Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
#1 Primal Kyogre EX
Right now, I’m still undecided as to whether this card
is playable or not. That might seem a strange thing to
say about the #1 card on our countdown, but even if it
never wins a tournament, Primal
Kyogre EX is a
ridiculous
Pokémon.
For a start, there is that huge 240 HP. Then there is
the Ancient Trait α Growth: this is (for now anyway)
completely unblockable, and
allows you to attach two Energy per
turn to Primal Kyogre.
Imagine that: built-in Energy Acceleration that requires
no support Pokémon, and cannot be stopped. Who needs
Blastoise? It certainly
eases the pain of the four Energy cost attack, Tidal
Storm, that’s for sure. Speaking of which, Tidal Storm
is pretty monstrous itself, doing 150 damage, plus 30
spread to your opponent’s Benched EX Pokémon.
Tidal Storm also moves 2 Energy from Primal
Kyogre to a Benched Pokémon.
This can make streaming attacks a little hard to manage,
but on the other hand, it does keep Energy on the Field
if P Kyogre gets KO’d, and
it makes life very difficult for
Yveltal EX and Mewtwo
EX. Playing plenty of Switching cards is recommended.
That 150 damage also leaves P
Kyogre short of a OHKO on EX Pokémon, although
that could be fixed with Laser/Virbank,
or simply using the Bench damge
to set up future KOs.
So, why the doubts over playability?
Well, it’s mainly down to P
Kyogre’s Grass Weakness.
Virizion/Genesect
decks will destroy it, and even a tech like
Leafeon PLF can give it a
very tough time. It may even be that P
Kyogre is not quite fast
enough, strange as that may seem. Nevertheless, it is an
absolute monster of a card: self-sufficient and very
powerful. If it really is too slow or not
OHKOish enough for today’s
format then, well . . . that is worrying for all kinds
of reasons.
Rating
Modified: 4.5 (an autonomous powerhouse)
Expanded: 4 (ok, I’m guessing)
Limited: 4.75 (the attack effect is a pain, but it’s
still a beast)
|
aroramage |
Thousands of years ago, a great war
was waged between the two most powerful Pokemon on the
planet: the ancient behemoths, Groudon and Kyogre. In
recent news, it's been discovered that these ancient
Pokemon were capable of enhancing their Abilities beyond
imagination! This is known as Primal Reversion, an
alternative to Mega Evolution that seems to revert the
power of the ancient Pokemon in the present day to what
they had in the past.
While Primal Groudon is a force to
be reckoned with in the video games, Primal Kyogre here
has taken the number 1 spot on our list for Primal
Clash! And let's face it, it's because he got the BEST
of everything this set has to offer, so let's see what
all makes Primal Kyogre-EX work so well! First off, as a
technical "Mega Evolution" (cause Primal Reversion is
totally not the same thing), Primal Kyogre-EX has the
"end your turn" clause but also has a convenient Spirit
Link card to skip over that! Alright, not bad, good
start.
Then there's Primal Kyogre-EX's
attack: Tidal Storm. At 4 Energy, this attack deals a
base 150 DAMAGE!! Whoa! That's some power-packed stuff!
There are few Pokemon EVER that hit a base 150! And the
fun doesn't stop there! Primal Kyogre-EX then moves 2 of
the Energies off of him onto a Benched Pokemon of your
choice. This could lead to powering up a back-up Primal
Kyogre-EX or a Kyogre-EX of some sort - who KNOWS what
you could do! And if you don't have a Benched Pokemon?
Well then you don't move Energy - you get to keep Primal
Kyogre-EX fueled up and ready to go!
Alright, but what if you DO move
Energy off? This attack costs 4 Energy! You can't attach
two Energies to make up for that! Except that Primal
Kyogre-EX ALSO gets an Ancient Trait, and just the right
one: Alpha Growth. You may recall Swampert, our #10
card, also had the Alpha Growth trait, but it doesn't
really pan out with him. With Primal Kyogre-EX, it's a
whole other story. Move some Energy to power up back
guys? Check. Refuel the beast? Double-check, if you've
got Energy in hand - and that shouldn't be a problem,
I'm sure!
Oh, and did I mention Tidal Storm
also deals 30 damage to opposing Benched Pokemon-EX?
Essentially setting them up for an instant KO upon
entering the field, whether against this Primal Kyogre-EX
or the one on your Bench you've been powering up with
the Active's Tidal Storm?
Welcome to the storm.
Rating
Standard: 5/5 (this is a
well-designed card that has great support for it; expect
Primal Kyogre-EX decks)
Expanded: 5/5 (though the problem
may arise of having Primal and no Spirit Link card,
really one turn can't put you behind too much with that
damage output)
Limited: 5/5 (I. Drink. Your.
