Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
#8 Dialga EX
In and of itself, today’s card is nothing special.
I mean, it’s
solid, but in the world of EX Pokémon, it doesn’t
jump out and declare its awesomeness in the way that
Darkrai,
Mewtwo, or even
Genesect did. What do you
get is a nice 180 HP (the maximum for a non-Mega), a
decent Weakness and Resistance (though
Pyroar is a major worry),
and two attacks that are just about good enough.
Actually, Chrono Wind isn’t
that good:
three Energy for 60 damage
and if the Defending Pokémon is an EX it can’t attack
next turn. That is a very soft lock, easily broken by
simply retreating and promoting the EX in question, but
nevertheless, it can cause some inconvenience to an
opponent and might buy you a turn or two if they don’t
have a Switch and a free retreater, or a
Keldeo EX with Float Stone
attached. The brilliantly-named Full Metal Impact is the
better attack though, simply because it (sort of) gives
the Metal Type the OHKO power that they have lacked so
far: that 150 damage can be boosted with Muscle Band to
the point where it will one-shot a good portion of the
playable EX Pokémon. But what about the high cost and
double discard? Well, that’s where things get
interesting. Much higher up on our top 10 list for this
set is Bronzong: a card
which provides the necessary acceleration and recovery
that could make Full Metal Impact a viable attack.
Without Bronzong,
Dialga EX would be a
mediocre EX with expensive attacks. With that card in
the format, he could perform a role in a pretty
formidable Metal deck . . . something we haven’t seen
since Klingklang/Cobalion
had a brief time to shine.
Rating
Modified: 3.25 (a meh EX
elevated by stellar support)
Expanded: 2.75 (he’s no Rayquaza
EX)
Limited: 4 (usual benefits to playing a huge Basic, but
he’s not the fastest)
|
aroramage |
Welcome to our #8 card on the list, and more
importantly the single coolest looking card in the set,
Dialga-EX! This guy's Full Art print is actually the
stylized version of him from Japan's Hyper Metal Chain
deck in which he was released; the card itself came out
once in every six decks, making it a bit rarer than the
regular one, but it looks so cool! And luckily that's
not the only thing Dialga-EX has going for it!
Dialga-EX's first attack, Chrono Wind, does 3-for-60
against most anything that doesn't resist it like
Manectric-EX - though that's 120 against Fairies and
certain Water-types like Kyurem though - but it does
have an ability against Pokemon-EX: they won't be able
to attack on the next turn. At all! This is the kind of
move that can get you out of a Seismitoad-EX
Item-Lockdown, or halt a Lucario-EX from wrecking your
team, or keep Yveltal-EX and Mewtwo-EX at bay! This
attack alone should prompt the usage of Switch and Float
Stone in most decks, as that kind of power is hard to
stop otherwise.
It only gets better with his other attack, Full Metal
Impact. Discarding 2 Metal Energy is a pretty hefty cost
as usual, but this attack deals 150 damage!! We've seen
attacks of this kind already from Black Kyurem-EX's
Black Ballista to Rayquaza-EX's Dragon Burst; what made
them so dangerous was that they had a way to replenish
the Energy they lost very easily, and Dialga-EX is no
exception now with his own support, a card we'll be
taking a look at soon enough.
Dialga-EX will probably show up in Metal Decks as one of
its main attackers, utilizing a similar strategy to
Rayquaza-Eels by setting up one while the other attack
then Switching them around or using Float Stone.
Granted, Dialga-EX only has a Retreat Cost of 2, but
that's still going to usually be whatever's left if
you're switching him straight out, and if you use Float
Stone you sacrifice using Muscle Band instead to get the
extra 20 to wipe out most Pokemon around. He'll force
some tough deck choices, but if Rayquaza-EX and Black
Kyurem-EX have proved anything in the past, this type of
deck is one not to mess around with!
Keeping in mind that Dialga-EX won't be OHKO-ing
anything short of a Stage 2 without some help.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (a pretty devastating card, though cards
in the past have been more devastating)
Expanded: 3/5 (competing against Rayquaza-EX, this card
isn't as powerful but it does give rise to Metal Decks)
Limited: 4.5/5 (even if your opponent doesn't have a
Pokemon-EX of their own, these attacks will do massive
damage to their active!)
Arora Notealus: I wonder if they'll come out with a
redone Palkia-EX that's Water-typed. That would be
pretty nice, don't you think?
Next Time: I thought it was a Pokemon!
|
Otaku |
Welcome dear readers as we continue the first week of
our Top 10 Promising Cards of XY: Phantom Forces!
As a reminder, reprint cards are not eligible as the
review crew each submits a 10 card list to Pojo, who
then averages them out to produce the master Top 10 list
we use for the review order. The official release date
for this set in the U.S. is November 5th, so XY:
Phantom Forces cards aren’t tournament legal until
November 21st; however we’ll be scoring them as if they
were indeed legal.
So… wonderfully… shiny! Dialga-EX (XY:
Phantom Forces 62/119, 122/119) comes in regular and
awesome metallic FA versions… and I like it so much that
yeah I’m focusing on that before we discuss its how well
it is expected to perform! I would greatly prefer the
higher rarities (anything beyond “normal” Rare) was
reserved for gimmick cards; alternate art, Full Art,
etc. with the possible exception being reprints or
something that will be reprinted in a more accessible
manner in the near future. Pipe dream, I know, but it
might finally give us the best blend of “Trading Cards”
and “Card Game”.
