Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
#7 Fighting Stadium
Coming in at #7 on our countdown is the first of several
cards which lend their support to Fighting Pokémon. This
seems to be the theme of Furious Fists, so it’s not
exactly a surprise.
‘Fighting Stadium’ is a very straightforward name for a
very straightforward card. When it is on the Field,
every Fighting Pokémon gets to do 20 more damage to a
defending EX Pokémon. Adding 20
damage is obviously fantastic – that’s why almost
every deck plays Muscle Band after all. Combined with
all the other damage boosts available to Fighting Types
and you can have a Landorus
EX hitting ridiculously hard for a single Energy,
Tyrantrum FFI
OHKOing any EX, and
Lucario EX dealing huge
damage and drawing cards with its Corkscrew Punch
attack.
It seems as if Fighting Stadium would be a no-brainer
inclusion for every deck running Fighting Pokémon, and
it most probably would be if it wasn’t for the
competition it faced from Virbank
City Gym and the combo with
Hypnotoxic Laser which has the potential to offer
even more damage, coupled with the disruption of Status
effects (and it isn’t restricted to EX Pokémon either).
This doesn’t mean that Fighting Stadium doesn’t offer
advantages of its own though: unlike Laser, it isn’t
affected by Item lock, and it takes up a lot less space
in a deck than the suite of Laser and
Virbank cards.
In space-limited Stage 2 decks (like Tyrantrum FFI),
Fighting Stadium will definitely find a home, and don’t
be surprised to see a copy or two creeping in elsewhere.
Rating
Modified: 3.5 (solid support for a powerful Type)
Expanded: 3.25 (could see some use with
Landorus EX)
Limited: 3 (plenty of Fighting Pokémon to use it with,
but not so many EX Pokémon to hit)
|
aroramage |
Hello and welcome to our Top 10 Furious Fists cards!
And today we're looking at the great and mighty Fighting
Stadium, a brand new arena that will undoubtedly see
play in Fighting decks! Because if there's one thing
this set needed, it's a way for Fighting-types to deal
MORE damage!
Fighting Stadium is an interesting Stadium in the way it
does add more damage though. With it in play, all
Fighting types - yours and your opponent's, mind you -
will deal 20 more damage to defending Pokemon-EX. Not
regular Pokemon like Beartic (FUF), Hydreigon (LTR),
Garbodor (LTR), and Blastoise (PLB), but Pokemon-EX,
like Heracross-EX, Dragonite-EX, Darkrai-EX, Mewtwo-EX,
and Yveltal-EX. This makes it very powerful, as the
format has run many EX for a long time now, but it also
makes it very dangerous in a mirror match, since Lucario-EX
- a notable target for this Stadium - will hit harder on
both sides in a fashion similar to Mewtwo-EX and
Yveltal-EX battles.
Now of course 20 more damage goes a long way when you
add in stuff like Muscle Band and Hypnotoxic Laser, as
even a weak attack suddenly becomes much stronger. Add
in stuff like the new Strong Energy - you know, the one
that does MORE damage - and even Machamp, and suddenly
even Lucario-EX's weakest attack does a catastrophic 120
damage for 1 Energy, numbers we haven't seen since
Empoleon (PLF)!! And most of that damage comes before
Weakness and Resistance (though with Lucario-EX's first
attack, Resistance isn't even a factor)!!
As I mentioned before, though, this is a double-edged
sword in a mirror match, and speculating on how popular
Fighting decks will be with this set, that may be a
reason NOT to play this card. In a deck with so much
damage-boosting shenanigans, the last thing one needs is
support from the other side of the field - and Fighting
Stadium can make 120 damage for 1 Energy happen just as
easily for your opponent as it did you!
Fighting Stadium is an interesting mix of power and
danger, like a boxing match, and it's going to help
Fighting decks devastate their competition - even if
it's other Fighting decks! I can imagine it seeing play
early on, and it may be that it continues to see play
despite the risk in a mirror match - all because that
extra 20 damage on EX is incredibly effective and
brutal!
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (powerful and dangerous in the right
hands)
Expanded: 4.5/5 (a format where there are even MORE
Pokemon-EX is just going to make this card better!)
