Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Pyroar
(Phantom Forces)
Decks using Pyroar FLF are
the fly in the format’s ointment: on the one hand,
no-one rates them highly; on the other, no-one
particularly wants to play against them, much less give
up deck space to techs that deal with the Intimidating
Mane Ability. Life would be a lot easier if everyone
just agreed Pyroar was bad
and stopped using it altogether.
Except it now has another version which can be slipped
into Pyroar decks to annoy
opponents even
more.
Cards which allow you to drag something Active from the
Bench are always super powerful. Gust of Wind and the
pre-errata Pokémon Catcher achieved staple status
because they were relatively cost-free to use and the
effect was guaranteed. But over the years, cards like
Pokémon Reversal (flippy),
Luxray GL LV X,
Ninetales DEX, and
(currently) Lysandre have
all seen play because . . . well, being able to choose
the target of your attack, or lumber your opponent with
a poor Active Pokémon (like
Garbodor) is an incredibly advantageous thing to
do. Now you can add Pyroar
PHF to the list of forced switching cards. Unlike
Luxray and
Ninetales, it’s a gift that
keeps on giving too: as long as you can discard a Fire
Energy, you can use Flare Command to mess with your
opponent’s field in ways which they won’t like.
Of course, discarding an Energy
every turn isn’t easy if you are also trying to power up
attackers, but there are ways around that. Fire decks
have the Fiery Torch/Blacksmith engine to provide
acceleration, and there are other methods too, such as M
Manectric EX’s Turbo Boost
attack and the old classic Emboar
BLW/LTR (which I’m not going to recommend).
Pyroar
decks will likely run a single copy for its excellent
disruptive Ability, while focusing on the walling
capabilities and slightly better attack of the FLF
Pyroar. I could also see it
being used in decks that do have the acceleration to
fuel Flare Command (such as M
Manectric). It’s obviously not a card you can run
in anything, but there are a couple of decks it can work
with, and the effect is one of the best in the game.
Rating
Modified: 3.25 (always beware the Catcher effect)
Expanded:
3.25 (same deal here)
Limited: 3 (not so easy to use and the attack is very
expensive)
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aroramage |
Hello again and welcome back to a week of (mostly)
runner-ups to our Top 10 List! Today we're taking a look
at the king of the wild flame, the cat with the burning
mane, Pyroar! I can already imagine the biggest question
of all: how well does he stack up to his copy over in
Flashfire with his Intimidating Mane?
Actually, not too badly. Sure, his Inferno Onrush has a
hefty cost of 4 (3 of those being Fire), but at lest it
deals a mighty 110 damage! The Flashfire version only
had Scorching Fang, which at most did 90 damage if you
discarded a Fire Energy from him, though at least he
doesn't damage himself for 30 like this one does. Still,
the attack is probably not going to be the main draw so
much as the Ability, Flare Command.
Using Pyroar's Flare Command, you can knock off one of
his Fire Energies in order to switch the opposing Active
Pokemon with one of their Benched Pokemon. It's a
variant off of Pokemon Catcher but with less coin flips
and more Energy discards. The discard may not sit well,
but keep in mind that Blacksmith is a potential option
for getting those Energies back into play, and combining
Lysandre's Trump Card with all that draw power and a
handy Emboar on the Bench will ensure firepower for all!
Still, given the status of the format, I'd say the
Flashfire's Intimidating Mane still stands out as the
better of the two, but that doesn't mean this is a bad
Ability by any stretch of the imagination! A potentially
costless version of PokeCatcher is always a good thing,
and I wouldn't be surprised to see people throwing this
guy into their decks to swap things around here and
there. He still comes with all the weaknesses of being a
Stage 1, of course, but feel free to give him a whirl
and see how he fits before dismissing him to the card
binder!
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (a good Ability, though he may be
outclassed by his cousin)
Expanded: 3/5 (does about the same here)
Limited: 4/5 (oh man, I can imagine switching to be a
great thing here!)
Arora Notealus: NAAAAAAAAAAA SAVANNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Next Time: I don't think we're in Kanto anymore...
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This week we are covering the cards that made at least one
individual reviewer’s Top 10 list but not the shared
Pojo Top 10 list: in short its “Runners Up” Week. The
cards are not being reviewed in the order in which they
placed but in the order that seemed best for review
purposes.
We begin the week with Pyroar (XY: Phantom Forces
12/119). Fire is a fairly useful Type; the two main
components of VirGen decks (for new players: Virizion-EX
and Genesect-EX) are both Fire Weak, and the new
Metal-Type decks are also chock full of Fire Weak
Pokémon (often Pokémon-EX). Fire Resistance hasn’t been
a thing in before Expanded, so that isn’t an issue and
the Type does have some useful support, the best of
which seems to be the Supporter Blacksmith: two
[R] Energy from the discard to the Fire-Type Pokémon of
your choice is pretty amazing, with the high value of
that Supporter usage for the turn. As a Stage 1
Pokémon, Pyroar is going to be slow but still
fairly playable; you’ll have to go through Litleo
first (which we’ll discuss a bit later) but at least you
won’t be relying on Rare Candy or wading through
a Stage 1. Its 110 HP is middle-of-the-road for a Stage
1 in terms of what we’ve seen on them, which ranges from
the 60 HP of Shedinja (BW: Dragons Exalted
48/124) record setting 200 HP of Wailord (BW:
Dragons Exalted 26/124). There is just enough that
you might survive a hit, such as when an opponent’s
set-up isn’t complete or (or your own in the case of
Mewtwo-EX and its X-Ball) they just aren’t running
the kind of deck that reliably hits harder.
