Pokémon Review: Registeel

Well, I thought I'd review some Pokemon that are going to be featured in the upcoming TCG set Dragons Exalted such as Registeel, Garchomp, Altaria, etc. and decided to start it off with Registeel! :]

Registeel is a very nice Pokemon in UU, and Clear Body is a great ability, but there are other steel types in UU which get a lot of use aswell -- Bronzong, Cobalion & Empoleon to name a few of them... Infact, Bronzong is quite a bit more popular in both UU and OU, probably because it is immune to the popular entry hazard Spikes.
It has bad speed, but yeah.
It works well as a support Pokemon in my opinion.

As for EVs, I'd focus on HP & Special Defense (or regular Defense if you like) and almost always use 252 HP/4 Def/252 SpD.

The most common set is a Smogon set as usual, here it is:

Tank
Registeel @ Leftovers
252 HP/4 Def/252 SpD
Nature: Careful
Ability: Clear Body
Moveset: Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave/Toxic, Seismic Toss, Earthquake/Shadow Claw

In the TCG:
Card I am reviewing: Registeel-EX - 81/124 - Dragons Exalted (Releases August 15th)

I like cards that can damage more then 1 of your opponent's in-play Pokemon, and since this card does that, I like it.
If your going to make a deck based around doing that, then I would really recommend using Registeel-EX in it, especially seeing as Triple Laser doesn't need a specific type of energy.

So, Triple Laser does 30 damage to 3 of your opponent's Pokemon (without applying weakness or resistance to benched Pokemon)... I think it would be especially good for getting rid of weak basic Pokemon before your opponent can evolve them, and 180 HP is above average even for an EX!

It's other move is Protect Charge which requires 2 Metal Energy and 2 Colorless Energy and does 80 damage to your opponent's active Pokemon aswell as reducing your opponent's next attack's damage by 20 after applying weakness and resistance).

I would probably spam this move after using Triple Laser a few times, mainly to kill off benched Pokemon I already did some damage to.

Link to card scan: http://pokebeach.com/news/0712/81-registeel-ex.jpg

Pokémon Showdown

So Pokemon Showdown is a new competitive Pokemon battle simulator which personally I prefer to PO.
It has really nice effects and stuff and most Smogoners are already playing :D.
Currently, it only supports 5th gen (but older gens should be there soon) which is a minus for now.
The teambuilder isn't too great at the moment, but Zarel (the guy behind it) is still working on it so yeah, that doesn't matter for now.
Another minus is its been down a lot recently, but I'd guess it will be up and running almost perfectly soon.

Anyway, I really recommend you go check it out at http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/lobby
Hopefully I can battle you!

Pokémon Review: Sigilyph

Sigilyph is a pretty interesting Pokemon design-wise, and isn't bad competitively either.
With Roost and Cosmic Power, it's a pretty good choice for an RU team, and with 97 base speed it is one of the fastest in RU. It also has Stored Power, which increases base power by 20 for each of the user's positive stat boosts, making it fairly annoying to face.
Sigilyph's biggest flaw is the fact it's weak to Electric, Ghost, Dark, Ice & Rock types, which are all extremely common.

As for abilities, it has what is considered by many one of the best abilities of the game - Magic Guard, which prevents residual damage.
For EVs, it depends which set... On a defensive set, use mainly HP and Speed and on a Offensive set, use mainly Special Attack & Speed.

The 2 most commonly used sets in RU are these, credit to Smogon:

Defensive
Sigilyph @ Flame Orb
252 HP/16 Def/240 Spe
Nature: Timid
Ability: Magic Guard
Moveset: Cosmic Power, Roost, Psycho Shift, Stored Power

Offensive Life Orb
Sigilyph @ Life Orb
4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Nature: Timid
Ability: Magic Guard
Moveset: Psychic/Psyshock, Air Slash/Calm Mind, Roost, Hidden Power Fighting/Calm Mind

In the TCG: 
Card I am reviewing: Sigilyph - 41/98 - Emerging Powers

This Sigilyph card is, infact very decent for a basic Pokemon.
It has 2 attacks - Reflect, which requires 1 Psychic Energy and Telekenisis which requires 1 Psychic Energy and 2 Colorless Energies.

