PikaCirculator's One Year Anniversary Raffle!

Yes, PikaCirculator is celebrating it's one year anniversary! To find out how you can celebrate with us, please head over to our YouTube video to find out!

Cheers!

--LM

Card of the Week Review - Beartic (Emerging Powers 30)

Hey everyone! LuxrayMogul here for another Card of the Week Review! This week, I'll be reviewing another card from Emerging Powers: Beartic. No, not card #31 Beartic, but the one that everyone's been really excited about - Beartic, card #30.

Let's start with some stats. Beartic is a Stage-1 Water-type Pokémon that evolves from Cubchoo (the Pokémon with like the huge snot coming out of its nose...). It has 130 HP, which is incredibly high considering it's a Stage 1 Pokémon. This is also great for Beartic as big attacks like Reshiram's Blue Flare, Zekrom's Bolt Strike, and Typhlosion's Fire Spin will leave it with 10 HP, (as no attack does exactly 130 damage), which forces the opponent to use a Plus Power or two to finish Beartic off, if they wish, in one turn. (I think you would want to; refer to next section for reasons why). It has a x2 Metal weakness which is great; you don't see too many metal-type decks nowadays, and Beartic isn't weak to the usual Electric type for Water-types, so it's a great card to be played now. It has no resistance, which isn't too much of a surprise. However, a drawback would be its three colourless energy retreat cost. In J-Wittz' words, that's FAT! That's really fat! You have to watch out for Pokémon Catcher and other cards that can possibly endanger Beartic before it's set-up and ready to attack.

Now its attacks - it's first attack, Sheer Cold, needs WCC to use; so I think it's safe to say that Beartic is Double Colourless Energy compatible. ;D It does a measly 50 damage, but prevents the defending Pokémon from attacking the next turn. Personally, that's great! They will be forced to retreat, evolve, or devolve in order to even touch Beartic the next turn. Now; evolving and devolving are pretty rare, so that means retreat. If you can combine Beartic with Catcher, you can slaughter a "fat" Benched Pokémon (such as Beartic) before it's ready to attack itself, and it can't retreat. ('Fat' means large retreat cost, not trying to offend anyone with this term.) So, Sheer Cold is a great attack!

Its second attack, Icicle Crash, needs WWCC, so once again, DCE can be used. It does a measly 80 damage (well, measly considering how much energy is required for this attack). However, it isn't affected by Resistance, so no... grass..? Pokémon are safe from this attack either. It provides a OHKO to Donphan Prime which is weak to water-types, therefore, being a great counter to a very, very popular card in the format right now.

The artwork is OK. It pales compared to Beartic (Emerging Powers 31), but I guess it's OK since it's holo. It's a little over-simplistic though.

Overall, I give 4.5/5 to Beartic. I hate Donphan Prime so since it can kill it in one hit it's a great counter. (I know that is biased... but it's true.) It loses 0.5 point because of its "fat-ness" - carefully when Catcher pulls this out when it's not ready. Overall, I think it's a great card in this format and should be considered in many decks. (Its weakness is different, which helps it a lot as well!)

Card of the Week Review - Gothitelle (Emerging Powers 47)

Hey everyone! It is Volcachu back for a card review; but since school has started, we will be doing card reviews weekly instead of daily. For the time being, we will try to focus our reviews on Pokémon from the new set. This week's Pokémon will be Gothitelle and it has been getting a lot of hype since the release of the set.

This Pokémon is a Stage 2 Psychic-Type with 130 HP which is average. It has an ability called Magic Room which I will get more in depth later. Gothitelle has only one attack and it is called Madkinesis. This attack costs 3 energy of any type and it does 30 base damage. This attack does 20 extra damage on top of the 30 base damage for each Psychic Energy attached to Gothitelle. This means that the more Psychic Energies, the more powerful the attack is. Like most Psychic-Types, Gothitelle has a weakness to other Psychic-Types. It has a retreat cost of two which is not very good.

The reason why this Pokémon is liked is because of the ability, Magic Room. This ability is only activated when Gothitelle is the active Pokémon. The ability locks most of the important trainer cards of the opponent as they are not allowed to play any item cards. This will shut down key cards like Pokémon Catcher, Switch, Pokémon Communications and others. Gothitelle is usually teamed up with a Reuniclus to continually lock the opponent while keeping Gothitelle alive as long as possible. This may be a very combo soon as many people are starting to pick this up.

