Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
#10 Ho-oh EX
Hello and welcome to something a bit different for the
next two weeks of CotD.
Otaku suggested that it might be fun to take a look at
the top 10 cards that will rotate out of the Modified
format in September, so that’s what we’re going to do.
Of course, you need not be too sad about their loss: the
newly announced Extended
format for 2014-15 means that it’s still possible to get
some use out of these cards, should you have the
opportunity and the inclination.
We kick off the list with Ho-oh EX, a very interesting
card that saw a reasonable amount of play during its
time in rotation. Not so much for its Rainbow Burn
attack (which was ok in certain situations), but more
for the Rebirth Ability, which could be used in
conjunction with Energy Switch to provide Energy
acceleration for . . . well, just about anything.
It was this flexibility which allowed Ho-oh to form the
basis for a pretty successful ‘Toolbox’ style deck back
in the day. Between Rebirth and Double Colourless
Energy, it has the potential to power up
Mewtwo EX’s X Ball so that
it could hit for a lot of damage. Throw in some techs
like Terrakion NVI and
Landorus EX (to hit Fighting
Weakness), plus some other good Pokémon that weren’t too
fussy about Energy Types (Tornadus
EX and Bouffalant DRX), and
you had a deck that was somewhat risky (as all coin flip
decks can be), but which also had the power to overwhelm
an opponent very quickly. Rebirth was also explosive
enough to earn Ho-oh a spot or two in a few other decks
as well, to provide that surprise acceleration out of
nowhere (Darkrai/Terrakion
and even Genesect/Virizion
have used it).
Looking ahead, it’s always possible that Ho-oh will get
some play in Extended. Dragonite
EX from the upcoming Furious Fists set looks like a
potential partner as it benefits from Ho-oh’s ability to
accelerate multiple Energy Types and what’s more it
doesn’t even need Energy Switch, thanks to its Bust
In Ability Which lets you
move Basic Energy on to it when played from the hand.
Ho-oh was always something of an acquired taste, but it
managed to carve out a successful niche for itself in
the format. The same will likely apply to its role in
the future.
Rating
Overall impact: 3.5
Extended: 3.5
|
aroramage |
Hello guys and welcome back! Before we get into the
might of the Furious Fists set, we're going to take a
look at the Top 10 Cards Lost to Rotation. We put our
heads together and scoured the few sets and promos that
will only be around in the upcoming Expanded format, and
now we've got a good assortment of interesting cards to
talk about!
Today's card comes from the Dragons Exalted set, Ho-oh
EX. Interestingly enough, both of the Johto Birds came
into the format with an interesting twist on what they
could do; Lugia-EX (PLS) came in with an extremely
powerful Ability that could claim an extra Prize when he
KO'd a Pokemon, bringing an overwhelming offensive force
into play. Ho-oh EX did something much more unique, and
that's why we've put him on our number 10!
Ho-oh EX has an Ability and an attack that work together
in an interesting manner. Rainbow Burn does a measly 20
damage for 3 Energy, but there is a catch: it does an
extra 20 damage for each different Basic Energy attached
to him. It may not have been Mewtwo-EX levels of crazy,
but in the right build Ho-oh EX can average 80 damage a
shot! And that's assuming you leave him at 3 Energy! The
fact that the cost is entirely colorless also makes
Ho-oh EX splashable into decks you'd never expect one
in; the only catch is that the deck needs to run
multiple basic Energies, since you can't just attach a
Rainbow Energy to Ho-oh EX and get 180 damage in one
Energy - that would be way too overpowered!
So what kind of Ability could work with an attack like
that? Well it would have to be something that takes
advantage of the basic Energy clause within Rainbow Burn
while also balancing it out so that Ho-oh EX wasn't
dealing intense amounts of damage (like he might if he
counted any basic Energy as ALL different kinds of basic
Energy, which that's now at 9 different types). Enter
Rebirth, probably the most unique Ability in the entire
history of the TCG.
Rebirth does exactly what its name implies: it brings
back Ho-oh EX from your discard pile...on a coin flip.
