Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

R/S Linoone - NOT to be underestimated!

A

Android17a

New Member
I just got my R/S booster box, and after sorting it out, I can safely say the new Linoone card is absolutely stunning.

Firstly, it has 70 HP. Whilst that's not amazing in itself, if you can get it out early you should be able to take a few hits whilst you use it's first attack...

Seek Out. For a single energy card (any type, remember it's colorless!) you can search your deck for ANY two cards, put them into your hand, then shuffle your deck! An absolutely brilliant move - use it to get your best Pokémon into play within minutes!

The real stinger is it's next attack - Continuous Headbutt. For a mere two energy cards, you flip a coin until you get tails. The attack does 40 damage times the number of heads. 40! Until you get tails! Whilst the element of chance is there, this thing can easily take out any strong Pokémon in a single turn with three consecutive "heads" flips.

Naturally, you will have unlucky days where all your flips are tails, and all the cards you want are in the prize pile where you can't get to them with Linoone, but on the whole I've found it a very useful Pokémon. Definitely not to be underestimated.
 
After playing it a few times, it's real power lies in Seek Out, actually. Continuous Headbutt has been pretty cool too, don't get me wrong. But it is still risky. The most damage I've done is 120, once.
 
IMO, Linoone's seek out can put a player's game strategy to high speed. Well, you could use Continous Headbutt a couple of turns (especially damaged pokemon), but itsd first attack can make a difference. ;)
 
I've seen it in a couple of casual games that I've played, and it's not a bad card. Though it maybe good in theory, I managed to route it using my own deck which the focus was on a combination of Mr. Mime from B2, Promo Mew, and N1 Skiploom.

And I can see where Seek Out, has a major problem. You may get two cards from the deck, but with a couple of high powered threats on the bench it becomes a nice excuse to use a powered Mr. Mime for several kills when they don't have any energy. So one may want to watch out if the opponent is wielding a Mr. Mime or anything that would obliterate Linoone
 
Seek Out has one fundamental weakness: it's an attack. You want to be maximising your threats in a game, not simply digging for yours. Against a fast deck, Linoone will Seek Out once or twice, you'll have all sorts of nifty things in your hand... and they'll probably have their out already.

Continuous Headbutt is overpowered at first look, but let's see the odds of doing a lot of damage... 50% for 40, 25% for 80, and 12.5% for 120. So one out of every two times (statistically), you'll hit for 40. One out of every four times will be for 80, and only one out of eight times will be for 120. This is hardly reliable because while you try for The Big Hit, they'll be pummelling at you with a lot of smaller, more reliable attacks.

Linoone's powerful, but not to be overrated.
 
I know, but I don't really give a Rattata's butt about R/S only (too close to Block format, which I dispise), so I mostly ramble on about effects on unlimited and casual.
 
Marril said:
I know, but I don't really give a Rattata's butt about R/S only (too close to Block format, which I dispise), so I mostly ramble on about effects on unlimited and casual.
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I can relate to the unlimited/casual comment. From the perspective of using Linoone in a Raindance deck, I've found it to be of limited use, primarily just because I defer to stalling with Baby Pokemon and building up Blastoise. It's still good enough to keep in for me, though.

Maybe in another type of deck, Linoone would shine more.
 
I actually see Raindance not using Linoone because it could be swinging with Blastoise for 60 on turn 2 with a lucky draw, and it can Oak to get through the deck really quickly. The turn 2 comment was, of course, on the lucky draw, but the fact remains that Blasty can hit very, very hard, very quickly.

I do agree that in R/S format, Linoone would be really good because of the lack of other card-drawing and deck-searching, and it might see some use in modified, not sure myself, but for unlimited it's a Stage 1 that takes up your attack for the turn setting up your next turn. It's a good card, but by no means a staple.
 
Marril said:
It's a good card, but by no means a staple.
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I concur. It might be one of those things where the Pokemon looks better on paper than in actual play.

That said, I think it is still one of the most playable R/S Pokemon to date. Seek Out/Continuous Headbutt must have a niche in some kind of deck; it's too useful not to.
 
FYI... Ziggzagoon in ADV series 3 will have Fetch.... further helping the card advantage power that Linoone has.

