Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Gothitelle
#48/98 (Emerging Powers)
After yesterday’s card, I suppose this was bound to be
an anti-climax . . .
This version of Gothitelle
is inferior to the other one in just about every way
(except for the lower Retreat cost). It has less HP
(meaning it gets one-shot by the Dragons), it has no
Ability, and the attacks aren’t very inspiring either. I
guess the card designers put all their efforts into the
other Gothitelle.
At least Smack is good value and low cost: giving you
30 damage (but no effect) for
just the one Psychic Energy. At two
Energy of any Colour and you get the doubtful
benefit of being able to use Mental Shock, with its
sub-par damage output of 60, and a coin flip for a
mediocre effect. Flip heads and you inflict Confusion (a
Weak Status Condition that the defending Pokémon will
likely Retreat or Switch out of); get tails and you can
discard an Energy attached to the defending Pokémon
(while not bad, the impact of this in a format full of
low Energy attackers and Energy acceleration decks is
less than it might be).
What you have here is a Pokémon that is typical of the
cards that the Japanese get as Promos, but which we get
incorporated into sets: it’s a non-essential and clearly
worse version of the ‘real’ thing.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (boring sub-par Stage 2. Play the other
one)
Limited: 2.75 (probably superior to the other one in
this format, thanks to the cheap attack and the fact
that Status Conditions work better here)
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virusyosh |
Happy Friday, Pojo readers! Today we're going to end
our COTD Week by reviewing the other Gothitelle from
Emerging Powers.
Gothitelle is a Stage 2 Psychic Pokemon. As I've said
all week, Psychics aren't too common, although the
ability Gothitelle may end up changing that, as Magic
Room is quite a good Ability. Will this Gothitelle be
able to make a splash in the deck as a one- or two-of?
Let's see. 120 HP is on the lower side of average for a
Stage 2, but given that Psychics don't usually have that
much HP anyway, it's expected. Even still, Gothitelle
should be able to take at least one weaker attack, but
sadly falls short against Reshiram, Zekrom, and other
common attackers that hit the magic number of 120. Like
the other Gothitelle, this one has a Psychic Weakness
and no Resistance, but only a Retreat Cost of 1, which
is fairly nice.
Unlike the Ability Gothitelle, this one only has two
attacks. Smack deals a vanilla 30 damage for a single
Psychic Energy, and is only really useful in Limited. I
suppose it could be used to finish off a weakened
Pokemon or a Basic with low HP in Modified, as well. The
second attack, Mental Shock starts off at 60 damage for
a Psychic and two Colorless, and when you flip a coin,
the attack either Confuses the Defending Pokemon if you
flip heads, or discards an Energy from the Defending
Pokemon if you flip tails. These attacks that provide a
beneficial effect regardless of what you flip is very
nice, but it's kind of unfortunate the attack only deals
60 damage, and being a Stage 2, there are probably
better options in Modified. In Limited, Mental Shock is
great, as both effects will strongly hinder your
opponent, and 60 damage is fairly good for that format.
Modified: 2/5 In terms of competitive play in Modified,
the Ability Gothitelle is much better than this one.
While Mental Shock is fairly decent in terms of what you
get, being able to block Items is simply amazing. 120 HP
in a format where 120 damage attacks are easily obtained
doesn't help this Gothitelle's case, either.
Limited: 4/5 Much like the other Gothitelle, if you can
get this one out, you'll probably win, if not come very
close. Smack is great in order to pick off weakened
opponents, and Mental Shock deals decent damage with
useful secondary effects. Just be careful for all of the
Psychics in Emerging Powers - there are quite a few of
them.
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