Limited: 4.5/5 (that 20 damage means a lot, and chances
are you're going to run into someone with an EX sooner
or later)
Arora Notealus: Boxing's an interesting sport, all
things considered, and I like that they designed this
Stadium to be like one. Not to mention it's thematic
with the set AND with the idea of fighting head-on with
everything you've got! No holding back now!
Next Time: Alright, Mac, take five! We're gonna get you
a nice towel!
|
Otaku |
Welcome readers as we continue with our latest Top 10
list: the Top 10 Promising Picks of
XY: Furious Fists!
Of course, that’s just the name I am using; I don’t
think we have an “official” one for it. The reviewers
compiled their own separate lists, and Pojo crunched the
numbers to determine the site list. As these cards
aren’t technically legal for competitive play under
NXD-On Modified (the current Standard Format), I’ll be
using this list as the official transition point and
scores will be for Standard (BCR-On), Expanded (BW-On)
and Limited.
Clocking at #7 (yes, I made a mistake when numbering
yesterday’s CotD) is Fighting Stadium. Obviously
anything that works for Trainers in general - like
Skyla or Dowsing Machine - is going to double
as support for Stadiums. You might consider Pokémon
with attacks that hit harder or gain another beneficial
effect while a Stadium is in play another kind of
support. They also receive a piece of specific support
in this set, though I don’t know how much good it will
do Fighting Stadium: Gothitelle (XY:
Furious Fists 41/111) has the Ability “Teleport
Room”, which allows you to discard the current Stadium
in play in order to put a Stadium with a different name
into play from your discard pile. Fighting Stadium
causes the attacks of Fighting-Type Pokémon do 20 more
points of damage to the Defending Pokémon, if the
Defending Pokémon is a Pokémon-EX. Yes, that applies to
both players. As an “active” effect (one that takes
place the same turn you play it), it is less likely to
go to waste than a “passive” effect (which usually
doesn’t end up mattering until after your
opponent has a chance to discard it, like HP boosting
Stadiums).
The major benefit for this card is that Fighting-Type
Pokémon now have multiple options for boosting damage
right now. Muscle Band or Silver Bangle
(if not attacking with a Pokémon-EX) are well
established (and work for any Type) and the new
Strong Energy joins them. Assuming you manage to
assemble the combo first turn, Fighting Stadium
plus Muscle Band plus Strong Energy will
allow you to hit a Pokémon-EX for +60 points of damage
on the first turn (of course, the attack still has to do
at least 10 points of damage in the first place),
before Weakness or Resistance. We know from decks
that count on a Double Colorless Energy that it
isn’t too hard to open with one of those fairly often,
and this is the kind of combo where the individual
pieces are useful apart or together. As I stated, that
was +60 before Weakness and Resistance. Fighting
Stadium essentially nullifies Resistance on
Pokémon-EX. If the Pokémon-EX is damage neutral
(neither Weak nor Resistant) or is already able to
bypass Resistance, then Fighting Stadium still
grants that +20 points of damage when hitting
Pokémon-EX. If the Pokémon-EX is Fighting Weak, the
bonus gets doubled to +40 points of damage. If the
Defending Pokémon is not a Pokémon-EX, you’ve
still got the other damage boosting tricks and are less
likely to need damage boosted.
Now put it all together; Landorus-EX can fake a
T2 Night Spear (90 to the Defending Pokémon plus 30 to
something on the Bench) with one Strong Energy, a
Muscle Band and a Fighting Stadium. The
new Landorus (XY: Furious Fists 58/111)
can use a Shout of Power for 80 with the same set-up… or
still hit 90 if we swap out the Muscle Band for a
Silver Bangle (no Bench damage, but you might be
able to attach a basic Energy to your own bench; still
an amazing deal!). If you can’t get the whole combo
going, each part is still quite valuable, easily worth
not making a difference against non-Pokémon-EX. This is
going to be very scary for Fighting Weak Pokémon-EX;
Darkrai-EX can now be taken down in one hit even on
T2, and with a relatively simple combo. Again let me
emphasize that while starting with all the “pieces” is
not going to be easy, starting with just the Strong
Energy or just the Muscle Band/Silver
Bangle or two of the three pieces is still a great
opening!