Reflect makes it so damage done to Sigilyph by attacks is reduced by 40 after applying weakness and resistance. In my opinion it's an extremely solid attack and will save it from going to the discard pile in many cases.
Telekenisis does 50 damage to one of the opponent's Pokemon, and the damage it does is not affected by weakness or resistance. This is another solid attack in my opinion, as many basic Pokemon can do a maximum of 10-30 damage, and it is not often that a non-rare basic Pokemon can do 50 damage.

Another thing I like about this card is that it has a cheap retreat cost of 1 Colorless Energy.

Link to card scan: http://pokebeach.com/scans/emerging-powers/41-sigilyph.jpg

Pokémon Review: Sawk

After yesterday's review of Throh, I thought it'd be nice to please Sawk fans so here we go...

Like Throh, Sawk is one of the best Pokémon in NU, and possibly even the best Band/Scarf user in the tier. With base 125 attack, it's bound to be pretty good and STAB Close Combat is a very nice plus.
Unlike Throh, Sawk actually has a decent base speed of 85, which is infact one of the fastest in NU, and Choice Scarf just makes it better.
The biggest downfall about Sawk is it's predictable movepool, but it's still a great Pokemon.

As for abilities, I'd recommend always going with Sturdy, which stops 1-hit KOs when at full HP (and also makes the OHKO moves fail, but their banned competitively so yeah). And as for EVs, I would focus mainly on Attack & Speed if I were you.

Almost all Sawk use this set, I myself have never used or seen one without it:

Choice
Sawk @ Choice Scarf/Choice Band
252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Sturdy
Moveset: Close Combat, Stone Edge, Earthquake, Toxic/Reversal

In the TCG:
Card I am reviewing: Sawk - 59/98 - Emerging Powers

The Sawk card from Emerging Powers is just like Throh, but Sawk has a chance of doing 100 damage if your extremely lucky.
It's only move is called 'Five Fierce Chops' and costs a Fighting Energy and a Colorless Energy. Basically, you flip 5 coins and the move does 20 damage to your opponent times the number of heads, possibly doing 100 damage - While it seems a lot, the chances of getting 100 are so low I really wouldn't bother with it.

What I like about the card is that it has a cheap retreat cost of 1 Colorless Energy.
The worst part is, you can't attack during your next turn which is bad, honestly neither are that good, but if you need to use one of them in your deck, I would probably go with Throh due to Sawk not being able to attack next turn.


Link to card scan: http://pokebeach.com/scans/emerging-powers/59-sawk.jpg

That's about it on Sawk, see you next review! :)

Pokémon Review: Throh

Throh is actually the bulkiest fighting-type in the game -- it's extremely good in NU and is even seen in higher tiers such as RU, UU and occasionly OU.
Base 100 attack is also very nice plus it has Bulk Up and Guts to make it even higher! Circle Throw is a nice attack, and Throh is one of the best Pokemon that can use the move... not just that, he even gets STAB bonus on it.
One of the biggest downfalls is it's low Speed, and since he only has 1 recovery move he tends to be KO'd fairly quick.
I think he deserves a little more use, as I'd like to see him in RU eventually but yeah.

As for EVs, I'd normally focus mainly on HP and Special Defense.
As for abilities, Throh has a solid ability in Guts, which increases attack by 50% when it has a status problem.

The most common NU moveset for Throh is a Chesto berry/Rest set, credit to Smogon as usual:
  
ChestoRest
Throh @ Chesto Berry
252 HP/4 Def/252 SpD
Nature: Careful
Ability: Guts
Moveset: Bulk Up, Circle Throw, Payback, Rest

And the most common RU set is:

Bulk Up
Throh @ Leftovers
252 HP/4 Def/252 SpD
Nature: Careful
Ability: Guts
Moveset: Bulk Up, Circle Throw, Payback/Stone Edge, Rest


In the TCG: 
Card I am reviewing: Throh - 58/98 - Emerging Powers

Honestly, this card isn't that good, and I can't say I recommend it.

It's only move is "Scarf Hold" which requires a Fighting Energy and a Colorless Energy, it does 30 damage and also lets you flip a coin, and stops the defending Pokemon from attacking next turn, which is why I like it better than Sawk.

