Raticate (PA-29/99)
Hello and welcome to my second card rating, I guess I'm going to write one each day. This time I'm talking about Raticate from the new set Platinum: Arceus. Like yesterday it's the number 29 of the set. I think Raticate has a big potential to find his way as a tech in many decks since it only needs colorless energy to attack. Also he's a colorless type, so you can abuse Flygon's, Garchomp's and Salamence's weakness to dish out some extra damage. Pretty usefull since Flygon is already pretty popular and Salamence will be for sure. Raticate is a stage 1, so it doesn't need much space in your deck and you won't have much throuble with getting it out. Sadly it has only 70HP so it's like breakfast for almost every Pokémon in the current metagame, Luxray GL Lv.X, Absol G Lv.X or Blaziken FB Lv.X and many others all hit for 60-80 damage for two energies (Or one with Energy Gain) and can use Crobat G to finish the job. So be sure that Raticate is only a tech and not your main hitter, excluding in 'Raticate Toybox', I like to call it. His free retreat is great so you can just retreat him after his job is done. Both attacks are charged up with just one energy, that's really amazing. It'd be even more if Raticate could abuse Energy Gain. His first attack 'Recruit' let you look at your opponent's hand and copy one supporter card you find there, can be usefull in early game situations when they search Supporter cards with Cyrus' Conspiracy so you can simply copy them to get some more cards in your hand. Now we come to his second attack, the main point why I think Raticate is so good, it's called Extend Fang and does 20 damage. Not that good, huh? Well you'll gain an extra 40 damage if Raticate has a Pokémon-Tool card attached to it. Nothing's easier than that, you can simply search your deck for an Unown G and attach it, but if you want it really tight go for Expert Belt for another damage boost. Now you'll do 80 damage for one energy, pretty similar to Scizor from yesterday. Paired with Raticate's colorless type you can score a high damage on Flygon and Salamence up to a one hit knock out if you have Lucario GL or Lake Boundary. For a tech that comes out in one turn, it's pretty good..I guess. Raticate has a +20 fighting weakness, nothing too bad since with his low HP it'll gain a OHKO either. Another weak point about him may be his pre evolution, Rattata only has 30HP, you may know that problem if you're a Gyarados player. So be sure to have some Call Energies to prevent getting donked. Being able to deal out a high damage for low energy and OHKO'ing two of the most popular decks is great so I'll give Raticate 7,5 out of 10 points, since it's easy KO'able and if you attach Expert Belt to him (Which you need to score OHKO'es) your opponent will get two prizes just for killing a Raticate. Again, please comment and post your own opinion about Raticate. Thanks for reading!
