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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Prinplup #28

Dark Explorers

Date Reviewed: June 25, 2012

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.00
Limited: 2.67

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

Prinplup (Dark Explorers)

Hello, and welcome to a new week of Pojo’s CotD, where we will carry on rounding up some of the cards from the Dark Explorers set.

We kick off the week with Prinplup. Yes, he’s an evolving Stage 1, but he’s still worth a look because Empoleon is a decently playable card right now, and if Japan is anything to go by, he could well be the focus of a top tier deck next season when we move to BLW-on. Because it is the Stage 1, we all know that Prinplup’s main job is to evolve into Empoleon on those occasions where Rare Candy isn’t an option. That doesn’t mean it can’t be useful in its own right though – remember how good Prinplup DP was as an early game spread/snipe Pokémon in decks that ran the MD Empoleon?

This version doesn’t look too promising though. 80 HP and Lightning Weakness are not exactly a surprise of this Water-Type Pokémon, but they don’t do anything to endear the card to players. Even the Retreat cost of two seems a little harsh. No Abilities here either, so I guess it all comes down to the attacks.

The first, Razor Wing, has the minimum cost of one Energy of any Colour (we haven’t had no Energy attacks since the Baby Pokémon), and does 20 points of vanilla damage. It isn’t bad value, but then it isn’t likely to impact the game much either. Consider it a bit of a filler attack to use only when you really have nothing better to do. Prinplup’s second option, Fury Attack, is something we’ve seen before in different versions. This one is quite pricey at [W][C][C], and that is part of the problem. See Empoleon itself only needs one Water Energy to attack, so stacking three on Prinplup will just be a waste when it evolves. That’s not the only issue though: Fury Attack is a coin flip thing, where you get three flips and 30 damage for each heads. Even with great luck, the 90-for-three is nothing special, and anything below that is pretty poor.

So, this is no Prinplup DP, that’s for sure. Instead of being a useful source of alternative attacks, Prinplup DEX is just your everyday generic filler Stage 1. Barring the release of a better version, he’s going to get some play in competitive Empoleon decks, but he doesn’t really deserve it.

Rating

Modified: 1.5 (He evolves into something good! . . . and that’s about all he does)

Limited: 2.25 (cheap first attack, but even here he’s a bit meh)

virusyosh

Hello once again, Pojo readers! We're continuing our Dark Explorers reviews this week with Water-types, so be sure to check back often to see if your favorite card is being reviewed. We're going to kick things off by reviewing the newest version of one of the Stage 1 Gen IV Starter Pokemon. Today's Card of the Day is Prinplup.
 
Prinplup is a Stage 1 Water Pokemon. Water-types are rather uncommon in Modified for reasons that I've touched upon before; the most common of which is the Lightning Weakness that many Water-types share. 80 HP is standard for an evolving Stage 1, allowing Prinplup to take a medium-sized hit before going down, as well as still opening the card to be searched out by Level Ball. The aforementioned Lightning Weakness still exists here as well, so you'll have to be sure to protect your Prinplups from any Zekroms that may come your way. Prinplup also has no Resistance and a Retreat Cost of 2, both of which are somewhat disappointing but expected.
 
This Penguin Pokemon has two attacks. Razor Wing does 20 damage for a single Colorless Energy, which is about as vanilla as you can get. This attack shouldn't see much use in Modified, but will work in Limited while you're building up for something better. Fury Attack is a standard flipping attack, flipping 3 coins and dealing 30 damage times the number of heads for a Water and two Colorless. 90 damage for three Energy is just about normal in Modified right now (and excellent in Limited), but chances are you'll average around 30-60 damage, which is less ideal. Additionally, Empoleon only requires a single Energy to use its attack, so most of the time you'll probably not want to load the additional Energies onto Prinplup unless you're in a major bind.
 
Modified: 2.5/5 Like most evolving Stage 1s, Prinplup is only really useful in an Empoleon deck. Neither Razor Wind nor Fury Attack are anything to write home about, as most of the time Prinplup's job will be to simply evolve into Empoleon. If you're running Empoleon, you'll need Prinplup; however, other decks shouldn't bother, as there are generally better options.
 
Limited: 3/5 Prinplup is solid in Limited both with and without Empoleon, but not great. Much like in Modified, both Razor Wing and Fury Attack are very average here. However, 20 damage for a single Energy is quite serviceable, and Fury Attack is decent (albeit unreliable) when fully powered. If you're running Water, be sure to give Prinplup a look, chances are it will come in handy with a decent-sized body if nothing else. If you manage to get an Empoleon, even better.


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