It's an average basic Pokemon overall, it just sucks that it doesn't have an evolution. :/

Overall, I would definitely not recommend using this card in a deck.
Link to card scan: http://pokebeach.com/scans/emerging-powers/58-throh.jpg

Pokémon Review: Tornadus

It may be the worst of the 3 genies, but that doesn't stop it from being awesome!
Tornadus is unique in the fact it is pure flying type -- the first and only pure flying type.
It has STAB Hurricane, which is extremely usefull, especially for rain teams as it has 100% accuracy in the rain (and has 50% accuracy in the sun) -- it also has a 30% chance of confusing the opponent.
Another popular move for Tornadus is Acrobatics with Flying Gem, but this is seen more in VGC.
It also has a very nice ability in Prankster, giving +1 priority to non-attacking moves.
Tornadus is also let down by it's bad Defense & Special Defense stats, but don't let it's flaws put you off it!

As for EVs, I'd focus mainly on Special Attack & Speed when using a Hurricane set, but focus mainly on Attack & Speed when using an Acrobatics set.

Here are the 2 most common Tornadus sets, these are both Smogon sets:

Hurricane
Tornadus @ Life Orb/Choice Specs
4 Atk/252 SpA/252 Spe
Nature: Naive/Timid
Ability: Prankster
Moveset: Hurricane, Hammer Arm/Focus Blast, Rain Dance/Hidden Power Ice, Taunt/U-turn

Acrobatics
Tornadus @ Flying Gem
252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Prankster
Moveset: Acrobatics, Bulk Up, Brick Break, Taunt/Substitute

In the TCG:
Card I am reviewing: Tornadus - 89/98 & 98/98 - Emerging Powers

Even though Tornadus EX has been released in Dark Explorers now, Tornadus from Emerging Powers is still an extremely good card.
For only 3 basic energies, you can use Hurricane to do 80 damage to your opponent, but you have to move a basic energy from Tornadus to one of your benched Pokemon.
1 basic energy will also let you switch an energy from one of your benched Pokemon to Tornadus.

I also like how it has a cheap retreat cost of only 1 basic energy.

I don't really have anything else to say, but here are the links to the scans: http://pokebeach.com/scans/emerging-powers/89-tornadus.jpg & http://pokebeach.com/scans/emerging-powers/98-tornadus.jpg

Pokémon Review: Zweilous

Since the last review was Fraxure, I figured it'd be nice to review Zweilous, so here it is!

Zweilous is another of the very few NU dragon-types, and is also an extremely good Pokemon in the NU tier.
Like Fraxure, Zweilous works extremely well with Eviolite in my opinion but just because it's good doesn't mean it doesn't have bad points! - First off, it has a not-so-good 58 base stat in Speed & since the only ability it can have is Hustle, it's accuracy is very bad.
Another bad thing about it is it's movepool -- like many second of third evolution Pokemon, all it really has are Outrage, Crunch and a couple of other stuff.
But don't let the bad points put you off, it has more good points as I haven't explained it's ability yet!

So, Hustle is a very good, but also kinda bad ability -- It makes physical moves do 50% more damage (which is extremely good), but at the cost of only 20% accuracy which is pretty bad.
In-game, it also increases the encounter rate of Pokemon with high levels in the wild.

As for EVs, I normally give it HP, Atk & Spe.

So there are 2 main sets seen on Zweilous, here they are:

Tank
Zweilous @ Eviolite
236 HP/252 Atk/20 Spe
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Hustle
Moveset: Outrage, Crunch, Fire Fang, Substitute/Dragon Tail

Choice Scarf
Zweilous @ Choice Scarf
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Hustle
Moveset: Outrage, Crunch, Fire Fang, Return/Dragon Tail

In the TCG:
Card I am reviewing: Zweilous - 78/101 - Noble Victories

I would not recommend using Zweilous in a deck with no Hydreigon as the Zweilous card isn't amazing.
I would recommend evolving as soon as Deino is put in play (if possible) and then evolving into Hydreigon as soon as possible.

But if for any reason you can't evolve into Hydreigon, then I would try and have the 3 energies needed for Strength before you put it as the active Pokemon.
If you don't have the needed energies in time, then just use Double Hit and hope you get 40 damage.
Though if your opponent only has 20-40 HP, it's probably going to be ok to use Double Hit.

Link to card scan: http://pokebeach.com/scans/noble-victories/78-zweilous.jpg