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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Bronzong BREAK - Fates Collide
Date Reviewed: June 28, 2016

Ratings & Reviews Summary: Standard: 2.37   Expanded: 2.4    Limited: 3.5
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.  1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page

 


aroramage

Yep, Bronzong gets a new BREAK evolution as well, and it's...well, something. 

Its only attack is Metal Rain, which at 2 Energy has a bit of a hefty effect. First, you discard all the Metal Energy attached to Bronzong BREAK. Then for each one of those cards discarded, you get to deal 30 damage to one of your opponent's Pokemon. In a way, you can pin a lot of damage onto one target or split it up among multiple targets to spread out the damage as much as you can and set up for later. So that's not too shabby. 

But generally speaking? I'm not really a huge fan of this. Sure, you can choose how much Energy you discard and where all the damage goes (and yes, it does "counter" Night March by dealing a lot of damage to claim multiple Prizes at once), but it's not really designed to work with the newer Bronzong from this set. In fact, it's designed with the older one in mind. It would at least explain the 130 HP and the usage of all that Metal Energy that I'm pretty sure Bronzong (PHF) would be hording. 

Never mind that he's not exactly "attacker" material. Metal Rain isn't really as offensive a move as it could be - it's only dealing 30 damage for every Energy, and while for some Pokemon that's more than enough to KO them, for most you're going to need 2 or more Energy. For a basic Pokemon-EX, most of the time you need 6 Energy, and for Megas, you'll need 8 Energy. And that is way too much Energy to be throwing away for this attack. 

That being said, it's not a bad idea on pecking damage here and there, so try him out while Bronzong (PHF) is still in the format and see how you like it. Then we can lament peacefully together when it disappears and we're only stuck with the Bronzong from this set. 

Rating 

Standard: 2.5/5 (it looks great in theory, but in practice it's generally an okay attack that's stellar against one deck) 

Expanded: 2.5/5 (and that's not usually enough to justify running it, but who knows?) 

Limited: 4/5 (I mean, I'm no expert on Bronzong-based Abilities) 

Arora Notealus: All I know of Bronzong's abilities are that he can summon rain clouds and sleep for 2000 years. But ya know, details, am I right? Where's my water-supporting Rain Dance Bronzong anyway? 

Next Time: Special delivery!


Otaku

As promised today we at Bronzong BREAK (XY: Fates Collide 62/124).  Time is fleeting for me today so I will be assuming you read yesterday’s CotD and only touch upon what was said.  Like every other currently legal Bronzor and Bronzong it is a Metal Type, though it is a Metal/Psychic Type in the video games.  The Metal Type seems about “average” for the the TCG right now, both that it doesn’t seem to be the best or worst type and that the good and the bad about the Type seem to balance out, though in the end I think it is a minor net positive (no seems really bad).  Being the BREAK Evolution of a Stage 1 is like being a Stage 2 card, which includes the difficulties of getting a Stage 2 into play but without the perks.  130 HP is about where a Pokémon goes from being more likely to be OHKO’d to more likely to survive, though this is not a carefully measured quantity but a guess based on my own experiences and recollection.  As a BREAK Evolution Bronzong BREAK will get its Weakness, Resistance, and Retreat Cost from whichever Bronzong it from which it BREAK Evolves.  Since they all have the same bottom stats unless we are in Unlimited - which we only discuss for a lark if we discuss it at all - Bronzong BREAK is going to be Fire Weak (s’okay), Psychic Resistant (somewhat handy) and have a Retreat Cost of either three or four (bad, though it makes Heavy Ball an option). 

Bronzong BREAK brings one more thing to the table; the attack “Metal Rain” for [MC].  Just to get the shallow side of things out of the way; I love that name though I’m not entirely sure why as it just “sounds cool” to me.  Metal Rain allows you to discard as many [M] Energy cards from Bronzong BREAK (or anything copying the attack) as you wish.  Each Energy discarded in this manner allows you to select an opposing Pokémon and do 30 damage to it.  You do not apply Weakness or Resistance to the damage being done but you care able to select the same Pokémon more than once.  You wouldn’t apply Weakness or Resistance to Benched Pokémon anyway so this only really matters for the opponent’s Active.  Normally it is a bad trade to miss out on damage doubling Weakness just to avoid the -20 from Resistance but one of your targets is likely to be Joltik (XY: Phantom Forces 26/119), which is a 30 HP, Metal Resistant Basic Pokémon you really wanted to be able to OHKO for a single Energy.  In fact Night March gives us a good way to explain the effect.  Say your opponent has one copy of that Joltik and one Pumpkaboo (XY: Phantom Forces 44/119) Benched while Mew (XY: Fates Collide 29/124) is Active.  If Bronzong BREAK discards five [M] Energy cards from itself with Metal Rain, you can choose to do 30 to Joltik, 60 to Pumpkaboo, and 60 to Mew to OHKO the lot of them.  You can spread the damage as you wish though, so if you say only discarded two Energy you could take out the Joltik while injuring one of the others or even just injury everything but the Joltik. 

