aroramage |
Alright, NOW we're getting into
some good stuff! Yveltal isn't that new to the TCG (this
is the fourth card made of him, including the EX), but
he's always seemed to pervade throughout the Dark decks
of Standard, especially with the lack of support that
we've got in Expanded.
Now at first glance, Yveltal
doesn't seem like he's gonna be that great in the Active
slot. He's got a lot of promise, but he also doesn't
seem to give enough. The first thing you may notice is
his Ability, Fright Night, which sets him up to be a big
part of the Active slot. While he's there, Fright Night
lets Yveltal nullify every Pokemon Tool in play - yours
and your opponent's. This is actually a really big card;
sure, it keeps you from powering up Yveltal with Muscle
Band or using something like Assault Vest to keep him
sturdy, but it also keeps your opponent from doing the
same. And one big Pokemon Tool that's seen a lot of play
means Yveltal in turn ought to see a lot of play: Spirit
Links.
Yep, Yveltal can shut down any
Spirit Link in play and force your opponent to get rid
of Yveltal as quick as they can in order to avoid the
hassle of ending their turn by the Mega Rule. What they
may have a problem with, though, is that most
Mega-Evolving Basics tend to have a rough time dealing
that 130 HP - there's a surprisingly small number of
them that can do it, though Electric-Types will have it
a little easier. To compensate - or rather, to
capitalize on his newfound bulk against these guys -
Yveltal also has Pitch-Black Spear, which does 3-for-60
at first - which can 3HKO most any Pokemon-EX in the
game...which is alright, but then you see the second
part where its effect can deal ANOTHER 60 damage to a
Benched EX!
In other words: Yveltal is the Dark
deck's answer to Mega Evolution.
It's simple to play: start with
Yveltal in the Active slot, stopping their Spirit Links
from going off, and then just gradually power him up.
Combine this with the Hammer cards to knock off your
opponent's Energy and slow them down, and then just let
Yveltal thrust his Pitch-Black Spear at them until
they're weakened - or worse, KO'd!
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (he's a great starter
option and a great answer to Mega Evo decks)
Expanded: 3/5 (while the range of
decks broadens, the Dark support does as well, so things
even out here)
Limited: 4/5 (Pitch-Black Spear
will go a long way here just on the 60 damage alone,
never mind that the Tools are useless)
Arora Notealus: Still love my Dark
Red Bird!!
Next Time: The dark side...and the
light... *STAR WARS FANFARE*
|
Otaku |
Time
for another late review: this is going up probably no
earlier than February 8, 2016 even though it was
supposed to be posted nearly a month earlier. I
hate missing reviews so I wanted to take care of
this gap before starting in on the next set.
Yveltal
(XY: BREAKthrough 94/162) is a Basic
Darkness-Type with 130 HP, Lightning Weakness, Fighting
Resistance, with a Retreat Cost of [CC], no Ancient
Trait, one Ability (Fright Night) and attack
(Pitch-Black Spear). Being a Basic is the best
because of time and space savings, natural synergy with
many card effects, being able to function as an opening
Pokémon and there are even cards that specifically
benefit Basic Pokémon! There are a few anti-Basic
cards, but only a few like Silent Lab are easy to
work into a variety of decks. Being a
Darkness-Type is good and less because of explicit Type
support but more because they just have some great cards
like Yveltal-EX, Yveltal (XY
78/146; XY: Black Star Promos XY06) and
Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162) that are
mighty and often mixed in with other Types. There
are a few Darkness Weak cards like Pumpkaboo (XY:
Phantom Forces 44/119) that see a lot of competitive
play, but in general it isn’t a huge benefit, plus while
a chunk of Psychic-Types are Darkness Weak all
Fairy-Types are Darkness Resistant. There is
explicit Type support but the best is the Expanded-only
Dark Patch. There are also some cards with
negative effects that specifically target
Darkness-Types, but they are only worth mentioning to
keep me from forgetting they exist.
130 HP
is as good as it gets for a Basic that isn’t a
Pokémon-EX, and while still well within OHKO range for a
lot of decks, it is at that point where the HP really
starts to help and survival becomes a bit more likely.
