COTD – 28th August 2011 – Reuniclus BW

One of my favourite Pokemon from the Black and White era is up next on Card of the Day and it’s Reuniclus from the Black and White card set.

At first glance we have a Stage 2 Psychic Pokemon with a seemingly awful 90HP, one Ability and a single attack. So the HP is what instantly stands out at you as being bad. Having just 90HP puts it in an easy OHKO range from a lot of Pokemon in the format and the pre-evolutions only bear 30 and 60HP respectively, making them prime targets for Catcher + (insert Pokemon here) = KO.

However, this Pokemon did feature in a deck that came 2nd at Worlds this year so it really can’t be that bad, but let’s have a look at what its main feature is first.

Reuniclus’ Ability is called ‘Damage Swap’ and simply allows you to move any damage on any of your Pokemon to another of your Pokemon as much as you like during your turn. This may not sound like much in a OHKO kind of format we are in at the moment, but pairing with the likes of Vileplume and Zekrom as Ross Cawthon did at Worlds made sure that no KOs were taken. By using this very unique ability, Ross was able to move around the damage onto big HP Pokemon such as Zekrom and keep the opponent from taking KOs while he could attack for massive damage with ‘Outrage’. The inclusion of Vileplume meant that no PlusPower was used to topple 130HP Zekrom and cards like Rare Candy, Pokemon Communication and Reversal were blocked as well making for quite the lock.

So the Ability is good, but that’s pretty much where it stops for Reuniclus having another use in the format since its attack really isn’t anything special. ‘Psywave’ for 3 Psychic Energy does 30 damage, which is appalling to be honest and the small print only reads that it does 10 extra damage for each energy attached to the defending Pokemon. This attack is just plain bad. If there were some kind of Double Colourless compatibility in here then it might be okay against a very limited list of Pokemon, but it has three Psychic which will take you 3 turns to set up for the same amount of damage Tyrogue does for 0 energy. I don’t see any use for this attack at all in competitive play, so it’s a good job that the ability has a ton of use.

Overall, this Pokemon was very overlooked until Worlds and now has proved to be quite the asset to many unheard of decks right now. There’s a ton of creativity you can get out of using this Pokemon, but it can only really be paired with trainer lock since it just has too little HP to be available for a ‘Catching’. I’m going to give this Pokemon a nice 7/10. It’s attack is appalling, but the Ability saves the day with this one since it could prove to be the center one of the newest archetypes in the game.

Artwork: I’m going to be honest, this Pokemon is going to get some bias because it’s one of my favourites, but the artwork is pretty cool especially in holo. This Pokemon is actually very clever if you’re into your science since it is based on a human being and the way that they develop during development in the womb. This may sound a little bit gross, but we all knew it looked a little fetal anyway. This just shows how a simply Pokemon design can actually be born from a very complex piece of science which most of us players never really know about.

The way Reuniclus is depicted in this card is great. It looks incredibly happy to be spurting out some psychic waves at the opponent while stopping them from taking KOs. The holographic does make the card look a lot better and plays along with the Psychic-esque vibe about it in terms of colours and wierdness. I’m going to give it a very nice 7/10 (bias not included). It’s an incredibly clever Pokemon if you know the origins of its design, but if not, it’s a pretty cool looking card anyway.

Thanks for reading today’s card of the day and make sure you’ve watched this week’s episode of PokeClass!