1/8 - COTD - Blastoise (Various sets)

[Gokey Shuckle]

I'm doing something special. I'm gathering up 5 of the final form starters, and you guys will rate all of their cards.

Today it's Blastoise.

Rate & Review.

Thanks to Water Pokemon Master from www.pokebeach.com for the scan.

 

[Alter Ego]

Heh, looks like we've got all of them except Blastoise Ex here, and I understand why that one doesn't really fit in. I like this idea, actually, as you get a better idea of how the individual cards measure up to the available substitutes. ^^

Base Set Blastoise

I do believe that we are looking at one of the retro cards that would utterly disbalance the modern TCG environment. xD The poképower...is just awesome really, one extra water energy attachment for every pokémon you have in play, and with so many water pokémon having some version of Water Gun to exploit that. The attack reaches a solid 60 damage too, which - in the retro environment - will knock anything out in two turns and with the poképower the rather steep cost of five water energies that this takes becomes quite manageable, especially since it can manage a steady 40 with three (Which is the same as the base set Wartortle's Bite). 100 HP is very good by the old standards (and still formidable today) and this card certainly excels both as active and on the bench, despite the electric weak and troublesome 3 energy retreat. This is one monster of a card and any further empowerment would disbalance it completely. A must-have for any Water based retro deck. 10/10

Dark Blastoise

70 HP leaves this card kind of vulnerable to assault (As Dark pokémon often are) but Hydrocannon can deal a whopping 70 damage in one go with four energies, which seems like a very good deal to me. Rocket tackle seems a bit too risky for me, especially with the low HP this card has, and the lack of a poképower prevents it from supporting other cards. The fact that it has one less retreat cost than the base set edition doesn't really do it much good, though, and the HP is a bit too low. 7.5/10, it's strong in its own right, but not the same kind of vital necessity as the base set one. Works for more aggressively minded water decks, I guess.

Third Blastoise

Energy Cannon is basically a slightly empowered version of the base set Blastoise's Hydro Pump and the fact that any energy goes opens up the possibility for a special energy card or two, but the poképower is kind of counter-productive (Except maybe if you've had all your energy discarded, in which case it's free energy discards), it can also be good if you've got lots of energy in your hand but little to use it on. HP is a solid 100 here, although the art isn't living up to that of the early cards. .___. Oh well, 8/10 since it's a nice, solid attacker.

The bottom one

Both last and least, I see. -.- Bubble is an okayish attack, but with a 2nd stage I'd expect to see something with a bit more umph. Double Cannon is a bit too much of a gamble, as it only exceeds the other Blastoise's Energy Cannon in the 1/4 chance situation that you get heads on both coin tosses, ties with minimum-power Energy Cannon half the time, and does nothing whatsoever on every fourth. There's no poképower either. Basically, this one isn't much good unless you're a devil of a coin tosser and pales in comparison to the Energy Cannon one. The HP is good, but no more so than on the other Blastoise. 3/10, there are really far better alternatives out there. .___.

 

[~Solarys~]

First one:

It's got an excellent power - only if you have enough W energy IN YOUR HAND at a time. However, it's power is the only thing that's good about it... 100 HP is average for stage 2's, 3 RC is too high, and it's attack is too costly to be overly abusable (with its power)...

7/10


Second one:

70 HP stage 2 = not a card, so I'm not rating it...


Third one:

Basically the same thing as the first one, except it had a nerfed power and a slightly buffed attack and RC. It's power is useful for trading off your opponent's special energy cards, e.g. any double/boost energy, and D/M energy, but it doesn't work every time.

6/10


Last one:

The effectiveness of this one totally depends on your skills with the coin. The first attack with the cost of only 1W does 20 damage and could paralyze, is actually pretty good, but it's nerfed on a stage 2. The second attack depends totally on luck - for 1 Boost (or W + any double), you can do either 0 (25%), 40 (50%), or 80 (25%) - however, I really prefer it let you flip 3 coins with 30x instead...

8/10 - if you're good with the coin;
4/10 - if you're not.

 

[Lordpenguin]

Well, this has pretty much been covered by the previous guys, but here goes...

The last one really is terrible. IMO, even base wartortle is better considering it is a stage 1.

The third one is like a not-broken version of the first... quite balanced all things considered.

Dark Blastoise is a bit of a condundrum, because it is very powerful, but doesn't have the uberpower of the original base set one.

And there is the big guy, the stage2 that dominates the classic environment, to which every deck of the time must have an answer or be killed stone-dead. :D
Basically, the ability to drop all of your water energy from your hand onto your pokemon is completely broken, especially considering the power of card-draw in the environment (think 4xProfessor Oak, 4xBill), and Pokémon Breeder says this baby comes out on turn two... Basically you are making your opponent face fully powered (base) Gyrados, or Dewgong, or (fossil) Articuno, all capable of doing at least 50 damage, from turn 2, on a good hand, and with a good build, hardly ever after turn 4 or 5.

Rain Dance effectively killed the power of fire in the metagame (and a lot of the power cards that went with it, like base charmeleon) and seriously narrowed the format, meaning you had to be ultrareliable and fast (haymaker), or have some uber protection (mime) to have a chance.

And no cards at that time had such a thing as a Water resistance...

 

[Forci Stikane]

First one:

It's got an excellent power - only if you have enough W energy IN YOUR HAND at a time. However, it's power is the only thing that's good about it... 100 HP is average for stage 2's, 3 RC is too high, and it's attack is too costly to be overly abusable (with its power)...

7/10

Okay, it's very obvious that you never played the old cards. This thing can DOMINATE. Like Lordpenguin said, 4x Professor Oak and 4x Bill means instant powerhouse early on, which results in some fast KOing. Its energy cost also becomes pointless, as the power will have it flooded within the turn you play it (usually).

It is truly one of the only cards that deserves a constant 10/10.

And everyone else (at least, ALMOST everyone else) has done the others already, so I won't repeat.

 

[okothnuva]

First one:

It's got an excellent power - only if you have enough W energy IN YOUR HAND at a time. However, it's power is the only thing that's good about it... 100 HP is average for stage 2's, 3 RC is too high, and it's attack is too costly to be overly abusable (with its power)...

7/10

It's called Suicune ex, Erika, Professor Oak, Holon Lass, Power Tree, and maybe Bill.

 

[~Solarys~]

You can only have 60 cards in your deck by the way... not infinite...

 

[okothnuva]

You can only have 60 cards in your deck by the way... not infinite...

Yeah, I think I already know that.

You don't need infinite room to fit in 3 Suicune, 4 Erika, 4 Professor Oak, 4 Holon Lass, 2 Power Tree, and 12 Waters.