This is in response to Anthony, who wrote on Oct. 6 about Jigglypuff being
the best Pokemon. Let me first say:  I don't disagree that Jigglypuff is a
good card. I like him a lot, and Wigglytuff ROCKS!! (provided you can fill
up your bench.) However, there are so many things wrong with Anthony's
analysis that it's hard to know where to start. Off we go...

First of all, he doesn't seem to understand the order in which things go
in the game. He proposes a matchup of Jigglypuff vs. Hitmonchan (by the
way, I'd take Hitmonchan anytime here!), with Hitmonchan winning the toss.
He draws fighting energy and plays it, but then he GETS TO ATTACK!
Furthermore, since Jigglypuff is WEAK TO FIGHTING, the damage is 40, NOT
20. Jigglypuff is down to 20. Then, Jigglypuff draws a fire energy, and
can put Hitmonchan to sleep. However, sleep is unreliable. If Hitmonchan
wakes up before his turn starts (he can!), then Jigglypuff is dead.
Hitmonchan would do another 40 damage, and even having evolved to
Wigglytuff wouldn't save him.

Anthony also discusses Wigglytuff's Do the Wave attack (don't
misunderstand me; it's one of the best attacks there is!), but somehow has
it doing 70 damage! Without at least one PlusPower, this is IMPOSSIBLE! Do
the Wave does 10, plus 10 for each benched Pokemon (a maximum of 5).
Therefore, it does a maximum (without PlusPowers) of 60.

Again, I like Jigglypuff, and I LOVE Wigglytuff, but against Hitmonchan
(or any other fighting Pokemon:  Machop, Diglett, even Sandshrew), forget
it. Jigglypuff has two main uses:  to evolve into Wigglytuff and Do the
Wave with a loaded bench, and to take out Mr. Mime (2 turns).

Thanks, PoJo; your site ROCKS!!
(Please post this in Single Card Tips.)

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Bill Zollinger
Department of Computer Science
University of Montana