COTD - 19th June 2011 - Wailord TM

Today's choice is a very large whale. On a more serious note, Wailord from Triumphant is my Card of the Day today and actually has some very nice stats.
First off we have its HP. This Pokemon is a Stage 1 and it has an absolutely huge 180HP. This is the largest HP on any Stage 1 Pokemon, apart from its EX counterpart from Sandstorm with 200! So this massive HP is a great start to make sure it can stand up to many Pokemon in the metagame so far, at least being able to take a hit or two before getting KO'd.
Wailord comes with 2 attacks, called 'Underwater Dive' and 'Swallow Up'. The first attack, Underwater Dive allows you to heal 30 damage from Wailord for each heads you get on two coin flips.
This is actually pretty nice for just a Double Colourless by being able to potentially heal off the damage you take from the opponent seeing as they will have a tough time taking it down in one hit if they aren't a Lightning type.
Swallow Up takes you 3 Water energy and a Colourless to do 50 damage. This sounds really bad, but read the small print first. If the defending Pokemon has fewer remaining HP than Wailord than the attack does 50 plus 50 more, making a total of 100 damage. This is where Wailord's obscene HP comes into play. With no damage on Wailord, you are guaranteed to have more HP than the opponent, giving you guaranteed 100 damage. However, this attack does cost a total of 4 energy and there is a way to get this all on in one turn.
As mentioned in the Lanturn Prime COTD, Feraligatr Prime has a very nice Poke Power called 'Rain Dance' which allows you to attach as many energy as you like to your Water Pokemon in play. Pairing this Pokemon with Wailord can serve for a very nice deck concept. Seeing as you can deal with the energy cost in one turn with Feraligatr Prime, you can attack and heal with Wailord making for a tough one to take down.
The biggest issue with Wailord is its Lightning Weakness. Pokemon set to be popular this format include Zekrom and Magnezone and both will be able to deal with Wailord, no problem even with its massive HP.
Overall, this card has always been a very interesting one that people would love to get to work, but in this new format, Lightning is just too popular of a type for it to survive. Sadly, I'm going to have to give Wailord just a 5/10. Nice artwork, great Pokemon and interesting attacks, but unfortunately won't be able to make it here.

Thanks for reading! What do you think about Wailord?

Dan