Skip straight to the scores and summary for a
concise overview.
Please note that while I denote δ Delta Species
Pokémon by adding a δ to the end of their name, but
that said symbol is not actually part of their name
for gaming purposes to my understanding. For
example, a “Pokémon δ” can Evolve from or into a
non-Pokémon δ, so long as no other rules are being
broken. That is, I can Evolve Dratini δ into
a Dark Dragonair, plain Dragonair, of
the “Dragonair δ”. I cannot, however,
Evolve a Dark Dragonair into a Dragonite δ
or a Dragonair δ into a Dark Dragonite.
Name:
Latios ex
Set:
EX Dragon Frontiers
Rarity:
Pokémon-ex
Card#:
96/101
Type:
Water
Stage:
Basic
HP:
100
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC
Poké-Body:
Link Wing
The Retreat Cost for each of your Latias, Latias ex,
Latios, and Latios ex is 0.
Attack#1:
(WC) Ice Barrier [30]
Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage,
done to Latios ex by your opponent’s Pokémon-ex
during your opponent’s next turn.
Attack#2:
(WCC) Hydro Splash [60]
Attributes:
First and foremost, Latios ex is a
Pokémon-ex, and as such it is worth two Prizes when
KO’d. While most players know this, I have
personally learned that sometimes it is
embarrassingly easy to overlook this trait. When
evaluating (and of course playing) this card, one
must always be aware of this. Latios ex is
also a Basic Pokémon, currently with no available
“Pre-Evolutions” or Evolutions. Again, this must be
considered when evaluating the card; in this case it
means that there won’t be anything inherently
dependant upon it.
This Latios ex is a Pokémon δ as indicated
above. As a Pokémon δ in general, realize it has
access to a few nifty little cards (mostly Trainers)
that can benefit this specific sub-group of Pokémon,
though there are one or two that punish this
specific group in some way as well. Being a Water
Pokémon may be quite valuable. My personal
experience is that for whatever reason, kids like
Red (Fire) decks, and not just in Pokémon either.
Looking at Pokémon’s actual past, it’s rare for the
game to lack a prominent Fire deck in Modified for
an entire format. As most Fire Pokémon
are Weak to Water, we
finally come to why I said it might be a useful Type
for the future of this game.
Latios ex
has a 100 HP, a respectable amount for a Basic
Pokémon-ex. Unless Desert Ruins returns to
the game, we shall again be able to see a logical
progression in bigger HP scores being better again
on Pokémon-ex. 100 HP will allow this card to
survive at least one good shot from most other
Pokémon in the game, at least without said attack
using some secondary feature (varied damage due to
coin flips or a discard cost, for example). Be wary
of Weakness, though: Psychic Weakness is far from
the worst but we do have both established and
promising new Psychic decks, but that can be said of
most Types. This is better than another not
uncommon Weakness for Latios ex, Colorless, which is
often the worst Weakness because most decks need
merely add Crystal Shard to hit it. There
may also be some benefit for Water decks in general
There is no Resistance on this card, sadly, and it
has an average Retreat Cost of two: low enough you
can usually afford it but high enough you will
really want to avoid it (and the Poké-Body addresses
that concern).
Abilities:
Link Wing is incredibly important, though its merely
a nice thing for this card directly as it gives it a
free retreat, something we all know is quite handy,
even if its just for bringing up after something of
yours was KO’d to give you time to think about what
you really want to promote to the Active spot. The
attacks are then reasonably solid: Ice Barrier can
frustrate the many decks using Pokémon-ex as the
main attacker(s), and Hydro Splash has a decent
return. Separately, anyone of the abilities
wouldn’t be enough to justify this Basic being a
Pokémon-ex, but together you get a good deal.
Uses and
Combinations:
Last Friday a few of the CotD reviewers touched upon
how this card can combo with Latias ex δ,
which is from the same set. Simply put, Latias
ex δ has a good attack that becomes bad if it
KOs something so using these two together, you make
sure that Latios ex scores the KOs against
anything too big (he hits it after her) or too small
(he can OHKO it himself). You can also make use of
some other Latios/Latias cards in the
deck. The holographic Latias δ and Latios
δ from EX Holon Phantoms (11/110 and 12/110,
respectively) can shut off Poké-Bodies of Evolved
non-Pokémon-ex. Latios requires a Latias
or Latias ex and vice versa, but that is
still fairly useful. Many of the other currently
legal versions of Latios δ and
Latias δ can also be decent in such a combo
deck, provided they
aren’t heavily relied upon and decent support is
given.
Ratings
Unlimited:
2/5 – Why so high? Well, it wouldn’t be a bad card
to add to your average Raindance, I would think.
Sure, it’s a Pokémon-ex and that’s even riskier here
than in Modified, but that is what Focus Band
is for. I don’t think most decks would (they’d just
stick with Tyrogue or Cleffa for free
retreating Pokémon), but it could be and do alright.
Modified:
3.5/5 – I expect some sort of deck will materialize
around the Latios/Latias combo, and be
reasonably good. Likely in the vein of the recent
Solrock/Lunatone deck.
Limited:
4/5 – It’s a reasonably size Basic Pokémon-ex that
will at least give itself a free retreat, be able to
frustrate opposing Pokémon-ex or hit for solid
damage.
Summary
I like this approach to “Legendary” Pokémon: Link
Wing actually feels pretty impressive (since
its on a Basic) and
Legendary Pokémon really should be the heart of
their own deck to impress upon us their power.
