Review
too long? Skip straight to the scores and summary.
Name:
Metagross ex
Set:
EX Power Keepers
Card#:
95/108
Rarity:
Pokémon-ex
Pokémon-ex Rule:
When Pokémon-ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2
Prize cards.
Type:
Metal
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Metang)
HP:
150
Weakness:
Fire, Fighting
Resistance:
Grass
Retreat:
(CCCC)
Poké-Power:
Magnetic Redraw
Once
during your turn (before your attack), if Metagross ex is your
Active Pokémon, you may use this power. Each player shuffles
his hand into his or her deck. Then, each player draws 4
cards. This power can’t be used if Metagross ex is affected by
a Special Condition.
Attack:
(MMC) Scan Blast [70]
Does 70 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon
that has the same name as the Defending Pokémon. (Don’t
apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Name:
Metang
Set:
EX Power Keepers
Card#:
35/0108
Rarity:
Uncommon
Type:
Metal
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Beldum)
HP:
80
Weakness:
Fire
Resistance:
Grass
Retreat:
(CC)
Poké-Body:
Clear
Body
Metang
can’t be affected by any Special Conditions.
Attack:
(MC) Extra Comet Punch [30+]
During your next turn, Extra Comet Punch does 30 damage plus
30 more damage.
Name:
Beldum
Set:
EX Power Keepers
Card#:
/108
Rarity:
Common
Type:
Metal
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
Fire
Resistance:
Grass
Retreat:
(CC)
Attack:
(M) Magnetic Lines [10]
Flip a coin. If heads, move a Basic Energy card attached to
the Defending Pokémon to another of your opponent’s Pokémon.
(Ignore this effect if your opponent has only one Pokémon).
Attributes:
Metagross ex is a Stage 2 Pokémon-ex. For the third time
this week, let me state the obvious: it has to be a pretty
powerful Pokémon to justify the difficulty of getting it into
play (as a Stage 2) and the drawbacks of being a Pokémon-ex (2
Prizes when KO’d, unable to use certain cards, extra negative
effects from other cards). As a Stage 2 Pokémon, first let us
examine where it comes from.
Metang
from this Set is a Metal Type (giving it access to the
protective power of Metal Energy), has 80 HP (nice for an
Evolving Stage 1) with a Fire Weakness (still to early to tell
how bad this is), a Grass Resistance (just having a Resistance
is good), and a Retreat Cost of two (low enough you can pay, but
high enough you don’t want to if you can avoid it). Immunity to
Special Conditions isn’t huge but its can be handy, and Extra
Comet Punch is actually a good attack: First hit is average, but
as long as they don’t bench you the next five really hurt. ;)
All current versions of Metang have the same 80 HP and
two Retreat, so that won’t decide which to use. Metang δ
is only worth it if you really want a TecH Lightning Type or
need Pokémon δ for some reason. It has the same
Weakness/Resistance as this version, but not quite as nice of
abilities: just two fairly straight forward attacks. The EX
Deoxys/EX2 Trainer Kit version is Psychic with Psychic Weakness
and no Resistance, but two solid attacks. If you can pay all
the Energy costs, running one of each might be in order: one
assumes you’ll be packing Rare Candy so even if you max
out on the other ends of the line, you wouldn’t need four copies
of Metang, does mean you have some flexibility. In fact,
that might be this version’s downfall: since it is the same type
as Metagross ex, you don’t get an extra Weakness to hit
like you would with the others.
As for
the Beldum, the new one is quite similar to the old in
Attributes: it is the only Metal version, but all four have 50
HP (average for an Evolvable Basic) and a Retreat Cost of 2
(average overall, but slightly high for an Evolvable Basic).
The EX Deoxys and EX Trainer Kit 2 versions are both Psychic
with Psychic Weakness and no Resistance, while Beldum δ
is a Lightning Type and this version is Metal, both Fire Weak
but Grass Resistant. In general, I’d say let the attacks
decide. Magnetic Lines can mess with an opponent, but isn’t
anything too special. I’d go with the EX Trainer Kit 2 version,
since it has Call For Family, helping set up the rest of your
deck.
Returning to Metagross ex itself, it is a Metal Type
Pokémon, giving it the benefits of damage reduction via Metal
Energy that its lower Stages from this Set have. 150 HP is
the second highest for a currently legal Stage 2 Pokémon-ex, so
that is pretty nice: Metal Energy can make it last even
longer. Any double Weakness is cause for concern, and while I
don’t know how Fire will shape up after States wrap up, I really
can’t see Fighting being totally ignored: as mentioned in
yesterday’s CotD, I can’t see a total lack Overzealous
Machamp being played. Remember, a deck doesn’t have to win
the tournament to keep you from T8ing. Moving onto Resistance,
any Resistance is nice though it’s hard to say how useful Grass
Resistance will be in the future. The four Retreat of this card
is a definite drawback: it costs more to Retreat than to attack
with it! This creates a big vulnerability you either have to
accept or run something to counteract.
Abilities:
Two stellar abilities here. The Poké-Power is basically a built
in Desert Shaman: both players shuffle their hands into
their respective decks and draw four cards. With hand size on
the rise, it actually matters: at our State Championship, it was
very common for players to have hands in excess of seven cards.
It is also a benefit if you can exhaust your own hand, or at
least play it down to under four. Sadly, this means the
converse is also true: if you build up a large hand, you can’t
use this effect without sacrificing it, and if your opponent has
a low or non-existent hand, you just gave them free draw.
Scan
Blast is a slightly more costly, slightly more damaging version
of Dirge which we saw yesterday: for (MMC) you slam the
Defending Pokemon for 70 and anything with the same name on your
opponent’s Bench. As you know from yesterday, I like these
kinds of attacks; although hard to power up quickly, the
possibility of multiple OHKOs is enticing.
Together, these force your opponent to play cards as soon as
they draw into them because if they don’t, you can shuffle them
away, and cards that grab a lot of stuff for later (like
Scott) will be more or less wasted when used.
Uses
and
Combinations:
Like yesterday, it’s largely a question of support to speed it
up or to slow the opponent down. Given that its own Poké-Power
should make things hard on the opponent, I’d just focus on an
Energy accelerator and maybe a searcher to get it out and
going. Unless your opponent has a very diverse deck, you should
start taking prizes in clumps pretty quick, or one at a time
because they aren’t Evolving multiples.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3/5 – Why so high? Most Stage 2 Pokémon are “alright” with
Slowking from Neo Genesis supporting it. Metagross ex
might be just tough enough thanks to its attack and Poké-Power
to stand up here. Shrink their hand low and then try to rack up
some Prizes. With Slowking, they won’t be quite as able
to rebuild their hand.
Modified:
4.2/5 – Although the Weaknesses may be a hair better or worse
than yesterday’s CotD, Metagross ex just happens to be
more popular as a TCG character (due to the potency of past
versions) that people won’t be as afraid of it, and again the
Poké-Power will likely make success easier.
Limited:
1.5/5 – You might be able to make use of the Poké-Power, but the
attack needs (MM) to work and each of its lower Stages need
one. Also, given the nature of Limited you’d probably help more
often than you’d hurt.
Summary
Metagross ex
is probably a bit better than Shiftry ex, but the
difference between the two is largely a matter of perception:
people know and love the Metagross of the past, so the
newest one will easily be embraced.
-Otaku
