Name:
Espeon
Color:
Psychic
Type:
Stage 1 (evolves from Eevee)
HP:
80
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(P) Confuse Ray [20]
Flip a coin. If heads, the
Defending Pokémon is now Confused.
Attack#2:
(CCC) Energy Crush [20+]
Does 20 damage plus 10 more
damage for each Energy attached to all your opponent’s
Pokémon.
Attributes
Still trying to find what formats
fits best for my reviews. I use attributes to define anything
that is more or less “static” on the card: in this case,
anything listed in the brief text spoiler other than attacks or
Pokémon Powers. Everything clear? Then let us begin.
Espeon, as you should know if you
read the beginning of this review or just the card itself, is a
Stage 1 Psychic Pokémon that evolves from Eevee. Since Eevee
was the first Pokémon with “branched” evolutions (it could
evolve into 3 different Stage 1 Pokémon originally; now 5), its
evolved forms are collectively known as “Eeveelutions”. Like
so many card aspects, this can be both a help and a hindrance to
the card. Not only is this Espeon vying for deck space against
other Espeons and other Stage 1 Psychics, but also against every
Flareon, Jolteon, Umbreon, Vaporeon and any Dark/Light
counterparts they may be playing. X_X The upside to all of that
is most decks that use an Eeveelution also use multiple energy
types including some Rainbow or Multi Energy, so you could add
Espeon to such decks easily. Similarly, for the formats where
many Psychic Pokémon, particularly Stage 1 Psychic Pokémon are
used, Espeon may be able to share their “niche” with
them. More importantly, Psychic types are seeing an increase in
use, so that means there are probably several decks that could
make use of this Espeon. I will come back to this late in the
review, since we have not evaluated what Espeon can do yet in
terms of itself, so comparing it to other Pokémon is a tad
premature.
Since Espeon evolves from Eevee,
let’s evaluate them. There are currently X Eevee’s: Jungle,
Team Rocket, Blackstar Promo, Neo Discovery, Aquapolis,
Skyridge, and Sandstorm. All Eevee have Fighting Weakness and a
Retreat of once, except for the Blackstar Promo, which has a
free retreat. All but the Team Rocket Set’s and Blackstar Promo
#11 have 50 HP, but they have only 40 and 30 HP, respectively.
The Jungle, Team Rocket, Neo Discovery, and Blackstar Promo
Eevees have Psychic Resistance, which the newer ones lack.
Since I am low on time, I’ll some up what your best choices to
use are: Neo Discovery/Blackstar Eevee (tie), and Sandstorm.
When you attach an Energy card to it, Neo Discovery let’s use
search for an “Eeveelution” that matches that type, but only if
you get heads on a coin toss. Problem is, no matter what color
energy you attach, you still have to use the power, even if no
Eeveelution exists for it. This can be awkward at times. The
Blackstar version let’s you search out your deck for an
Eeveelution if any Pokémon in play evolves, and evolve Eevee
into it. Originally, a combination of the two would be used in
a deck for a lot of quick evolution. That was before the
rules change on absolutely no first turn evolution. As such,
one is probably better off playing all Blackstar Promo versions,
and using a Rare Candy to evolve one and let the power evolve
the rest. Just remember that it’s the version with the lowest
HP, so try to get them al into play at once when you can evolve
one. Next up would be the Sandstorm version, which has an
attack that for (C) will let you search your deck for 3
Eeveelutions and put them in your hand. The others tend to have
attacks that are may be useful, but not as useful as the
Power/Attacks of those three.
Espeon’s HP is a fairly solid 80.
This is high enough that (barring weakness), Espeon will likely
be able to take at least one hit from most evolutions, as few
straight (no flips, discards, or other restrictions) attacks can
do more than 60, fewer yet can do 70 flat, and I don’t recall
any that hit for a base 80 that don’t involve some sort of
restriction or enhanced cost. Psychic Weakness is about as bad
as most Weaknesses-there are some major decks that use Psychic
Pokémon, and most strong basics and at least average evolutions
will be able to OHKO you due to your weakness. Fortunately,
most basic Psychic Pokémon that need to evolve won’t be able to
do that much damage. ;) As usual, Psychic Pokémon get stiffed on
a Resistance, though this is probably a balance issue: Psychics
are Resistant to Fighting in the GB games, and to other
Psychics. Fighting Pokémon have fluctuated wildly in power
before, and giving Psychics resistance to them probably would
stabilize them… as being really, really bad. ;p Psychics have
always been weak to Psychics in the TCG, so changing that now
would be a huge upset in the game balance. Last let’s address
the retreat cost of one. This is second only to a free retreat
in Pokémon, and is quite affordable, particularly in a format
with Recycle Energy. This will allow you to save your Switches
and the like for more dire circumstances.
