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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Gigalith #61

Noble Victories

Date Reviewed: Feb. 3, 2012

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.20
Limited: 3.87

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

Gigalith 61/101 (Noble Victories)

Today we look at the Black and White version of the Golem line. Anyone who has played the video game will know that the Basic, Roggenrola, is just as annoying as Geodude ever was: tons of them whenever you walk into a cave, and you can’t even OHKO them for a bit of cheap experience thanks to the fact that most have Sturdy as an Ability.

But that’s way off the point. Today’s card is Gigalith, a Stage 2 with a 150 HP, which looks pretty impressive until you see him side-by-side with one of the new Basic EX. Nevertheless, it’s still pretty decent and puts it outside the OHKO range of most playable Pokémon except Magnezone Prime. Grass Weakness is unlikely to be much of a factor either, with only a Virizion NV using Leaf Power for the second time going to cause problems. Being a Fighting Type is great too, seeing as how Zekrom and Magnezone are still hugely popular (and unlikely to be going anywhere). The Retreat cost of four is obviously terrible so play Switch or leave Gigalith active until he gets KO’d.

But great HP/Typing/Weakness are not enough if they aren’t backed with solid attacks to make getting out a Stage 2 worthwhile, and this is where Gigalith is a bit of a let-down. Core Cannon, the first attack, comes closest. This has a starting cost of just one Fighting Energy and does 20 damage to one of your opponent’s Pokémon for every Fighting Energy attached. The ability to snipe is great, but the big problem is getting enough Energy on Gigalith to make the snipe effective. Sadly, it has to be Fighting, which means that acceleration via Ability Emboar or Eelektric won’t work, and neither will just using Double Colourless. This leaves your only options as the very risky Electrode Prime, or attaching manually multiple times. Neither is satisfactory, really. Electrode works well in decks with Big Basics like Kyurem NV and Electrode NV that can charge up and hit hard and fast, but with a Stage 2? Eh not so much. Manual attachments are not fine either: even though Gigalith is pretty durable, he’s not that durable and getting more than three Energy on him is unlikely. That would only give you 60 snipe anyway, which is barely enough to KO an evolving Basic these days.

The second attack, Power Gem, does an effect-free 90 for [F][C][C][C]. The Colourless cost is a bit of a tease, as Core Cannon can’t use it. I suppose this does give Gigalith a way of finishing off the Defending Pokémon, but it’s expensive and not especially powerful. If there was some way of accelerating Fighting Energy in the format, then Gigalith would have been an ok card. As things stand though, it doesn’t offer enough reward for the massive investment it demands.

Rating

Modified: 1.75 (If Core Cannon was on a Fire Type, we would be in business . . . but it’s not)

Limited: 3.75 (very hard to KO in this format, so Core Cannon can end up wrecking an opponent. But it is a Stage 2)

virusyosh

Happy Friday, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing a Stage 2 from Noble Victories that many people have been trying to find combos with. Today's Card of the Day is Gigalith.
 
Gigalith is a Stage 2 Fighting Pokemon. Fighting Pokemon are becoming increasingly uncommon in Modified right now, with only Terrakion seeing a lot of play. However, you will find a Donphan or Machamp Prime on occasion as well. 150 HP is amazing for a Stage 2, only being dwarfed by the new Pokemon-EX and some of the LEGENDs. Grass Weakness is great to have, as Grass-type attacks are relatively uncommon; however, Virizion will still OHKO with a fully-powered Leaf Wallop. Gigalith also has no Resistance, and a gigantic Retreat Cost of 4. If you want to retreat Gigalith, be sure to use Switch.
 
Gigalith has two attacks. Core Cannon is a snipe attack, dealing 20 damage times the number of Fighting Energy attached to Gigalith to one of your opponent's Pokemon starting at the cost of a single Fighting Energy. Chances are this will deal somewhere around 60 damage, which should be more than enough to pick off your opponent's weakened Pokemon and Bench sitters like Shaymin or Vileplume. Unfortunately for Gigalith, Fighting doesn't really have great Energy accleration, so another type will be necessary to accelerate. Electrode Prime fits this role quite nicely, as Electrode can explode to get many Fighting Energy onto Gigalith, while also activating Twins.
 
