aroramage |
Running up to our #5 spot is
Glaceon-EX, and that really says something about an
Eeveelution EX that has managed to climb up this high on
our list. And usually it's by this point that we get to
some really, really good cards!
So what is it that makes Glaceon-EX
so good? Well as an EX with no Abilities, you'd expect
it to be in her attacks, and to that point they're both
pretty good in their own way! We've seen Second Bite on
other Pokemon before, and it's always a neat little
attack to have - for 2 Energy, Glaceon-EX only does 20
damage but can do an extra 10 damage for every damage
counter already on the Pokemon it attacks. Effectively,
it doubles the damage on the opponent's Pokemon and then
tacks on another 20, effectively KOing most Pokemon-EX
at around 80 damage and most Megas at around 110 damage.
It's not too shabby for what it does, but it does
require some effort being thrown in prior.
One such way would be through
Crystal Ray, which is pretty much the attack that sets
Glaceon-EX on the list to begin with. It's a 3-for-70
punch that protects Glaceon-EX from any damage that
would be dealt to her by any attack from an Evolution
Pokemon. At first that might not sound impressive -
protection from damage from Stage 1s and 2s? There's not
that many to deal with competitively, but they're not
the only Evolution cards out there any more. Nowadays,
you've got Mega Evolutions as well as BREAK Evolutions
to deal with, which broadens Glaceon-EX's utility to
fight off against horrors like M Rayquaza-EX or
Vespiquen or even Greninja BREAK!
Course Glaceon-EX will still take
damage against the strong Basics of the world, and
Crystal Ray doesn't stop the effects of those attacks
from going off, so it's not going to lock out things
like Trevenant BREAK's Silent Fear or Greninja (BKPT)'s
Shadow Stitching. But at the very least, Glaceon-EX will
be pretty powerful as another member of the Water types
varied and stellar line-up!
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (a fairly good
counter towards many Evolution cards that populate the
game, but even Glaceon-EX won't be perfect)
Expanded: 4/5 (she'll still end up
facing some tough match-ups against the Basics in Night
March or anything like Seismitoad-EX or Mewtwo-EX (NXD))
Limited: 4/5 (but for what she can
do, she's very much worth it!)
Arora Notealus: Arguably the best
Eeveelution-EX to date, honestly, and that's considering
it's got competition with Jolteon-EX! It'd be
interesting to see a line-up of these different
Eeveelutions all together in one deck duking it out
against the forces of the metagame!
Next Time: A cute and tiny Pokemon
that hits the list hard!
|
Otaku |
We begin the top
half of our Top 10 countdown from the latest set with an
important update: Spring Regionals 2016 are underway!
These tournaments will not yet include XY:
Fates Collide, as it has not yet been the required
three weeks since the set released. What matters
though is that we finally get to see how Expanded (as
Black & White through Generations) will
differ from its last major exposure in the 2016 Winter
Regionals, which only went up to XY: BREAKthrough.
At this point we have only a few results because it is
only the first weekend and not the last and I am still
firmly rooted in Theorymon for these reviews, but now we
will be a little less removed from the reality of the
situation, and the final two weekends of Regionals will
include XY: Fates Collides cards as they finally
become legal for Organized Play.
Glaceon-EX
(XY: Fates Collide 20/124, 116/124) takes fifth
place. It is, as you would expect, a Water Type.
In terms of Weakness this means double damage against a
solid chunk of the Fighting Type (those that correspond
to the video game Rock Type) and nearly all Fire Types.
Unless we see a major shakeup in the Types being used,
this isn’t as good as it sounds; the Fire Type isn’t
that hot right now and the main example I see being used
- Flareon (XY: Plasma Freeze 12/116) - is
small enough that most attackers can take it down in one
hit without needing to exploit Weakness.
Resistance to Water seems to have been abandoned in the
XY-era but it is still a common sight on BW-era Water
Types. Normally Resistance is just a nuisance,
unless one is dealing with narrow margins for a KO.
There are a few specific counters to the Water Type but
what I can find is defensive in nature, reducing the
damage a Water Type attacker does or that specific card
takes; the only one you are likely to encounter is
Parallel City. That is because people use
Parallel City for its Bench shrinking effect, which
they would have to apply to their own side of the field
in order to use it to reduce the damage of an opponent’s
Grass, Fire, or Water Type Pokémon by 20. Unless
combined with something else, much like with Resistance
-20 damage is a nuisance but usually not a serious
obstacle.
