COTD - 12/5 - Espeon (E: Aquapolis)

[Gokey Shuckle]

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

Rate & Review.

 

[~Solarys~]

Well, it's pretty good actually. 80HP is above the average, especially combined with its free retreat cost. And it's power is pretty useful on those nearly KO'ed Pokemons to save some energy, not to mention to correct your mistakes, because it can be used multiple times in a turn.

Damage Blast is based totally on luck - if you're good with your coin flipping, then go for it, but still, for 3 energy and 30 base damage, Rend is sometimes better, especially on Basics and stage 1's without much HP and damage counters on them.

If you're good with coins, 8/10
If you're not, 6/10

 

[QFred]

This card is great for the Power, although the HP is better than usual or e-card Stage 1s.

I'm no fan of the art, but I do like the Attack, although this is mainly a Support card, but can do huge damage if used well, the problem is that with more damage counters, more weak the Defending Pokémon gets, and more stupid is to use this attack... LOL

 

[Drifblim]

The card is good if you're running a powerhouse deck and need a way to conserve your Energy yet deliver a respectable amount of damage. (Sabrina's Abra, Gym Heroes, was arguably the antecedent.) Damage Blast will provide 30 damage if you don't or if the defending Pokémon hasn't taken any damage yet and only shows its penchant for progressive defeat if you can master the coin flips. Retro rating 7/10, updated rating 6/10.

 

[Jaimes]

Espeon AQ. H9/H32

Statwise, this is pretty neat. A decent HP, average weakness and a top retreat cost for a Stage 1. The ability to evolve from Eevee is also a major advantage, since there are lots out there with the ability to evolve you straight away (UF, promo, Sandstorm). Being a [P] type isn't such a good thing however, because of the large number of Pokemon with [P] resistances.

The Powers decent and will come in handy for decks that don't run many energies or if you're running low. Its not necessarily a game changing/breaking power since it is completely situational (as opposed to Pidgeot RG for example).

Its attack is also average. Most Pokemon played in unlimited do not have high HP so Damage Blast is not a very good attack. Because of the Eevees powers, Espeon has the potential of being out turn 1 (or 2 latest), meaning your opponent won't have many damage on. 30 is ok, the effect contributes but its not good enough since its completely based on a coin flip.

IMO If you want a cheap and brutal Espeon card, I'd recommend the SS version. There are lots of good eeveelution cards, however I don't think this is one of them. This card isn't bad, but its not good either.

5.8/10


PS - IMO I also don't think being good with coins is a game determining factor. Since coin flips are pretty random. In most tourneys any what would appear dodgy coin flipping would usually be checked out. (Dice ftw)

 

[DaVinci]

Personally id only use this for its power or switch in when youve already done alot of damage to the defending pokemon some otherway. Need to be good with coin flips and drawing energys to power it for when switched in though. I supose that the retreat cost is a plus side as well though.

6/10

 

[Forci Stikane]

Well, at first glance it isn't that good (except the Power--W/P Rain Dance anyone?), but then you see the Energy requirement...1 Psy and 2 Colorless. Meaning a DCE and a Psy gives you 30+ damage on your second turn.

See, that's the fun part about the Eeveelutions--a lot of them can be powered with mostly random energy, meaning that a deck circling around them wouldn't have an all-over-the-place Energy requirement. I should know, as I made a KILLER Eevee deck back in the Neo/E days...

....But I digress. Anyway, the attack cost isn't that bad, but it suffers from requiring a coin flip for EACH damage counter, meaning at least 3 separate flips if it's attacked already...no resistance (but no retreat, another rather common Eevee trait), weakness to itself...a little above average back then, but now...sadly, it's outclassed...

BTW, jwilso72, something tells me that you don't like old cards as a whole, huh?

 

[Jaimes]

BTW, jwilso72, something tells me that you don't like old cards as a whole, huh?

Oh gosh no- that's a common misconception. I adore all the cards since the good ol' days of the Base set ;)

When I review a new card - I review it in Modified format only (which has a card pool of 8 sets or something), since this is the format that I (and competitive OP players) use. Because there are few sets to worry about, its a lot easier to do so as there are fewer game breaking cards.

Older cards I can only review in Unlimited. Because there are zillions of card for this format, there is A LOT of competition and often very few cards are played (which are the best ones). There are lots of things to think about; GoW, ERS, other commonly played cards such as Muk, Slowking, Sneasel etc. As a result my ratings (and reviews) for older cards are a lot more critical.

For example, if I was to review Medicham ex I would give it approx 8/10 for Modified and around 5.9/10 for Unlimited. This is because the game is almost completely different depending on what format you play.