That's a 50/50 shot, but unlike many Pokemon that use it
as a means of applying effects for an attack, this
happens before the attack and brings back a huge Pokemon-EX
straight from the discard pile. That means Ho-oh EX
doesn't have to be KO'd first in order to be brought
back! As long as he's in the discard pile, you can flip
a coin once per turn to try and bring him back!
But wait, there's more! Bringing back a big Pokemon-EX
like Ho-oh EX would be great if he didn't come back with
zero Energies, forcing you to attach 3 different kinds
straight from your hand just to attack with him. That's
where Rebirth's other effect kicks in; if you do manage
to bring Ho-oh EX back from the discard pile, he'll grab
3 different kinds of basic Energy within there and
attach them to himself, making him ready to attack the
moment he goes Active! Amazing!
Ho-oh EX is a slightly chancy card that requires a great
deal of skill to play. I've seen a guy work on a build
around Ho-oh EX, and I've even implemented him into a
Dragon-themed deck (they do require different Energies
usually, and Ho-oh EX can take full advantage of that!).
He has lots of versatility, but he can be difficult to
play with mostly because you have to rely on basic
Energies to power him up - and most people like their
Special Energies. Still, he's a unique card with a
unique concept, and hopefully we'll see another card
like him in the future!
Rating
Modified: N/A (he's going to rotate out, remember?)
Expanded: 3/5 (tricky to play, but in just the right
deck, he can do wonders!)
Limited: 4/5 (sure you can't openly rely on his Ability
in a +39 deck, but you can run multiple basic Energies,
and that makes him very good here)
Arora Notealus: Ho-oh sure likes his Fire-typing; he
could work well with Fire decks if they ran a couple
other Energies. Also HIS CARD IS ON FIRE!!
Fun fact: Ho-oh is usually associated with the phoenix,
but more specifically he's based off of the Fenghuang of
China and the Huma bird, both of which are avians that
come back to life from the ashes - like Ho-oh EX's
Rebirth!
Next time: Gotta go faster, faster, faster
fasterfastfastefafafa-*BOOM*
|
Otaku |
This week we tackle our Top 10
List of cards we lose due to pending rotation. The
first of the cut is Ho-Oh-EX (BW: Dragons
Exalted 22/124, 119/124) and no, I don’t think that
spelling looks right but official text seem to write out
the names of Pokémon-EX so that the “EX” is connected to
the actual name via a hyphen, and I don’t remember
exactly when it started (the first few cards were named
“Ho-oh”) but “Ho-Oh” is written so that the
second “o” is also capitalized.
We have looked at this card for
nearly two years: you can see the original reviews
here.
As a Fire-Type, it could tap into the new support but
not very well due to the nature of the attack (more on
that later); it also could enjoy the fact that hitting
for Fire-Type Weakness is fairly useful right now. As a
Basic Pokémon it is one slot for one copy, and is easy
to search out and Bench. Being a Pokémon-EX is probably
what the designers used to justify giving it its Ability
and good HP, but of course the only thing that being a
Pokémon-EX actually ensures is that when KOed, the
Pokémon gives up an extra Prize, can’t access certain
pieces of support and is vulnerable to certain counter
cards.
160 HP is good but a bit low for
your typical Pokémon-EX, which usually have 170 or 180.
Its Water Weakness isn’t good but it isn’t too bad,
either: there are some solid Water-Type attackers out
there but nothing to make it as dangerous as the likes
of Fighting, Darkness or Psychic Weakness.
Fighting-Type Resistance is welcome; it won’t come in
handy too often but when it does, it can mess up careful
calculations. The Retreat Cost of two has functionally
been the worst; most decks won’t manually retreat often
or at full price, so while it can be a bit of a pain to
pay, the main issue is not qualifying for Heavy Ball…
and even that isn’t major.