I saved Water Type
support for last because Water is one of the best
supported Types, and yet I don’t know how well
Glaceon-EX can make use of said support. As we
go through this review we’ll touch upon how some of the
best examples of Water Type support like Archie’s Ace
in the Hole, Blastoise (BW: Boundaries
Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma Storm 137/135;
BW: Plasma Blast 16/101), Dive Ball,
Keldeo-EX, Rough Seas, and alternate Water
Type attackers may not work the best with Glaceon-EX.
Up first is Archie’s Ace in the Hole because it
is so obvious I’m just using it for a transition;
Glaceon-EX is a Basic Pokémon, so it is already as
easy as it can be to put into play. If you have
another reason to run Archie’s Ace in the Hole in
your deck it is nice that Glaceon-EX is a legal
target, but Glaceon-EX doesn’t need the trick.
Being a Basic is still the best Stage because of how
little space they require to run, how easy they are to
field, their natural synergy with many effects or game
mechanics, etc. It is made possible for Glaceon-EX
because it is a Pokémon-EX. For actual game
effects, unless something specific were to released
later to change this, the game doesn’t even recognize
that Glaceon-EX is the powered up counterpart of
other Glaceon inspired cards, but the designers know
that. So instead of being a Stage 1 Pokémon it
gets to be a Basic because unless it is a Mega
Evolution, Pokémon-EX are Basics.
Being a Pokémon-EX
comes with added baggage: extra Prize when KOed, dealing
with anti-Pokémon-EX cards, excluded from a few helpful
effects. You may sometimes find workarounds for
these drawbacks, but they are either baked into the
card’s rule text or effects of cards already in the card
pool. We’ll see if Glaceon-EX gets the
improved attributes and/or card effects often seen on
Pokémon-EX, starting with its HP: 170 is the lower of
the two typical HP scores found on Basic Pokémon-EX, but
it is nearly double what you’ll find on contemporary
Glaceon cards. In the current competitive
sphere it isn’t especially durable, but Glaceon-EX
should often survive a single hit. OHKOs will
happen though; several decks specialize in them and
beyond that there is Weakness. In the case of
Glaceon-EX is is to Metal Type Pokémon, which is a
mixed blessing; if the status quo largely
continues with respect to Pokémon Types after XY:
Fates Collide officially joins the Organized Play
card pool, the Metal Type has a presence but typically
in a supporting role via Bronzong (XY: Phantom
Forces 61/119; XY: Black Star Promos XY21).
Many decks will use that Stage 1’s Energy “Metal Links”
Ability for Energy acceleration, usually for a
non-Metal-Type attacker that has all or mostly Colorless
Energy requirements. At the same time though, the
Metal Type has some excellent Basic Pokémon and
Pokémon-EX attackers and slipping them into such decks
is pretty easy. No Resistance is the most common
so we’ll move on to the Retreat Cost of [CC]; this is
low enough you can usually pay it if you must but high
enough you really don’t want to so pack some alternative
options to manually retreating at full price.
Glaceon-EX
has no Ability but does sport two attacks. “Second
Bite” has shown up before now and it is a useful trick;
the attack does 20 damage plus 10 more for each damage
counter on the opponent’s Active. This doesn’t
sound too impressive on its own because it isn’t; Second
Bite is great for finishing off something already nearly
halfway to being Knocked Out. Specifically if
something has at least [(maximum HP minus 20)/2] damage
counters on it, Second Bite will finish off the target.
This version of Second Bite requires [WC], so while not
super easy to pay, neither is it particularly difficult;
you won’t be able to just slap down a Double
Colorless Energy, but two manual Energy attachments
or some of the other (even minor) forms of Energy
acceleration can do the job. So a Primal
Groudon-EX with a Fighting Fury Belt attached
can be finished off by Second Bite if that Primal
Groudon-EX has 130 or more damage already on it.
On the other hand if your opponent has a Joltik (XY:
Phantom Forces 23/119) Active with no damage
counters on it? Unless Glaceon-EX gets a
bump from elsewhere (like its own Fighting Fury Belt)
Second Bite will fail to score a OHKO. The name is
thus pretty apt; you want this to be the follow-up
attack, not your opener, which is a bit of a shame as in
terms of pricing, it acts as the opening attack on
Glaceon-EX.
