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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Blaziken Lv. 59

Platinum

Date Reviewed: 03.12.09

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 3.50
Limited: 3.10

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

Back to the main COTD Page

Jigglypuff13 3/12 Blaziken Lv.59 (PL)

Hello, and welcome to Thursday's COTD, a very special one since, as you may or may not know already depending on what is on the main page of the Pokémon page, it's the Pojo's 1400th Pokémon COTD! OK, it's now quite as exciting as it will be in 100 reviews time, but still, it has to be celebrated, right? Cake? A Party? Maybe you'll have these things, but we get to review the new Blaziken. Better than nothing I suppose.

Anyway, the card, and first of all, the basics of the card. First, we have the standard 130 HP for a Stage 2. It's to be expected at the moment, so all is well here. Next, we have +30 Water Weakness. Again, expected due to the Fire typing, but slightly annoying since Blastoise (PL) and Kingdra (LA) are almost certainly going to be used for states, so you will find the weakness be slightly annoying. No Resistance shall be glossed over. 1 Retreat Cost is quite good for a Stage 2 at the moment, so it's less painful if you do need to bench Blaziken quickly.

Abilities next, and I'll start off with the Poké-Power, Fire Breath. Quite a simple little Power in it burns one of your opponents active Pokémon. Simple, yet devastating. A lot of main attackers at the moment like to use Poké-Powers, so Burning them with a Power really puts them at a disadvantage, stopping their Poké-Power, and maybe weakening or slowing down the whole deck. It can benefit decks as well (I'm sure Mightyena (PL) would love you for burring it), but they are in the minority. Others are indifferent, and don't particularly care, until the damage from burn starts to mount up at least.

So, quite a power Poké-Power, but is it complimented by good attacks? Well, the answer is a simple yes. For CC, Clutch combos well with the Poké-Power, doing 40 damage and stopping your opponent from retreating. Admittedly, they can still Switch, but if they can't do that, the damage from Burn will start to stack up. However, while these slow KO's are nice, I'd prefer something a bit quicker. Step in Fire Spin. The name sets me back to the good old days of Base Set, and Charizard doing 100 for RRRR and discarding RR. Thankfully, this incarnation of the old attack is miles better. firstly, it costs only RRC whilst still doing 100 damage. Also, you only need to discard 2 energies, not specifically R energies. Not a massive improvement, but one none the less. 100 damage with the possible Burn damage gets to 120 damage. To make sure you hit the magic 130 number, I'd run a few Plus Powers and/or Buck's Training to get to the magic number.

With this card, there isn't anything fancy, just good old fashioned beatdown. So, what can you combo with the card? Well, there are several possibilities, but my favourite for this is the well use Heatran Lv.X (SF). People have used Heatran Lv.X with Magmortar Lv.X (MT), Infernape (any), even Rapidash (SF), but I think it's suited to be with Blaziken, a Pokémon who will take advantage of both of Heatran Lv.X's abilities, getting energies back for Fire Spin right after you use it for consecutive uses, and for automatic Burn damage, which is automatically inflicted from Fire Breath. Also allows you to use Blaziken (GE), who will happily snipe and KO a Claydol (GE) or Uxie (LA) for RRC with no discard thanks to Heatran Lv.X, with Burn still taking it's toll on your opponents active. Also, like I said on Monday, Blaziken could be used with Dustox, but it isn't recommended due to Dustox being not quite good enough to be competitive.

Counters? Well anything without a Poké-Power is a start, so burn won't do anything to them. Also, if it were to have more than 130 HP, that would be helpful. In fact, it's starting to look like Tyranitar (SF) would be quite good, but it would be KOed by Burn, so maybe it isn't up for the job. Personally, I'd go with Kingdra (LA) or Blastoise (PL) to counter Blaziken. Both take advantage of Weakness, and both will happily OHKO Blaziken. They both take a bit of time to be able to do this, and Blastoise will be slowed down by Burn, but once they get going, it'll be enough to wash Blaziken away.

Ratings:

Modified: It's a great little card this. Simple it what it does, but it will achieve what you want due to the combination of Burn and 100 damage attack. Heatran Lv.X and Plus Power helps this along quite nicely for certain OHKOs on 130 HP Pokémon. However, Weakness to a popular type is this cards main downfall, since Kingdra and Blastoise will just love you for playing this card. Also, if I had to have one more thing I didn't like about this card, it would be Clutch, since they've never been that great as an attack, and I would've preferred to have seen something else there, but that's a minor point to what is an otherwise great card. 3.75/5

Limited: It's a Stage 2, which already limits it due to being hard to get out. Also, while Fire Spin will KO most of you find here, you do have to pay a hefty to be able to do so. However, Special Conditions are always welcomed here, so Fire Breath's auto Burn will be nice, and combined with Clutch, due to the lack of Switching card, will be a nasty little combo. Just watch out for other Special Conditions though, especially from Skuntank G. 3.25/5

Meganium45
OK, COTD #1400. I am proud to have been a part of several of these milestones! 1400 cards is mindblowing. That is like 14 complete 100 card sets!