MILKSHAKE!! *shhluuuurrrrrrp* I DRINK IT UP!!)
Arora Notealus: Primal Kyogre...MAN
you are just...the Alpha Growth, the Tidal Storm,
just...everything works so well for this card, and I
just wish that this was the standard for ALL Pokemon.
Not just EX cards, but even little Basic guys or Stage
2s. Every card should be as well planned and thought-out
as this guy.
Weekend Thought: Do you agree with
this list? What're some cards you think should've made
it but didn't? Cause chances are you're gonna see a
couple in the upcoming weeks! So keep watching!
|
Otaku |
At last we come to our top pick for XY: Primal Clash:
Primal Kyogre-EX (XY: Primal Clash 55/160,
149/160; XY Black Star Promos XY41). So what
makes this card special? Primal Kyogre-EX is a
Water-Type, and as mentioned when we looked our our #10
- Swampert (XY: Primal Clash 36/160) -
this set gave that Type a boost with Archie’s Ace in
the Hole, Dive Ball and Rough Seas.
Even though we’ve got some decent Water-Type attackers
and indirect support for the Type via cards like
Blastoise (BW:
Boundaries Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma Storm
137/135; BW: Plasma Blast 16/101) there is still
the question of whether or not it can all (or mostly
all) can gel into a top deck. Hitting Water Weakness is
handy; nearly all Water-Types and a decent amount of
popular Fighting-Types have Water-Type Weakness. Water
Resistance appears to have been phased out in the XY
sets, so only some older Grass-Types like Virizion-EX
sport it. This isn’t as promising as say being a
Fighting-Type but its at least approaching that point.
Being a Pokémon-EX and Mega Evolution (it still says
“Mega” in the corner and so far nothing differentiates
Mega Evolving from Primal Reversion) is a drawback in
terms of what is guaranteed; giving up an extra Prize
when KOed, being vulnerable to certain counter-cards and
being unable to access certain pieces of support. The
Mega Evolution aspect adds that your turn Ends when you
Mega Evolve one of your Pokémon in play as well; most of
these are serious issues separately and together that’s
quite a burden to bear. As such most Pokémon-EX enjoy
better attributes and effects than anything else in the
game. Primal Kyogre-EX starts of with 240 HP;
the current printed maximum for a Mega Evolutions and
just 10 shy of the current printed maximum for
legal-to-play Pokémon in general, topped only by
Wailord-EX which I think exists just to hold the top
spot. Power creep for offense seems to be kicking in
again, so 240 should usually survive a shot but it
hasn’t been guaranteed for years, but now more Mega
Evolutions have become playable. The difference between
those and slightly older tactics is that most Mega
Evolutions can score the OHKO with more or less their
standard set-up, and while being less vulnerable to a
retaliatory OHKO. Load a Yveltal-EX up with the
Energy it needs to Evil Ball for a OHKO, and the various
attackers that do more damage based on attached Energy
will threaten it. M Gardevoir-EX doesn’t have
that same drawback since you can load the Bench up with
Energy.
Grass Weakness is pretty serious; I used to kind of
gloss over it because Virizion-EX and Genesect-EX
were the only Grass-Type attackers to really prove
successful and Virizion-EX usually didn’t hit
hard enough while Genesect-EX hit a little too
hard for it to often be relevant. It is important to
remember that the numbers have to align for such things…
and now they do. Virizion-EX is not
scoring a OHKO against Primal Kyogre-EX but with
a Muscle Band it does score a 2HKO and against a
Mega Evolution, that’s good! Genesect-EX needs a
G Booster or Muscle Band or two Deoxys-EX
on the Bench… and in a good VirGen deck, it has them.
If Primal Kyogre-EX proves good enough, don’t be
surprised if Grass-Type attackers start popping up in
off-Type decks. There is not (thankfully) a Grass-Type
equivalent of Yveltal-EX or Mewtwo-EX but
there is Tropius (BW: plasma Blast 5/101);
both of its attacks require a source of [G] Energy and
the first isn’t what we are interested in (though its an
“okay” set-up attack should the opportunity present
itself). Its second attack is Energy Press for [GC],
and since it isn’t a Pokémon-EX it isn’t too bad to
trade it for “half a Prize” against a Primal Kyogre-EX
(or any Pokémon-EX for that matter).
There is no Resistance to discuss so we’ll move onto the
Retreat Cost; a chunky [CCCC] which means that in
Expanded you can use Heavy Ball for it (even more
niche now that we have Dive Ball) and a
potentially serious hurdle. Most decks need something
to bypass or at least reduce the cost of manually
retreating, but its a necessity for Primal Kyogre-EX,
and indeed a secondary trick as well may not be
optional. This ties into how Primal Kyogre-EX is
to be used; it has an Ancient Trait and a single attack.
