Card of the Day Review - Typhlosion Prime (HeartGold & SoulSilver 110)

Hello everyone! LuxrayMogul here for another Card of the Day Review! Today we're going to discuss Typhlosion Prime, card number 110 from HGSS and one of my favourite cards. (Maybe it's because Cyndaquil is my favourite starter Pokémon ;D)

Typhlosion is a Stage 2 Fire-type Pokémon that evolves from Quilava. It has a very decent HP of 140 (especially if you keep using After-Burner, discussed later). It has a double weakness to water, which isn't pleasant, but should be expected of Fire-types. (Wouldn't worry about Kingdra Prime though; it has a disadvantage when faced against Fire-Types.) It has a retreat cost of two colourless energy, which is more than I'd like to pay, but it's at least better than some of the Stage 2s you see out there. But you're pretty much going to expect NOT to retreat Typhlosion; once it's out, I think you'll probably prefer attacking with it.

Its Poké-Power, After Burner, allows you to attach a fire energy from your discard pile to one of your Pokémon once a turn. (If you have more than one Typhlosion Prime in play, the power stacks, of course.) But, you must put one damage counter on that Pokémon if you do so. Now this is useful for using its attack, Flare Destroy, but overuse can cause Typhlosion to quickly become knocked-out by even the smallest attacks.

Its sole attack, Flare Destroy, can be used for two Fire and one Colourless. It does a pesky 70 damage which may knock out most basic Pokémon (watch out for Reshiram, B&W 113) but won't do very well against evolved Pokémon, especially other Primes. It also requires both Pokémon to discard one energy (NOTE: YOU get to choose the energy the opponent discards, not them!!) The idea is probably to wear down your opponent's energy stack and replenish your own with Afterburner so you don't waste your deck energy. (This seems like a battle of attrition... sorry. Too much World War I.) Like I said before, letting this damage build up on Typhlosion can be dangerous, so you have to "watch your spending".

A card that works really well with Typhlosion Prime is Ursaring Prime (Unleashed 89). By building energy on Ursaring, Ursaring can quickly charge up for its attacks while at the same time gaining damage, which activates its "Berserk" Poké-Body, allowing to do 60 more damage for each of its attack. That's good as well. Another card that may work well with Typhlosion (but not that useful if you want to be critical) is Ampharos Prime (HGSS 105). While causing your opponent to discard energy, you charge them 10 damage for each extra energy they attach once Ampharos comes into play! This power also stacks when you have more Ampharos in play.

Artwork? Oh, I love Typhlosion. The artwork, like most Prime cards, are amazing. Heck, pretty much all of the artwork for all the HGSS series are amazing, so must I say more? ;D

So - I rate Typhlosion 4/5, but it loses some marks for doing so less damage and having a significant weakness to a popular type. But other than that, it's a pretty cool card to have in your deck, and of course, duplicates should always be considered for powerful energy power-ups.