All these factors allow me to give Gothitelle a 4.5/5. Even with all the potential to lock your opponent, she is very slow to set up. This slowness calls for more Twins in your deck since you will probably fall behind early with this deck. Gothitelle will become an alternate Vileplume and it will be a hot card in the market. Grab them all before others do!

Emerging Powers Review

Hey guys! It's LuxrayMogul here to more or less rant about the new expansion that was released today - Black & White - Emerging Powers. Yes, the name sounds pretty cool, but I guess this expansion is more of a... collector's expansion than a competitive one. Most of the cards are not too appealing to competitive players. The full art Thundorus and Tornadus is great for collectors, but their attacks definitely aren't that good compared to cards from previous expansions.

The main hype? Well, I think there are mostly two cards from this expansion that is pretty much the only "hype" you would say; and probably one of the only reasons why someone would buy boosters from this expansion in the first place. The first one is Pokémon Catcher (Emerging Powers 95). This has the same effect as a pretty old card, Gust of Wind (Base Set 93), a similar effect to the more recent reprinted card, Pokémon Reversal (HGSS 99) [without the coin flip], and a similar effect to Pokémon Circulator (Unleashed 81) [opponent's choice, not yours]. This gives you the power to switch your opponent's Active Pokémon with a Benched, which can quickly give you a victory - perhaps this aspect adds to its popularity and demand. Definitely watch out for Catchers in the upcoming tournaments.

The second card hype, Beartic (Emerging Powers 30), is also a big hype, and also a nightmare to play against. I'm not going to do a review here, because that'll be saved for PikaCirculator's later reviews ;D But its staggering 130 HP for a Stage 1 and its deadly attack Sheer Cold builds to its popularity - although it only does a mere 50 damage, its additional effect prevents the defending Pokémon from attacking - which forces them to wait out a turn, or retreat to another Pokémon to do the attack. Definitely expect to see this Beartic in upcoming tournaments for sure.

Another new change in this expansion is the feature of energy symbols in the holographic design of the reverse holos - reverse holos in this set feature a holo design that includes a repeating pattern of that Pokémon's energy symbol on the card. If it's a Trainer, Supporter or (yet to be released) Stadium, the reverse holo features a background of Pokéballs instead. This is also great collector items and will definitely add to the popularity of this expansion.

But overall, the cards are not too great; the expansion only features a few good cards. The holographic treatment adds to its grading. I'll grade this expansion a probably-too-generous rating of 2.5/5.

Let's all look forward to Noble Victories coming out November! It will feature Japan's Red Collection cards, which should be more appealing in regards to competitiveness. So, this is LuxrayMogul signing off this first expansion review. Regular card reviews will be coming back this Sunday - however, because of the upcoming school workload, the Card of the Day Review will now, unfortunately be a Card of the Week Review. But nevertheless, stay tuned, and don't forget to check out our latest video on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9ONLR1zgdg

Card of the Day Review - Umbreon (Undaunted 10)

Hey everyone! LuxrayMogul here for another Card of the Day Review! Today I continue my Eeveelution reviews with the Moonlight Pokémon, Umbreon. Let's start with the basics. Umbreon is a Stage 1 Darkness-type Pokémon that evolves from the Evolution Pokémon, Eevee. (Eevee sure does have a lot of evolutions, haha!) It has 90 HP just like its 'opposite' Espeon. It has a double weakness to Fighting-types, which is actually not desirable at all, and a -20 resistance to Psychic-types, which is awesome. Finally, its retreat cost of one colourless is, of course, pretty average for a Stage 1 Pokémon. So, let's look at the attacks.

Umbreon's first attack, Moonlight Fang, needs one Darkness energy and does a decent damage of 30 (well, for one energy it's decent). Plus, any damage and effects done by your opponent's Pokémon that has Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies are prevented during their next turn. Really? Cool! So... pretty much every single one of the Prime cards can't affect Umbreon, and neither can most regular Stage-2 Pokémon. It's pretty awesome, all for one energy. Unfortunately, this effect doesn't extend over to the new Black & White cards, which do not use Poké-Powers or Poké-Bodies any more, but use Abilities. Therefore, Moonlight Fang doesn't affect these Pokémon, like Ability Samurott, Serperior and Emboar. That sucks. You definitely should be watching when you play this card, especially later on when HGSS cards start to get rotated out - this card will become increasingly useless, unfortunately as the new cards don't get affected by it.