The second attack, Power Gem, deals a vanilla 90 damage for a Fighting and three Colorless. This attack is fairly expensive for the cost, but given that Gigalith has 150 HP, the relative weakness shouldn't be a huge problem. Power Gem also works well with Double Colorless Energy.
 
Modified: 2.5/5 While Gigalith has awesome HP, a favorable Weakness, and an interesting snipe attack, it may not do enough damage for the cost to be truly useful in Modified. Many Pokemon in Modified are powerful enough to Knock Out Gigalith in two hits, which makes loading lots of Energy onto it somewhat of a risky proposition. Additionally, while a scaling snipe attack can be very good, the attack doesn't really have a niche right now in Modified. Likewise, Power Gem is unimpressive.
 
Limited: 4/5 Gigalith is amazing in Limited. Core Cannon can easily pick off your opponent's weak Benched Pokemon, and Power Gem has very flexible Energy requirements, allowing Gigalith to easily fit in any deck. 150 HP is amazing here as well. One thing to watch out for is that there are many playable Grass-types in Noble Victories Limited, so Gigalith will have to take extra care against them. Overall, Gigalith is an excellent choice for Limited, especially if you're playing Fighting as a main type.
 
Combos With: Electrode Prime
 
-----
 
Have a great weekend!
 
virusyosh


Otaku

We end this week with the Stage 2 Pokémon, Gigalith. Does it have a fighting chance of seeing competitive play?


Stats

Being a Stage 2 Pokémon has sadly become a huge hurdle in the TCG… again. Rare Candy takes some of the sting out of Evolving, but we have far too many big, Basic Pokémon with more on the way. With Basic Pokémon possessing strong and fast attacks on top off Pokémon Catcher making the Bench so vulnerable, you basically have to drop two candidates for Evolution down in a single turn if you wish to successfully Evolve one of them the next turn. Barring, of course, blocking Trainers or a Pokémon with a built in effect to allow it to Evolve more quickly. When you really think about this, you realize that this essentially causes Stage 2 Pokémon to count against you as if they were some sort of cross between Pokémon LEGEND and Pokémon EX.

Being a Fighting-Type doesn't provide a whole lot of Type support and I am not aware of any Stage 2 Fighting deck currently being played competitively. There is some support based on Fighting Energy, but that would come from Stage 2 Fighting-Type Pokémon, making for a clunky deck. The small upside is that at least there isn’t a dominant big Fighting deck to muscle out for a niche spot.

The 150 HP is good… sort of. Side effect of the power creep plaguing the game: since the biggest plain Basic Pokémon are just 20 points below that and are heavily played, it skews things quite a bit, plus we have the Pokémon EX debuting in Next Destinies, officially street legal February 8th. Like I said earlier, you’re probably giving up a Prize to get that first Stage 2 into play so 150 HP seems puny compared to a Basic with 170 HP, even if said Basic is worth two Prizes: it is the same end result with fewer cards! At least few Pokémon will hit so hard in a single shot to OHKO Gigalith without being the focus of a set-up deck or exploiting Weakness (hello Virizion).

No Resistance is the worst and a Retreat Cost of four is the worst we've seen recently (although five is the record for maximum printed Retreat Cost). Gigalith really could have used a favorable match-up that Resistance could supply and with a Retreat Cost like that, make sure your deck can power-up fast or run something to get Gigalith out of the Active slot. Even when it is Active, something to heal it would be tempting.

Effects

The card has two attacks, and they’d be spectacular for this its sake. Core Cannon actually promising: a snipe attack that does 20 points of damage for each (F) Energy attached to Gigalith. With a single (F) Energy, the attack is far better than nothing, but definitely not worth playing a Stage 2 line for. Getting 40 for (FF) is okay but still a little weak. Once you get three or four (F) Energy you start manhandling your opponent's set-up... assuming they aren't fully set-up and manhandling Gigalith.

