aroramage |
Hey what's this gal doing here?
Shouldn't she be getting ready for Sun & Moon? Well I
guess she is, along with the new movie.
Magearna-EX, aside from looking
like Diancie-EX roboticized, is a pretty nice new shiny
asset to the Metal decks that still hang around, so
let's take a look at what she brings to the table! Soul
Blaster isn't too bad an attack, doing 3-for-120, but
the effect does show that Magearna-EX is better left on
the Bench, since it makes the base damage 60 instead of
120 on the next turn. Sure, that still means Magearna-EX
hits for 180 HP over two turns, but all it takes is a
good switch into something that can take out the 160 HP
she's got - which isn't that too much more than 120 in
the grand scheme of things.
That leaves Mystic Heart, her
Ability. Effectively this prevents attack effects from
harming your Pokemon in any way, outside of damage - the
only thing they need is Metal Energy. It's a pretty
decent Ability in and of itself, and that's a reasonable
amount of protection for such little requirement. And
since it's not restrictive to a certain Type, Magearna-EX
can splash into any deck running Metal Energy for
whatever reason - like Dragons, for instance!
Course, it's not foolproof
protection, and Magearna-EX isn't gonna be a main
attacker with it, but it's a start for Metal decks,
which are going to be losing a lot of support with
Phantom Forces rotating out. They're gonna need all they
can get, and Magearna-EX may be the new head once
rotation hits.
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (on her own, she's
not terribly impressive, but...)
Expanded: 3.5/5 (combined with the
Metal support, she can really pull out some good combos)
Limited: 3.5/5 (and though a
Limited setting lowers her Mystic Heart synergies, Soul
Blaster does become much stronger)
Arora Notealus: Magearna is an
interesting Pokemon to say the least. I've heard
theories about her being the first "Pokeball" invented
by man, like she's ancient technology or something. I'll
stick with Robo-Diancie all the same.
Next Time: Time to bring back
something...special!
|
Otaku |
Number eight in our
top 10 countdown for the latest expansion is Magearna-EX
(XY: Steam Siege 75/114, 110), and the debut of
Magearna in the TCG. Missing out on the
resurrected Dual Type mechanic, Magearna-EX is a
mono-Type Metal Pokémon. All Fairy Type Pokémon
and some Water Types (the ones that actually represent
the video game Ice Type) are Metal Weak; not the most
abundantly used in competitive play, but they are there.
Metal Resistance became the default for Lightning
Pokémon in the XY-era, though there are a few that
Resist something else instead. While in terms of
Type matching Metal is a bit of a disappointment, it
does have an almost surprising amount of support.
You have two Stadiums from which to pick, Steel
Shelter and Reverse Valley, though the latter
is a two-sided Stadium where one side favors Metal and
the other Darkness Types. Shield Energy is a
solid (savor the pun) Special Energy card; not essential
but helpful when you have room for it. There are
some great Metal Type attackers, many of which can
either be the focus of a deck like Genesect-EX (XY:
Fates Collide 64/124, 120/124) or act in a
supporting role like Heatran (XY: Phantom
Forces 63/119). Bronzong (XY: Phantom
Forces 61/119) can use its “Metal Links” Ability to
attach Metal Energy from the discard pile, which has
enabled a competitive Metal Type deck or two, as well as
several variants with a non-Metal Type main attacker.
If the support doesn’t seem impressive, remember that
I’m leaving out a lot in terms of Pokémon for the sake
of (relative) brevity.
