Today, I’ll be taking a look at the amazing… Altaria PL (This is what I get for having a Request Thread, I get to review Altaria PL). Altaria PL is a Stage 1 Pokémon with a nice Colorless typing, but evolves from the less than lackluster Swablu. It has a nasty +20 Lightning Weakness, a handy -20 Fighting Resistance and an average Retreat Cost of C.
Altaria comes with three attacks, so hopefully we’re provided with a nice variety of useful attacks. Are we? No. “Midnight Eyes”, for the low cost of C, does a pitiful 20 damage and makes the defending Pokémon fall Asleep. Unfortunately, with Warp Energy, Poké Turn and Super Scoop Up in the format, the already weak Special Condition Asleep is near useless. The only person who is likely to stay Asleep is me.
Its second attack, “Perish Song”, for the nice cost of CC (Double Colorless, anyone?), translates to “If you used Midnight Eyes on the defending Pokémon and it’s still asleep, it is Knocked Out.” I cannot begin to tell you how bad this attack is.
First of all, it relies on hitting the defending Pokémon, the same one that you hit “Midnight Eyes” with last turn. In a format filled with free retreat-cost attackers and Pokémon SP, switching out your active Pokémon is very easy. In addition, the Pokémon must stay asleep for two turns, meaning that, even if your opponent cannot switch out their active Pokémon, there’s only a 25% chance you can get a KO.
pokemon-paradijs.comAltaria’s final attack, “Healing Song,” is easily the best of all its attacks. Unfortunately, that isn’t saying much. For the cheap cost of CC, “Healing Song” does 40 damage and removes one damage counter from each of your Pokémon. Now, if we were back in 1999, I’d say that Altaria is definitely a usable card. However, it is 2010 (almost 2011), so these low damage, crappy effect attacks won’t cut it.
Altaria is a terrible, terrible card that, unless if some super slow, Fighting type deck with very low damage output that puts one damage counter on each of your Pokémon, this card should never be considered.
My Recommendation: I cannot even pretend that there’s a use for this card. The only thing it CAN do right is to 1HKO Garchomp C for a Double Colorless Energy, which isn’t nearly enough to see play.
My Rating 1.5/5
You do realize you don’t have to write an article that everyone suggests right? I think it’s much better to see Card of the Day consisting of cards that are playable in this format rather than being flooded with unplayable horrible cards…..
The same rating as Infernape? One of those is a little harsh or one of them is a little too nice.
The same rating as Infernape? One of those is a little harsh or one of them is a little too nice.
Is it really a major issue if a card rating .5 off? You still get the gist that these cards shouldn’t be used.
Then why even bother reviewing them? Just send the person a message in the review thread saying “this card shouldn’t be used.
C’mon, poor Altaria. You can make the defending pokemon fall asleep by other ways (darkrai MD, hypno HGSS), so even if the defending pokmemon woke up from midnight eyes, perish song will hit if it’s asleep.
So the 25% chance is not really a problem.
It’s horrible anyways, but when doing a review you should think out of the box.
I like your CofDs BUT they are starting to sound very same-y. No Offence. Come on, Altaria isnt THAT bad.
(Sound familar?)
I actually ran this deck for over a year. It went 3-2 at a state tournament. The strategy was to lock them with Araidos MT so they couldnt retreat and use Darkrai MD to put them to sleep. It was pretty good and consistent. My only problems were Cursegar because of resistance and it could hide on the bench. Other than that it was pretty good.
Ya know, this thing isn’t a terrible Donphan counter. Hit it with midnight eyes, take a hit (fighting resistance), if they woke up. If they didn’t, Perish Song for KO. Or, drop Darkrai to put em back to sleep, Seeker helps this. Perish song for KO.
Hey, it’s not that bad. The Defending Pokemon doesn’t need to stay asleep for two turns right? Just drop Darkrai MD, and it’s Asleep again.
You should really think about the cards a little before you write these. I have a simple formula for making Dakota’s CotD…look at Weakness, and say it’s bad if it’s L, W, P, C. Look at Resistance, call it “handy” if there is one. Look at retreat cost, NICE if it’s 0, average if 1, terrible if >1. Now attacks: if more than two energies say it is expensive. If a DCE can be used say so. If attack does less than 30 it’s pitiful. If it does between 30 and 60 it’s “vanilla.” And if it does more than 60 there’s probably still something to complain about.
Finally, unless the card’s name is Magnezone Prime, rant about how unplayable it is and give it a rating of either 1.5 or 2.5/5.
Sounds familiar?
haha.. no, “Vanilla” refers to it having no effect other than damage. See Baby Mario.
vileplume la