The Ancient Trait is α Growth, allowing you to attach
two Energy instead of one when using your manual Energy
attachment for the turn (other attachments won’t trigger
it); this card wouldn’t work without this feature as it
would require a significant, outside source of Energy
acceleration. The attack is Tidal Storm for [WWWC],
which the opponent’s Active for 150 damage while also
hitting any Benched Pokémon-EX for 30 (ignoring Weakness
and Resistance for the Bench hits).
It also forces you to move two Energy from from
Primal Kyogre-EX to one of your Benched Pokémon.
Let me emphasize that this is not optional; the only
way to avoid moving Energy is to have no Bench. If
you’ve got something like a Safeguard Pokémon that is
totally immune to the effects of attacks by Pokémon-EX
(including your own), Tidal Storm will attempt to move
Energy to said card but since the Energy can’t be
attached they will just be discarded. This effect isn’t
entirely a drawback though; I keep referencing attackers
that hit harder based on the Energy attached to the
Defending Pokémon, as well as the monstrous attackers
that are going to score a OHKO no matter what. Thanks
to α Growth, this allows you to build a secondary
attacker on the Bench and if Primal Kyogre-EX
survives, you just α Growth the needed Energy to attack
again… Energy which will again be moved off of it onto
your next attacker.
We should touch upon Kyogre Spirit Link and
Kyogre-EX as well. Use the Spirit Link; even
if you run Archie’s Ace in the Hole, also run
Kyogre Spirit Link. For Standard your only
Kyogre-EX is the new version, XY: Primal Clash
54/160 and 148/160. It is pretty typical of Pokémon-EX
that Mega Evolve; its Type, Weakness, (lack of)
Resistance and even Retreat Cost are identical to
Primal Kyogre-EX, but obviously it enjoys being a
Basic Pokémon, has “just” 180 HP (even with power creep
that is still very good) and has two attacks instead of
one, as well as no Ancient Trait. The first attack is
Water Pulse for [WC]; it does 30 damage with Sleep. The
second attack is Giant Whirlpool for [WWCC]; it hits for
140 while returning two [W] Energy attached to Kyogre-EX
to hand. This bounce isn’t all bad as you can try to
get (or retain) a Kyogre Spirit Link on Kyogre-EX,
Mega Evolve (or “Primal Revert” if you insist) into
Primal Kyogre-EX and use α Growth to re-attach them.
Technically you’re still two attachments behind as
compared to if you don’t use Giant Whirlpool, but this
takes some of the sting out of the cost, and as
mentioned with Tidal Storm having less Energy on your
Active can make it harder to KO. Even though this
Kyogre-EX can hit hard with Giant Whirlpool, Water
Pulse is probably more valuable as it sets up for a OHKO
against most Pokémon-EX with a follow up Tidal Storm the
next turn (and against many even with a follow up Giant
Whirlpool). Being able to use Double Colorless
Energy seems good except that Tidal Storm only has a
since [C] Energy requirement, so after Mega Evolving
you’re only ahead when it comes to paying to retreat.
In Expanded you can also use Kyogre-EX (BW:
Dark Explorers 26/108, 104/108). It is a Basic,
Water-Type Pokémon-EX with no Resistance and that
massive four Energy Retreat Cost, just like today’s
version, but with 10 less HP, Lightning Weakness and of
course, two different attacks. For [WC] it can use
Smash Turn to hit for 30 while moving itself to the
Bench and for [WWC] it can use Dual Splash to hit two of
your opponent’s Pokémon (your choice of course), with
Weakness and Resistance not applying for Benched
targets. Both attacks were actually useful enough that
this saw some successful competitive play for a short
time after being released, and while the HP is 10 less
and even with decks trying to exploit Lightning-Type
Weakness it still might be useful because Water-Types
with Lightning-Type Resistance haven’t been printed so
far in the XY era. Then again there are more
Lightning-Type attackers worth their salt in this format
so it ultimately may even out or prove a detriment.
So… why is Primal Kyogre-EX so good? Time to
come clean; I’m no longer so sure it is especially good.
I realized after our Top 10 lists were submitted that
I’d made a simple but significant error; when glancing
at the cards somehow I’d mentally swapped the Energy
cost for Tidal Storm with that of Giant Whirlpool. Why
is that so significant? Right now it takes three turns
or outside help to ready a Primal Kyogre-EX; even
with Kyogre Spirit Link and α Growth you’ll need
that time to get enough Energy onto Primal Kyogre-EX…
or at least the first one. After that, with a well
built deck you can stream (pardon the pun) attackers:
the first Primal Kyogre-EX shunts two to four
Energy (depending upon how many times it gets to attack)
to the second, repeated for the third if you get three
out. Even if it is just two Energy, α Growth can then
ready the next Primal Kyogre-EX the turn it goes
to attack. So most decks built around this card that I
have seen are trying to do just that; running few (if
any) other Basic Pokémon. Conversations with those I
trust indicate that this is enough to overwhelm
opponent’s as the Bench damage accumulates so that even
if the first Tidal Storm isn’t scoring a OHKO, later
ones effectively are. If running just Primal Kyogre-EX
and Kyogre-EX for Pokémon, the deck runs
Silent Lab to deal with things like Safeguard.