Bronzong BREAK has to come from a Bronzong, and Bronzong has to come from a Bronzor.  I went through both yesterday but the highlights are that the only Bronzor to avoid is XY: BREAKthrough 95/162, the others have HP (BW: Next Destinies 75/99), a low Retreat Cost (XY: Phantom Forces 60/119), or an attack that might protect it during the next turn (XY: Fates Collide 60/124).  None are exceptional in these areas, just better than the rest.  Bronzong though are a different matter.  Technically all could be useful in different ways with BW: Next Destinies 76/99 blocking healing (amazing when it matters but usually useless), XY: Phantom Forces 61/119 (or XY: Black Star Promos XY21) providing Energy acceleration from the discard pile, XY: BREAKthrough 96/162 brings the best attacks, while yesterday’s XY: Fates Collide 61/124 has a Bench protecting Ability that blocks both damage and effects of your opponent’s attacks.  So do you run one of each?  Nope.  Bronzong BREAK may only need two Energy to use Metal Rain, but to use it well requires much, much more.  30 damage per Energy is “okay”, with its true value being how you can divvy it up, but you still need to hit hard against most decks.  Night March is probably the only place you’ll really benefit from hitting multiple targets.  In most other situations you’ll likely Metal Rain all on one target to get the desired OHKO.  You still need four [M] Energy to OHKO a Benched Shaymin-EX, and even an Active one requires discard three and have a Muscle Band attached.  Your typical Basic Pokémon-EX runs more like 170 to 180 and that means discarding five Energy even if you have some other damage boosting trick (Muscle Band, Silver Bangle, or Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym), or six to do it on its own. 

Once you get to things boosted by Fighting Fury Belt or Wailord-EX or Mega Evolutions you might have to discard all the Energy you would normally be running, since one of the heavily relied upon benefits of Bronzong (XY: Phantom Forces 61/119) is that you get by on less Energy because you can constantly reattach it from the discard pile.  If you run into a Wailord-EX with a Fighting Fury Belt and can’t discard the Pokémon Tool, you’re in trouble.  So is there any hope for Bronzong BREAK?  Yes, but it is pretty simple; you have a deck that already runs Bronzong (XY: Phantom Forces 61/119), preferably at a three or four count, and you still have space for a Bronzong BREAK.  In that case you run Bronzong BREAK mostly because you have a decent chance of getting three or four [M] Energy onto Bronzong BREAK so that you can Metal Rain a Jirachi-EX (with three) or Shaymin-EX (with four) Energy as your game winning attack.  Basically, you’re bypassing your need for a Lysandre while several very minor benefits make the trade (since you probably could just run a third or fourth Lysandre) worthwhile.  If the deck was focused mostly on attacking with Basic Pokémon or Pokémon-EX, this gives a way around the protective effects that completely wall against damage from those sources, gives you an option if you’re stuck attacking with Bronzong, etc. 

At first I thought there might be a combo with Bronzong (XY: BREAKthrough 96/162) but I realized it made more sense to spread the damage another way, especially as Metal Rain actually does damage instead of placing damage counters: Mountain Ring, Mr. Mime (BW: Plasma Freeze 47/116), and Mr. Mime (XY: BREAKthrough 97/162) can stop all the Bench damage with ease.  So for Expanded and Standard, TecH attacker/finisher in a deck with a heavy Bronzong line is pretty much it; if you have another way of piling a lot of [M] Energy onto Bronzong BREAK like Klinklang (Black & White 76/114).  I have seen some Klinklang decks use a Bronzong or two to reclaim/speed up Energy attachments, but even splitting the Klinklang line to bring in Klinklang (BW: Plasma Storm 90/135) to protect everything from Pokémon-EX, I can’t see it working as the deck’s focus, just a surprise final attack.  For Limited play, this is a decent pull, provided you also have Bronzor and Bronzong (preferably in multiples).  You’ll still be saving Metal Rain for a finisher (or at least the final attack before Bronzong BREAK is KO’d), but the pacing makes this more plausible. 

Ratings 

Standard: 2.25/5 

Expanded: 2.3/5 

Limited: 3/5 

Summary: Bronzong BREAK is the kind of card that needs to attach massive amounts of Energy each turn to exploit what it can do, and by massive I mean at least five Energy.  Even using the Bronzong with the “Metal Links” Ability, attaching five [M] Energy requires a full four of them in play and your manual Energy attachment each turn, plus a way to easily Bench and promote Bronzong BREAK, each and every turn.  Did I mention that wasn’t even enough to OHKO everything but was more for multiple KOs on smaller targets?  It still has some chops because yeah it can punish Night March (especially if they don’t see it coming), Shaymin-EX, and Jirachi-EX usage.  It also can be used as a final finisher if you can load up the Energy onto it, but that will require 6+ [M] Energy most of the time so doing it in one turn is unlikely.  So maybe consider a single copy in a deck that already runs several copies of the correct Bronzong, but probably nowhere else.


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