aroramage |
Glalie-EX is...well...not as
remarkable as M Glalie-EX. He's another example of how
Pokemon has kinda forgotten to really give us memorable
base EXs when it comes to Megas.
...actually, can I just talk about
that for a second? Is it just me, or have the
Mega-evolving Pokemon in the TCG gotten some fantastic
Megas and maybe some...mediocre base forms? I mean,
there are some cases that are exceptions, notably the
earlier Mega-evolvers like Charizard-EX back in
Flashfire, Lucario-EX in Furious Fists, and even Gengar-EX
in Phantom Forces, but what other Pokemon with a Mega
Evo have been more usable outside of evolving into their
Mega form?
I'm thinking of Manectric-EX,
Sceptile-EX, and...um...well...I'm not really sure
outside of that.
Glalie-EX isn't going to be joining
that list either, since his attacks are...meh. Don't get
me wrong, there are times when they're useful and even
powerful, but they are very niche and need to be planned
around. Ice Breath starts off with only 1 Energy, does
no damage, and gives you a coin flip to Paralyze the
opposing Pokemon. 50/50 for Paralysis is fair, but this
attack SHOULD be doing damage! I'm almost positive if it
were just Glalie-EX, this would be doing at least 20-30
damage and be keeping the Paralysis effect, but no, he's
gotta MEGA EVOLVE!!
And you know what's better than
having one okay attack that doesn't justify using Glalie-EX
normally over M Glalie-EX? HAVING TWO OKAY ATTACKS THAT
DON'T JUSTIFY-
And that's where Instant Freeze
comes in. It's an abysmal 3-for-50 strike that only gets
stronger under one condition. It'll do 100 more damage
if and only if you and your opponent have the same
number of cards in your hands! Now that's not to say it
won't happen, but you're going to have to go to greater
lengths monitoring your opponent and making sure that
you don't overextend your hand so that you can match up
with the number of cards in your opponent's hand so that
you CAN do more damage instead of doing far less damage
that isn't even worth it whereas the MEGA form just
needs to take enough damage to do absurd amounts of
damage.
So again, I ask you: why do base
forms of Mega-Evolvers suck?
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (a coin flip strike
that does no damage and an attack that wants you to play
around your opponent...yeahhhhh, he's made to Mega
Evolve)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (at least here
there are cards that can make it easier to match your
opponent's hand size!)
Limited: 4/5 (yeah, he's definitely
worth it here, considering the overall lower HP score)
Arora Notealus: At least Glalie's
got the niche appearance of giant ice mouth covered in
Pokemon. Especially when he goes MEGA, cause then he's
JUST a giant mouth. His Shiny form though gets red eyes,
making him look a little bit more...evilllllllll.
Next Time: From the icy core of
doom to...butterfly?
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Otaku |
Glalie-EX
(XY: BREAKthrough 34/162, 155/162) is a
Water-Type, striking Weakness against nearly all
Fire-Types and a chunk of Fighting-Types, with
Resistance will only be an issue in Expanded play on
many older Grass-Types. It also grants access to
some nice support cards (Archie’s Ace in the Hole,
Dive Ball, etc.) and the few anti-Water-Type
cards aren’t worth mentioning in detail. Being a
Basic Pokémon is the best: easy to put into play,
minimum space requirements, some Stage based support and
many effects naturally work better for Basics than other
Stages, but there are some anti-Basic Pokémon cards that
show up from time to time. Glalie-EX is of
course Pokémon-EX so it gives up an extra Prize when
KOed, has to deal with certain anti-Pokémon-EX effects
and can’t access certain beneficial effects, but this
might lead it to having better-than-usual attacks and
did give it better HP than it normally would have had. Glalie-EX
has 170 HP which is the lower of the two typical score
for Basic Pokémon-EX but still high enough to not be an
easy OHKO, except perhaps when Weakness is factored in;
Metal Weakness isn’t a good thing mostly because
Bronzong (XY: Phantom Forces 61/119) is used
to back a couple different decks, and while it is
usually not built around Metal-Type Pokémon, something
like Heatran (XY: Phantom Forces 63/119).
