Hello, this is Pwnemon, bringing you a new feature article: the card of the week! In this article, I will cross examine a card, giving its uses in battle and an overall rating. I do this to give old time battlers a new stratagy idea; also, I want to attract more people to this site’s frankly weak TCG section. It’s only fitting that my first review will be from the new HGSs sets, so here we go!

I chose a Ninetails because it’s never really been that great of a Pokemon, TCG or otherwise. I thought it needed some love. Anyway, at first glance, it’s not a very extraordinary card. It has a decently damaging attack, but the energy cost is extremely high for 60. It has middling HP. It has a retreat cost, which is a major iconvenience in the typically fast paced fire decks. But the PokePower is where it really excels. In fact, some veteran players may recognize it…

Look out. They’re coming… again. In fact, this card has almost the exact same use as a Delcatty, sitting on the bench to pump up your hand and Infernape to massive proportions. I guess all we can do is thank our lucky stars that Infernape is about to cycle out this September… Or, run an Ampharos Pt with a Zapdos MD like my brother does. But that’s for a different installment. Anyhow, here’s how my overall rating of the card stacks up:

Art: 8.5. The art in the new HG/SS sets is great in general. However, if I have one qualm, it’s that they dropped the more “quirky” art that sometimes was found in old sets. The fire stone is a nice touch, though, rising this from 8 to 8.5.

Playability: 6. This card is more narrow than the old Delcatty, as it can only discard fire energy cards instead of any type. After Infernape leaves, you’ll be hard pressed to find a good deck for this guy. As a result, he gets a low playability score.

Usefulness: 10! Judging by the fact that this card has the power to single-handedly revive a long-dead broken powerhouse (and particular least favorite for my “Torterrable” deck), it deserves a ten coupled with an awesomeface. But since emoticons are unprofessional, I had to leave off the last part.

Overall: 8.5. This card is a great addition- I mean, foundation, for any Infernape deck out there. However, barring some tremendous necromancy on Nintendo’s part, I would doubt you’ll see it after September 1st, when old cards are cycled out and Infernape Lv. X with them. Until next week, thanks for reading about this card of the week!

By Kalylia

Anticipation of what you may ask? Well, my fair reader, let me enlighten you.

For those of you that are unaware, Nintendo has remade the second generation Pokémon games. Originally titled Gold/Silver (and rapidly after, Crystal), these two new titles will be called HeartGold and SoulSilver. While I’m not entirely fond of the title choice, I am absolutely stoked for these titles to be released in America.

What day will that be?

MARCH 14th, 2010! (more)

After the Neo sets and the small e-Reader sets, the next major group of cards released in the Pokémon TCG universe was the sixteen EX sets. It might be hard to pick the best card from so many sets, but it’s worth a shot. Let’s go!

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10. Beautifly (EX Ruby & Sapphire)

Aside from the cool art common to all holo cards, this card is a pretty decent addition to your deck. To start things off, Beautifly has a Poké-Body called Withering Dust that lets you not apply Resistance as long as Beautifly is in play. Since Resistance reduces the amount of damage you do to an opponent, to be able to simply ignore it is great. Beautifly’s two attacks, Stun Spore and Parallel Gain, aren’t bad either. Stun Spore, just like in the video games, can cause paralysis while Parallel Gain lets you remove 1 damage counter from each of your Pokémon.

9. Plusle (EX Dragon)

As a Pokémon Ranger fan, I obviously have a soft spot for Plusle. But that aside, this card is very good. Plusle’s Poké-Body, Chain of Events, takes full advantage of the new double-battle format introduced to the TCG by the Ruby & Sapphire set by allowing you to use Cheer On, Plusle’s main attack, after your partner attacks (but only once). Cheer On lets you remove one damage counter from each of your Pokémon, which would be a big help to your partner. Plusle’s other attack, Extra Circuit, lets you choose one of the opponent’s Pokémon and do 20 damage to it, or 40 if it’s a Pokémon-ex. Not bad. (more)

The latest CoroCoro officially revealed the first generation 5 pokémon. Zoroark (left) and its pre-evolution Zoroa (right) are dark type. The 13th movie title, originally “The Ruler of Illusion: Z” has been updated to include the newly announced pokémon, to “The Ruler of Illusion: Zoroark.” More information is set to be unveiled in the next issue of CoroCoro, if not sooner on the Pokémon Sunday television program.

