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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Tyranitar #26/95

HS Unleashed

Date Reviewed: July 19, 2010

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 1.50
Limited: 2.00

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

Tyranitar (Unleashed)

 

Hello and welcome to a new week of Pojo’s CotD. No new preview cards for us this time, so it’s back to mopping up the Unleashed set.

 

When you get a Prime and a normal version of a Pokémon released in a set, you know that the normal version is going to be a bit rubbish compared to the Prime. That’s pretty much the case with today’s card, but at least it does have something unique to offer . . .we’ll get to that bit later.

 

Tyranitar has a good 140 HP (above average for a Stage 2), a problem Fighting Weakness (Donphan will give it fits), a useful Psychic Resistance, and a nasty but predictable Retreat cost of three. Of course you can always use Moonlight Stadium to get around this last problem . . . until it is rotated out in September. Tyranitar is a Dark type which is always good. It might not hit many Pokémon for Weakness (Gengar and maybe Dusknoir are the only Dark-Weak Pokémon that get played), but it more than makes up for that by being able to use Special Darkness Energy and smack anything it likes for some extra damage.

 

The first attack Tyranitar has is, not to sugarcoat it, utterly awful. For the substantial cost of [C][C][C] you do 40 damage which might have been just about acceptable in Base Set but definitely is not now. But wait! You get to flip a coin and do an extra 20 damage if it’s heads! That’s just pathetic really. They could have given you the extra damage without the flip and the attack would still be appalling.

 

Tyranitar’s second attack isn’t exactly cheap or overpowered either. Hyper Beam costs [D][D][C][C] and does 80 damage. Sure, you can boost it with Special Dark, and make it slightly faster with Double Colourless, but it’s still underwhelming and slow. It does however, have a very nice and (as far as I know) completely unique effect: you get to discard an Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon.

 

True, there are other Pokémon that can discard Energy, but only on a coin flip (like Dragonite LA) or at the cost of discarding yourself (Typhlosion Prime). Tyranitar has the only guaranteed, no drawback Energy removal attack in the game. Unfortunately, Energy Removal  isn’t always going to be an effective strategy with all the low Energy attackers dominating the game (Jumpluff, Kingdra, Donphan, Gyrados). Even against decks that would be hurt by the discard (anything relying on DCE or Special Energy in general), Hyper Beam is so expensive, and Tyranitar is so slow, that it isn’t likely to make much of a difference.

 

Shame really . . . they brought a very powerful strategy back into the game and then made it practically unusable.

 

Rating

 

Modified: 1.5 (you’re better off with the Prime)

Limited: 2 (hard to KO . . . but mediocre attacks and not easy to get into play)

 

Combos with . . .

I suppose you could charge it up with Weavile SW until it rotates out.

Mad Mattezhion
 Professor Bathurst League Australia
Tyranitar (HS Unleashed)
 
I find myself weeping at the sight of this card. Truly, it is the lowest the mighty Tyranitar has ever sunk.
 
140 HP and psychic resistance are the only good things about this card. 4 Retreat cost is just nasty, especially with the loss of Moonlight Stadium in the rotation. Fighting weakness means that even the 140 HP won't last long against Machamp and Donphan.
 
Now the attacks. Tail Crush deals 40 damage, with a coin flip to deal an extra 20 on heads. 60 damage is great until you realise that it cost CCC to attack, at which point you think the attack should be titled "Tail Tickle" instead. Then you have Hyper Beam, useless wherever it appears in either the card game or the video game, and this is no exception. DDCC for 80 damage and an energy discard really is not enough damage, even with the option of using Special dark energy. Perform a mercy killing, an operation, do something to redeem this card's name! ARGH!
 
Modified: ******** (you don't want to hear what I had to say at this point)
Limited: 2.5 (it may actually do some damage here with high HP and few fighting Pokemon, but watch for Lucario)
 
Combos with: Paper Shredder, followed by a decent non-Prime review for a change


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