So onto what Dialga-EX actually brings to the
table. It is a Pokémon-EX, which means it is worth an
additional Prize when KOed, can’t access certain pieces
of support and are vulnerable to certain
Pokémon-EX-specific counter-cards. Pokémon-EX generally
have higher-than-average HP scores (including higher
than normally allowed for their Stage) and better
Abilities or attacks than one would expect for a
non-Pokémon-EX equivalent. Unlike Manectric-EX,
which we looked at Monday, Dialga-EX is a Basic
by default, so that isn’t a bonus of being a Pokémon-EX,
though being a Basic is of course the best as it
requires the least amount of effort to run. It is a
Metal-Type and that is quite good right now; this set
contains both direct and indirect support, which we’ll
touch upon in a bit more detail later.
Dialga-EX
enjoys the current maximum printed HP score for a Basic
Pokémon-EX (180) which is usually going to survive the
turn, though of course some decks will still OHKO even
that. For example, Fire-Type attackers will be able to
exploit the Fire-Type Weakness, and this is an issue
because even though several Types have gotten specific
support since then, Fire-Types still have something
great in the form of Blacksmith, though it is far
safer than being weak to say Fighting… and for the
record, in the video games Dialga do take double damage
from Fighting- and Ground-Type attacks, though it does
take only half damage from Rock-Type attacks. In fact,
as a Steel/Dragon-Type hybrid, it shouldn’t actually be
Fire Weak. It enjoys Psychic Resistance, which isn’t
going to make a huge difference but will come in handy
against the commonly played Mewtwo-EX (and as
this set buffs Psychic-Types a bit, likely a few other
new and old faces). Finishing off the Attributes, it
has a Retreat Cost of… two. That isn’t negligible, but
its workable; you won’t want to pay it but you should be
able to without crippling your set-up, and I confess
that I expected it to be much higher.
Dialga-EX
has two attacks with some impressive sounding names:
Chronowind and Full Metal Impact. If you think the
first attack, Chronowind, is what makes Dialga-EX
special… you’d be wrong unless you meant special as in
“interesting” and not as in “really potent attack”. For
[MCC] Chrono Wind does 60 points of damage and if the
Defending Pokémon is a Pokémon-EX it can’t attack during
your opponent’s next turn. Benching the Defending
Pokémon will reset this effect, so it is more a mild
annoyance between decks that run things like Keldeo-EX
with Float Stone or an adequate supply of
Switch plus anything with a free Retreat Cost or of
course non-Pokémon-EX attackers. The attack is handy
but not great: when it was first revealed, it got some
hype it didn’t really deserve though unlike most hype
trains, this one seemed to have died down pretty
quickly.
The second attack is what really has people excited,
though as the cost is [MMCC] and it requires you discard
two [M] Energy attached to Dialga-EX, Full Metal
Impact will definitely require something built to
accomodate. Your reward for the hassle is 150 points of
damage, which takes out almost all non-Pokémon-EX plus
the likes of Jirachi-EX and Celebi-EX in
one hit… and is a firm foundation to build a combo to
take out the 170 to 180 HP Pokémon-EX, though Mega
Evolutions are going to still fall outside of an easily
attainable range. The Energy costs are somewhat
complementary; while you’ll need Energy acceleration for
the attacks to be competitive, both attacks are
Double Colorless Energy compliant, plus while it
isn’t the greatest Chrono Wind does form a simple
(though easily foiled) 2HKO combo against most other
Pokémon-EX (even the smaller Mega Evolutions).
The real combo piece is Bronzong (XY: Phantom
Forces 61/119), which has the oft successful “attach
an Energy card from your discard pile to your Benched
Pokémon” mechanic, restricted to [M] Energy cards.
While it does mean managing a Bench-to-Active system,
its almost guaranteed to become a top deck. The
oh-so-simple act of attaching a Muscle Band to
Dialga-EX allows it to OHKO 170 HP Pokémon-EX, while
a Hypnotoxic Laser on top of that takes down 180
HP targets (assuming no other effects nor Resistance are
factors). You could skip Muscle Band in favor of
Virbank City Gym, but you might prefer to run
Steel Shelter (XY: Phantom Forces 105/119)
instead, to protect against Special Conditions. In
fact, we get to perhaps the biggest detractor for
Dialga-EX; as impressive as it is, it isn’t quite
the titan that was Black Kyurem-EX (BW: Plasma
Storm 95/135) or Rayquaza-EX were during
their respective heydays and neither is its competition
so it is still going to be a valuable attacker for
Bronzong decks and probably one of if not the
main one.
Ratings
Standard:
3.75/5 - Possibly the face of the new Bronzong
decks, and if not their less technical attacker.
Without Bronzong (or rather the Ability on
Bronzong) its definitely a much weaker card though
not totally hopeless.
Expanded:
3.7/5 - I worry I am missing something, but I think that
the only thing to worry about is an increase in
competition for the deck itself and not the card
directly, and just as I credit the deck for most of its
potency in the first place.
Limited:
4.25/5 - The good news is that there is only a single
Basic Fire-Type this set and even when exploiting
Weakness, it isn’t that good. There are two Stage 1
cards and one Stage 2 card and while they are good in
Limited, the odds are against running into them. So the
main concern becomes your opponent overwhelming your 180
HP; other Pokémon-EX used in +39 decks should be more
near auto-wins as once you hit them with Chronowind,
unless they started really strong and Poisoned
you, its over. Fleshed out decks though can take
advantage of your slow start-up (your opponent should be
able to attack twice before you can hit them once) and
while 60 is good, it might just whiff on the OHKO.
Ultimately I think the risk is well worth it, though.
Summary:
Dialga-EX is a big, metal club for Bronzong
decks to whack opponent’s upside the head with, and if
you’ve got the metallic Full Art it will even be with
style. Still it is dependent upon something to fuel it
and that something has enough other options that I can’t
score Dialga-EX any higher. In fact, I chose to
leave it off my own Top 10 list, though after reviewing
it I am second guessing myself (it nearly made it).
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