Pojo's Pokemon news, tips, strategies and more!

 

Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles


Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play


Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel


GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual


Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar


Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List


Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
-
Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us


Magic
Yu-Gi-Oh!
DBZ
Pokemon
Yu Yu Hakusho
NeoPets
HeroClix
Harry Potter
Anime
Vs. System
Megaman



Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Kingdra  

- Plasma Freeze

Date Reviewed:
May 30, 2013

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.87
Limited: 4.50

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

Kingdra (Plasma Freeze) 

Remember how Kingdra LA became the dominant deck in format for a while, and stayed strong for a whole year? Well, that had a whole lot to do with its extremely good attacks (specifically, Dragon Pump) and ludicrously cheap attack costs. Now we see another Kingdra enter the format which, like the earlier version, has the potential to hit hard very, very cheaply. Is it poised to make a similar impact? Let’s take a look. 

This Kingdra is a Stage 2, which means it will really need to impress. The 140 HP is acceptable, but by no means beyond OHKO range for a lot of decks these days. The Dragon Typing and resulting Weakness to its own Type is fairly neutral. Unless he runs into another Dragon deck (Rayquaza or Garchomp, basically) Kingdra can neither exploit, nor be exploited by Weakness. If he does run into other Dragon decks . . . well it cuts both ways. Meanwhile, the retreat cost of one is not really something you need to worry about. 

Kindgra comes with two very interesting attacks. The first, Dragon Vortex, costs one Energy (any Colour will do) and does 20 damage for each Water and Lightning Energy in your discard. These Energy are then shuffled back into the deck. At first glance, this seems amazing – after all, between Juniper, Ultra Ball and Computer Search, it’s not difficult to get Energy into the discard. The trouble is that it is not easy to do this repeatedly throughout the course of a game. Bear in mind that you will need nine Energy to OHKO an EX and you can see the issue here: using Dragon Vortex as a main attack would mean running a lot of Energy in a deck where you only need one to attack . . . and that strikes me as a waste. If anything, Dragon Vortex is something you use to win the game or take a key KO: it’s not practical for routine use. Fortunately, Kingdra provides another option. For just one Water Energy, Tri Bullet does 30 damage to any three of your opponent’s Pokémon. 90 damage for one Energy? That sounds like great value . . . why, it’s the same attack as Registeel-EX’s Triple Laser . . . for one third of the cost! 

There’s no denying that Tri Bullet is probably the biggest bargain of all the attacks in the current format, but there are questions over its effectiveness. With most decks running 170-180 HP Pokémon, you will need to get the attack off at least six times to take the game, and that’s the difficult part – it’s very hard to stream Stage 2’s in a format where they can be OHKO’d, even if their Energy costs are negligible. There are past formats in which this card would have destroyed everything in its path. In the current one, it’s a quirky, fun, semi-competitive choice. 

Rating 

Modified: 2.75 (they made a turbocharged version of Kingdra LA . . . and it isn’t quite good enough)

Limited: 4 (one of the most usable Stage 2s around)

virusyosh

Hello once again, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing a Stage 2 that could possibly see some Modified play if it gets a combo partner, or if the format slows down (not likely). Today's Card of the Day is Kingdra.

Kingdra is a Stage 2 Dragon Pokemon. Dragons aren't all that common around Modified these days, although Rayquaza-EX does still pop up from time to time. That being said, there could be an enormous niche for Kingdra if it can do something interesting or powerful. In terms of stats, 140 HP is just about average for a Stage 2, and should allow Kingdra to hopefully take at least one hit before going down (although with the format's speed and power, your opponent can easily OHKO if they get the right combination of cards). Dragon Weakness isn't much to worry about right now, as Rayquaza-EX would OHKO anyway; no Resistance is unfortunate; and a single Retreat Cost is easily payable, even if you don't have Switch, Float Stone, or the like.

This Dragon Pokemon has two attacks. Dragon Vortex does 20 damage times the number of Water and Lightning Energy in your discard pile, then shuffles them back into your deck for a single Colorless Energy. This is potentially quite powerful, and other decks with similar attacks have worked in the past, such as Neo Genesis Feraligatr with Riptide. Unfortunately, Feraligatr had an easy way to discard Energy and many abusable Trainer cards to facilitate the combo, where Kingdra has limited (though still excellent) options like Professor Juniper, Ultra Ball, and Dowsing Machine. That being said, Dragon Vortex is still an excellent card, and can serve as an excellent attack in a slightly slower format than the one we have now.

Kingdra's second attack, Tri Bullet, costs a single Water Energy, and deals 30 damage to three of your opponent's Pokemon. This is an excellent sniping attack that works very effectively in Limited, but also has applications in Modified as well when you don't have enough Energy in the discard to properly fuel Dragon Vortex. All in all, this attack is also quite spectacular, though it doesn't have the potential damage output that Dragon Vortex can provide.

Modified: 3/5 I think Kingdra has a lot of potential for Modified, despite the powerful Basic Pokemon-EX around. Both Dragon Vortex and Tri Bullet are excellent attacks, and while neither has the consistent damage output of things like Darkrai-EX or Kyurem, Kingdra still has the possibility of making a splash. It's too bad that the format is back to a OHKO-driven format, or else Kingdra could really see some play.

Limited: 5/5 Kingdra is an excellent Stage 2 for Plasma Freeze Limited. Although Dragon Vortex will probably only be used once for great effect, Tri Bullet can easily grab you multiple KOs and harass your opponent's setup. If you draft a line and are able to get it out, you'll probably win.


CopyrightŠ 1998-2013 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.