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Episode 2: Dialga (Call of Legends, 3/95)
What on Earth were they thinking when they created this card!? Was my first response the very first time I saw Dialga from Call of Legends while I was reading Pokegym’s card scans. I thought to myself: did they forget to add some other effect for Time Rewind, or did they run out of ink on their printers just before the card hit store shelves? I really thought Dialga was one big mistake. Then, I sadly learned that this card was no typo—it just sucks, plain and simple! After attaching four Metal Energy cards, you are rewarded with the worst effect in Pokemon trading card game (TCG) history by shuffling your hand into your deck! If I were a betting man, it is safe to say that this card will never win Worlds in our lifetime.
Folks, let’s DRASTICALLY fix this guy up: let’s make Dialga a contender in our format!
Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the fact that Call of Legends is more of a collector set rather than a deck building and meta-game changing card collection. Yes, there are several reliable cards in Call of Legends, and the improved artwork on some reprints of cards look fantastic. However, Call of Legends will; in fact, be a set aimed more towards people looking to trade rare and obscure cards for other valuable cards, or have an entire deck filled with holographic Energy cards. Nonetheless, and myself being more in favor of cards that are actually playable, I disapprove of the Pokemon Company ever using this idea ever again: I believe that every new Pokemon TCG set should and always be created towards introducing new strategies, and meta-game changing cards to prevent a static format from ever happening again.
To begin with, I am going to boost Dialga’s HP to (130). I want to make Dialga into the big, bag legendary Pokemon that he actually is because his original wimpy HP of (100) does not do anything for him. More importantly, I want to make Dialga into the One Pokemon Army who can survive on his own with very little help from other cards. Dialga will be a very efficient Pokemon by himself; however, the added benefit to protecting Dialga with various Item cards or Special Energy encourages players to use more than needed Items or Energy for their Dialga just to prevent knock out. Furthermore, most legendary Pokemon have (130) HP, and rightful so. Dialga should not be an excluded.
Next, I am going to do justice for Dialga’s terrible attack, Time Rewind. Time Rewind will now do (80) damage, cost only (2) Metal Energy, and require a coin flip to shuffle your hand into your deck. By doing this, Dialga is a top tier Metal Pokemon card who can be played in conjunction with other Metal Pokemon, other draw Pokemon and/or Supporter cards, or as stand alone deck centered on a turn-two (80) hitter. The decision to still include the horrible effect of losing your entire hand helps balance Dialga because he can now hit for (80) damage very early in the game. As a result of these changes, I believe the top play style for Dialga would be Dialga as a turn-two hitter, therefore, the incentive to stack Special Metal Energy to protect the active Diagla would be increased and the chances of attacking quickly with a second benched Dialga would be decreased because of the decision to allocate more Energy to the active Dialga, thus using up the Energy attachment for the turn.
Dialga’s weakness and resistance will remain the same; though, Dialga’s retreat will be decrease to (2). Dialga’s weakness and resistance are fairly applied to a Pokemon who has the disadvantage against Fire decks and the advantage over Psychic types, so naturally I could not find any faults with this because it relates to the world of Pokemon accordingly. On the other hand, I felt that Dialga’s original retreat cost of (3) would make him awfully clunky, for that reason, I reduced the retreat cost to (2) allowing Dialga easy access to retreat when necessary.
Looking toward the future, and keeping the idea in mind that Dialga has the ability to warp time by either speeding it up, slowing it down, or stopping it altogether, I believe Dialgia will work extremely well with Victini, the (60) HP basic Fire Pokemon from the upcoming set, Noble Victories. Victini has a helpful Ability referred to as: Victory Star. Victory Star states, “You can use this when your Pokemon flip coins as part of an attack. Ignore all results of those coin flips and reflip from the beginning. You can’t use Victory Star more than 1 time during your turn even if you have multiple Victini in play”. This little guy would truly bring victory to you, the Pokemon trainer, because you now have the potential to avoid losing your entire hand using Dialga’s attack, Time Rewind, granted your coin flip is not in your favor.
Adjusting Dialga’s HP to (130) makes Dialga a much more versatile Pokemon card. Increasing Dialga’s damage output to (80), decreasing his Energy requirements to (2) Metal Energy, and adding a coin flip for Time Rewind will make more Pokemon players think likely of building a deck with Dialga. And the future possibilities Victini offers from the forthcoming set, Noble Victories, benefits our legendary friend later this tournament year. If these changes were applied, surely Dialga would see some more play in the 2011-2012 Pokemon tournament season.
Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more episodes of The Pokemon Card Garage!
--Frankie Durso--
