Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Tropius
(Plasma Blast)
Hello and welcome to another week of reviews on
Pojo’s
CotD. We kick off with a look at
Tropius – a card which is
best described as being . . . ok, I guess.
What we have here is a solid 100 HP Basic with a couple
of decent attacks. One Grass Energy gets you Return,
which does 10 damage and has
a Bianca-esque effect,
allowing you to draw until you get six cards in your
hand. Useful on an early turn if you play your cards
out, and it could come in
handy if your opponent plays N late game and leaves you
holding not very much. The second attack, Energy Press,
adds another Energy to the cost (any Colour will do
though) and will do 20 damage plus 20 more for each
Energy on the defending Pokémon. This can be good
against an attacker with big Energy costs, especially if
you can hit it for Weakness (I’m mainly thinking of
Keldeo EX here). For the
price, it’s a reasonable attack that becomes very useful
in a few situations.
Tropius
has only seen very limited play though, mostly in
Genesect decks which have
the Grass Energy handy. It can be used against Safeguard
Pokémon which block attacks from EXs, or Silver Mirror
which stops Genesect itself.
Being a non-EX, it can also force opponents into having
to take 7 Prizes to win.
Generally, though, it isn’t really anything special and
struggles to win a place in most lists. Return will be a
lot less attractive when the rules change (November 8)
and it can’t be used on the first turn and even now
Tropical Beach provides a better option.
Tropius was mildly hyped
before release and although it does have its qualities,
actual playing experience has shown that it isn’t quite
up to snuff.
Rating
Modified: 2.75 (an average card that sometimes gets used
because we lack better options)
Limited: 4.5 (big-ish
Basic with
drawpower and cheap attacks,
so it’s a yes from me)
|
|
Jono Robus |
Welcome readers to this week's first card review.
Today we are reviewing Tropius, a Basic, Grass Pokemon
with a seen on some basics 100HP, with a Lightning
Weakness (cool because most Grass types are weak to
fire) and a Fighting Resistance (also cool), and a nice
retreat cost of 1.
Now for it's attacks:
Return does 10 damage for 1 Grass Energy, but it you
draw cards in your hand until you have 6 cards in your
hand. Nice at around the start of the game.
It's second attack, Energy Press, is just like
Cobalion's Noble Victories one of same name (except that
Virizion EX can charge this one up with it's Emerald
Slash), doing 20 damage plus 20 more damage for each
energy attached to the Defending Pokemon (your opponents
active Pokemon), really nice, especially against
Blastoise/Keldeo and most Suicune varients.
Does it deserve a place in your Genesect, Virizion and
Limited decks? While I like to use Drifblim DRX and
Bouffalant DRX in the former, I would still think about
testing this in said deck of yours. In limited decks, I
think that this is a great card, with great draw power
(and damage at the same time), and has a nice second
attack when your opponent has powered up their Pokemon.
Ratings:
Modified: 3, Run a Grass type deck? Give it a test and
see if it works in your deck!
Limited: 4, Draw power AND cheap attacks. Yay.
|