Its second attack, Quick Blow, needs a Darkness and a Colourless. It does 30 damage, but you get to add 30 more if you get heads on the coin flip. So a maximum of 60 damage... that's average for a Stage 1 I guess, but I generally don't like coin flip attacks (who does?! XD) because it's way too risky. If you're wanting to pack a punch, then I would use Quick Blow, but if you're facing a Prime that you obviously can't take out in one turn, I would stick with Moonlight Fang until things get easy, because honestly, Quick Blow is too risky of an attack, especially for a Pokémon that has a times to weakness to a very very very popular type right now.

The artwork is amazing. Of course. I love the Eeveelutions, haha!

Overall, I would give the card a 3/5 for its pretty powerful Moonlight Fang, and its pretty usefulness inside a deck that runs dark types or Eeveelutions. But it's attacks are only average, which makes it lose some ratings. But overall, it's a relatively good card.

Card of the Day Review - Xatu (Unleashed 11)

Hi everyone! It's GrassExplorer here again! This time we have Xatu! Like usually, we will begin with the artwork. I very much like the artwork of Xatu because it highlights Xatu's mysterious aspect.

To begin, we will look at its HP, Xatu has 90 HP, which I would say is a normal amount, nevertheless, nothing phenomenal. I am actually not too happy about its average HP and it would be difficult to employ in battle if you plan to use it to actually knock out stage 2 Pokémon.

Next, it's first attack is Psywave, which does 20 damage times the amount of energy cards attached to Xatu, I don't necessarily like this attack because the opponent can easily remove energy cards with the use of trainer cards and it uses up a lot of valuable energy cards.

However, I prefer its second attack, Confuse Ray, which does 50 damage and you flip a coin to see if the defending Pokémon is confused. But the part that I don't like about this attack is that it requires quite a large amount of energy cards and I would prefer a condition other than confused.

Xatu is weak to Electric-Type Pokémon, however also has resistance to Fighting-type Pokémon, so in some ways, it equals out.

Overall, I give Xatu a 3/5.

Although nothing fantastic, it is a good Pokémon to have in hand as a "buffer".

Card of the Day Review - Samurott (Black & White 32)

Hey ladies and gentlemen, this is Volcachu for another review on another fresh week. First of all, sorry for not posting on the weekend as our whole team was very busy. Today's card is the Ability Samurott from the Black & White set and my nickname for this big guy is "the tank."

Samurott is a Stage 2 Pokémon with 140 HP which is a lot for anyone. It is a Water-Type so it has the common double weakness to Electric-Types. The retreat cost is 2 energies which is not that bad for this big guy.

This Pokémon has only 1 attack. (Did you know that all three ability starters only have 1 attack?) Samurott's only attack is called Hydro Pump and we have heard this attack a lot in the video game. This attack costs 3 energy of any sort so attaching a Double Colourless Energy and a Water Energy is pretty effective. Hydro Pump does 70 damage and 10 more on top for every Water Energy attached to Samurott. This means, if you have 3 Water Energies on Samurott to use its attack, you would do 100 damage.

The reason I call Samurott "the tank" is because of its ability. Its ability is called Shell Armor and it reduces 20 damage done to Samurott from any attack. This ability is exactly the same as Donphan Prime's Exoskeleton. This allows Samurott to take a lot of hits and hard to knock out.

The rating that I would give this card is a 4/5. Samurott is almost like Donphan Prime but it takes a longer time to set up. I haven't really been seeing this in play often and lately. There may be better Stage 2 Water Pokémon out there like Blastoise. Samurott is a decent card with very few drawbacks, so you should try using this card in your deck today!

Card of the Day Review - Espeon (Undaunted 2)

Hey everyone! LuxrayMogul here for another Card of the Day Review! Today I will continue on my Eeveelution reviews and discuss the Sun Pokémon, Espeon. Espeon is a Stage 1 Psychic-type Pokémon that evolves from the Evolution Pokémon, Eevee. It has a decent 90 HP and a double weakness to Psychic-types. Its retreat cost of one is also average for a Stage-1 Pokémon. So, pretty average card so far. Let's look at the card text.

