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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	Ever since they hit the TCG, Megas have been somewhat...lacking, in the case of most. Sure, there have been exemplary examples like Primal Kyogre-EX, but early Megas you might recall weren't that great. Every Mega is taxed with the "Mega Rule" that forced the player's turn to end the moment the card was put down, and only relatively recently did they start getting printed "Spirit Link" cards to work around that rule. In a way, they're dangerously powerful but balanced, and now that there are a few more viable options to run with, support is now available to all those Mega decks.  Mega Turbo is just the kind of item that Megas could use to gain the advantage. The only real Energy accelerating Mega so far has been Mega Manectric-EX (Primal Kyogre-EX comes close, but it's a little slower than just attaching the Energy straight to your Benched guys and relies more on what's in your hand), so needless to say most of the time, Megas are gonna run into a sort of Energy problem. Seeing as you end your turn when you put down the Mega, you need to attach the Energy first to whatever you're Mega-evolving before that, and even then your opponent has a turn to prep themselves by either discarding the Energy somehow or else KO-ing the Mega right out, which would be easy if it's hanging around the Active slot for whatever reason.  So you end up with a Mega on your Bench that's either getting crippled or has put you behind. Let's assume it's not something like Mega Manectric-EX or Primal Kyogre-EX that can easily make up for the loss - how does Mega Turbo alleviate the stress of losing the Energy? Well simply put, it can put it right back onto the Mega, or else it can take some of the Energy off the Pokemon you might have used as bait to keep the Mega at bay. That's already pretty nice - like a lollipop after a doctor's visit!  But now let's go one step further - say you've got something like Mega Manectric-EX or Primal Kyogre-EX. Now you can access MORE Energy from the discard pile, which especially helps Primal Kyogre-EX who has an already hefty cost to his attack. So Primal Kyogre-EX decks get a boost! Mega Manectric-EX decks just get crazier - maybe too crazy, they might run out of Energy in the discard, so probably good to stock up on Battle Compressors.  And yet that's only PART of it. Now factor in those Spirit Link cards, and you've got a Pokemon that not only evolves to an even higher power, you can fuel him up FASTER than ever before! Primal Kyogre-EX has never been happier to see this! But why stop there? We've got a M Rayquaza-EX that would love this card! Get back one of the two Energies you had to discard, play another Energy from your hand - and bada-bing, bada-boom! You've got a MUST run for those Dragone-type Rayquaza-EX decks! And don't think that the Colorless version can't benefit from this too - nothing says "GG," like a potential Turn 1 Rayquaza-EX/Spirit Link/M Rayquaza-EX/DCE/Battle Compressor/Mega Turbo combo!  ...okay, that last one may be a bit circumstantial, but still!  The only drawback to this is that if you don't have a Mega, this card's essentially a dead draw - you can't use it! So if you're running Megas, run this, otherwise pass it on by. Besides, it's not like anything can stop you!  ...except Seismitoad-EX.  Rating  Standard: 4/5 (a must for Mega decks, otherwise no good)  Expanded: 4/5 (about the same, Megas are a much more recent thing after all) Limited: 3/5 (if you get a full set of Megas, this card can be useful, but otherwise it's just a nice card to hang onto)  Arora Notealus: Since the dawning of Pokemon-EX, Evolutions have been outclassed for a while. In a way, Mega Evos are just a superior version of Evos in general - they take more than one card to get out and have their own support, yet they can go toe-to-toe with other Pokemon-EX, whereas most Evos these days have a rough time with them. Is this the end for them? Evolution: alive and well, or dead in its tracks?  Next Time: MAIL CALL
Otaku	Welcome to the second week of our Top 10 Promising Picks of XY: Roaring Skies!  Today we look at Mega Turbo (XY: Roaring Skies 86/108).  So what is it?  It is a new Item that attaches a basic Energy card from your discard pile to one your Mega Evolutions.  About the only major ruling question I have (and for which I currently have no answer) is whether or not you can attach to a Mega Evolution put into play via Archie’s Ace in the Hole or Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick.  “Mega Evolution Pokémon” may need to be read in a manner similar to “Evolved Pokémon” or may be meant to be read like “Stage 1 Pokémon” or “Stage 2 Pokémon”: we can have a Stage that is normally an Evolution but also have the card be an Unevolved Pokémon, such as when put into play by the above two Supporters.  