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

 

Steelix GL Lv. 38

Rising Rivals

Date Reviewed: 05.05.09

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 1.50
Limited: 2.25

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 5/5 Steelix GL Lv.38 (RR)

Hello, and welcome to the continuation of our Rising Rivals preview week, and we continue the week with a card that everyone has not cared about in the slightest, yes, it's Steelix GL. I'll get onto the reasons why later, but first of all, the basics of the card, and it has a mighty 110 HP. That's just brilliant, surpassing most other normal non-evolving basics (normal or SP) including many legendaries. Basically, if Steelix GL doesn't survive at least 1 hit, when you also consider it's Metal typing as well, then you must be up against a Mesprit Lv.X (LA). x2 Fire Weakness probably won't be too bad since there aren't that many good Fire Pokémon threatening the metagame either at the moment nor probably after the release of RR either. -20 Psychic Resistance is always welcome, with who knows how many good Psychic types being in the metagame. 4 Retreat Cost is just a little too much in my opinion, so make sure you run enough Warp Points/Switches to allow Steelix to get to the safety of the bench.

The abilities now, and this is where the card takes a downturn. For CC, Mend isn't too bad I suppose. You get a Metal Energy from your discard and attach it to Steelix GL, and if you do, you get to remove a damage counter from Steelix GL as well. It's nice to see that it's not limited to basic Metals, so you can get the valuable Special versions back as well. However, it does no damage, which makes it a bit less good than it could've been. It's not much of a stalling attack since it only removes 1 damage counter, which in the grand scheme of things, does nothing. If it did damage, then it might be worth a little more of that CC cost, but without it, it's not great.

However, it is energy acceleration, which if you can get enough energies in the discard pile, can help power up the second attack a lot quicker. Squeeze costs a rather painful MMCC, which is high even with the aid of it's in-built energy acceleration from Mend. When you consider it's base damage of 30, you can be forgiven for thinking we have gone back to the days of WOTC and all attacks cost 3 energies for 20 damage or something. However, it has an effect. You flip a coin, and if heads, you deal an extra 50 damage and Paralysis. It's the flip that gets me. OK, I'll admit auto-Paralysis would be too broken, but a flip for that would be alright, it's just the extra damage that I wish you didn't have to flip for. Essentially, it is MMCC for 55 and possible Paralysis on average, which isn't good. OK, you can make it better by using Energy Gain, but it isn't much better.

OK, so Squeeze and Mend aren't exactly going to break every Pokémon it attacks, it does make for interesting stalling option. Special Metals and the massive amount of healing cards we have available, including the every brilliant Poké Turn, along with it's on possible healing from Mend and annoyance from Squeeze, means your opponent might struggle to break their way through Steelix GL. It's just a shame that stalling and decking out aren't really that viable anymore, with many decks being too fast for this slow card. Sorry, but this card probably won't work.

I suppose Steelix GL doesn't have any direct counters as such, but any Pokémon that can out speed it and/or deal enough damage to get through it in a couple of turns will do.

Ratings:

Modified: It's very slow, even with Mend, and when you do get to attack, you'll find Squeeze being a useless attack. OK, it can stall, but in this format, that just isn't enough, it would also need to be a good attacker, which it just isn't. It's a rather dull, uninspiring card, this. 1.5/5

Limited: I can't see it being much better here. There are cards that discard cards from your hand, so you can get energies back and heal damage using Mend, but you probably won't be able to do it when you want though. Squeeze is still useless here, with MMCC being way too much for an average of 55 damage and a 50% chance of Paralysis. Get heads often enough, and it'll win you a game or two. If you are like me, though, it won't be much help with all of those tails you flip. 1.75/5
Baby Mario
Top 4 UK Nats

Steelix GL

 

Steelix was obviously meant to be a tank. Mend is great for Energy acceleration and for recovering Special Metal (Which you could put on a Dialga G using Bronzong G’s Galactic Switch).

 

Squeeze is an expensive attack and needs a coin flip to do decent damage. Paralysis is a nice effect, though.

 

Psychic Resistance is a nice bonus, Fire Weakness is ok, but it is vulnerable to being KO’d in one hit by Houndoom G. The retreat cost is horrible, but you could always use Poke Turn or Warp Point.

 

Overall, Steelix GL is just too slow and its attack just too unreliable to be worth playing over Dialga G.

 

Rating

 

Modified: 1.5 (just because it can recover Special Metal)

Limited: 3 (a tank Pokemon would actually be useful here)


CopyrightŠ 1998-2009 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.