Solar Suggestion allows you to move (up to) 4 damage counters from any of your own Pokémon to any of your opponent's Pokémon and arrange it in any way you like - all for one Psychic energy. So essentially, you're doing a total of 40 damage. This attack can be quite useful in knocking out Pokémon that have retreated because of low HP left, and therefore this could allow you to knock out quite a few Pokémon in just one hit. As a bonus, your Pokémon get healed in the process. Here's the catch - if you don't have any damage counters on your Pokémon, then this attack does nothing. Just watch out for that.

Psybeam does a decent 30 damage for a Psychic and a Colourless energy. If the coin flip goes your way, the opponent is also confused, forcing it to flip a coin every time it tries to attack. (Doing 30 damage to itself if it's tails... but however the opponent can easily retreat, in which the confusion is healed). I much prefer paralysis in place of confusion, because it generally is more effective.

But other than that, Espeon's a decent card. I'll give Espeon a 4/5. It's only high because of its Solar Suggestion. Make good use of it! It is a great addition to any deck that runs Eevee.

Card of the Day Review - Musharna (Black and White 49)

Hi everyone! It's Grass Explorer here again! This time, we have one of my favourite Pokémon, Musharna! Now although it may look like a fetus, it can really pack a punch! It is a really useful Pokémon and is great for strategies.

First of all, it's weak to psychic, and most other psychic Pokémon are also weak to psychic, so there's no substantial disadvantage.

Looking at its first attack, Hypnotic Ray, which does 20 damage and makes the opponent fall asleep, this attack is great to stall and create a battle of attrition! I love this attack because it can really help you when you are in need of time; in helping you stall, it also slowly damages the opponent and gives you the opportunity to build up your bench. Best of all, it only requires one energy card!

Moreover, its second attack builds on Hypnotic Ray, Dream Eater, which does 90 damage if the defending Pokémon is asleep. 90 damage is an enormous amount of damage for a stage 1 Pokémon and can even knock out many basic or stage 1 Pokémon in one hit! Also, it only requires two energy cards! So if you finish stalling with Hypnotic Ray, you can just use this attack and finish off the defending Pokémon.

Overall, I give musharna a definite 5/5!

Card of the Day Review - Serperior (Black & White 6)

I am back. Volcachu here with another review and this time, it will be on another final evolution of one of the Black and White starter Pokémon. Today's card is Serperior, the evolved form of Servine and Snivy. I would nickname this Pokémon as the healer. I will explain more indepth about that later.

First of all, Serperior is a Stage 2 Pokémon with a total of 130 HP. The health is average among all Stage 2. It has a double weakness to Fire-Types so you should be careful against those decks that run Emboars. This Pokémon also has a resistance against Water-Types with 20 but not too many people are running Water decks these days except Blastoise decks. The retreat cost is very low at one, so this is an added bonus.

Serperior is getting a lot of hype because of its ability. The ability is called Royal Heal and it heals all of your Pokémon for 10 HP in between turns. That is 20 HP healed by the time it is your turn again. If you have more than 1 Serperiors on your bench, it will be hard for your opponent to kill your Active Pokémon. Especially if you have a Donphan Prime which already blocks 20 damage. Your opponent will most likely have to one hit your Pokémon to win. With this ability, Serperior is a healer and it keeps your side of the field very healthy.

Serperior has one single attack and it is called Leaf Tornado. This attack only needs a Grass Energy and any other Energy which is very little for an attack that does 60 damage. The added effect to this attack is that you can move the Grass Energies on your side of the field and rearrange them to other Pokémon however you like. The effect to the attack is not mandatory so it is really up to the user.

Serperior is a solid Pokémon with average health and a fairly good attack. It can heal you Pokémon for free and it is very effective. I give this card a solid 4.5 out of 5 and the reason for the missing .5 is because there is not a good variety in attacks. Serperior usually never seens combat and stays on the bench to heal. This is a very good tech card and it can be used in many decks. Try out this card and tell me how it goes. Enjoy the rest of your day!