For the sake of this review I am going to assume you “Mega Evolution” just denotes the card’s Stage and not its status as “Evolved” or “Unevolved”: unless there is a surprise, breakthrough combo then should it actually be ruled the other way, it will only slightly diminish the card.  Is this a good effect?  To give you an idea we’ll look at an older, similar card.  Dark Patch helped define the competitive metagame before it rotated out to Expanded, and in Expanded it is still quite a potent play, somewhat weaker but only due to competition from the larger card pool and the potency of easy, early game Item lock from Seismitoad-EX (Hint: that will be an issue for Mega Turbo in both formats as well).  Dark Patch actually has more restrictions on its use than Mega Turbo, however they are less binding in nature: both cards are restricted to attaching basic Energy from the discard pile, but while the only additional restriction on Mega Turbo is that it only attaches to Mega Evolutions, Dark Patch had three different restrictions: only worked on [D] Energy, only attached to Darkness-Type Pokémon and only attached to Benched Pokémon.  The rub is as that with less than two dozen distinct Mega Evolutions (even fewer that have proven competitive), the Stage based restriction is likely more binding than both the Type (Darkness Pokémon and Darkness Energy) and position(Benched versus Active) based restrictions of Dark Patch.  Not working on Special Energy is a needed element for balance, but it will make Mega Turbo a bit awkward for a lot of contemporary builds: there are some Special Energy so good you’ll find a way to run enough basic Energy alongside them to also use Mega Turbo, but some decks will be forced to choose.  I’ve actually made this card sound pretty bad but I’ve tried to tackle all the negative aspects at once; onto the positive!  Start going through your Mega Evolutions (old and new); dedicated Energy acceleration just for them is likely to do wonders, held only in check by Item lock and the fact that many Mega Evolutions never received a trick to bypass the Mega Evolution Rule that ends your turn when you Mega Evolve one of your Pokémon.  So something like M Venusaur-EX is still not going to be worth the hassle; you lose a turn to Mega Evolving and either you put your manual Energy attachments for your first three turns (if trying to ready M Venusaur-EX as quickly as possible) and then play a Mega Turbo for the fourth, or you hope to get off multiple uses of Mega Turbo: at this pace you could turn to other Energy acceleration options and be just as fast.  Things are slightly better for M Heracross-EX; that difference of needing [GGC] for its Big Bang Horn versus M Venusaur-EX needing [GGGC] for Crisis Vine probably won’t make M Heracross-EX tournament viable, but it makes it noticeably more functional because a double Mega Turbo and manual Energy attachement take you from “zero” to “attacking” in a single turn (though thanks to Mega Evolving, still three turns into the game).  That… probably doesn’t seem very impressive but again, I’m building.  Before we get to the blatantly good use, I’ll touch upon what I said earlier: if this works with Mega Evolutions put into play via Archie’s Ace in the Hole or Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick, while incredibly hard to pull off it means a T2 (the first turn of the player going second) Mega Evolution, ready to attack is a possibility.  How likely depends on which one but the odds aren’t high; you’ll need at least Energy which means at using Mega Turbo twice after stripping your hand down to just Archie’s Ace in the Hole or Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick while the desired Mega Evolution is in the discard pile.  Still, this is a big help for cards like M Blastoise-EX and M Lucario-EX; again I don’t think this will boost them to competitive levels, but it is one step closer (and two steps beyond where they started).  With all that out of the way, we get to the serious uses.  Take an already established Mega Evolution or some of the new promising ones and look at what you get.  Primal Groudon-EX has all it had going for it already, but now gets ready that much faster.  M Gardevoir-EX likewise has all its previous strengths but both can be readied a little more quickly while also providing a means of getting back discarded basic Fairy Energy cards for Fairy Transfer decks… and thanks to Fairy Transfer it allows anything that can use basic Fairy Energy cards to share in the benefits.  M Manectric-EX already attaches from the discard pile with its Turbo Bolt attack: Mega Turbo allows you to miss a manual Energy attachment or two and still get it going.  Several of the newer cards seem meant for Mega Turbo.  