This is a good one…an often overlooked one, but a good one.

Blaziken. The fire chicken.

The big fire chicken.

Bottom stats are, well, OK. 130 HP good. 1 Retreat cost good. Weakness to water, not so good with Kingdra, Blastoise, Empoleon and Palkia running around.

The power is cool. BAM. You are burned. No flip a coin, or damage me, or other such foolishness. Doesn’t work if I am affected by a special condition, but guess what? I won’t be most likely!

Attacks – Clutch – 2 for 40 and can’t retreat. With so many free retreat pokes, moonlight stadiums and the like…a good clutch may be hard to get out of.

Fire spin 3 for 100 and discard 2 energy. Very good, very balanced. Allows you to “pop” Gengar without the power being activated. 100, OK. You are burned, flip tails, go to the discard without your flip of death NYAHHH NYAHHHH!

What card SCREAMS combo me! COMBO ME!!!

DING DING DING….winner is the young lady from Tennessee!!! Heatran Level X! No more discard comrade!

100 EVERY turn!!

With the lessening of Kingdra’s dominance, this may be a deck to keep all of those Grass nasties in check, while being able to one shot any of those SP Pokemon we all love to hate.

Unown G cannot stop the Fire Breath Power (yeah, I know, but Amphy and a special condition can)

Unown G really cannot affect this guy, as his damage is straight damage!

Ratings…Going pretty high here. Modified 4/5…water weakness holds it back

Limited – 3/5 This is about as high as I will EVER rate a stage 2. All is good with this Pokemon here.

Talk to you soon, and looking forward to 1500 in what Bill, about 4-5 months???

States are coming. States are coming!
 
Pokmeman

1400th Card of the day. Wow. It's been around for a while.

There has already been a well done article on a DP- on Blaziken deck, which can be found here.

This is a great card, which gives Heatran LvX more use than it had previously (That being of spot duty in Magmortar decks). It was almost meant to be used with Heatran LvX. Automatic 20 damage in between turns to your opponent's active, even if they have an Unown G or are Toxicroak G.

100 for three is good, though the discarding hurts a lot without Heatran LvX. Thank goodness for Level Max.

I think this can be the focus of an effective deck, in combination with the GE Blaziken.

4/5 in Modified

It is a stage two which should automatically make it a one, but automatic burn is amazing here. 3/5 Limited

Little
Duck
Drew
2006 National
Champion

Another Blaziken card? Too bad the era of fire has ended.

A stage 2 Blaziken with 130 HP and a 30+ weakness to water…Well, not all cards can be great.

HP: This Blaziken’s HP is a solid 130. Which can never be bad, but the HP is only part of a Pokemon. If the rest of the card is really bad, don’t play the card.

Retreat Cost: The retreat cost of this Blaziken is like most Blaziken, a standerd 1. Which is great for any Pokemon, the retreat cost is an important part of a card, because a single retreat can win or lose you a game.

Poke-Power: The Poke-Power is a sweet little thing called Fire Breath. The effect, the defending Pokemon is now burned. This effect goes straight through The pesky Unown G, and goes great with a Heatran level-X.

Attacks: The first attack is called Clutch, It does The defending Pokemon can’t retreat during your opponents next turn and does 40 damage for 2 colorless energy. A classic attack. The second attack is called Fire Spin. It does 100 damage for 2 fire energy and 1
colorless, but you have to discard 2 energy attached to Blaziken. But once again, a great pair with Heatran Level-X.

Weakness: A 30+ weakness to water is quite a burden is you come up against a Blastoise deck, but any other deck you should be ok against, Lets face it, the only decent water deck in the entire form at is a Blastoise deck, and that’s only if you pair it with the right card.

Ratings (yay)

Modified: 2/5 This card is not a good card, even if you play it right. The card gets pounded up and down by Blastoise, and if you play Heatran with it (which you should) it gets beat even worse. I hate to say it, but if you look at the card, it screams noob.

Limited: 4/5 if you can get this card in your draft, which is highly likely ( I’ve had a 3,3,3 line of it once) this card will wreck your opponents.

States is almost here! Get ready!
 


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