Water Weakness is not happy, though there are far worse Types to
take double damage from: Keldeo-EX needs at least
one [W] Energy or (without external buffs) it falls 10
short of a OHKO, Kyurem (BW: Plasma Freeze
31/116) needs external buffs or to use Blizzard Burn,
Seismitoad-EX only gets to skip Virbank City Gym
for its usual combo attack (Quaking Punch plus Muscle
Band plus Hypnotoxic Laser), etc. which is
far preferable to dealing with something like Fighting
Weakness. The lack of Resistance doesn’t hurt as most
things lack Resistance and even when present, it is a
small bonus, a complication many decks can pretty easily
get around. The Retreat Cost of [CC] is more relevant;
it is low enough you’ll probably be able to meet the
cost without horribly ruining your set-up, but you’ll
still notice it and wish to avoid paying it whenever
possible. Fortunately the format standard that the
capacity to retreat for a reduced cost (preferably for
free) or bypass manually retreating entirely is still a
regular deck feature, only skimped upon when there
simply is no room.
Pyroar brings an Ability and an attack. Flare Command allows you to
discard an [R] Energy attached to Pyroar in order
to force the opponent’s Benched Pokémon of your choice
into the Active position. This isn’t inexpensive unless
you’re running something like Emboar (last
printed as BW: Legendary Treasures 27/113), but
it also isn’t as clunky or cost-prohibitive as something
like Ninetales (BW: Dragons Exalted
19/124; BW Promos BW66 and its Bright Look
Ability that only triggers once, when you Evolve into
Ninetales. Controlling your opponent’s Active has
long proven formidable, and in a format where some cards
are worth multiple Prizes and attackers hit fast and
hard (and sometimes against double Weakness) it can
decide a game (though never on its own; even stalling
with it requires the opponent building a poor deck,
making a poor play or having bad luck). The attack has
an impressive name: Inferno Overush, but its cost is a
scary [RRRC]: even with a Blacksmith you’re going
to need another attachment (so two total) to ready
Pyroar. For that chunky investment, based on it
being a Stage 1, the Energy involved, and the trend
amongst competitive attackers you get a slightly weak
110 damage that is made plain overpriced as Pyroar
will do 30 points of damage to itself as well. It seems
like the Ability is the intended use for the card,
though the attack is overpriced and not totally useless.
So what Litleo to run? You have three choices, all of which
are Basic Fire-Types with Water Weakness, no Resistance
and Retreat Costs of [CC]. XY: Flashfire 18/106
has 70 HP and for [RRC] can hit for 60. XY:
Flashfire 19/106 has 60 HP and for [RC] can hit for
30. XY: Phantom Forces 11/119 also only has 60
HP but has two attacks: for [C] it can force your
opponent to switch his or her Active Pokémon with a
Benched Pokémon (opponent’s choice) or 20 for [RC].
Roar is nice but I like the 70 HP more: go with XY:
Flashfire 18/106. You also have two other choices
for Pyroar: the well known XY: Flashfire
20/106 and XY Promos XY26. The former was
reviewed
here
by the Pojo Crew (during a period when I wasn’t
reviewing): it has the same Attributes as today’s card
but a different Ability and Attack: Intimidating Mane,
which prevents Basic Pokémon from damaging it via
attacks and Scorching Fang, which requires [RCC] to use
to do 60 points of damage, or it can discard one of its
attached [R] Energy to hit for. The former is potent,
the latter just barely adequate. XY: Promos XY26
only has 100 HP but otherwise identical attributes to
the other two: it has two attacks instead of an attack
and an Ability. For [RC] it can use Crunch to do 30
points of damage and (with a successful coin flip)
discard an Energy card attached to the opponent’s Active
Pokémon. For [RRCC] it does 120 points of damage, but
has two discard two Energy attached to itself. Both
attacks are a little pricey, but solid foundation
points, but not good enough for competitive play.
I can see the new Pyroar as a TecH inclusion in the updated
version of Pyroar decks; yes Benching it means
your opponent could bypass Intimidating Mane by hitting
today’s version, but “Quad Pyroar” never impressed me
much anyway; a single copy “gusting” the opposing
Pokémon of your choice (even with the required Energy
discard) seems too good to pass up entirely, and if
you’re worried about running low on copies of XY:
Flashfire (20/106) you have other options, including
the recently released Lysandre’s Trump Card. I
could otherwise see this new Pyroar finding its
way into decks that can afford the Energy discard which…
is really just giving you the option of backing up
another Fire-Type attacker with this new Pyroar
instead of the old. It is interesting to realize that
today’s version can OHKO the Intimidating Mane version
without boosting effects.
Ratings
Standard: 3.5/5 - This is a
pretty deck specific rating; you just can’t splash this
card into other decks, at least if you expect to get
good results. So its nice to have if you’re otherwise
running a deck built around Fire-Types (perhaps as a 1-1
or 2-2 line), but everyplace else it would be
deadweight. Even there, its still optional.
Expanded: 3.5/5 - As above;
I’m don’t see the differences between the card pools
mattering all that much.
Limited: 4.5/5 - Skip it if you get a single big, Basic Pokémon worth
building an entire deck around (that contains only
that big, Basic Polémon), or if you’ve got room for
several Fire Energy cards that are in the deck
only to meet this Pokémon’s costs. Everything about it
ends up being functionally better here.
Summary: This could be the piece of indirect support that Fire-Type decks
were needing to get back into gear, or it could be that
card that won’t see a huge amount of play but will see
enough that you can’t afford to forget it. Overall
Pyroar is a good card, perhaps very good in specific
decks, but it isn’t as overpowered as what is currently
dominating the format.
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