In unlimited, of course this thing is weak. a Stage 1, 70 HP that waste a turn or 2 while things like red face paint and Chan eat it up for breakfast. In Modified, and especially in a more limited Modified if Nintendo goes that route, it has serious Potential. Wasting a turn to get 2 specific cards in hand, can be better than Cleffa (- baby flip of course). I mean people use Oracle/mini Eek all the time, so it is essentially the same, just trading out flip for more HP
 
Spectreon said:
...the card advantage power that Linoone has.
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Linoone's search attack takes one energy, correct? And it's a stage 1? You need, at a minimum, three cards (Ziggyzaggy, Linoone, one energy) to get it up and going, more to support it. For it to be card advantage, you'd need to use its attack multiple times.

Linoone isn't going to survive to use its attack multiple times without help, seeing as it has that big [imaginary] target mark on its forehead and all. Using its attack twice merits, at best, a card advantage of +1. Less than that if you use potions, attachments, anything like that. You can get greater card advantage by Oaking, the same by using a Bill, heck, even by Lassing several trainers out of your opponent's hand but none out of your own.

The main difference is that you search for the cards you need, and this is what Linoone has over most of its trainer companions (CPU Search notwithstanding). Card advantage is more than simply having more cards in your hand than a second ago. It's all about having more cards in your hand than the amount of cards you used to get those cards into your hand. Using its attack once, Linoone's card advantage is actually negative. In several turns, its card advantage can get pretty high, but there's the factor of keeping it out and alive.

In short, Linoone is, if you want flat-out card advantage, the wrong Pokémon (although it is faster card advantage than Kangaskhan).

Edit: I thought I'd point out, though, that this is in no way saying that Linoone's bad, just that for pure card advantage, he's the wrong choice. Still good for getting a card or two into your hand though.
 
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Linoone is not about pure card advantage. It's about card searching. It gets you very specific cards early, and this can be a big advantage. However, it is not efficient in doing so (it's no CPU!). It is, at best, a support line for a deck that relies on tricky, powerful combos that require many cards to work together. It can get your combo out early.

Personally, I don't use it much.
 
I know that Linoone's mostly about deck searching, but card avantage wins games moreso than deck searching, and Linoone isn't card advantage unless he's out there a while.

Marril's rating of Linoone: three stars out of five. (That's just to let y'all know I've finished with this topic)
 
I like Linoone, but I think Delcatty is a completely better card. The fact that its a power and it's cumulative makes the Delcatty draw engine theoretically, and physically, a better draw engine than the Linoone.

~ RaNd0m
 
Linoone's Seek Out attack is very good in limited. I'm not passing that card ever again. (Unless I absolutely have to)

With the reduced draw power in Nintendo's anticipated E-on format Linoone will see play in constructed decks too. Same goes for Delcatty. If Nintendo announce Ex-On then Delcatty and Linoone may see lots of play. As Random has said Delcatty has the edge on Linoone.

I'm not keen on Linoone's second attack: It only averages 40 damage and has that ugly tails-fails property that I personally think is over used in pokémon.
 
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since i 1st got the card outta my box of R/S i've been dying to play him just cause of how he his. in anygame were you can serch without restrcion for a cheap cost its good. llok at the old toutors in magic. i love this guys and cant wait to try him out. he makes getting stage 1 and 2 faster in R/S olny and speed will count in that format. all in all i love it.
 
Linoone's first attack is the highlight, and normally you shouldn't be wasting time on the second attack unless you're going to lose anyways.

The odds on the second attack are...

(50% - 0)
(25% - 1)
(12.5% - 2)
(6.25% - 3)
(3.125% - 4)
(1.5625% - 5)
(0.78125% - 6)

and so on... so you have a 6.25% to ko any pokemon in the game excluding metals (at this point)... which is decent, and I suppose this is a good "at the buzzer" pokemon... one where it doesn't take a lot to build and gives you one last chance to win.

Don't rely on it, though.

~ RaNd0m
 
Don't forget to add in the higher number of flips as well. So, it's about 12.5% chance to KO anything in one hit and a 25% chance to OHKO anything with 80 or less.
 
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