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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

virusyosh	Marowak (Triumphant)   We end the week with a very odd card indeed.   Why is it odd? Because it’s a Stage 1 that you will want to discard so that you can get the most out of its Basic form.   That’s because Marowak’s only real chance of ever seeing play is in the ridiculous Cubone tank deck (yes, really). This deck works by discarding all your Marowak (easy enough with cards like Junk Arm and Regice LA in the format) so that you can take advantage of Cubone TM’s Lonely Bone PokeBody. This reduces all damage done to Cubone by 20 for each Marowak in the discard pile, meaning that with all four copies gone, Cubone takes a whopping 80 less from each attack! Add in cards like Defender and Buffer Piece for even more protection!   Sounds interesting, yes? Well, it would be, if it wasn’t for the following . . .   1. Cubone has only 40 HP, so Special Conditions and Crobat G drops will KO him fast without the need to even attack. 2. Dialga G LV X laughs at the PokeBody. 3. Water Weakness means Gyarados will hardly care about the damage reduction   The worst thing of all though is that even if your opponent can’t KO Cubone quickly, Cubone itself will need to get very very lucky to take any Prizes at all with its totally flip-dependent attack.   It’s an interesting concept but don’t expect it to work at all in real life.   Outside of this deck, Marowak doesn’t have much to offer. Being a low HP Fighting type with mostly unreliable attacks, it is far outshone by Donphan Prime. Yeah, the attacks aren’t over-priced and Bone Impact has a semi-useful ability to kick Stadiums from the field, but in a format filled with better options, and with Gyarados a significant presence in the metagame, there is honestly no reason to use it.   Rating   Modified: 1.75 (not the worst card, but way short of competitive) Limited: 3.25 (low cost attacks always welcome)
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Marowak (HS Triumphant)   Marowak is both awesome and cursed. Despite having an awesome original design and many different card artworks that show Marowak at its most intimidating, this poor over-worked mother just can’t catch a break and make it into the ‘playable’ category. That and the whole ‘vengeful search/lonely vigilante’ back story given to Marowak and Cubone means that you never get to see a relaxed Marowak chilling on the beach. You always see it in a dark, brooding mood that is somewhat off-putting to new and old fans alike.   That’s enough rambling then. The vital statistics: Marowak is a non-evolving Stage 1 of the Fighting group with 90 HP, Water weakness, Lightning resistance, a retreat cost of 1 and 2 attacks. The HP is less than acceptable with the current trends in the game but it is on the level with past Marowak cards. The weakness and resistance mean that Magnezone and Luxray are less of a problem while Gyarados should be avoided. But you won’t play Marowak in a competitive game anyway.   Just a thought, it is strange that the TCG calls the elements ‘Lightning’ and ‘Metal’ when the videogame and anime call them ‘Electric’ and ‘Steel’. Also, so many people use type (even the programmers, STAB translates to Same Type Attack Bonus) to say what the element of the Pokemon is, when the type is actually the little bit of text under the picture that tells you what the particular Pokemon is meant to emulate (Pikachu’s type is Electric Mouse, for example). I’m not trying to change that part of the language, but I thought it might be worthwhile to explain my sudden change in writing style. I decided use the word ‘group’ when more than one element from the videogame is present in the equivalent TCG element. If you don’t want to read this paragraph since it has nothing to do with the review, then feel free to skip over it. I probably should have put this warning at the top, shouldn’t I?   Now that I’ve had a little laugh at your expense (and possibly caused you to skip my reviews from now until the end of the Internet) I’ll quit rambling and get to the attacks.   Bonemerang is Marowak’s signature move and has done the same thing since the TCG was created. You flip so many coins (usually 2) and deal so much damage for each Heads result. In this case, you pay [c][c] for 2 flips at 60 damage per Heads. Obviously, being flippy makes this an unreliable (and therefore, bad) attack but the average damage is 60 which is fair for the cost, and dealing 120 damage early in a Limited game is definitely a good thing.   Bone Impact continues the theme. At the cost of [f][f], you deal 20 damage. This is a terrible return for your investment, but if you or your opponent have a Stadium in play you must discard it and then deal an extra 60 damage. That is much better, but you know that the HP alone bans Marowak from being an attacker in Modified so better-than-average damage isn’t going to save Marowak from the binder.   Marowak may not be tournament material, but the useful resistance combined with the cheaper-than-usual attacks means that it is a solid pick for Limited. The Cubone is also pretty good in this set, with a Poke-body that reduces attack damage by 20 for each Marowak in your discard pile. So if you pull multiple Marowaks (which isn’t a crazy occurrence since it is an uncommon) then you have a good chance of keeping your reserve Cubone/s alive while you try to build a replacement Marowak after your first is taken down.   Modified: 3 (below average HP with above average damage make an average Pokemon that is nothing but pretty binder fodder after it is done fighting at the pre-release) Limited: 3.5 (if you have multiple copies or one of the Machamps from this set in your deck then it is a must run, especially with the first attack being splashable)   Combos with: The pre-release. Then  you’ll never use it again. It’s pretty though, props to kawayoo [sic]. I’ve also likes the past work done by this person on many of the Lv X cards. Diamond and Pearl releases wouldn’t have been the same without kawayoo.
