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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats	Octillery (Unleashed)   Hello and welcome to another week of Pojo’s CotD. This week we will be rounding up a few Rares from the recent Unleashed set.   We kick off with Octillery, a Stage 1 Water Pokémon with 80 HP, a double Lightning Weakness, and Retreat cost of two which you shouldn’t ever really have to pay.   Every time we get to review a Lightning-Weak Pokémon, we are legally obliged to bring up the subject of Luxray GL LV X. That card is everywhere. It stars in its own highly successful deck (LuxChomp), and makes special guest appearances in everything from Gengar variants to Jumpluff decks. What it does to Water Pokémon, especially low HP Water Pokémon, is not pretty: it turns them into cheap and easy Prizes, even if they are on the Bench.   But let’s assume you either live in Bizarro World, where no-one plays Luxray, or that you are extremely foolish brave. Does Octillery give you enough reason to put it into a deck?   Well, no Powers or Bodies, but it does have two attacks. Switch Cannon is a cheap snipe attack which does 30 damage for [W]. Good value, but not exactly devastating in itself. It does come with a potentially nice twist with Octillery switching out after it attacks, presumably so you can put up some kind of defensive wall like Mr Mime or Shedinja SV. If this kind of strategy appeals to you, you are much better off sticking with Gengar AR. 30 damage a turn will get you nowhere fast.   Ink Bomb, Octillery’s other attack ups the cost to [W][C][C], but barely increases the damage to 50. No snipe/switch effect here, instead you get another form of protection for your Pokémon. If the Defending Pokémon tries to attack next turn, they flip a coin and if they get tails, the attack does nothing. Unfortunately, relying on coin flipping to save your Pokémon is not a sound strategy, and neither is depending on effects which reside on the Defending Pokémon. A simple Unown G can get around this, and so can simply retreating for a different active Pokémon.   So, what you are left with is a Pokémon that is underpowered and all too easily knocked out. Not the best combination for successful deckbuilding.   Rating   Modified: 1.5 (it does some things . . . just doesn’t do them well enough) Limited: 2.75 (attacks can be handy in a low HP format)   Combos with . . .   Nothing worthwhile, I’m afraid.
Otaku	Name: Octillery Set/#: Unleashed 6/96 Rarity: Holo-Rare Type: Water Pokémon Stage: 1 (Evolves from Remoraid) HP: 80 Weakness: Lightning x 2 Resistance: None Retreat: CC Attack#1: (W) Switch Cannon Choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon.  This attack does 30 damage to that Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)  Switch Octillery with one of your Benched Pokémon. Attack#2: (WCC) Ink Bomb [50] If the Defending Pokémon tries to attack during your opponent’s next turn, your opponent flips a coin.  If tails, that attack does nothing.   The new Octillery is another example of good idea, poor execution.  It has low HP for a Stage 1 Pokémon, an undesirable Weakness in the current format, complete lack of Resistance and high-for-its-size Retreat Cost of two.  Being a Water Pokémon, at least, isn’t bad.   For a single Energy, the card can hit any opposing Pokémon for 30 damage.  You then have to change out Octillery with one of your Benched Pokémon.  This is a Stage 1, so even for a single Energy it’s a three card investment (four if you go second and want to have it ready that turn).  Then you need something to hide behind.  I don’t think the classic “porter” strategy is going to work in this format: to make it fast enough requires skipping out on the protection it’d need.  I would actually like this attack better if it were more expensive: if it hit even for 40 damage it would be able to two-hit KO a decent amount of Bench support.   Ironically, the second attack is the one that needed to be cheap, because it seems like a better supporting attack than main attack.  Ink Bomb requires three Energy (one has to be Water, the other two can be whatever) and hits for 50 with a solid effect: 50% chance of making your opponent’s next attack fizzle, provided they don’t Evolve, switch out Pokémon, etc.  This would be a much better “setting up” attack if it only required a single Energy (or two of any type so you could use a Double Colorless Energy).  Obviously it’d have to do less damage to remain balanced, but it’d be a nice, obnoxious opener.   I like what they tried to do, but the attacks feel flip-flopped and notice there is no Poké-Body or Poké-Power.  Either defensive effect probably would have been more useful there so the attacks could be stronger.  If you want to run it, either consider doing so with something that can soak damage or avoid it entirely.  That partner then either needs to be able to get back to the Bench so you can go back to attacking with Octillery or have inexpensive attacks so it can start swinging itself.  You may also want to run something to make sure Octillery stays safe on the Bench.  One could go all out and pair this with Bastiodon from Mysterious Treasures, for example but that feels like too much.  I’d go with a minimalist approach, like Torkoal from Mysterious Treasures, the “Baby” Pokémon with the protective Poké-Body Sweet Sleeping Face, and/or Bench Shield.    Ratings   Modified: 2/5  Limited: 3.75/5  Combo With: Torkoal (Mysterious Treasures), Bench Shield
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Octillery (HS Unleashed) Octillery doesn't see much love as a card, there's only one other Modified version at the moment. Sadly, I think that version is better, though that doesn't say much. Octillery is a non-evolving Stage 1 so it had better be a great attacker or have a useful tech ability as a bench sitter if it wants to see play. Unfortunately, that isn't the way it happened. Octillery has 90 HP (average), x2 weakness to Lightning (ouch), no resistance and a retreat cost of 2 (the suction cups may have something to do with it). No powers and 2 damage attacks mean this card is not a tech, and a max of 50 base damage mean this card isn't an attacker either. It falls in the stall and snipe categories, but it doesn't fit well there either. Switch Cannon is the snipe attack and does 30 damage to one Pokemon for W, and forces Octillery to switch out with one of your benched Pokemon. Good for the cost, but you can't up the damage in this format and the switch means you are sacrificing something more valuable to save Octillery (though it does get around the retreat cost somewhat). With Nidoqueen so popular, this attack is a no go. Ink Bomb is the more expensive stall attack. for WCC you make the opponent flip a coin during their next turn if they attack. On tails the attack fails. You also get 50 damage into the bargain, which isn't enough to save the card. Make it 90 for the same cost and you'd see some people considering it, but as it stands this attack is rubbish. Simply switch, evolve or have Unown G in play to remove/prevent the effect and the attack becomes completely useless as the damage is nowhere near enough to make the effort worth it. This card just doesn't have anything even remotely playable about it. Keep it in the binder, or use it to lever up your table when it tilts. Sorry for not commenting on the art, I've only got the stats and attack text at the moment. I pray they at least put something pretty on the front to justify the inclusion in the set. Modified: 1.25 (the cheap snipe is all that stops it getting a 1) Limited: 2.5 (the snipe becomes quite annoying to the opponet here, but the second attack still sucks) Combos with: hardwood floors (lifting that leg to the right height is easier with lots of thin pieces of cardboard!)