KC and Jowy are back to catch up on some news and for our main topic, discuss banned episodes of the anime.

Direct Download Link:

WTPT – Banned Episodes

The Pokémon Company has announced that they will be revealing a new Pokemon RPG in the February 2010 edition of CoroCoro Comics (think Shonen Jump).

For now, we can only speculate as to whether this is the upcoming Fifth Generation or not, though there was some mention of “a rebirth” and “new Pokémon”. The only non-ambiguous details we have about this game is that it’s an RPG and that it will be released (in Japan) this year. Thank you, Google Translate.

Since the Mystery Dungeon series is also technically an RPG, there is the slight possibility that the announcement will be an expansion to that game-line. Then again, the developer on the main site is stated to be GameFreak, and they usually work exclusively on the main-line Pokémon games.

Let’s just hope that this announcement will lead to some interesting results

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Nintendo just recently released a brand new version of the Official Pokémon Website, and the updated site boasts lots of new features. One of which, is the ability to stream a hefty amount of anime episodes that previously aired on television. That’s right folks, no more having to wait for each episode to air on Cartoon Network. Now you can watch all of your Pokémon favorites whenever you want. The episodes are being added gradually (3 or 4 every couple of days), but the collection is definitely going to become larger.

Another cool new feature that was included in this huge upgrade is the introduction of the Pokémon Trainer Club, which is the equivalent to the Daisuki Club in Japan. My Pokémon accounts have now been replaced by Pokémon Trainer Club accounts, which can be used to participate in the Organized Play portion of the site along with a few other interactive aspects.

Speaking of which, Organized Play has now been split into two categories: TCG and Video Game. This club is also responsible for many events in the past years in which players could obtain exclusive Pokémon.  As one of its first events, the Pokémon Trainer Club has announced that they will be hosting the “Special Colored Pichu” event at GameStop from January 30th to February 14th.

The website has also been updated with all of the new Heart Gold/Soul Silver artwork, a complete TCG database of the trading cards, and loads of new mini-games to play. More additions to the site can be expected to arrive soon, but if you haven’t already checked it out, it’s definitely worth a visit!

It has been three years since Pokémon Diamond was released in the States, and in those three years, we have seen a wide variety of players. Now, generalization is bad, but out of those wide varieties of players, all of them fit either of these three categories: overly competitive, overly aggressive players, lax players that played for social interaction, and players that played to catch them all, or players that played just because they like the game. However, calling, say, the first type, “overly competitive player” is too tiring and boring, is it not?

Therefore, we will name the three stereotypes. We will name the first stereotype, competitive battler, Gary. We will name Mr. Social interaction Brock, and Mr. Catch ‘em all Ash. This article will talk extensively about those three characters, give some examples, and maybe see what makes them tick.

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The holidays have come and gone, leaving trails of gift wrap and discarded eggnog in their wake. However, though the season of giving is behind us, it’s never too late to be thinking about next year, and Pokémon gifts are always a great gift option, even TCG-related gifts. Here is my list of the top 10 TCG-related holiday gifts to consider for next year.

10. Theme Decks
Theme decks have been coming out since there has been a Pokémon TCG. The first was the 2 Player Starter Set in 1998. Theme decks usually contain cards from one or two energy types, along with the other essentials for playing the game (coin, play mat, etc), and run about $10 or so. The themes differ depending on the deck, but they usually have something to do with the energy type or types of the cards in the deck. They also usually include one holo card, like Machamp in the 2 Player Starter Set and Vaporeon in the Water Blast theme deck. You can find these decks online or at stores that sell Pokémon cards, like card stores or even Target, Wal-Mart, and ToysRUs. (more)

This is what happens when you forget to put the fire out before you go to sleep on Christmas eve.