COTD – 13th September 2011 – Sigilyph EP

Hey everyone, and welcome to today’s Card Of The Day. Today, we’ll be looking at card that has recieved a fair amount of hype over the past few weeks and that is Sigilyph from our latest set, Emerging Powers.
So let’s take a look at its overall stats.

Sigilyph is a basic Pokémon with 90HP and a type of Psychic. It has a x2 Weakness to Lightning, a -20 Resistance to Fighting and a 1 Retreat Cost. Sigilyph has 2 attacks at it’s disposal. Both are which can be pretty effective, but we’ll cover that later.

So obviously being a Basic Pokémon, Sigilyph can easily be searched out
with a staple search card, Pokémon Collector (HGSS #97) and can be slapped down onto your bench from your hand. The 90HP is also a very nice amount of HP to have. Sigilyph doesn’t have any evolutions so it’s natural its HP will be a bit higher from other evolving Pokémon. This gives it some durability already being a basic with 90HP and will definitely last 2 turns unless it’s hit for weakness. If you open with this at the start of a game, you’ll be safe from almost anything, apart from a Turn 1 fully charged Zekrom. Even Donphan and Yanmega can’t one-hit-KO Sigilyph without any other resources such as Ruins of Alph (to negate Sigilyph’s Fighting resistance) and PlusPower. So you’re pretty much safe for the first few turns of the game with this guy active and you won’t need to worry about Stage 1s attacking you early, so he buys you a bit of time to set up. Sigiyyph’s type is not too bad. While Psychic doesn’t hit for weakness on most of the cards in the format, Sigilyph’s attack doesn’t hit for Weakness anyway, but like I said earlier, we’ll get to the attacks in a while.
So the weakness is not too bad. Zekrom is the only thing that comes to mind that KOs things fast and Lanturn is a bit too slow to KO this as fast as you’d want. The 1 retreat isn’t that bad because, as we’ll find out later, Sigilyph won’t really be retreating.

Now for its attacks. The first, Reflect, is the main reason this card is getting hype. For just 1 Psychic Energy, you prevent 40 damage done to Sigilyph after applying Weakness and Resistance. Yep. -40. For one Energy. When you use this, Donphan’s Earthquake doesn’t even touch you. And Yanmega will just hit your for 30, making it a terrible 3-shot KO on Sigiylyph. But this card doesn’t automatically shut Donphan and Yanmega down. We have to remember that Pokemon Catcher, a game changing card released in Emerging Powers, will allow Donphan to take cheaper prizes around Sigilyph and Yanmega can snipe too with Linear Attack. If Sigilyph was really getting annoying to the Yanmega player, they could Catcher up something with a higher Reatreat Cost early in the game and snipe the Sigilyph when it’s on the bench. With Kingdra’s Spray Splash, it’s a clean 2-shot and Yanmega could snipe some easier prizes while setting up Kingdra to 2-shot Sigilyph. But bear in mind Stage 1s won’t always have that Catcher in hand to take cheaper prizes. By walling out a lot of damage and 100% of Donphan’s Earthquake, Sigilyph is a great card to stall with. He can get you some turns to set some stuff up on the bench. But as said earlier, watch out for Catcher.

His second attack, Telekinesis does a 50 snipe for a Psychic and a Double Colourless and Weakness and Resistance isn’t applied. Now that’s not too bad but you have to consider that there are faster and better sniping/attacking options out there especially with the release of Catcher and it’s very unlikely you will invest a DCE into this Pokemon to snipe 50. Unless it is game changing or will win you the game, you won’t be seeing it used much. It is a nice figure however. 50 damage automatically KOs Yanma and Magnemite and I highly suggest sniping as many Magnemite’s as possible when you get the opportunity to. It can really slow your opponent down and you can set up much quicker and safer through the use of Reflect.

So how does this card fare against other popular ones in the format? Well, we know Sigilyph will laugh at any Donphan that attempts to EQ because it won’t do a thing. He can wall a good amount of damage from Yanmega but get’s 1 shot by the rest of the cards out there. Reshiram doesn’t care if Sigilyph Reflects or not. A PlusPower a turn and Sigilyph will learn. Magnezone does also one-shot it easily by Lost Burning 1 or 2 Energy but we have to remember that where Sigilyph really shines is in its ability to prevent any cheap prizes taken by the ever so popular Stage 1 Pokémon. It doesn’t have much of a function late game. Maybe to snipe something off the bench but you’ll probably rather Catcher that something up and KO it with your main attacker.

For competitive play, I give Sigilyph a 8/10. It’s a very nice Donphan staller and can take a lot of damage with Reflect. The 50 snipe comes as a little bonus. It has a good amount of HP and Psychic isn’t a bad type to be in the format right now.
As for the artwork, I give Sigilyph a 9/10. Sigilyph itself it so vibrant and it makes it gives it such a nice appearance. The purple background has a nice tone to it and the gust Sigilyph is whipping up looks pretty cool if you ask me.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this COTD (this is my first ever Pokémon TCG article) and big thanks to PokemanDan too for holding this little contest and allowing some unknown players become known.

Remember to subscribe to him at http://www.youtube.com/PokemanDanLv45 and check my channel out at http://www.youtube.com/xNintendan95x

Once again, thanks for reading and have a good day.

Please vote for how you think this card sits in competitive play below with the rating system