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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Top 10 XY Cards

#9 - Xerneas  

- XY

Date Reviewed:
February 11, 2014

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 3.75
Limited: 4.50

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being the worst. 
3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.

Back to the main COTD Page

Combos With: See Below

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

#9 Xerneas 

The #9 slot on our countdown goes to the very first of the new Fairy Type to get a review here. The Type brings something interesting to the game, not least because of its unique Resistance: now we actually have something that will take less damage from those Dark Pokémon that have been so uber powerful for the last couple of years. Fairy also seems to be getting a lot of support (much more so than the poor old Dragons got when they debuted in 2012). Today’s card is part of that support. 

If it seems strange that I am calling a 130 HP Legendary Basic a piece of theme support, well, yeah . . . it feels that way to me too. Nevertheless, Xerneas’ primary role is to act as a starter/Energy accelerator for all things Fairy. Maybe that’s just what it takes to be a viable starter in this format. Xerneas achieves starter status by virtue of its first attack, Geomancy, which costs a single Fairy Energy and allows you to choose two Benched Pokémon and attach a Fairy Energy from your deck to each of them. Normally I’m not a big fan of using attacks to accelerate Energy, but in this case I’ll make an exception because a) two Energy is pretty good, and b) Fairy decks have Aromatisse XY which can manipulate that Energy to your advantage with her Fairy Transfer Ability. 

Right now, it doesn’t feel like Fairy decks are in the best position to take advantage of that as far as attacking is concerned. Xerneas himself has a decent enough 100 for three attack in Rainbow Spear, but that is only really back up attacker material (sign of the times, I’m afraid). The big version of Xerneas isn’t bad, but it’s not one of the more stellar EX’s. However there’s nothing to stop you using the Fairy Energy to pay for attacks that have Colourless costs, such as Mewtwo EX’s X Ball or Yveltal’s Evil Ball and I suspect that’s what we shall be seeing until we get a really good Fairy attacker. 

Basically, if you want to run Fairies (and they do seem like they could be competitive), this is the card you will love to see in your opening hand. 

Rating 

Modified: 3.5 (Pokémon want you to play their fancy new Type)

Limited: 4.5 (extremely solid all round and Energy acceleration is especially amazing here)


HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150

Xerneas.

 

Modified.

With big Basics driving a fairly fast paced meta and Energy removal cards like crushing hammer being so popular in decks like Sableye/Darkrai, energy acceleration is one of the main things to make a deck viable in this format. Fairy decks make a strong entry into the TCG with this powerful legendary Pokemon. For just 1 energy it can put 2 more energy into play from your deck and with 130 HP, it should be able to do this at least twice at the start of the game. Using fellow Fairy Aromatisse you can then redistribute this energy how you like. Fairy.dec practically builds itself from here. Its second attack is also decent, able to 2 hit KO any non-Mega for 3 energy (technically 4, including the discard). Utility and power on one Pokemon? That's a sign of a good card!

 

Unlimited 150.

Annoyingly enough for U150 players, Xerneas and Yveltal weren't printed as holo rares meaning they avoided the "ex rule" used to balance the power level between old and new sets in this format. A new rule was quickly agreed on and introduced so these 2 powerhouses were to become exs.

Still, this Pokemon is a significant threat, like in Modified it makes a Fairy deck playable practically all by itself. Because its a singleton format we'll probably have to wait for a couple more sets before there's enough Fairies to populate a whole deck, but once there's enough I can see this being a very powerful deck, especially with powerful new Ability Pokemon like Aromatisse and Slurpuff and the already well supported Wigglytuff line.

 

Ratings.

Modified: 4

Unlimited 150: 3.5 (surely soon to rise!)


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