Hiya, folks!

I'm here to talk about a somewhat overlooked card in Rocket: Digger!

Let me include the text here so you don't have to go dig in your
collection to see what I'm talking about.
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Digger (Rocket's Secret Machine)

Flip a coin. If tails, do 10 damage to your Active Pokemon. If heads,
your opponent flips a coin. If tails, your opponent does 10 damage to
his or her Active Pokemon. If heads, you flip a coin. Keep doing this
until a player gets tails.
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OK, so it's a confusing card to begin with. In a nutshell, what happens
with Digger is that the first person to flip tails does 10 damage to
their Active Pokemon, and the person who played the Digger flips first.

Now, why on earth would you use this card? It attacks *your* Pokemon first!

There are two pretty large reasons why you'd do it, and some smaller
ones. Promo Arcanine and Tauros are the big ones. (Go look at Kingler
and Magikarp and some other guys for some smaller ones.)

When you pair Digger up with Pokemon who do more damage based on the
amount of damage they have on them, you have a win-win situation. If you
damage them with Digger, they can do more damage when they attack. If
your opponent takes the damage, it's easier to squish the opposing
Pokemon when you attack.

This is a complicated tactic, particularly since you're endangering your
own Pokémon by damaging them. It pays off, though, with the massive
amounts of damage your Pokémon can dish out in return. I don't believe
this is a good deck concept for beginners, as you're playing with fire
by allowing your Pokémon to take a lot of damage, and it requires a
certain sensitivity to the flow of the game and the appropriate timing
of a Digger or Switch. I think more advanced players would find Digger
and the deck that uses it suitably intricate and interesting to play.

Digger's not a card you'd include in every deck, but in a deck tailored
to suit it, it can be both advantageous and entertaining.

==Leanne

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Leanne Opaskar                  lopaskar@san.rr.com