CARD REVIEW 09/19/11 - Light Arcanine (NEO DESTINY 12/105)

ARTWORK:
Let me start off by saying that Light Arcanine's artwork is one of my favourites in the TCG. It displays a gentle grace that you would have come to expect from both Arcanine and the Light series of Pokemon. The stylistic roses in the background, hidden behind the holofoil are very subtle, but prominent.

STATS:
Light Arcanine follows the path set for Light Pokemon, with its seemingly less harmful attacks. Its Pokemon Power, Drive Off, is literally the more aggressive of the two techniques this card can use, as it allows you to force your opponent to switch the Defending Pokemon with one of their Benched Pokemon. Gentle Flames, requiring 2 Fire and 1 Colorless Energy, is as intimidating as it sounds. Base 50 damage, but Baby Pokemon only take 10 damage from this attack, and Basic Pokemon take 30. This attack is best used on your opponent's Stage 1's and 2's, in order to utilize full power.

A Water weakness is standard for Fire Pokemon. Light Arcanine has no resistance, and costs 2 Energies to retreat. I think that with Light Pokemon, being the cute and cuddly forms that they are, should probably have defaulted to 1 Energy to retreat, but since Arcanine is a large Pokemon, they felt that the retreat cost should be "proportional," for lack of a better term.

PLAYABILITY:
Light Arcanine would be neutral against decks that run a lot of Stage 1's and 2's, but its real skill comes in its Pokemon Power. Drive Off is great for forcing your opponent to pull out those lower level Pokemon, and even though Gentle Flames would only do 30 to a basic, your opponent would have to pay the R/C for their new Basic which now has 30 damage on it, or you may have even knocked it out by weakness.

And though it is very rare to see decks like this, a deck running a lot of Basic's could potentially fend it off, although I don't believe Pokemon in the old days had Fire resistances. So if you could keep cycling your Pokemon quickly, play a lot of Potions and such, you could stack Energies to a Stage 1 or 2, and get a quick hit on Light Arcanine.

OVERALL:
Light Arcanine is a very good card, and I believe I would run at least 2 in a Light deck, if I played back in the Neo format. Great artwork, very playable effects. The only drawback is the effect of Gentle Flames, and that could be negated by playing a Plus Power.

8.5/10