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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Arcanine #13

Next Destinies

Date Reviewed: April 9, 2012

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 1.38
Limited: 3.67

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: See Below

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Arcanine #13 (Next Destinies)

Hello and welcome to a new week of reviews on Pojo’s CotD. I hope you are enjoying your Easter break. I really feel as if we should be looking at Togepi or Lopunny today, but instead we are going to be reviewing one of the two Arcanine from Next Destinies (guess what’s coming tomorrow).

While tomorrow’s card comes from the Japanese Hail Blizzard Set, this one is from a Battle Strength deck. If you are familiar with how Japan tends to do their cards, you can have a pretty good guess that this one will be the weaker of the two. This Arcanine is a Fire Type Stage 1 with a decent-looking 120 HP . . . unfortunately that is still short of the ‘magic’130 that requires Reshiram and Zekrom to boost their attack somehow to one-shot it. Being a Fire Type is a pretty good thing these days: it makes handling Durant decks a whole lot easier, and you will rarely see a Water Pokémon to threaten Weakness (the occasional Kyurem NV or Kyurem-EX, if anything). The Retreat cost of three, on the other hand, is just bad.

Arcanine has two attacks, neither of which is startlingly original or interesting. The first, Crunch, costs [R][C] and does 30 damage, plus gives you a coin flip chance of discarding an Energy attached to the defending Pokémon. The damage output is poor value, and while Energy discard is a very nice option to have, putting it a flip means that you can’t really count on this as a reliable strategy. Nevertheless, it’s a nice bonus if you can hit it, and Crunch could have been a reasonable attack to use while waiting for the Energy to do something more impressive.

Except that Arcanine hasn’t got anything more impressive to do. Heat Blast simply gives you a vanilla 70 for [R][C][C]. In these days of 170+ HP Basic EX, a card with a maximum damage output of 70, and nothing much else to offer, has come out inadequately prepared for the format, and can expect to be sent back to the binder pretty quickly, I’m afraid.

And that is the fate which awaits this Arcanine.

Rating

Modified: 1.75 (seriously underpowered, with not much else to offer)

Limited: 3.5 (pretty good here. Energy discard will hurt more, and a reliable 70 is something you can work with)

virusyosh

Welcome back, Pojo readers! Today we're going to review a beloved Fire-type originally from Generation I. Today's Card of the Day is Arcanine from Next Destinies (Uncommon, #13).

Arcanine is a Stage 1 Fire Pokemon. The only common Fire Pokemon seen right now in Modified are Reshiram and Reshiram-EX, usually paired with Typhlosion Prime or Emboar. That being said, Fire isn't that common of a type right now, despite being great against Durant. 120 HP is excellent for a Stage 1, and will allow Arcanine to survive many weaker assaults. Water Weakness is only really a problem against Kyurem and Kyurem-EX in Modified, but there are a few other Water-types in Limited to watch out for as well, such as Vanilluxe. To round out its bottom stats, Arcanine has no Resistance and a rather large Retreat Cost of 3.

Arcanine has two attacks. The first, Crunch, deals 30 damage for a Fire and a Colorless, discarding an Energy from the Defending Pokemon if you flip heads. While the Energy discard should be pretty good in Modified, you're generally better off using something like Lost Remover or Crushing Hammer, as Crunch's damage output is disappointing. Heat Blast, the second attack, deals a vanilla 70 damage for a Fire and two Colorless. Considering that Reshiram can deal 120 damage for three Energy (and Reshiram-EX can deal up to 80 for the exact same cost), you may want to consider using those in Modified instead. However, the generous Colorless Energy requirements can make Arcanine pretty useful in Limited.

Modified: 1/5 Arcanine is totally outclassed by Reshiram and Reshiram-EX. If you want to use a Fire-type, use one of those here.

Limited: 3.75/5 Arcanine is quite excellent in Next Destinies Limited. 120 HP is fantastic on a Stage 1, and both attacks are good for the format, as Crunch's Energy discard can put your opponent in a tight spot and Heat Blast's damage is good for the cost, and can be abused with Double Colorless. Just look out for Pokemon-EX and Water-types!


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