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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

		Pupitar #38/95 HS Unleashed Date Reviewed: July 27, 2010 Ratings & Reviews Summary Modified: 2.17 Limited: 2.50 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	Pupitar – the good one (Unleashed)   Yep, today’s card is a Stage 1 evolution, so its playability is completely dependent on how good Tyranitar is. Luckily, Tyranitar Prime is a pretty decent card (very popular in Japan, I have heard), and even good old Tyranitar SF isn’t the worst Stage 2 in the TCG.   So there’s a fair chance that a reasonable Pupitar could see competitive play. Sure, you will always want to get the T-tar out as fast as possible with Rare Candy or Broken Time-Space, but having a nice Stage 1 never hurts . . . and in this case it can actually help the deck.   Ok, 70 HP is nothing to write home about, and Water Weakness isn’t great, but this Pupitar does have a very useful Lightning Resistance, making it a tough KO for Luxray. It also has a good PokeBody, Boost Gas (yes, really), which gives it free Retreat if it has any Energy attached. That could come in handy if dragged active, or if you start with a Larvitar that you want to evolve and switch to the Bench.   The best thing about Pupitar, though, is its attack. For [C][C] Rage does 20 damage plus 10 more for each damage counter on Pupitar. I know the ability to hit for 80 with an almost dead Pupitar isn’t much of a selling point, but that’s not what makes it good. Basically, Rage/Flail type attacks work brilliantly with high HP Pokémon that are capable of absorbing a lot of damage and then striking back hard before they are KO’d. Tyranitar Prime, with its 160 HP is just such a Pokémon, and if you attach the Memory Berry Tool, it will be able to use Pupitar’s attack and hit for anything up to 170 damage for only two Energy.   True, most of the time you would probably be using Expert Belt and T-tar’s own attacks, but because this Pupitar gives you a nice extra attack option AND has a nifty PokeBody, it is definitely the one I would recommend for a Tyranitar deck.   Rating   Modified: 2.5 (One of the better Stage 1s out there) Limited: 2.25 (if you pull a T-tar . . . why not?)   Combos with . . .   Memory Berry
virusyosh	Hello again, Pojo readers! Today we are reviewing the first of two Pupitars in the Unleashed set, #38. Pupitar is a Stage 1 Fighting Pokemon. Fighting Pokemon mainly appear as Machamp, Donphan Prime, and Promo Toxicroak G in today's metagame, although this Pupitar will generally be used in Tyranitar decks (and the Tyranitars currently played are Dark). 70 HP is average for an evolving Stage 1, although it could afford to be a little higher, especially given Pupitar's double Water Weakness, limiting its survivability against Gyarados, Kingdra, Palkia G, or Rain Dance variants. Lightning resistance, however, is quite excellent with Luxray GL so common. Finally, a Retreat Cost of 1 is totally decent and payable, but most of the time you won't have to worry about it. Pupitar has a Poke-Body and an attack. The Poke-Body, Boost Gas, sets Pupitar's Retreat Cost at 0 as long as it has Energy attached. Pretty good, especially as you will probably attach an Energy to Pupitar so it can be powered up as a Tyranitar. The attack, Rage, costs [CC] and deals 20 damage plus 10 more damage for each damage counter on Pupitar. Nothing terribly great, although the Colorless Energy requirements are notable because Tyranitar SF and Tyranitar Prime both require significant amounts of Darkness Energy, and Colorless Energy requirements mean that you don't need to attach Fighting Energy onto Pupitar that will be useless later. So, which Pupitar should you use in your Tyranitar deck? There will be 3 Pupitars legal in the new MD-On format, so I will focus on those here (Pupitar MT will be legal until the first of September, but isn't really noteworthy). This leaves the Stormfront Pupitar, this Pupitar, and the other one from Unleashed. The Stormfront version has a body that grants damage reduction and has more HP than this one, although the attack can only cap at 40 damage. The other Unleashed Pupitar also has more HP, but only has two simple vanilla attacks that have Fighting Energy requirements. For the Tyranitar deck, I would recommend either this Pupitar or the Stormfront version, giving a slight edge to the SF version for having more HP and damage reduction. However, if you really like retreating for free, this Pupitar is by no means a bad choice. Modified: 2/5 Evolving Stage 1s are hard to rate because the focus of the deck is generally on the Stage 2. In a Tyranitar deck, this Pupitar is perfectly usable due to its free-retreating Body and Colorless Energy requirements. However, the Stormfront version will still be probably better. Limited: 2.75/5 Colorless Energy requirements and the ability to have free retreat is great here. Larvitars are fairly common, so it shouldn't be hard to throw a few of these into a deck that needs a decent hitter (or more consistency). Finally, opposing attacks here are weak enough that Rage may actually be able to do some respectable damage. Of course, if you're running Tyranitar or Tyranitar Prime, this is a must.
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Pupitar 38/96 (HS Unleashed)   Here we have one of the 2 available Pupitar from the set, let's find out if it is better than the SF version.   70 HP (low, even for an evolving Stage 1), Lightning Resistance (nice) and a retreat cost of 2 (discussed below) give this Pokemon less survivabiltiy than the SF version, and since survivabilty is the point of the card while you try breaking out Tyranitar, we already have a problem.   We get 1 Poke-body and 1 attack, both of which seem a little strange and against the design. Boost Gas reduces Pupitar's retreat cost to 0 if Pupitar has an energy attached to it so you can run away if Pupitar gets dragged active *cough* Luxray *cough* but it pales in comparison to the damage reduction Poke-body of the SF Pupitar for survivability.   Rage is completely against the idea fo the card, dealing 20 damage plus 10 more damage for each damage counter on Pupitar for CC. You don't want damage counters on Pupitar, period. Therefore, this attack is crap.   If you haven't already realized, I think the SF version is the Pupitar to use and that this one is set filler for the prerelease.   Modified: 2 (better than the other HSU version, but that isn't saying much) Limited: 2.5 (better than the other version available, but still only worth it if you get Tyranitar)   Combos with: Tyranitar. Oh wait, no it doesn't, it combos with the shoebox.