As a Pokémon-EX,
Magearna-EX gives up two Prizes when KO’d, must deal
with Pokémon-EX counters, and cannot use certain
supporting card effects (the later being trivial in most
instances). This is typically offset by a
Pokémon-EX having better stats and effects than their
regular counterparts, though we have no regular
Magearna with which to compare (yet). This
version has 160 HP; lower than is typical of a Basic
Pokémon-EX but still large enough that surviving a OHKO
is more likely than not. As I constantly stress,
everything can be OHKO’d right now with specific decks
managing to do so rapidly, reliably, and repeatedly: 160
is still adequate provided the rest of the card doesn’t
disappoint. Fire Weakness is typical of Metal
Types and fortunately for them, Fire Type decks haven’t
been so hot lately. No Weakness is safe and
between older archetypes that could reheat or new ones
players are burning to try (whether they can be a
sustained success or not), it might just take the
metagame shifting a bit more to reignite the Fire Type
(yes, I am enjoying my word play). Still, despite
my caution (pessimism?) it is far better than being Weak
to a Type currently active as a competitive deck’s main
attacker. Any Resistance is appreciated; normally
-20 against a single Type wouldn’t mean much but this
might be an exception because it can throw off Night
march calculations. Magearna-EX has a Retreat
Cost of [C], which is easy to pay and recover from
having paid (most of the time).
Magearna-EX
has an Ability and attack. The Ability is “Mystic
Heart” which protects Pokémon with at least one unit of
[M] Energy attached from the effects (but not
damage!) done by your opponent’s attacks. Damage
counter placement, Special Conditions, changing out your
Active, etc. are all denied by Mystic Heart as long as
their source is an attack by your opponent’s Pokémon.
Mystic Heart doesn’t care about any aspect of your
Pokémon save that they have a source of [M] Energy
attached. It will not remove effects of
attacks already in place, probably as most of these
aren’t marked on a card, making it difficult to track.
The attack on Magearna-EX is “Soul Blaster” and
it requires [MCC] to do 120, but places an effect on
itself that makes Soul Blaster only do 60 damage the
next turn. 120-for-three is reasonably good, and you’ll
average an adequate 90 per turn if Magearna-EX
can’t reset the attack effect. As there really is
a risk Magearna-EX could be OHKO’d, it is better
that instead of the effect increasing a lower amount of
damage to a useful level, it hits for a decent amount
and then is lowered. The attack is good quality
“filler”, but the Ability is why you should consider
Magearna-EX in your decks that can supply [M]
Energy.
So what decks
qualify? Bronzong decks are a start, but so is
anything that runs Blend Energy WLFM, Double
Dragon Energy, Prism Energy, and/or
Rainbow Energy. Now notice I said “consider”;
maybe you won’t need Magearna-EX, maybe you will,
but mostly I expect it to prove useful without being
necessary. Decks may already include enough other
forms of protection that much of Mystic Heart is
redundant. For example Bronzong (XY:
Fates Collide 61/124) and its “Metal Fortress”
Ability protects your Benched Pokémon from attack
effects while Steel Shelter can protect your
Active from Special Conditions; that’s a lot of what
Mystic Heart can also protect against. I think
Magearna-EX is going to show up often enough in
decks that can provide [M] Energy reasonably well, but
isn’t going to be a staple. Some decks don't have
enough room while others won’t have enough of a need.
So that is the verdict for Standard and Expanded; in
Limited go ahead and take it. Too much Fire in
this set to risk building a deck entirely around
Magearna-EX, but attack effects tend to be more
important here; as long as you can spread some Metal
Energy around then a Benched Magearna-EX can
offer protection from said effects, and maybe rush
forward to push for the win.
Ratings
Standard:
3.35/5
Expanded:
3.25/5
Limited:
4.5/5
Summary:
Magearna-EX offers a nice bit of protection while
sitting on the Bench, provided your deck can meet the
Energy requirement. Where it fits, it really fits
and where it doesn’t, it really doesn’t, giving it an
above average but not stellar score.
Magearna-EX
managed eight voting points, four more than our
9th
and
10th
place finishers, and two below
tomorrow’s
subject. Magerna-EX only got one of those points
from me, for I had it as my 10th place pick. Not
too worried about it scoring a bit higher because again,
the bottom half of my list seemed to be on more or less
even footing.
|
