We close out the week by looking at
Ninetales (BW: Legendary
Treasures 21/113), one of the new
cards in our reprint heavy set.
It is a Fire-Type, which can come
in handy for exploiting Weakness on
Genesect EX,
Virizion EX, and a few other cards.
You’ll never have to worry about
Resistance (on modern cards), but sadly
there is no Type support for Fire
Pokémon (at least that I could find).
Ninetales possesses 90 HP; this
makes it a OHKO for any deck that is
set-up (and a few that aren’t), but it
is also small enough that you can search
it out with
Level Ball (which also important
will get any
Vulpix as well).
The Water Weakness will actually matter
on occasion;
Keldeo EX (as an example) can OHKO
anything if it has enough Water Energy
attached (barring protective effects)…
but its base damage is only 50 points
for (CCC), and thus while it a
Keldeo EX being used in a deck for
its Ability (so without a source of
Water Energy) would still be able to
attack for a OHKO.
Ninetales lacks any form of
Resistance to help it, but Resistance is
even less significant with a low HP
score and likely wouldn’t have made much
of a difference.
Similarly, while the single
Energy required to retreat is easy
enough to pay, it will rarely matter
because this card is a OHKO (and most
decks will pack some form of retreat aid
or alternative).
Ninetales
makes me look bad due to the attacks.
Why?
For (CCC) its Color Coordination
attack hits for 50 points of damage,
with an additional 40 if
Ninetales has a basic Energy card
that is the same Type as the Defending
Pokémon.
90 for three is the going rate,
and this card can only hit it if it has
a somewhat restrictive condition; a deck
can be built to make it more likely, but
Dragon-Type and Colorless-Type Pokémon
never have to worry (as there are no
Basic Energy cards that provide that
Type of Energy).
So even though the big attack is
bad… it still didn’t get a filler attack
like Slash on
Genesect (BW: Legendary Treasures
16/113), and in that review I gave too
much credit to the design team assuming
that without Slash, that card would have
gotten something better;
Ninetales implies that they would
have just left it a single attack card.
If you insist on playing this card,
you’ll need a
Vulpix and I only see two Modified
Legal versions: BW: Dragons Exalted
18/124 and BW: Legendary Treasures
20/113.
Both are 60 HP Basic Fire-Type
Pokémon the same bottom stats as
Ninetales and both have single
attacks: BW: Dragons Exalted
18/124 can automatically Burn the
Defending Pokémon for (R) while BW:
Legendary Treasures 20/113 requires
(RC) to hit for 20 (or on a successful
coin toss, 30).
Both are bad.
You could combine this card with
Ho-Oh EX as our big firebird
performs best with a wide assortment of
Basic Energy cards.
In the end I wouldn’t even try to run
this as
Ninetales (BW: Dragons Exalted
19/124) is clearly superior with its
Bright Look Ability (one of the
Pokémon Catcher alternatives) and
Hexed Flame attack that for (R) does 20
points of damage plus another 50 per
Special Condition afflicting the
Defending Pokémon (thus up to 170 points
plus Poison and Burn damage).
The nature of Color Coordination
makes it unlikely you should run it
without access to a basic
Fire Energy and even if you did, it
still might be easier to power up Hexed
Flame (such as with
Blend Energy GRPD).
A
Hypnotoxic Laser guarantees Hexed
Flame hitting for 70 points of damage
plus a damage counter (barring something
that blocks Special Conditions) and with
a
Virbank City Gym you’re up to 70
points of damage (minimum) plus three
damage counters… which against Weakness
totals to 170 points of damage that
OHKOs
Virizion EX or
Genesect EX… and you get to use
Bright Look!
Even without working in an
awkward source of Burn, “heads” on
Hypnotoxic Laser jumps Hexed Flame
to 120 points of damage (plus another
damage counter or three depending on
Virbank City Gym); Color
Coordination just can’t compete.
This goes double for Unlimited; while
you have more combo pieces it just isn’t
worth the effort when those same cards
combo so much better with so many other
things.
For Limited, though, this can be
an “okay” pull.
Obviously you’ll need Pokémon
with mostly Colorless Energy costs
supporting it, so that you have the
option of which Basic Energy to attach
where, and as it is Limited you’ll
probably be able to have two of each
basic Energy and thus not have to worry
about a single being Prized or needing
to be used on a different card.
It
still isn’t brilliant and is just
fortunate that some might try for a
similar deck anyway, hoping to get lucky
with Type matching to crush any high
level pulls; as well as the HP and
damage being slightly better just
because “its Limited”.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
1/5
Limited:
2.75/5
Summary
“Vanilla” cards, cards that either have
no Ability and no effects for their
attacks, are very frustrating because
they usually feel like they have no
effort, and often are not really
competitive (though there are numerous
exceptions throughout the life of the
game).
I don’t know if anyone else uses
it, but I use “French Vanilla” (a
popular flavor as far as I know) to
describe cards that have the most
minimal of effects but still are
functionally “vanilla”; uninspired.
I have no idea what to label a
card like this where obviously some
thought went into the design but the end
result is so underpowered it is hard to
believe it was accidental.
If
Ninetales had been able to use
Special Energy and we didn’t have an
obviously superior
Ninetales from a previous set, the
card would still have been underpowered
to the point it should only be played
because you want to specifically run
this card (and perhaps challenge
yourself).
An Ability to shift the Type or
much lower Energy cost were sorely
needed for, as your opponent should view
it, an easy Prize that is also a
resource sink.
