Name:
Entei ex
Set/Card#:
Team Magma Vs Team Aqua, #91/95
Type:
Fire
Stage:
Basic
HP:
100
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC
Attack#1:
(R) Searing Flame [10]
Flip a
coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now
Burned.
Attack#2:
(RRC) Bright Flame [90]
Discard
2 Energy attached to Entei ex.
Attributes:
The only Entei ex, though there are four “plain” Entei.
Being a Basic Pokémon is the best: it needs no other cards
to get it into play. Being a Fire Pokémon is also great-I
believe only the Holographic-Salamence and one version of
each of it’s lower Stages are Resistance to Fire Pokémon.
It has 100 HP, which would be great for a Basic… except this
is a Pokémon ex. As such, it is just passable-it will take
a big hitter outside of its Weakness to OHKO it, but those
are usually what the top decks do. Speaking of Weakness,
big surprise, it is Weak to Water. Using one of Fire’s
other Weaknesses (from the GBA games) would have been
interesting, but not necessarily better. Moving on, we see
no Resistance, a common occurrence amongst Fire Pokémon, but
disappointing nonetheless. Finally it has a retreat of two,
which is average, though not so great for this Pokémon as I
will explain soon.
Abilities:
Searing Flame seems fair at first-10 damage with a 50%
chance of inflicting a Special Condition… but then you see
that it is for Burned, which is on par with Sleep in terms
of Energy-pricing (it needs to be automatic for .5(C), as
most of the time an opponent can Switch/Retreat out of if
after a turn, so it really has only a 50% chance of placing
2 damage counters). Add in that this is a Pokémon ex and it
goes from bleh to bad. The
second attack is a little better. Bright flame costs (RRC),
which yields 40 damage. It also
has a discard of (CC), which yields another 30 (each (C) is
10, plus 10 bonus for discarding two
Energy). So that’s 70 which
means a 20 damage bonus. Good, but not great.
Uses/Combinations:
I think it might be good for Fire for “SceptiTecH”
or whatever you want to call Energy Trans Centered Potpourri
decks-since the discard is any color,
two Rainbow Energy could remain on the card, and
discarding Grass Energy would take care of the rest. When
injured, just move the Energy off and Pokémon Nurse it. It
also might replace other Fire TecH as well-Rainbow Energy is
in most decks, so again, powering it is just slow, but
otherwise simple. Still, those aren’t exactly spots that
are in high demand. It would be a step down for Firestarter
based decks-Blaziken and Ninetales each do more damage, and
are thus usually worth the hassle.
Ratings
Unlimited:
2/5-This is probably on the high side, but with Chaos Gym, a
Focus Band, two Recycle and
Harvest Bounty Venusaur, it could actually stand a slight
chance… when not against Raindance.
Modified/2-on-2/ TMP:
3.5/5-Good card for some not so good decks, but the multiple
Energy attachment decks are really dominating the field and
generally mucking things up.
Limited:
4/5-Just build it on the bench, then send it out when you
should be able to OHKO 3 things in a row before this bites
it itself.
Summary
Okay, this
might be a good card if the Firestarter decks weren’t making
it so hard to compete. Pity it didn’t have a retreat of
one… then it might have actually worked out for Firestarter
(High Pressure would have made it a free
retreater and thus the possible
“heir” to Expedition Ninetales based Firestarter decks-Niniken).