Lack of Resistance is typical so while it could have
been handy, it isn’t a problem. What might be a
bit of a problem is the Retreat Cost of [CCC];
definitely past the point you’ll be able to easily pay
and recover from having paid, though if you need
Heavy Ball or Heavy Boots they’ll work.
Glalie-EX
has no Ancient Trait nor an Ability, but it does have
two attacks. The first is “Ice Breath” for [W],
which allows Glalie-EX to Paralyze the opponent’s
Active if you get “heads” on a coin flip (on “tails” the
attack does nothing). This is just a little
expensive, perhaps more noticeable because it is on a
Pokémon-EX, but it makes for a decent low Energy attack
while you’re trying to set-up for the next one, “Instant
Freeze”. Instant Freeze requires [WCC] so two
manual Energy attachments, with one providing [W] and
the other being a Double Colorless Energy can
ready it at a decent pace. For the effort
Glalie-EX hits for only 50 damage, which is pretty
poor however the attack has a clause stating the
attack does 50+100 (so 150 total) if you and your
opponent have the same amount of cards in hand. 150 for
three is really good; a Muscle Band allows you to
OHKO 170 HP Pokémon, with Poison taking out 180 HP
targets (with Virbank City Gym you could even
leave out the Muscle Band). Faded Town
can also prove handy if you’re facing Mega Evolutions;
even hands synched up, Muscle Band, Poison and
Faded Town you’re not scoring OHKOs except for the
smallest (rarely if ever played) Mega Evolutions, but if
your opponent doesn’t discard Faded Town, heal,
bounce, devolve or something to make it so that their
Pokémon are no longer Mega Evolutions then the deed will
soon be done. You might also consider Empoleon
(XY: BREAKthrough 38/162) for a boost.
As you will recall from our Top 10 Cards of XY:
BREAKthrough Glalie-EX doesn’t have to be the
focus of a deck that needs it: M Glalie-EX was
our
10th place finisher!
If you need a quick refresher, M Glalie-EX keeps
the same Type, Weakness, lack of Resistance, Retreat
Cost, lack of Ancient Trait and lack of Ability as
Glalie-EX but adds 50 HP (so 220 HP now), the
baggage of being a Mega Evolution (extra card, extra
turn that ends when you Mega Evolve, anti-Mega Evolution
cards) and the attack “Cryo Mouth” that costs the same
as Instant Freeze but does 100 plus another 150 (so 250
total) if M Glalie-EX has at least 10 damage
counters on it. Once again
The Charizard Lounge
has been keeping a tally of what managed to at least
make top four at the recent City Championships in the
Masters Division and M Glalie-EX doesn’t seem to
have managed it… but Glalie-EX did!
I am seeing a single third place finish for Hot Springs,
Arkansas by one Micah Page… and that was good enough to
justify giving Glalie-EX its own review.
In Standard you don’t have as many choices for… well
technically for anything like you would in Expanded. Glalie-EX
has less competition for being a hard-hitting Water-Type
attacker in Standard, but also will have access to fewer
tricks; I’m not sure which suits it better. In
Limited play it is a very nice pull; as it needs only
[W] for Type specific Energy costs it is relatively easy
to splash into decks and while it will be much more
difficult to match hand sizes with your opponent, odds
are you can still manage a solid +39 deck around it (a
deck where Glalie-EX is your only Basic Pokémon,
guaranteeing you open with it every game but that you
lose if it is KOed).
Ratings
Standard:
3.15/5
Expanded:
3.15/5
Limited:
4.25/5
Summary:
If a quick, potentially misread write-up of recent City
Championship results is accurate, then Glalie-EX
is currently outperforming its Mega Evolution in
competitive play. I haven’t tried it out
personally but since I used M Glalie-EX for a
recent PTCGO challenge I’ve got a playset handy.
Looks like I’ll need to try and see if I can figure out
a Glalie-EX deck because it never hurts to have a
little more variety available.
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