conical	1/28/10: Marowak(Triumphant)   I'll be honest: I like this Marowak. Quite a bit.   It doesn't do anything fancy; its first attack likely does 60 damage, which is nice, but it is flippy. Bone Impact is rather bad; at FF, it does 10 damage more than Glalie AR's attack, which does the same thing for 2 of any energy. No Powers, no Bodies, nothing fancy, which helps against Umbreon UD, but otherwise it doesn't help Marowak's case. However, look at Bonemerang again. Its attack cost is CC, which means that it can be powered up with a single DCE. Additionally, its fighting typing means that it hits Luxray GL for weakness. Surely, something that has a 75% of one-shotting a popular Pokemon should be used, right? Right?   Or not. Unfortunately, Double Colorless Energy, the card that makes this so techable, also made Garchomp C a far superior attacker to Luxray. Even if this saw play, SP is so versatile that it could either tech in Quagsire GL or just replace the Luxray altogether for something like Blaziken FB. It's sad, but such is the way of the metagame. Nevertheless, it remains a viable answer to any lightning deck. With any luck, it'll be less versatile than SP.   Modified: 2.75/5 Limited: 3.75/5
Otaku	Oh, Marowak, it has been so long since you had a strong card.  Granted, it was pretty sweet your Dark cousin got some face time as a member of the Team Rock (Returns) version of the Four Corners deck, but if I remember it, it has to have been several seasons ago!   To begin with, it is a Fighting Pokémon, which is neither a significant advantage nor disadvantage right now: some strong Fighting decks, common enough Weakness as always, but nothing that can be added to just any Fighting deck to boost it.  Being a Stage 1 is unfortunately still weaker than it should be: format still has a bunch of brutal Basics and Evolution acceleration still favors Stage 2 Pokémon over Stage 1, even if both can technically use it.   The HP is the first real concern though: it is just 90.  It just needs to be a bit higher given the modern level of damage decks are capable of dishing out each turn.  That slight 10 HP different crosses a threshold, and seems to force most decks to work too hard for a OHKO, or simply be unable to execute one.  Still, 90 HP isn’t crippling if the rest of the card is stellar.  The Weakness is the next disappointment: it is Water weak at the damage doubling level.  Gyarados from Stormfront is a strong deck that is also popular.  Given that Marowak often gets a Grass Weakness, it ends up being another small letdown.  We do get a Resistance though, and it is even to a popular type: Lightning Resistance -20.  Lightning-Types tend to be Fighting weak anyway, so they really should struggle against Marowak unless it has no useful abilities.  We round out the bottom stats with a solid single Energy Retreat Cost.  This is low enough you can use something like Unown Q to eliminate it, or just pay the single Energy needed; it isn’t enough to cripple most set-ups after all.   So while the attributes were a bit mixed, I’d say they were a solid start overall; the card just needs a good Poké-Body, Poké-Power, and/or attack(s) and we can still have a real winner here.  The first attack is promising: Bonemerang returns (pardon the pun) and it’s been appropriately updated for modern standards.  You only need to pay (CC), allowing you to power this attack with a single Double Colorless Energy.  This is very important for the current format, as it allows you to use some Evolution acceleration (probably Broken Time Space) to drop this second/third turn of the game and hit in one shot.  Your reward for this is risky, but with an appropriate reward.  You flip two coins, and for each “heads” you score 60 points of damage.  A quarter of the time (approximately) you’ll whiff, and that is why this isn’t an attack you can rely on to sustain a deck.  About half the time you’ll score 60 points of damage and that is pretty good for (CC), even if Donphan Prime can do it (with a drawback) for just (F).  That remaining quarter of the time you’ll get 120 points of damage.  Well, if you flip the anticipated even spread of results: if you are quite lucky (or a dirty cheat) you can enjoy phenomenal returns on this card.  If you’re one of those players people think are cursed, you’ll constantly be hitting for nothing.  Still, working with the hopeful average results you’ll still average a good return.   Sadly, I believe the card drops the ball with the second attack.  We have a chancy but hard hitting attack, so the next attack needs to be reliable.  More importantly, it needs to build on using Double Colorless Energy: if it doesn’t, then you either lose any speed boost or have to just focus on Bonemerang.  TPC gave it Bone Impact for (FF).  If Double Rainbow Energy were still legal, this might have barely worked.  Powered up normally, Bone Impact does a flat 60 points of damage unless there is a Stadium in play; if there is then the attack does another 20 points of damage to the Defending Pokémon.  With Double Rainbow Energy we’d have 0/50/110 from Bonemerang and 50/70 from Bone Impact.  That’d be serviceable, and an interesting deck could be built around powering up quick and perhaps exploiting Stadiums with beneficial, once-per-turn effects as you play them, use them, and then discard them to power up Bone Impact.  