2013-04-21 PLS Blastoise 137

[waynegg]

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[gal=54259]2013-04-21 PLS Blastoise 137[/gal]​

 

[ArceusRules]

1st! Shiny Blastoise! The shiny version of the ever popular Blastoise! 140 HP is pretty good, hard to OHKO. Only thing I can really think of off the top of my head, is Darkrai, Laser, Bank, Claw Combo. Deluge is amazing. Attach as many :water: Energy Cards from your hand as you like to any of your Pokémon, not just limited to Water Type like Rain Dance. At first I thought this was a reprint of Blastoise Base Set, but that Blastoise had Rain Dance, the Poké Power that was limited to only Water Type Pokémon. Plus Hydro Pump these days is improved, because there's no limit to it's attack power, like back in the day. But this card is definitely based off of Base Set Blastoise. But Deluge is based off of Inferno Fandango from Emboar, because that allowed you to attach as many Energy Cards from your hand to any of your Pokémon as you liked, only it was :fire: instead of :water:

Hydro Pump starts off with the Base Power of 60 and increases by 10 for each :water: Energy attached to it. Keldeo EX, is better, because Secret Sword's Base Power is 50 but you do plus 20 for each :water: Energy instead of 10. Making Keldeo/Blastoise a great deck. But Black Ballista Black Kyurem also benefits from this amazing ability! Attach :water::water::lightning::colorless: for 200 damage. Well that 4th Energy can be anything, so attach 1 :lightning: and then Deluge 3 :water: Energies onto it and boom! Your set! Discard 3 Water Energy cards and 200!!!!!!!!!!

Retreat Cost is terrible, but takes advantage of Heavy Ball, so you don't have to drop 2 cards to search for a Blastoise!

:grass: weakness is great, because Shaymin saw a major decline. Actually, in my area, no one even uses Shaymin any more.

I give this card a 10/10 for it's amazing ability and as a great backup attacker, in case a Sigilph is dropped or your facing a Cobalion/Klinklang Deck.

I give the Artwork 11/10. It just looks beautiful!

And wow, was it ever hard for me to obtain this card. Not 1 in any Booster Box. I had to get it as a Single from a Store that sells singles. I traded in a few cards and my friend helped me by throwing in in-store credit and a bit of money.

 

[pokedan24]

9/10 for playability.

One of the best stage 2's in format. Unlimited attachment is something that has been broken since base set days. It gets better when you see how many things you can power up with this.

-Keldeo EX (the obvious choice)
-Hydro Pump Keldeo (for Sigilyph)
-Kyurem (glaciate)
-BKEX (black ballista)
-Mewtwo EX.

And those are just the ones off the top of my head.

 

[BrianBAM19]

I feel obligated to comment on this card, of all cards, given that I've ran this deck ever sine getting back into competitive play around November.

More often than not, its retreat cost is a plus, not a problem. With Black Kyurem EX in the deck, it becomes more viable to play Heavy Ball. since it lets you search out both and preserve valuable resources. You'll usually have a benched Keldeo EX to get out of those spots as well. As an attacker, it's solid enough in a pinch(and definitely less inconvenient if you run Scramble Switch) to get the job done against Sigilyph and Klinklang. Its grass weakness will not be a problem until after Worlds.

Blastoise is the lynchpin of an entire top tier deck, and it's the best stage 2 in the format. Stage 2's are supposed to be too slow. Decks with low HP basics aren't supposed to survive, because they get donked too easily. While this can still happen to Blastoise decks, this card is strong enough to thrive and make an elite deck, in spite of these factors. The deck is even expected to survive after Thundurus/Deoxys/Kyurem hits. That's definitely a testament to its great ability and what this card is able to power up. Competitively, I give this a 9.75/10. Darkrai's magical numbers still help OHKO it, but they don't seem to be as common of a problem as they used to be. Kyurem will be a problem upon Plasma Freeze's release, too. Otherwise, I think Blastoise's flaws lie more with Squirtle, not Blastoise itself.

While I normally don't comment on the artwork, this is one of my favorite shinies as well. It looks awesome, and is one of my 4 favorite shinies in the BW series(Emboar, Charizard, and Altaria are the others). I like that the Plasma Storm shinies have embossed borders now, too. It gets a 9.5 out of me; my only gripe is that a shiny Blastoise doesn't look that different from a normal one. I'm normally a Charizard guy, but I've warmed up to this little turtle since returning to the TCG.