My own experience so far has merely been against the
deck, on the PTCGO, helping a new acquaintance test it
(and maybe one or two other random opponent’s using it).
It hasn’t performed well; I’ve lost but the reason is
almost undeniably my own bad plays or some degree of
“luck”. It seems like when building the deck, either
you require a pinpoint focus so that you never miss an
Energy drop (you can’t afford it) but then are
vulnerable to any sort of counter-strategy, or you
diversify a little but at the risk of never achieving
the needed speed/set-up to get things really going. I’m
also an oddball; until recently when I broke down and
added in Jirachi-EX, I had decks with no
Pokémon-EX in them whatsoever… at least among my decks
that perform “better” than the rest (remember, I’m a
long time player, not a “good” player). Those I’ve
talked to either are willing to accept the VirGen
match-up as an auto-loss or try to include something
like Kyurem (BW: Plasma Freeze 31/116),
hoping it will be enough to compensate for Weakness. As
you can tell by the lack of details, I’m not exactly
sure how that works, if it works.
Keep in mind whether I’m right or wrong, this card is
going to see a lot of play; its one of the two main
“Poster-mons” of the set and has a significant fan
following as far as I can tell. It will appeal to
player’s inner-Timmy and inner-Johnny, because its huge
and hits hard, but not in quite as direct a manner as
say Primal Groudon-EX requiring more complexity
to use it well. We also already have seen some scans
and spoilers of cards from the next set,
Emerald Break (Japan)/XY: Roaring Skies
(International); its an Item that allows you to attach
an Energy from the discard pile to one of your Mega
Evolutions in play. That basically eliminates all my
concerns as if you can start the Tidal Storm front on
your second turn, even if you’re not scoring OHKOs
against Pokémon-EX that is okay as you probably aren’t
getting OHKOed yourself and are scoring Bench damage
that is usually too little to waste a card healing, but
significant enough in the long run.
Ratings
Standard:
3.75/5 - Definitely deck specific for the rating and I
while I feel like I might be being a bit generous, I’m
sure this is going to be one of the lowest scores you
see (not even just for Pojo, but in general). I have a
hard time ignoring how if the set-up is even a little
weak, you’re in for an uphill battle. If you face off
against decks that either sport solid Grass-Type
attackers (let alone VirGen) or don’t rely on Pokémon-EX
(and aren’t Water Weak), it becomes a lot of effort for
a straight 150 damage. Yes you’re getting OHKOs but
even if your opponent isn’t, when having to take six
Prizes there is an increased risk of the “hiccuping”,
more so than what faces normal decks.
Expanded:
3.75/5 - It may boring to read the words, but for what
the card pool adds to this card in terms of new allies
and tricks, it compensates for with more general
competition as well as potential counters. Otherwise it
is the same as it is for Standard.
Limited:
5/5 - Obviously you need Kyogre-EX to even
consider this, but if you pull that you’ll still want
Primal Kyogre-EX. Unlike with Gardevoir and
M Gardevoir, Kyogre-EX doesn’t have as
good of attacks though; I think it could still pull off
a +39 build but I’m less sure. Also reversed is the
impact of Mega Evolving; you definitely want to
unless you absolutely cannot give up a turn of attacking
when it comes to Primal Kyogre-EX. Without your
own Bench (and your opponent probably not having a
Pokémon-EX on his or her own Bench), Tidal Storm just
does a straight 150… which should OHKOs almost every
non-Pokémon-EX in the set. You won’t have to move any
Energy cards since you lack a Bench. Unless you decide
to play it safe and run this in a regular deck, in which
case its still pretty much a must run with Kyogre-EX
unless you absolutely cannot work Water Energy
into the deck.
Summary:
Primal Kyogre-EX was actually my number four pick
and that was with the earlier error in reading the
Energy cost of Tidal Storm. I’m unnerved that players I
respect are telling me its “great” when I think its
simply “good”. I don’t think its the best card this set
though it might be the most popular, so I’m not too put
out by it being the overall number one pick. Expect to
see this everywhere, because even though I think its not
quite as good as the hype now, once we get whatever they
call our version of Mega Turbo its probably going
to at least come close to what was expected of it now…
and if I’m wrong, then it may just be even better if
nothing else takes it back down a notch.
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