Power Gem is the filler. It does 90 for (FCCC), which is just 10 more than Core Cannon would do, and of course without the option of sniping. At first it seems great that it only needs one of those Energy actually be (F)... but what other Energy Type would be the focus of Gigalith deck? It is a Stage 2, so more than likely Gigalith must be the deck's focus! Yes you can even use Double Colorless Energy but again, Core Cannon is the attack worth using a Stage 2 for, not this. You might as well use Terrakion from the same set if you just need a reasonably large Fighting-Type with a big, straight-forward attack.

Usage
Since this is a Stage 2 Pokémon, I should say which of its lower Stages I prefer, but honestly the available Roggenrola and Boldore seem about even in usefulness. Include Rare Candy as well use whatever versions you prefer, though consider splitting between the two for those odd times one or the other is more useful.

There has got to be a good Fighting deck for this card, but I sadly can only guess at it. Fighting-Type Pokémon/Energy lack a good form of Energy acceleration unique to them. You could rely on some generic tricks like Electrode Prime (at the cost of giving up a Prize and milling your own deck) or Shaymin to shunt accumulated Fighting Energy around. The soundest idea was what someone pointed out to me on a message board. I didn’t have time to test it, so as far as I know it’s just conjecture, not a proven deck. One could open with Landorus and simply put, either stick with it and Gaia Hammer for 80 points of damage (spreading damage around the field as a bonus) or drop Shaymin at that point to shut its Energy to Gigalith. Of course, you then need to get Landorus out of the way, but with the addition of your Energy attachment for the turn, you’d be up to four Fighting Energy and enjoy sniping for 80 points of damage. If you rely heavily on Shaymin, you could even bounce the Energy around quite a bit and use Max Potion to heal the now naked Gigalith or Landorus.

The problem with that plan is that it is a pretty complicated deck and wouldn’t you know? We have better snipers coming. In fact, one is practically here: the new Zapdos from BW Next Destinies is a Basic Pokémon that for (LCC) snipes for 50. While that is 10 points less than a Gigalith with three Fighting Energy, that Zapdos can tap specific Energy acceleration plus Double Colorless Energy, and is a Basic Pokémon with 120 HP. Beyond that there is Raikou EX. We won’t get it for a little while but with a dedicated deck it will be big Pokémon EX that can snipe for 100 (though using the attack repeatedly, in a row requires support). I think these will easily crowd out Gigalith.

For Unlimited, you first have to acknowledge that format is a mess and you face First Turn Win decks, and with such brutal hand control tactics and Trainer locks they may as well be First Turn Win decks. After that, you do enjoy the smaller average HP scores to snipe and better Energy acceleration available, but that Zapdos I just mentioned? Much better fit here as well.

For Limited play, he only works if you're drafting Emerging Powers with Noble Victories, as Noble Victories lacks it lower Stages. If you do, the fact this is a double line is beneficial, and within the lines there is some synergy. Also, Power Gem becomes useful since it is very hard to run a pure Fighting deck and thus you probably will have to use some non-Fighting-Type Energy cards.

Ratings

Unlimited: 1/5

Modified: 2/5 (drops to 1/5 February 8th)

Limited: N/A unless paired with Emerging Powers, at which point it becomes 4/5

Summary
Another Pokémon that had a brief window to shine before better stuff came along, but lacked the support it needed for 15 minutes of fame. Gigalith is nice and big for a Stage 2, but right now Stage 2 Pokémon aren’t really that big, all things considered. It has a good attack for sniping but the next set releases something almost as powerful but easier to play (the almost street legal Zapdos).

I am still whittling away at my various collections from over the years here on eBay. Pojo.com is not responsible for any transactions and merely allows me to link to my auctions.


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