COTD – 24th July 2011 – Ninetales HS/CL

My Card of the Day for today is Ninetales, originally from the HeartGold SoulSilver Base Set, but then reprinted in Call of Legends.

Ninetales is a Stage 1, Fire type with a nice 90HP, a single attack and a lone Poke Power. The single retreat cost is nice and being Stage 1 greatly boosts its speed. So why should we use this in our decks? Well the answer is in the Poke Power.

‘Roast Reveal’ is a simple, yet powerful Poke Power since it gives us a very nice form of draw power in a format that really is lacking it. This power allows you to discard a Fire energy from your hand and then draw 3 cards, simple right? What makes this power even better is that you can top up hands you’ve just refreshed with PONT or Professor Juniper, allowing you to draw a great amount of cards in a single turn.

This Poke Power guaranteed Ninetales a slot in the few Fire-based decks from last format with its extra draw power on top of the ever popular and greatly missed, Uxie. In the present Ninetales has taken up an even greater role in Fire-based decks as the sole engine that drives the deck into its highest gear to get those KOs coming thick and fast.

The main deck that Ninetales is included in at the moment is Reshiram/Typhlosion. I have a section on this deck in PokeClass Extra, so make sure you check that out if you’re looking for more detail about the deck, but Ninetales is the key part of the deck that keeps it as consistent as it can be to battle it out with the top contenders. Being able to discard that energy with Roast Reveal and then re-attach it with Typhlosion Prime’s ‘Afterburner’ means that you are drawing cards as well as attaching energy, with your normal energy allowance still to use. This is a great little engine when it gets set up and makes for a force to reckon with when playing against it.

Overall, Ninetales makes for a great draw engine in any Fire-based decks, so I’m going to give it a very nice 7.5/10. If you could use ANY energy to draw cards, then it would definitely be a 10/10, but then of course it would be terribly good, so the Fire restriction puts it into check.

Thanks for reading this COTD, make sure you comment below what you think and check out PokeClass Extra before you go!