aroramage |
Hello and welcome to a super
special week! This week, it's all about the Eeveelutions,
but not just because they're all out and about - now
they've all been given the EX treatment! So to start,
let's take a look at Leafeon-EX from Generations!
Now Leafeon-EX here isn't
EXceptional (see what I did there?), but he's got some
neat perks. For starters, his HP is at 170, which is
nice as it shows that Eeveelutions won't get the really
short end of the stick like some other EX Pokemon have -
they'll average out around this number more than not.
Beyond that though, Leafeon-EX doesn't really have that
much else going for him.
He's only got two attacks, the
first of which being Leaf Blade. It's nothing special -
2-for-30 with a coin flip for an extra 30 damage. So
it's got potential to be good, but it's not something to
rely upon. Nature's Breath, on the other hand, is pretty
nice - 3-for-90 is a bit low for an EX, but if there's a
Stadium in play, Leafeon-EX can do 30 more damage and
heal off 30 damage too. That gives him a bit more
staying power in the long run, and having a Stadium in
play puts his attack in 2HKO range for most Pokemon!
That being said, it's not anything
too impressive. Don't get me wrong, Leafeon-EX is pretty
solid, but compared to some of the other EXs out there,
he does have a few shortcomings. His damage output is
otherwise low for his costs, and it's only by the
boosting effects they've got that he's even playable.
Still, he's worth a shot in running if you wanna try out
something different, I'd say.
Just keep away from Fire decks.
They'll tear Leafeon apart...like a leaf...eon...
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (low damage for
high costs isn't exactly stellar, but again, the attacks
themselves are relatively solid)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (he just needs the
right support for what he can do, and then he might be
passable)
Limited: 3.5/5 (BE THE LEAF~)
Arora Notealus: Dang, I almost got
through this review without making that Korra reference.
Next Time: If you do end up having
trouble with Fire though, why not try...
|
Otaku |
Welcome to a week
of not just Eeveelutions, but of the EX variety!
Up first is
Leafeon-EX (Generations 10/83). Being a
Grass Type is a good example of the “Your Mileage May
Vary” principle? Why? In terms of Type
support the best Grass Types enjoy (Forest of Giant
Plants) does nothing for Leafeon-EX. Battle
Compressor plus Revitalizer is still a great
combo, but if the deck only has a few Grass Type Pokémon
in it, it may not be worth the space. In terms of
Grass Type specific counters, nothing has proven
particularly worthwhile. Resistance doesn’t even
exist for Grass Types unless we start messing with
Unlimited cards. In terms of exploiting Weakness,
a good chunk of the Water Type and some of the Fighting
Type are Grass Weak. Greninja BREAK and
Primal Groudon-EX are Grass weak main attackers in
their own deck, while Seismitoad-EX and Keldeo-EX
can be supporting or primary attackers and Grass Weak.
Next set may give us a few more key Grass Weak cards,
but those don’t count for scoring purposes right now.
If these decks have little presence in your metagame,
being a Grass Type for something that doesn’t Evolve is
fairly neutral, but some or all of those decks are
played heavily then it becomes a huge advantage; odds
are it will fall somewhere in between.
Being a Pokémon-EX
means giving up an extra Prize when KOed, dealing with
anti-Pokémon-ex effects, and being unable to access
certain pieces of support (as they exclude Pokémon-EX).
It usually means the card’s attributes and/or effects
are better, but many cards are lacking in one or the
other. In this case though there is an additional
benefit: Leafeon-EX is a Basic instead of a Stage
1 card. Being a Basic is the best because even
though there are anti-Basic Pokémon-EX, the Basic Stage
support has proven more relevant, being a Basic takes
less time and/or deck space than Evolutions, and it even
provides better synergy with what should be neutral card
effects. Leafeon-EX does cash in on the promise
of extra HP as it has 170 while “regular” recent
Leafeon have 90 and Leafeon [Plasma] has 100:
a 70 or 80 HP bonus is good! With 170 HP
Leafeon-EX has durability; most decks can go for a
OHKO but several will need to commit extra resources
and/or get a bit lucky, while a few decks just can’t
manage it. The Fire Weakness is an example of how
a deck may get lucky; Fire Types aren’t everywhere but
they exist and this should ensure the OHKO unless their
setup is quite weak. The lack of Resistance simply
because the mechanic is relatively tame compared to
important avoiding/exploiting Weakness has been since
reverting to the x2 for all cards. The Retreat
Cost of [CC] is low enough you can probably pay it if
you must but high enough you really want to avoid the
full price; pack some means of lowering or bypassing the
cost entirely.
Leafeon-EX
lacks an Ancient Trait or Ability but at least it has
two attacks. The first is “Leaf Blade” for [GC],
which does 30 damage plus has a coin flip: “heads” does
an extra 30 (so 60 total) while “tails” means just the
original 30 is done. At a cost of [GGC] Leafeon-EX
can use “Nature’s Breath” for 90 damage plus a little
extra if a Stadium is in play: +30 damage to the
opponent’s Active while healing 30 from Leafeon-EX
itself. The attacks aren’t burdened with difficult
Energy costs and are structured to lead into each other,
but neither are they as fast as most of the competitive
attackers. The obvious thing is that it cannot use
Double Colorless Energy to shave a turn off of
your build time, nor is there a particularly good
substitute. Don’t get me wrong; I wish the rest of
the format was like that but it isn’t, so compared to
what dominates this is slow. It doesn’t offset
that with its effects or raw power, but it doesn’t fail
completely in those areas. Leaf Blade is as simple
as the tails/heads divide: 30 for two is filler while 60
for two is good (though still not great). Nature’s
Breath is a bit more complicated; even without a Stadium
you’re at that crucial “2HKO 180 HP Basic Pokémon-EX”
level. With a Stadium it gets bumped up to the
next important benchmark, scoring a 2HKO against a 240
HP (or less) Mega Evolution, barring those with
protective effects like M Rayquaza-EX (XY:
Roaring Skies 61/108). When Weakness is
factored in, we see some OHKOs at these levels.
The healing is a small bonus as it often won’t change
how quickly Leafeon-EX will be KOed.
So should you use
this card and if so, where? There are no other
Leafeon-EX to pick from but there are many other
Basic Pokémon-EX that easily beat it out in terms of a
general beatstick. Even focusing on the
Grass-Type, the competition is just too much. With
Virbank City Gym, a Muscle Band, and a
source of Poison you can get Nature’s Breath up to an
effective 170 damage, but the same thing allows
Sceptile-EX (XY: Ancient Origins 7/98, 84/98)
to do fake 180 damage for just [GC] with its “Unseen
Claw” attack. The story is similar for any other
use which occurred to me; if we make Leafeon-EX
decent, then something else takes the same resources and
does at least a little better. The only place
where this isn’t an issue is in Limited; on the off
chance you are using Generations for some sort of
Limited Format play, Leafeon-EX is a good pull;
you might even risk running it completely on its own to
ensure you open with it.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5
Expanded:
1.75/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Leafeon-EX isn’t as bad of a card as its score
suggests, but like many it suffers from the crowded
field. We have better Basic beatsticks. We
have better Grass Type attackers. With the same
resources supporting them, we even have slightly better
candidates for various Grass Type Basic Pokémon-EX
beatsticks.
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