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


Pick Up Our New 20th Anniversary Pokemon Book for your Collection!

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

 

Clefairy
- XY: Evolutions

Date Reviewed:
Feb. 2, 2017

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 1.75
Expanded: 1.75
Limited: 2.50

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

Clefairy...is a weird Pokemon. Really, it's no different from its Base Set counterpart, the only real difference is the change to become Fairy-type...and all the associated Weaknesses and Resistances thereof. But that's about it.

Clefairy has no damaging moves, only two...interesting moves. Sing costs 1 Energy and has a 50/50 shot at putting the opponent to sleep, as well as having a 100% chance of putting me to sleep from how BOOOOOOOOORIIIIIIIIIING it is. SNOOOOOOOOOORE!! Meanwhile, Metronome, the arguably more interesting attack, costs a whopping 3 Energy and copies an opponent's attacks off their Active Pokemon. Certainly there's a lot of potential in a card like that, but if people weren't player M Gengar-EX from Phantom Forces for his Phantom Gate attack, which had a much larger range on it, why would you use Clefairy's Metronome to do something like that...but worse? 

And on a 40 HP Basic? 

And for 3 Energy? 

With no guarantee of a KO? 

Against a format of Pokemon-EX and Megas? 

Yeah, no thanks, I'm out. 

Rating 

Standard: 1/5 (sure, there's a lot of potential to troll the heck out of your opponent with Metronome KOing their guy) 

Expanded: 1/5 (but with no other updates to her attacks or her abilities, Clefairy is just extremely outdated) 

Limited: 1.5/5 (the attack is way too overcosted to be feasible on a Basic with such low health) 

Arora Notealus: It's not Clefairy's fault she's not as useful anymore. She just gave herself a slight makeover and ended up walking into the new party, only to find everyone else has changed and she's just remained the same...story of my life-I mean, what, I didn't say anything. 

Next Time: BREAKing better than the bite!


Otaku

Today we look at Clefairy (XY: Evolutions 63/108).  Yes, that is right: we are looking at not only another Evolving Basic, but one from XY: Evolutions again!  As a Basic, this card is easy to sneak into decks, and even to sneak into play thanks to Ninja Boy.  Being a Fairy Type isn’t a big deal for exploiting Weakness (only XY-era Dragons need fear) but nothing is Resistant and they’ve got some solid support.  40 HP is the second-lowest a Pokémon can have; nothing that is actually a Pokémon (as opposed to a Trainer that acts like a Pokémon) has less.  Not gonna lie; this hurts.  At least it makes the Metal Weakness nearly irrelevant; attacks that do 10 damage still miss the OHKO (unless boosted), and attacks that do 40 or more already had the OHKO, so just attacks doing 20 and 30 damage benefit.  Darkness Resistance isn’t likely to matter given the HP, but you may be lucky and irritate something like Yveltal (XY 78/146; XY: Black Star Promos XY06; Generations RC16/RC32; XY: Steam Siege 65/114), which otherwise would just need Fighting Fury Belt and a single [D] Energy to score a OHKO.  The Retreat Cost of [C] is usually easy to pay upfront and in the long run, though it also seems typical of Evolving Basics.  The first attack on Clefairy is “Sing” for [C]; you flip a coin and, if “heads”, the opponent’s Active is now Asleep (“tails” does nothing).  Not the best stalling attack, but at least there is a chance and it isn’t pricey.  The second attack is “Metronome” and it is a bit pricey at [CCC], but it allows you to select one of the opponent’s attacks and use it.  Metronome can be a steal when copying an attack that is more expensive, on a higher Stage of Evolution, or both, but it can also be a dud if the opponent lacks an attack worth copying. 

We won’t be looking at the other Clefairy today; some of them may be tempting if you want to Evolve into Clefable as they have more HP and still have an attack that isn’t worthless for trying to survive until the next turn, but I still might like having access to Metronome.  Is it that great an attack?  On its own, no.  What makes it more useful is if your deck has room for Ninja Boy and/or is likely to build up Energy attachments on the Bench.  Three Energy isn’t inexpensive, but with cards like Max Elixir and Double Colorless Energy, you will be able to power up Clefairy in a single go some of the time.  If you have something with little injury, you can even use Ninja Boy to completely surprise your opponent.  I’ve seen Clefairy pop up from time to time, and while I wasn’t overly impressed, I also wasn’t unimpressed.  Consider it if your deck fits the bill in Standard or Expanded play; we have one of those oddball situations where it will work a bit differently in Expanded, but the increased help comes with increased counters so I expect it to mostly even out.  Definitely a nice option for Limited play; if your opponent busts out something amazing, Clefairy may be a glass cannon, but that is better than no cannon at all.  Unless your opponent has nothing worth copying, but the idea of insurance is “just in case”. 

Oh… and did I mention as we get more Pokémon-GX, while it will still use up your GX attack for the game, Metronome can indeed copy these powerful attacks.  Some are context sensitive and thus kind of pointless, while others will be fantastic bargains. 

Ratings 

Standard: 2.5/5 

Expanded: 2.5/5 

Limited: 3.5/5 

Summary: Clefairy (XY: Evolutions 63/108) is an update to the original Clefairy (Base Set 5/102; Base Set 2 6/130).  Other than language revisions, the only difference is that the original is a Colorless Type.  I would have preferred they buff it a bit more, but while power creep has tried to leave it behind, the nature of the card pool and metagame may make this version better.  I didn’t expect anything out of today’s Clefairy when I first saw it, but now?  It might make for some interesting plays in the right decks.  Try it out, and even if it doesn’t show promise immediately, keep an eye on it.


Copyright© 1998-2017 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.
Pokémon card reviews - Pokemon Set Reviews