What keeps Fighting Stadium from being a
guaranteed Staple in Fighting decks is two fold; we
still have Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City
Gym, and you may be running a lot of
non-Fighting-Types (that you intend to attack with) in a
deck. Even then, a single copy might still be
worthwhile in a “Landorus-EX and Friends!” deck,
while most of the time you rely on Hypnotoxic Laser
and Virbank City Gym. If you only have room for
one, then you need to consider how many copies of
Hypnotoxic Laser you are running and whether or not
you are backing Landorus-EX up with Garbodor
(BW: Dragons Exalted 54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze
119/116; BW: Legendary Treasures 68/113). If you
are, then you don’t have to worry about something like
Verdant Wind on Virizion-EX nerfing your damage
boosting. If it is a mostly or even mono-Fighting-Type
deck, then even with a heavy Hypnotoxic Laser,
you might be better off with Fighting Stadium as
your primary (or only) Stadium. Of course if you lack
space for at least two Hypnotoxic Laser, just
stick with Fighting Stadium in the aforementioned
decks.
In Expanded, this card neither gains nor loses anything.
In Limited, its almost a true must run, because there
are two other Stadiums in this set and you never know
when you’ll need to discard one of them from play. Yes,
even if you’re running +39 deck using one of the
non-Fighting-Type Pokémon-EX, which means you’ll never
use the bonus and it can be used against you, you’ll
want one in case you need to discard a Mountain Ring
(blocks Bench damage) or Training Center (boost
the HP of Stage 1 and 2 Pokémon by 30). The only
exception is if you have so many great pulls, you
legitimately don’t have room.
Ratings
Standard:
3.75/5 - A semi-specific rating; you shouldn’t bother if
you’ve got few or no Fighting-Types, of course. Even if
you’ve got multiple Fighting-Type attackers, Virbank
City Gym remains a legitimate rival if you’re also
running enough copies of Hypnotoxic Laser. When
you get into more specific builds, namely low/no
Hypnotoxic Laser and mostly/all Fighting-Type
attackers, its effective value rises, and a “perfect
fit” (and thus an effective perfect score) becomes a
real possibility.
Expanded:
3.5/5 - Why the drop? Fighting Stadium, based on
my current estimates of Expanded, will perform almost
exactly the same here however there is also
Tropical Beach and Skyarrow Bridge as
competition. Either seems more likely to only affect
the “fringe” usage of the card, those cases where it was
just a “good fit” and not a “great” fit; most of the
decks being suggested for it hit hard and fast and don’t
have a lot of Basics that retreat for a single Energy,
and thus don’t get much mileage out of those two
Stadiums.
Limited:
4.99/5 - Even though it will often be a very bad card,
the Stadium slot is vital in a format like this where
you likely have no other way of countering an opponent’s
Stadium. Fighting Stadium won’t be useful all
that often (unless your opponent’s all had amazing
pulls) for its own effect, and I am advocating using it
even when its effect could only hope to be used against
you, because discarding something like Training
Center can be vital. Yes, even if
Training Center is normally to your own benefit; as
long as discarding it enables more KOs (and thus Prizes
taken) for you than your opponent, discarding it is a
good deal!
Summary:
Fighting Stadium mostly reminds me of how weak
effects that ignore Resistance are in a card pool where
Resistance doesn’t exceed a 20 point deduction. Only
working against Pokémon-EX is a drawback, but the card
would have been utterly broken if it worked against
everything (Fighting-Types have enough boosting
effects). Enjoy this card for your Fighting-Type decks;
when its effect is useful, its useful and when it isn’t
it still discards an opponent’s (likely more important
to them) Stadium!
*With the first turn rules nearly a year old, I have
come to realize that its just not effective referencing
individual turn counts. As such I’ll be referencing
absolute turn counts e.g. I’ll refer to the first turn
of the player going second as Turn 2 (or T2), the second
turn of the player going first as Turn 3 (or T3) etc.
It is less awkward to specify things like “On a
player’s second turn.” for something that is happening
relative to the individual player’s turn - in the
example I just gave, that could reference the first turn
a player may manually Evolve a Pokémon - than to
regularly have to refer to things like “You can hit this
hard first turn (if going second) and your second turn
(if going first) instead.” instead of saying “You can
hit this hard turn T2 or T3.”
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