Indeed, this could still be the case if you think it is worth taking the time to manually attach two Fighting Energy or run a card like Leafeon Lv.X to get an extra attachment.   I don’t want to waste too much time on what could have been, but am I the only one who things the easy solution would have just been to give it even a vanilla, flat damage attack for (FCC) or (FFCC) to build to while you’re risking Bonemerang?  That can be instead of or with the less simplistic but equally obvious tweaks like giving it a Poké-Body/Power or better stats or more creative attacks, etc.   There are two places to play this card.  The first is Limited.  This should come as no surprise.  Since you have to run what you have, there are fewer Evolutions, let alone well developed Evolution lines or decks capable of getting them out quickly and/or reliably.  Therefore the average HP and damage yield are also much lower.  You won’t have Double Colorless Energy but you’ll have the option of splashing this into any deck (since neither it nor this set’s Cubone need Fighting Energy) and if you do run it with Fighting Energy you can use Bone Impact when you need a reliable 60.  You might even risk running Indigo Plateau as it is unlikely to help your opponent and if need be, can just sit in play to make your opponent think you managed to pull a complete Pokémon LEGEND.  Then discard it with Bone Impact for extra damage.   So what is the second use?  It isn’t going to get a boost from the other Modified Legal Marowak: it suffers almost the exact same problem of two unreliable but relatively strong attacks and so-so stats.  The HS – Triumphant Cubone actually has some odd, mostly League/fun decks built around it.  It has a Poké-Body that reduces the damage it takes (after Weakness/Resistance, sadly) by 20 points for each Marowak in your discard pile.  It couldn’t shine in Limited because there was almost no chance you’d pull the necessary Marowak, Alph Lithograph Four, and Junk Arm you’d need to get Marowak into the discard without it being KO’d, let alone pull those cards in significant enough numbers for it to be more than a rare trick.  When you’re just trying to have fun, though, Cubone can deliver because of its interesting, theme appropriate Poké-Body and Bone Rush attack that can use a Double Colorless Energy to power up in one turn.  It isn’t very strong, at it is a “flip until tails” attack that just hits for 20 points of damage per “heads”, but when you’re a wall that is enough.  It is even enough to make Bone Rush a slight bonus for Limited play: no one will want to be too daring if you have one of it sitting on the Bench with one Energy.   Ratings   Modified: 2.5/5   Limited: 3.5/5   Hey, I am still selling stuff on eBay.  Right now I am focusing on Transformers action figures.  Click here to see my current auctions!
virusyosh	Happy Friday, Pojo! Today we end our COTD week with a review of Marowak from the HS Triumphant expansion. Also, if you happen to be going to any Call of Legends prereleases this weekend, good luck to you! Marowak is a Stage 1 Fighting Pokemon. Aside from Machamp and Promo Toxicroak G, Fighting types aren't that commonly seen, mostly due to the presence of Gengar in the Modified metagame. 90 HP for a fully-evolved Stage 1 is just about average, which is decent as your SP-playing opponents will have to Flash Bite first in order to KO Marowak with Dragon Rush. Water Weakness is unfortunate, meaning that Gyarados will easily KO you, as will Kingdra. Lightning Resistance is great against Luxray GL Lv. X, and the slightly more uncommon Magnezone. Finally, a Retreat Cost of 1 is totally payable, but you could still retreat with Switch, Warp Point, Warp Energy, or by attaching Unown Q. As is the standard for the HS set of expansions, Marowak has two attacks. The first, Bonemerang, allows you to flip two coins and does 60 damage times the number of heads for [CC]. Flip attacks in general don't tend to be too good in Modified, as you want as much consistent damage as possible. In Limited, however, this attack could be decent, as you are averaging 60 damage for two Colorless Energy (although sometimes you will deal 120, or no damage), meaning that it could fit pretty well into a deck that needs an extra Pokemon evolution or two. In general though, flip attacks aren't terribly good, and should only be used if you're feeling really lucky or in a situation where you can't do much else. The second attack, Bone Impact, starts at a terrible 20 damage for [FF] but if there is a Stadium in play, you can deal 60 more damage and discard the Stadium. 80 damage for two Energy is nice, but having to discard Stadiums in this way is terribly unsustainable. If you're looking for a way to deal low amounts of Energy with a Fighting type, stick with Donphan Prime. In Limited, I guess this could be useful if you draft a ton of Indigo Plateau, but even still, not that great. Modified: 1/5 Marowak doesn't have enough going for it to really make a splash in Modified, as its attacks are too flippy or situational. Limited: 2.5/5 As said above, Bonemerang could be useful in a Fighting deck that needs another evolution line, and Bone Impact could be useful if you want to run a few Indigo Plateau as well. Outside from that, however, I wouldn't recommend it unless you really need another evolution line.