Abilities
Espeons first attack is nice. For
(P), you would normally do 10 damage and get the flip at
Confusion, but we get an extra 10 damage-a value of (C). Some
would argue that Confusion needs to be automatic now… in which
case just think of getting 5 bonus damage and a free flip at
Confusion. ;) Single Energy attacks are more important on
evolutions are more important now that Rare Candy allows them to
evolve in one turn. With it, it almost makes Espeon seem like a
basic… almost. Espeon’s second attack is the real deal though:
(CCC) should give you 30, but for merely losing 10 damage (and
probably being an evolution) you get plus 10 for each energy on
all of your opponents’ Pokémon. This means about 95% of the
time, you can hit with it for at least 30, and probably half the
time you’ll do a good 40-60. Considering you can power the
attack with any Energy but Miracle Energy to pay for it. More
importantly, you can fuel it with a Recycle and a Double
Colorless Energy, or really surprise an opponent by Rare
Candying a fresh Eevee and slapping down a Boost Energy to
Energy Crush right away! In formats with a lot of energy, it’s
a devastating move.
Comparisons
So, how does this compare with the
other Espeons? There are 2 in Neo Discovery, another in
Aquapolis, and a Dark Espeon in Neo Destiny. The Holo-version
in Neo Discovery only has one thing on the Sandstorm version: a
free retreat. Other than that, they have the same attributes.
Sandstorm seems to be a turbo-charged version of Neo
Discovery’s: it does a flat 20 for (CC), and for (PPC), it does
30 damage to the Defending Pokémon, plus 10 damage for each
Energy attached to it alone. So Sandstorms wins paws down. The
non-Holo version is more or less a joke-its best attack is
Psybeam for (PPC) doing just 30 with a 50% chance of Confusing
them. =/ Oh, and it has 10 less HP.. X_X Yeah. So, next let’s
look at the Aquapolis version: though its attack is overall
weaker, but it has a really strategic but strong Poké-POWER that
lets it return an Energy in play to your hand. This sounds a
bit lame, until you start abusing Warp and Potion Energy, or
just need to move energies around on Eeveelutions. It has the
same attributes as the Neo Discovery version. I saved the best
for last though: Dark Espeon has an attack that is sort of the
flip side of Energy Crush: Psysplash does 10 damage to each of
your opponents’ Pokémon for each energy card attached to that
Pokémon, and ignores weakness and resistance, and for only (PCC).
Its downfall is that its got a pitiful 60 HP, though it does
have a free retreat and Rocket’s hideout would make it 80… Long
story short, this may be the best Espeon available, and that is
saying a lot (only the non-holo Neo Discovery version was bad).
Adding to that is that this one’s potent attack is (CCC), so it
can slip into any deck with an Eevee already in it, or any deck
looking for a solid Stage 1 line. Oh, and no, I am not going to
go over every other Eeveelution; I don’t have time for it, and
given what we have already discussed, it would be somewhat
pointless.
Uses/Combinations
Well, as just implied, it goes
great in any deck with Eevee and its Eeveelutions and is a
wonderful Stage 1 Psychic line (and Stage 1 line in general).
It is not unlike a toned down Gardevoir ex: lacking a
counter placement attack and only counting the opponents
energy. Still, it’s rare for someone to go light on energy for
all their Pokémon combined, even in Unlimited: Sneasel may only
need 2 energies, but most people want at least one back up
ready, and Cleffa usually still has one from beginning play. So
it can still hit pretty hard. It can also go well with its
Aquapolis brethren: bouncing useful effect energy off it. One
might want to go light on Energy removal with it, and of course,
Rare Candy makes it almost act like a basic (yeah, I
already said it, but it is important). Thee are few other uses
I can think of… but this is a powerful Pokémon and as such, it
really doesn’t need a lot of fancy combos.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3/5-It could be viable if you pair it with Slowking and maybe an
Aquapolis Espeon to bounce a Potion Energy off of it repeatedly
to give it more longevity.
Modified:
3.5/5-Strong card, but there are
stronger Pokémon, and they are both Psychic Weak Psychics. The
downside, they will almost always OHKO you. The upside, you
have a good shot at OHKOing them. This is a must have for
Eeveelution decks for this reason. If those two were gone, this
could be the top dog… er… cat? o_O
TMP:
???/5-Until I find out if Nintendo is going to resurrect this, I
don’t want to comment on it.
2-on-2:
3.5/5-Basically the same as before, but I do caution that I have
little experience in this format. I can’t see it being more or
less useful with more than one Pokémon active…
Draft:
4/5-If you can get it, it’s a killer. Confusion from its first
attack, and big damage from the second, at least versus any
serious attackers. Eevee’s first attack from Sandstorm makes it
easier to evolve, and that is a big plus. Being an Eeveelution
makes it more likely you’ll that you’ll get at least one
Stage 1 that evolves from it. Finally, it only needs one real
Psychic Energy for its first attack, and any energy for its
second attack. Overall, a strong contender.
-Otaku
