eight times, you hit for 20 points of damage, which is what you have paid for, and the remaining three out of eight times, you hit for 30 points of damage, a slight bonus.  That means the attack averages (mathematically speaking) 25 points of damage.  That’s five points over what was paid; slight bonus in the long run before you remember that it should hit for a little more than was paid.

 

Scratch has the barest bit of synergy, being able to be used with a single Energy while you need two for Fury Cutter.  It is useless once Fury Cutter is ready: Fury Cutter at worst hits for the same amount of damage.  Even an obscure added effect would have been better for the first attack, though a supportive effect (set up, protection, etc.) as an attack or Poké-Power/Poké-Body would have been better.  Fury Cutter isn’t that great either, really needing to do base 20 damage since it is this cards only big attack (and it isn’t that big most of the time).

 

Uses and

Combinations: If you want a decent sized, Basic Colorless Pokémon there are probably better options.  For example, Chansey form EX Fire Red/Leaf Green has 20 more HP, automatic Sleep for (C) as its supporting attack, and for (CCC) does 50-50 split: doing 50 damage on heads and removing 5 damage counters from itself (all if there are less) on tails.  It even has an Evolution available; the only downside is it has two Energy Retreat Cost (not a huge factor, for Modified).

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 1/5 – I thought about using this as added support for a FTKO style deck, but even then there are better choices.  At least Neo Discovery Tyrogue doesn’t OHKO it.

 

Modified: 2/5 – As a Basic beatstick, it isn’t that bad, it just isn’t very good either.  If you absolutely had to use it as an opener or cleaner in a deck, it would do an okay job.  It’s just so many other cards can do it better (assuming it needs done at all).

 

Limited: 3.65/5 – Here it can be a real terror.  Unfortunately, it came in a set with many Pokémon δ, and more importantly many support cards for them.  As such, this card is at something of a disadvantage: most Trainers will favor Pokémon δ while only one card in the set (a Holographic-Rare Stage 2) punishes their use.  Additionally, it is very flippy, so it averages out only as a “decent” beatstick, occasionally being pathetic, occasionally being quite good.

 

Summary

Zangoose just doesn’t hit hard enough, at least reliably enough, for serious use.  I can’t say it’s even worth playing around with that much.  It needed a better first turn attack, or a Poké-Body/Poké-Power, or just a little more damage on its second attack to be worthwhile.

 

-Otaku

 

0bsol33t Zangoose - Holon Phantoms

Unlimited

I think it's nice having Fury Cutter on something with higher HP than the old Scyther that debuted the attack. However, the problem with Zangoose is that it doesn't evolve - you're pretty much stuck with what's on the card, without room for expansion. Scratch is a standard C for 10, whereas for CC with Fury Cutter you're dealing an average of 20 or 30 damage a turn. If you flip all tails, then you're back down to 10 damage. 1 Heads is 20 damage, 2 Heads brings 30 damage, and 3 Heads tosses out 50 damage. All of this flipping gives it a decent chance of dealing decent damage...but I wouldn't count on consistency. The 1 Retreat cost actually lowers my score here...a Pokémon like this needs free Retreat for complete viability in Unlimited. Plus, Tyrogue is likely to have a field day with the Fighting Weakness, whereas you have to flip three Heads immediately in a row in order to take 'Rogue out.

1.4/5

Modified

I can't think that it'd be worthwhile to spend the time on Zangoose as a quick hitter. Every sign is pointing toward the fact that it probably wouldn't be worthwhile to spend two turns dropping Energy on it, only to end up flipping all Tails every time and dealing a whopping 30 damage over 3 turns. Double Rainbow Energy can't be attached to it, because it doesn't evolve...Scramble Energy would work you're down on Prizes, but Scramble has much, much better uses elsewhere in every deck. I think there are more solid ways to spend your Energy, that provide much higher returns.

1.4/5

Limited

You've at least got a chance with this card in this format. Two Energy isn't all that much to spend on an attack in Draft, but having a statistical chance at 30-50 damage is pretty good here. Fighting Weakness isn't that bad, since this is splashable in decks with Fighting Resistance or at the very least some varied Weakness. 1 Retreat's pretty low in this format, so it gets a slight bump because of that. 70 HP on a Basic is also pretty high for Draft, meaning we've finally found a place it's worthwhile to play.

2.5/5

- 0bsol33t
pojo0bsol33t @ exyxe.com
 

William
Hung
Zangoose HP

Modified 1/5 - Sorry, this card doesn't provide any serious winning conditions. Even in a fun game, this Pokemon is simply weak.
 

Raichu88
My name is Zangoose
I won’t make any treads
Cause I’ll hurt you bad
When I flip everything heads

Unlimited: Nope we have better basic Colorless Pokemon here like Igglybuff and such.

Rating : 1/5

Modified: Not worth playing it. 70 HP is to easily OHKO and weaknes for Fighting is bad with Medicham around.

Rating : 1/5

Limited: Quite playable 70 HP is nice for a Basic and it can attack immediately.

And Fury Cutter is nice for just two energy.

Rating : 2/5
 

Kevin89
Zangoose HP

Unlimited;
HP and the other stats are all pretty good, but the attack doesn't do enough damage for it to be good.
1.5/5

Modified;
The lack of damage is dissappointing, colorless basic pokemon with 70 HP could be decent.
2/5

Limited;
EXCELLENT card here, it's attack have colorless costs, and 70 HP is just awesome. Retreat cost is decent, though weakness to fighting could really hurt. Exegutor, Sharpedo, Whiscash are all uncommons that are seen pretty often in decks. But other than that, this card is very decent. It requires some coin flips to do serious damage, but overall it's an awesome starter, and pretty decent late/mid-game.
4/5
 

Joker Boi
First, and foremost I want to say that I am horribly sorry for not doing CotD reviews for the past weeks I also missed my favorite card Raichu d and it makes me mad. But doing a full year course in 4 weeks isnt easy so I am trying to find time. Anyway today we have zangoose. Dont play him ever unless they have a card that says if you have out zangoose you win

Modifie~1.5/5 limited 4/5~The only thing hes good for.

Tuesday:

Same as yester day puh-lease the only reason to play this is if you are playing blaze and at the moment there is no good ones.

Modified~1.5/5 Limited~2.5/5


Copyright© 1998-2006 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.