Lightning Weakness is dangerous as there are many
Lightning-Types that can use the boost, even if only as
insurance. As there are a lot of Lightning Weak
Pokémon currently popular, so expect to encounter a good
deal of Lightning-Types. Any Resistance is
appreciated, and while Fighting-Types are known for
having multiple buffs (allowing them to more easily
overwhelm Resistance) as well as effects that ignore
Resistance, it still is likely to come in handy.
The Retreat Cost of [CC] is high enough you will want to
avoid paying it when possible but low enough that if you
must, it shouldn’t be too bad: have Double Colorless
Energy, will travel. The Ability joins the
family of Abilities that function only while the Pokémon
is Active and shut down the effects of a particular
subset of the TCG. Fright Night causes Pokémon
tools to cease functioning. Most decks use Pokémon
Tools in some capacity besides slowing down damage
output, getting around tricky protective or counter
effects, you also will render Spirit Link cards
useless. Pitch-Black Spear is a great name for an
attack. It costs [DCC] but only does 60 damage to
the opponent’s Active, which is not good, but it
also does 60 to one of your opponent’s Benched
Pokémon-EX. Terrible if your opponent doesn’t have
one, but a solid return when they do.
There
are two other Yveltal to pick from, available in
both Standard and Expanded play. One is the first
Yveltal we got, the aforementioned XY
78/146 (again also available as XY: Black Star Promos
XY06) while the other is a different promo, XY: Black
Star Promos XY32. Both have identical
attributes to today’s version, but the effects are
different: still no Ancient Traits, but two attacks and
no Abilities. XY 78/146 has the attack “Oblivion
Wing” to hit for 30 while attaching a [D] Energy from
your discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon, as
well as the attack “Darkness Blade” that costs [DDC] and
hits for 100 damage, but requires a coin flip. The
attack works whether it is “heads” or “tails”, but
“tails” means this Pokémon can’t attack the next turn. XY:
Black Star Promos XY32 needs [DCC] for its first
attack (Air Crash) which does 50 damage, plus gives you
a coin flip: “heads” discards an Energy attached to your
opponent’s Active, “tails” means you just do the 50
damage with no additional effect. For [DDCC] you
can use “Wings of Destruction” to hit for 80 damage; if
your opponent has Xerneas or Xerneas-EX in
play, the attack does an additional 40 damage. XY
78/146 is the main Yveltal a player runs due to
its very good attacks and attributes; it was reviewed
here
as the fifth best card of the initial XY set. XY:
Black Star Promos XY32 never got a review because it
is a bad card and I guess no one felt like using it even
for filler. Both attacks are horribly overpriced
or underpowered (probably a bit of both).
Just
because the original Yveltal is so good doesn’t
mean XY: BREAKthrough 94/162 shouldn’t see play.
In fact it may help it: as long as you can spare a slot,
you can probably run a single copy to take advantage of
Fright Night and Pitch-Black Spear as most decks won’t
need more than three of the oldest Yveltal, be it
Expanded or Standard play. A few decks that focus
on hit-and-run tactics may use XY: BREAKthrough
94/162 on its own for the Ability, but I don’t think
Fright night is as potent as say Wobbuffet (XY:
Phantom Forces 36/119) and its Bide Barricade.
For Limited play I’d take and run this Yveltal:
there are a few Pokémon Tools to disrupt (beyond just
Spirit Link cards) but the main thing is being a
buff 130 HP Basic. You can’t make this the center
of your deck but even though most of the time you’ll
just be doing the base 60 damage with Pitch-Black Spear,
here that should be enough.
Ratings
Standard:
3/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Another way for certain decks to deal with Pokémon
Tools, and some of the newest releases make me glad for
it. I had this as my twelfth place pick on my
personal Top 15 list for XY: BREAKthrough, which
allowed it to be the 15th place pick for the overall
list. Since we only did a Top 10, that is why it
wasn’t reviewed promptly. In terms of voting
points, it only had four and thus missed making the Top
10 by a sizable margin. Checking the Masters
Division results of the City Championships over on
The Charizard Lounge there actually is a deck that used this version enough to warrant
including it in the brief description, and it managed a
Top 3 finish, so this is definitely a card to look out
for, especially if you’ve got a Pokémon Tool reliant
build.
|