M Rayquaza-EX (either version) a Special Energy that provides additional Energy acceleration to speed things up even more: the Dragon-Type version can also use Double Dragon Energy while the Colorless version can use Double Colorless Energy.  M Latios-EX also can use Mega Turbo and Double Dragon Energy to good effect.  M Gallade-EX can use Dimension Valley to shave the [C] Energy cost off of its Unwavering Blade attack, so that it just needs a manual attachment of [P] and then a Mega Turbo usage for a Psychic Energy to start swinging.  Yes, M Gengar-EX and its Phantom Gate attack are in a similar boat but I haven’t seen M Gengar-EX really being the focus.  In Expanded, Mega Turbo should be about the same; I’m not thrilled with being so abstract but I just don’t have the data for how the less direct competition and support for the card will work out.  All Mega Evolutions are still Standard legal (or will be once enough time has passed from their release) and obviously there aren’t any basic Energy cards not already available in Standard; it will be a question of how other combos compliment or compete with Mega Turbo for deck space.  In Limited this card is amazing… if you get a Mega Evolution.  Even then you’ll also need a way to get basic Energy into the discard pile: not a problem normally but if you’re trying a +39 build you’ll need to have pulled at least one Ultra Ball and then draw into and use it in a timely manner.  Its potency as such is diminished because whether you’re running a +39 build or actually adding your Pokémon-EX and Mega Evolution into a deck with other Basic Pokémon it is an Item that is going to only work with one other card.  Fortunately in Limited play you’ll often have the room for such specialization, keeping the score high.  Ratings  Standard: 4/5  Expanded: 4/5  Limited: 4/5   Summary: Mega Turbo is Item based Energy acceleration so I expect great things from it.  Yes, Item lock effects will render it a dead card in hand and it isn’t for every deck, but Mega Evolutions are taking center stage after starting out as yet another gimmick we were going to largely ignore.  I went into a lot more detail than I had planned for this CotD - no, really I thought this would be a short one even by “normal” standards - but I’ve encountered enough skepticism I thought I should lay it all out.  Mega Turbo was my number one pick for XY: Roaring Skies; of course my Top 10 list included three Mega Evolutions (which I expected would use it) and while I don’t completely agree, I understand why it wouldn’t rank as high on other lists.  I am surprised it didn’t take at least fourth place, though.  Soon enough we’ll see if I was blinded by my inner Timmy/Johnny.
Emma Starr	Hello all, and welcome back to another week of PCOTD! So, what do we have for you today? Well, it’s an Item card that supports a type of card that hasn’t gotten too much support until now: Megas!                 Aside from Spirit Links, Megas as a whole haven’t really gotten much support from Trainer Cards, as much as say…Pokémon SP, from way back when. Which is disappointing, as since they can be tricky to actually get out and use sometimes, especially with some that don’t even have Spirit Link support (what’s the logic behind that?), this card is a welcome addition. Whenever played, you can attach a basic energy from your discard pile to your Mega! Simple, right? Easy 2-for-1 (or more, if you play more than 1 in a turn) energy attachment! There’s definitely some possibilities where I can see this working with Camerupt EX, as after he discards Fire Energy for his attack, simply use this Item to attach those Energies onto say…a Mega Rayquaza (RS 61), to mitigate his own Energy-discarding properties of his own attack! Of course, this can easily work with either Mega Charizard, Colorless Mega Rayquaza, Mega Kanghaskhan, or the upcoming Mega Blaziken as well (yeah, I wasn’t even aware that one was being made until I looked up what cards this could combo with Camerupt EX, but it looks really awesome, that’s for sure!)                 Obviously this card has many other potential strategies other than just comboing with Camerupt EX, as really, any deck that runs Megas should carry 2-4 of these, depending on what your deck needs, and how much you think you need it, but essentially, in mid-late game, this essentially provides you with a 2-energy-in-one turn deal with no strings attached. Of course, you always need to be wary of any Seismitoad EXs running around, but other than the Quaking Punch possibility, there isn’t really to many downsides to running this.                 Standard: 4.5/5                 Expanded: 4/5 (you have more options to replace said Megas if you wanted to)                 Limited: 4.8/5 (less deck size = more possibility of drawing this. Only run this if you pull a Mega and it’s EX though, obviously)