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Name:
Blaziken
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
20/110
Type:
Fire
Stage:
Stage 2 (Evolves from Combusken)
HP:
100
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC
Attack#1:
(R) Combustion [30]
Attack#2:
(RRC) Blaze Kick [40+]
Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 40
damage plus 20 more damage. If tails, the
Defending Pokémon is now
Burned.
Name:
Combusken
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
Type:
Fire
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Torchic)
HP:
70
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(CC) Slash [20]
Attack#2:
(RCC) Super Singe [40]
Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is
now Burned.
Name:
Torchic
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
83/110
Type:
Fire
Stage:
Basic
HP:
40
Weakness:
W
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Peck [10]
Attack#2:
(RC) Flare [20]
Attributes:
Oh, a second plain Pokémon. Blaziken is a
Stage 2. It Evolves from
Combusken, and that from Torchic.
All Combusken are Fire Pokémon, have 70 HP,
Water Weakness, and a Retreat cost of just one
(great since High Pressure System can make it
free). This version is solid: Slash is fair for a
Basic but a tad weak for a Stage 1, but that’s okay
because Super Singe does 10 points of damage over
what you pay for. This is acceptable, overall, for
a Stage 1 with a further Stage of Evolution. Simply
put though, each currently Modified legal version of
Combusken is a good, solid Pokémon. I
recommend testing splits of it to see which version,
if any is better for your format, but I doubt
reliability will be as important as versatility. If
you actually use this in Unlimited, you probably
will rarely run more than two copies of Combusken,
but you have a few more choices: EX Dragons
Combusken is the only poor version. For
Torchic, I recommend avoiding this version: 40
HP is smaller than the others, and the first attack
is merely “fair” while the second is over-priced.
The Emerald version has more HP but still an
over-priced attack. So go with the EX Trainer Kit
unless you think you have to have a single Energy
attack. The EX Trainer Kit version pays for 25
points of damage in terms of Energy, but on a heads,
it hits for 40. This is nice, though necessary to
offset the lack of any other abilities.
Same for Unlimited.
Blaziken
is a Fire Pokémon. This is pretty good, as Fire
Weakness is fairly common while Fire Resistance is
quite rare. Even some popular, powerful decks have
Fire Weak Pokémon (like Steelix ex). 100 HP
is on the low end for Modern Stage 2 Pokémon, but
still serviceable. Blaziken has its standard
Water Weakness, which at the moment is worse than
most other reasonable Weaknesses for a Pokémon that
is a Fire/Fighting hybrid in the video games, but
recent activity more or less confirms that upcoming
tournaments will see a lot of potent decks of any
and every Type. No Resistance is annoying, since I
feel it is an important part of the game and the
lack of it, except in cases of balancing a very
potent card, is just a cop out. The Retreat Cost of
CC isn’t really good or bad. It’s low enough that
you can afford to pay it most of the time, but high
enough you don’t want to. It is a bit more
disappointing to have CC over C for Fire Pokémon
since High Pressure System would make a
single Energy Retreat Cost free.
Abilities:
Combustion is a nightmare for the Fire Weak
Pokémon. If you use Rare Candy (and of
course, I can’t think of any deck with a Stage 2
that wouldn’t include at least one or two), you can
slam the opponent for 30 damage using just a Fire
Energy. Against EX Deoxys Jirachi, that’s
a OHKO. With a
Strength Charm, that’s a near KO/KO against
quite a few Pokémon Basics, though nothing usually
intended as an opening Pokémon. Amongst Modified
Legal Fire Weak Basic Pokémon only Metagross*,
Registeel*, and both Registeel ex can
survive a Strength Charm enhanced hit.
Obviously, most Stage 1 Pokémon and all Stage 2
Pokémon can survive even a Strength Charm
enhanced hit, but the whole point is to use this
before you’ve had time to drop anymore than one Fire
Energy on Blaziken.
Blaze Kick should look familiar: Blaziken ex
relied on a slightly lower Energy, more efficient
version in between uses of Volcanic Ash. This
version requires (RRC) which pays for 40 points of
damage. As a Stage 2 Evolution, it earns the added
effect: either an extra 20 points of damage or
automatic Burn. Either is fairly nasty.
Neither attack separately is particularly nice, but
together they have a significant discount,
noticeable even on a Stage 2.
Uses and
Combinations:
I haven’t had a chance to take this for a spin, but
looking at it, I wonder if its time for the return
of the fast, hard hitting T2 deck (as opposed to the
fast, controlling, T2 deck). Will such a deck
work? I don’t know, but it should be fun. It’d
probably want to split with EX Emerald Blaziken,
and include several Pokémon Tools (though go light
on those that shut off Poké-Bodies).
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5 – Too much Raindance, otherwise good, quick
damage might work here.
Modified:
3/5 – It’s not a bad card, but it’s not an overly
good card, and I don’t think it can support a
serious, competitive deck.
Limited:
3.85/5 – Here it is hurt a bit because the set has
so much Pokémon δ support that it’s basically a
disadvantage not to be one. That is, Blaziken
will set up a bit slower than most Pokémon δ
will here. Great card otherwise, Burn is nasty in
Limited.
Summary
Love it in Limited. Ignore it in Unlimited. Toy
with it casually in Modified; if you can find the
support it needs (be it Pokémon or Trainer or
Energy), you might make a good deck out of it yet.
-Otaku
