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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Flareon - #26/90

HS Undaunted

Date Reviewed: August xx, 2010

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 3.00
Limited: 3.50

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

Combos With:

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Flareon (Undaunted)

 

Another Eeveelution up for review today. This time it’s Flareon.

 

Most Eeveelution decks work by focusing on a main attacking Eeveelution and including a smattering of others as techs for particular match ups.  Whether a Flareon is needed depends to a large extent on whether there are any Fire-weak Pokémon in the metagame that need to be countered. With Dialga G still powerful and Steelix Prime seeing more play, I would say that there is definitely an opening for a good Flareon in these types of decks.

 

This Flareon is a very straightforward card with typical Eeveelution stats (90 HP, predictable Weakness, single Retreat). It has two vanilla attacks. For the very low cost of [C], Flame Tail does a nice, but not decisive 30 damage, while the considerably higher cost of [R][R][C] and a discard gets you 90 damage . . . which should almost always be sufficient when hitting for Weakness.

 

The other deciding factor in its playability will be the competition it has from other Flareons. In this case I don’t honestly think there is a lot to choose between them. Flareon MD has comparable attacks, and a +20 Weakness instead of double. However it also has twice the Retreat cost and can’t quite match the damage output of Flareon UD. The Flareon from Rising Rivals can’t match the 90 damage either, but its big attack is cheaper and it can pull off some tricks with Undevelop (a Power that turned out to be nowhere near as useful as it sounded).

 

Which one you pick depends on what you are trying to tech for. If you fear Dialga, then Flareon MD is probably the best choice as it can use Double Colourless Energy and discard Energy from your opponent’s Pokemon. If Steelix Prime is your biggest problem, then, thanks to Steelix’s monster HP, Flareon UD is the one most likely to get you the OHKO you need.

 

Only playtesting and good metagame knowledge will be able to tell you if you need to include this Flareon in your Eeveelutions deck. Bear in mind that its most powerful attack is slow and expensive, but if you are playing with the new Leafeon it does at least give you a chance to do some damage to a Steelix Prime.

 

Rating

 

Modified: 2.25 (yes, it is a better Steelix counter than Umbreon)

Limited: 3 (nothing fancy, but a quick 30 damage and the ability to do 90 is nothing to laugh at)

 

Combos with . . .

 

Eeveelution decks


Otaku

Flareon is a hot Eeveelution.

 

 

Sorry, it’s just so hard to resist the puns!  I mean, this is a written article: I could theoretically go back and delete that at any time, but I won’t.  I love puns too much!

 

Despite this rather silly start, this might not be a bad card.  On its own, this is a pretty standard Fire Pokémon.  It is a Stage 1 with 90 HP, so if your opponent gets something up and swinging you might survive a single hit… barely.  Double Water Weakness is standard for Fire Pokémon and could be problematic, since the big complaint about the “big” Water Pokémon from the last few sets amounted to “killer Poké-Power, but I can’t find a good attacker to go with it”.  Cards like Feraligatr Prime from HeartGold & SoulSilver, for example, will of course OHKO this card.  Those that are great attackers (like Gyarados) have the option of scoring a OHKO with inexpensive, early attacks.  The lack of Resistance is of course disappointing and the single Energy Retreat Cost is manageable: make sure your deck runs enough Energy or pack something to help Retreat.

 

Flame Tail is a decent opening attack: for one of any Energy, you can score a quick and easy 30 damage.  Like I said, this is decent: you use it when you have to or when type matching yields a lucky OHKO.  That’s it.  The second attack is Flamethrower is a little better: you need two Fire Energy and a third of any type, and you have to discard an Energy for the attack.  You then do a good 90 damage.  It won’t OHKO anything big, but if you combine Flareon with the right cards, you might be able to take control of the game before the opponent can get anything big out.

 

This is a common Fire tactic so I don’t know that Flareon offers much besides being adorable over other promising Fire Pokémon, even restricting yourself to Stage 1 Pokémon.  The art on this one is almost painfully cute.

 

Cue combo time.  Just like Umbreon, this cards best bet lies in being an Eeveelution.  Espeon Prime can’t copy its attack as easily as some of the other Eeveelutions, and that does hurt a bit.  However, if you can afford to run Fire Energy alongside Espeon, the discard requirement is generic.  That gives you a nice big, otherwise reliable hit to drop something after using the more tactical attacks of other Eeveelutions.  Looking at the other legal Flareon, most don’t combo well with Espeon Prime.  The exception is the earliest legal candidate from Majestic Dawn.  Its big attack needs only one Fire Energy, still hits for 70, and you get to choose and discard an Energy card from both Flareon and the Defending Pokémon!  I am thinking this is what really will keep Flareon out of decks: since the new version only hits for 20 more than the last, unless the newest Eeveelution deck needs that 90 damage then it is better off with such a brutal and effective control strategy.

 

Still, Flareon has one last advantage that many cards, including its fellow Eeveelutions lacks: Ninetales from HeartGold & SoulSilver.  By simply being a Fire Pokémon it has that basic synergy with the card.  Coupled with a Typhlosion Prime you can discard an Energy, draw three cards, attach it from the discard to Flareon, manually attach, and pull off the 90 every turn at the price of an extra damage counter on Flareon.  An extra 10 damage that won’t matter if you’re facing something big (it’d OHKO you anyway) and can be safely dealt with via a few healing cards if you’re facing a swarm of tiny Pokémon (that will take at least two attacks to KO Flareon anyway).

 

Too bad so many other Pokémon can work in that set up.

 

Ratings

 

Modified: 3/5 – Perhaps a bit generous, but it’s a case of “other stuff does it better” and not this card doing it “bad”.

 

Limited: 4/5 – Strengths of being an Eeveelution combined with the strength of hitting hard and fast in this format.

 

I am still selling quite a bit of my stuff on eBay.  I’ve had a lot of hobbies over the years, so at various times I’ll have comic books, manga, action figures, and video games on the auction block.  You can take a look at what’s up for bids here.  I usually add new stuff on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Just a reminder, Pojo is in no way responsible for this and was merely kind enough to let me mention the auctions here. ;)

Mad Mattezhion
 Professor Bathurst League Australia

Flareon (HS Undaunted)

At the end of the week we have a nice, uncomplicated Pokemon ot review. I present Flareon!

90 HP, water weakness, 1 retreat. Underwhelming stats, and no powers or support bodies, so obviously this guy has none of the prerequisites for tournament play.

The attacks support the above statement, with Flame Tail dealing a nice 30 damage for C and Flamethrower dealing 90 damage (nice!) for FFC with an F discard. The build is a classic piece of uninteresting, unplayable Stage 1 set filler.

That said, Flareon isn't really about playing. I still have my holographic Flareo form Jungle set, and it is the only rainbow-coloured Pokemon card I have ever seen and still liked! This edition continues the tradition of being beautifully drawn without being sugar-coated, nausea-inducingly cute, something that is quite a feat for a fluffy Pokemon. Even better, Flareon is cuddly without being wimpy, and is a truly awesome card to play at the prerelease. Go my fiery little beauty, go!

Sorry Wes1234, I'm afraid this is going to happen every time we review an Eeveelution.

Modified: 3 (not Tournament level, but by no means bad, and a great card for beginning players to use)
Limited: 4.5 (I'd say it is the best attacker in the set, since the other cards from Modified don't rob Flareon of it's advantage)
Combos with: the section of the binder reserved for the good looking collectable cards


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