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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion

White Kyurem-EX (Boundaries Crossed) The rest of this week’s reviews are going to follow a Kyurem-related theme. As the star of the latest movie, and a focus of the most recent video game, Kyurem was always going to be a big part of the TCG releases during this time. There are now so many versions of the card that you can actually construct a legal deck with 24 copies of Kyurem in it. I have no idea why you would want to, but that’s a different matter altogether. Up for review today, we have the White Kyurem-EX. It’s a Dragon Type, boasting the (so far) maximum EX HP of 180. Those facts alone make it a pretty tough KO for any non-Dragon Pokémon because they can’t hit it for Weakness. Mind you, it is within OHKO range for both EX and non-EX Rayquaza, and they are still a considerable force in the current format, even if they are not quite as common as they were. The Retreat cost of three means you are either leaving this Pokémon active, or you are using some method of retreating that doesn’t involve paying the cost (Darkrai-EX’s Dark Cloak Ability, or Switch). White Kyurem-EX’s first attack, Dragon Stream, costs a not inconsiderable [R][C][C], and for that you get a very mediocre return of just 60 damage. Yes, you could use Double Colourless Energy to get it going in two turns, but that isn’t really the wisest move as White Kyurem-EX’s second attack is not compatible with it. On the plus side, you do get a coin flip chance of being able to attach a Basic Energy from your discard pile to this Pokémon. That is certainly something you will want to do, as the attraction of White Kyurem-EX (such as it is) lies in Ice Burn, which costs a very hefty two Fire, one Water, and one Colourless Energy. For that massive investment, you do get massive damage: 150 plus automatic Burn on the Defending Pokémon. If the Burn flip goes your way, that will be 170 damage: enough to OHKO a Mewtwo-EX, Keldeo-EX, or any Stage 2. Throw in a PlusPower and you could one-shot anything (except Wailord, as per usual). The downside is that you must discard two Fire Energy in order to use the attack. So, with the huge attack costs and the discarding, it’s clear that you need to run some kind of Energy acceleration to give this Pokémon any chance at all. At the moment, the only real option is Emboar BLW (with the Inferno Fandango Ability). It’s a nice enough combo, but it suffers from having to set up a Stage 2 in order to work and (more importantly) having to get two Fire Energy in hand every single turn just to be able to launch a meaningful attack. Basically, the same issues that stopped Emboar/Reshiram from ever being a real tournament contender. White Kyurem-EX is a real ‘headline’ card. It makes a great set mascot, looks extremely impressive, and has those high numbers that lure kids into getting their parents to spend money on product. When it comes to actually playing the game though, I’d put it firmly in the league/fun category. When it works, it smashes faces in a very satisfying way, but it just isn’t going to do that consistently enough to win tournaments. Rating Modified: 2 (big numbers don’t necessarily make a playable card: ask Charizard ex) Limited: 3.5 (any huge Basic can be good here, but this is by no means the best)

virusyosh

Hello once again, Pojo readers! I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving holiday if you were celebrating it, and that you all did well at the City Championships that are now starting to heat up! Today we're going to review a new Pokemon-EX from Boundaries Crossed that I've seen a few people try to play already. Today's Card of the Day is White Kyurem-EX.   White Kyurem-EX is a Basic Dragon Pokemon-EX. As a Dragon, White Kyurem has to compete with the likes of Rayquaza-EX, and therefore should be able to deal with the Sky High Pokemon if it wants to have a shot at Modified supremacy. 180 HP is the standard for a Pokemon-EX, and White Kyurem should easily take a strong hit or two before being Knocked Out. Unfortunately, Dragon Weakness means that Rayquaza, Rayquaza-EX, and Hydreigon will all OHKO, so you'll need to take great care if any of those are common sights in your metagame. Sadly, White Kyurem has no Resistance, and it also has a rather huge Retreat Cost of 3, meaning that it's searchable with Heavy Ball in addition to probably requiring Switch to move from the Active slot.   White Kyurem-EX has two attacks. Dragon Steam does 60 damage for a Fire and two Colorless while attaching a discarded Energy from your discard pile to White Kyurem if you win a coin flip. This attack is actually pretty good for a "weak" Pokemon-EX attack, as acceleration is excellent in any circumstance. Additionally, this attack's damage output can be raised to 110 damage with the White Kyurem-specific Crystal Edge ACE SPEC card (if you decide to run it in your White Kyurem deck), which is quite excellent for the cost.   Ice Burn is White Kyurem-EX's big attack, dealing a huge 150 damage (200 with Crystal Edge) for the ridiculous cost of two Fire, a Water, and a Colorless, while also requiring the discard of two Fire Energy. 150-200 damage is great and will easily KO many opposing threats, but the attack's Energy requirements are both very expensive and irritatingly specific. Therefore, if you're trying to build around White Kyurem-EX, you'll want to tailor to its strengths. Since you'll be discarding a lot of Fire Energy, you'll probably want ways to get the Energy back from your discard pile, such as Energy Retrieval, as well as ways to accelerate the Fire Energy, such as Emboar BW. If you run this type of deck, it wouldn't be much different than the Reshiram/Emboar variants that we saw early in this format, just with a much bigger attacker. Of course, with the popularity of Rayquaza and Rayquaza-EX, such a deck will probably not be viable as a top-tier Modified deck.   Modified: 2.5/5 As previously stated, White Kyurem-EX is an incredibly powerful card with Crystal Edge support, as 110 damage for three Energy and 200 for four will easily maul the competition. Of course, White Kyurem is incredibly slow, requiring two different types of Energy for its attacks in addition to being easily Knocked Out by opposing Rayquaza and Rayquaza-EX, two very common threats in Modified. I won't discount the likes of White Kyurem entirely due to it having some good synergy with other cards in the format and personal support with Crystal Edge, but due to these factors, you're likely better off running other options.   Limited: 4/5 White Kyurem is good in Limited, but admittedly not stellar. Dragon Stream will probably be doing most of the work for you in this format, as it has relatively relaxed Energy requirements that can be easily met. While Ice Burn is powerful and will Knock Out pretty much everything short of opposing undamaged Pokemon-EX, the very specific Energy requirements and discard make it an attack that you probably won't use very often. If you happen to get really lucky and pull a Crystal Edge as well you'll be in luck, but aside from that, White Kyurem is a decent beater with a big body that will simply be good, but not great in the format.   Combos With: Crystal Edge (obviously), Emboar BW