Ho-Oh-EX possesses a complex Ability
called “Rebirth”. While it exists in the discard pile,
once during your turn you may flip a coin and if the
result is “heads”, you can Bench Ho-Oh-EX from
your discard pile as well as attaching three basic
Energy cards from said discard pile to Ho-Oh-EX…
but all three must be different Types (if you’ve got
less than that, attach as much as you can). If you get
“tails”, you can try again the next turn and the next;
as long as Ho-Oh-EX exists in the discard pile,
once-per-turn you are allowed that flip. The effect
also resets if Ho-Oh-EX enters a non-public
knowledge zone like the hand or deck as the game doesn’t
track such things e.g. if you get Rebirth to work and
then used Scoop Up Cyclone (for some reason) on
that Ho-Oh-EX, then discarded the same
Ho-Oh-EX for Ultra Ball, you could try again.
Ho-Oh-EX has Rainbow Burn for its sole
attack: for [CCC] it does 20 points of damage plus
another 20 for each different type of Basic Energy
attached to itself. This gives a damage range from 20
(why you’d attach all Special Energy I don’t know)
upwards of 200 (one each of Darkness Energy,
Fairy Energy, Fighting Energy, Fire Energy,
Grass Energy, Lightning Energy, Metal
Energy, Psychic Energy and Water Energy),
though when it debuted the max was 180. The Ability of
course directly combos with the attack and that was what
initially attracted attention to the card; 80 for three
wasn’t a record, but as long as you accomplished it off
of a Rebirth it was fast!
Ho-Oh-EX enjoyed using Energy Switch,
allowing it to act as (again) complex Energy
acceleration, but it only worked well in a deck tailored
to it. So does it see competitive play now? I don’t
have the information in front of me, but from what I can
remember, not really. There have been several changes
since it debuted. Water got Keldeo-EX and
Blastoise, and those were followed up with the
smattering of good Water-Type attackers we enjoy now…
several of which can fit into non-Water decks. The
popularity of Garbodor (BW:
Dragons Exalted
54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 119/116; BW:
Legendary Treasures 68/113) is also problematic; as
the Ability functions on a coin flip you can’t be sure
you’ll get a Rebirth off before Garbotoxin can be
retriggered.
Mostly though, it seems like Ho-Oh-EX just can’t
keep up; you’ve got to have your manual Energy
attachment or a Muscle Band to get into the 2HKO
range for most Pokémon-EX, it can’t try to attack first
anymore, and there seem to be better forms of Energy
acceleration available. If you really wanted to, you
could build a Ho-Oh-EX deck and when the coins
cooperated, it would be functional, maybe even fairly
good… but when the flips failed you (or you just
couldn’t disable Garbotoxin at the right time), it would
grind to a halt. I don’t expect it to fare any better
in Expanded; in fact it will probably be worse. It
isn’t a bad pull for Limited (not that I expect people
to have BW: Dragons Exalted boosters just lying
around to try), but attempting the +39 build means no
Rebirth and manually building would give your opponent
at least two attacks worth of a head start. Most decks
will feature multiple types of basic Energy, so it can
likely fit into almost anything you would run with
little to no additional “tweaking”.
Ratings
Modified (NXD-On):
2/5 - It still looks fun, but being so reliant on an
unreliability Ability coupled with power creep means for
all it can do, it still isn’t enough.
Modified (BCR-On):
N/A - Like everything else on this Top 10, its only
available in the part of the card pool that is rotating
out.
Expanded (BW-On):
1.75/5 - Whether it ends up being more or less diverse,
I ultimately expect this format to be more brutal, and
without a specific reason for expecting this card to do
well, its going to instead do worse.
Limited:
4.8/5 - Pretty much a must run, unless you pull a
different, better Pokémon-EX or get an abnormally
focused card pool where squeezing in another two basic
Energy Types is still a waste, even factoring in what
Ho-Oh-EX could possibly do for you.
Summary:
This phoenix isn’t rising from the ashes; odds are it
would have received a reprint by now if it had one
coming. Ho-Oh-EX appears to have outlived its
usefulness anyway, so I’ll just remember the bright
moments of its life and try not to dwell on how
something like this actually feels noticeably
underpowered by the current standards.
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