Dear the Pojo

Well, if anyone has been reading the articles here for the past, oh, I'd say eight months, you'd notice back in September I wrote a piece called "The Rain Dance Recession". It's scary it's been that long since I wrote it....but times have changed, and I finally have enough confidence in the new breed of Rocket enchanced Rain Dance decks, to say that I believe that my so-called "Rain Dance Recession" has ended.

Right now, you're probably thinking, "isn't he the bold little thing, declaring what decks are in and what are out," well, at the time that I wrote the original article, I was getting beat competitively left and right by Haymaker and other speed varients using Scyther and Electabuzz....to me Rain Dance had entered a tail-spin that it wouldn't get out of until Fossil.

Well, Fossil came and Fossil went, and Lapras, Golduck, and Articuno failed to be badly needed counters I was looking for. While Lapras was at last a beefy basic, I had been hoping for something with more punch. Surf for Confuse Ray for 30 damage would've done it, but that's another subject. Golduck made my proposed Rain Drain Energy Denial deck work for a bit, but eventually the concept just was beaten into the ground by faster decks. Articuno though lived up to what I had hoped he would, bringing a badly needed boost to the saging Water element.

And so I trudged on through Base II, the panic that Blastoise and several other cards might be altered, and the phasing in of a new set. Then, finally, Rocket came out. Way back when, at the time I was writing prolifically to the Pojo on this, that, and the other thing, I was very, very unsure about Rocket having any positive impact on the game. At first glace, it as a set, stinks. It's littered with low HP Pokemon, and the evolutions rank in the crap catagory in terms of HP for the stage....still, 60 HP for a true Stage 2 is STILL hard to get over.

Then I got my hands on Rocket, started tinkering, and finally got the insentive I needed to actually use it. The fact that you could, in theory, play four Base evolutions and four Evil evolutions in the same deck. Now what the heck does this have to do with Rain Dance decks you may ask? Well, Rain Dance has finally recieved the right combo of trainers, conditions, and affordibility to once again exit the dark days of Jungle and Fossil.

The first, and probably, best new addition to the Rain Dance arsenal, is Evil Blastoise. I don't really need to give the stats again, do I? You've seen enough rants on Rocket, and probably have a rough idea of what this guy does. Now I've seen basically thrashings of this guy. I have to admit, at first I was really critical of him myself. Then I got it through my thick head that I could use 4 Base Blastoises, and 3 Evils, for a massive combo. But you're probably thinking, as others do, "Why play 7 evolutions when you can only have 4 of its basic? And why play the Evil Wartortles? That's just more deck space wasted." Again, I have to agree. Logically playing Evil Blastoise is suicide with the number of Evil Wartortles involved. Yet, hasn't the true fun of Rain Dance always been taking gambles? For me it has always been, anyway. I play this guy as an assault package, using Breeders, and NO Evil Wartortles. He's in here for firepower, but if I have to discard him to get a Blastoise out, so be it. What makes him so good if played right? The ability to take Electabuzz down in one shot. Hydrocannon can, on turn two, rip Electabuzz to shreads in one shot. No more needing to play bulky PlusPowers to counter Electabuzz, hurrah! About the only thing that was a let down(short of his HP of course), was that Rocket Tackle was no like Agility, and that it was just a damage doing Withdraw, not that that's a bad thing though.

What other Rocket cards add to the Rain Dance resurgance? Midnight Garbage Recycle is truly a great card in all decks. The ability to throw Pokemon back into your deck, along with energy, helps greatly. Plus, it allows you to discard that final Blastoise for a Prof. Oak, but then MGR it back into the deck, where it can be ferreted out by search engines. Another goody is the Psyduck. It retained the same HP as its counterpart from Fossil, but has a more powerful attack, although it does less damage at max, it does consistant damage, and if he's in a multi-color deck, Dizziness helps speed things up. Magikarp is also a winner....same crappy HP, colorless attack...but then there's Waterfall Evolution. Rain Dance powered up, it allows you as an attack to search out Gyarados, and pull him into play, before the Karp dies.

Although there is another card that has great siginificance to the new Rain Dance decks...and that's Goop Gas Attack. Why does it have a slot in my new Rain Dance X-Gen deck, when it stops my own deck's concept from working? For one reason....it stops Mr. Mime could. Stripped of his Invisible Wall armor, he's a dead man, or Pokmeon, or whatever you prefer. Finally, a weapon to use against Damage Swap.

We've seen that the cards to make Rain Dance hot again are out there, but also the conditions are changing. In the last two expansions, Fossil and Rocket, Haymaker and Damage Swap have recieved very small, or no boost at all. Fossil Magmar is about it, with Damage Swap getting a new, and interesting Alakazam series. With the other two Archetypes hitting the mud in the mainstream, new varients will appear, but most will fail...it's just the law of the jungle, those that are strong survive, and those that aren't, die...and with the major Archetypes stuck, or barely moving, Rain Dance can continue to rise.

Didn't I also babble about affordibility a little bit? Well, I know that building these decks are expensive. That will never change, so get used to it. By affordibility I meant that more cards are shipping to more places, and driving the secondary market values of the cards down. This, in turn, makes it cheaper to trade and buy the cards you need for your deck.

Now, I've ranted about the good of Rain Dance, how it's coming back, blah, blah, blah. Although be warned though, for it still contains the same pitfalls as every other generation it has had. Decking yourself, getting Blastoise screwed, and just getting plain old bad draws are all real fears. Also, certain cards didn't make this article. The biggy is Evil Gyarados. I feel that he does not hold a candle to the original, and while Final Beam is interesting, it wont be useful until we can use Ecolo Gym.