The second attack
(Crystal Ray) requires [WCC] to do 70 damage, which is a
bit low but adequate (a Muscle Band means a 2HKO
for targets with 180 or less HP) and we haven’t gotten
to its effect yet. When Glaceon-EX (or
anything that can copy attacks) uses Crystal Ray, that
Pokémon won’t take damage from attacks by Evolution
Pokémon during your opponent’s next turn. “Evolution
Pokémon” is a bit of an awkward phrase; the designers
are probably a bit gunshy by now when it comes to
potential new mechanics and future-proofing card text
owing to the changes we’ve seen over the course of the
game’s lifespan and the Expanded format keeping
cards active several years past when they would have
normally rotated out of competitive play. Right
now this means only Basic Pokémon can damage a
Glaceon-EX protected by Crystal Ray. The
designers couldn’t just say “Evolved Pokémon” because
not only are you protected from those, but also when
such cards are played directly to the field as unevolved
Pokémon, such as by Archie’s Ace in the Hole.
With this wording, not sure what would happen if you had
a Basic that was actually an Evolved Pokémon; that might
sound silly but only because the Unlimited Format is so
insane as Baby Pokémon as well as Basics with the Baby
Evolution Poké-Power actually could do just that.
Blocking damage from Evolved Pokémon is good but not
great; attack effects can still get through and even if
the Basic form of the Evolution in question isn’t a good
attacker, a deck would have to lack any back up Basic
attackers as well.
The Energy costs
for these attacks almost feel a little misaligned.
Second Bite - as stated - isn’t going to be a good
opening move anyway, but since it is designed for the
2HKO on the cheap it isn’t like it would be better to up
the attack’s cost and (presumably) damage output.
With just manual Energy attachments Glaceon-EX
will have to wait two turns to use Second Bite and three
for Crystal Ray. A Double Colorless Energy
can let you wait one turn to then jump directly to
Crystal Ray, while minor forms of Energy acceleration
like Max Elixir can help to ready Second Bite in
a single turn and Crystal Ray in two. Together a
Double Colorless Energy and something like Max
Elixir can have Crystal Ray online in a single turn,
which is important because Crystal Ray only places its
protective effect on the Pokémon using it. If you
had something like Blastoise on your Bench, your
opponent could Lysandre it up and attack it
instead. Even a second copy of Glaceon-EX
is vulnerable to this trick. Though unlikely, if
your opponent has a way of both Benching then forcing
the Glaceon-EX that attacked back into the Active
slot (Escape Rope followed by Lysandre,
for example), that protective effect should be reset.
We also shouldn’t
assume your opponent has to worry about the effect of
Crystal Ray; besides attacks which state they ignore
effects on the Defending Pokémon or attacks that are
about their effects and not doing damage, a lot of
popular attackers are Basic Pokémon right now.
Crystal Ray is a pain for Mega, BREAK, and the few
regular Evolutions still seeing competitive play as
attackers, but unlike Jolteon-EX walling against
Basic Pokémon with its “Flash Ray” attack, it’s going to
be rare that a deck lacks an answer to Crystal Ray.
That doesn’t mean Glaceon-EX is bad, it just
means it won’t have the same role. Jolteon-EX is
main attacker material, potentially including
Archeops (BW: Noble Victories 67/101; BW:
Dark Explorers 110/108) to prevent your opponent
from Evolving even if Evolutions are a part of his or
her deck. It can, however, also a TecH attacker,
splashed into a deck to help with its matchup against
mostly or mono-Basic decks. There it doesn’t
matter that the effect of Flash Ray can be bypassed, you
just need Jolteon-EX up there to help deal with
specific threats.
Although we have
seen more Evolved Pokémon serving as main attackers in
the most recent Regionals, most of those decks also pack
Basic Pokémon which can be used to attack instead or
already have options to get around Crystal Ray. Primal
Groudon-EX had a good showing this weekend, while
Vespiquen (XY: Ancient Origins) and/or
Flareon [Plasma] decks are still a thing, but that
isn’t enough for make a Glaceon-EX focused deck
competitive. Many Mega Evolutions have solid Basic
Pokémon-EX to attack with while the worthwhile BREAK
Evolutions already have built in alternatives. Trevenant
BREAK can still use its “Silent Fear” attack because
that places damage counters, and if that wasn’t enough
could consider running Seismitoad-EX to attack
with a Basic while maintaining the Item lock. You
won’t be able to keep up an Ability lock with the
“Shadow Stitching” attack of Greninja (XY:
BREAKpoint 40/122) and still do damage, but
Greninja BREAK has its “Giant Water Shuriken” to
place six damage counters on the target you want per
turn. At least some builds split their Greninja
between two versions; the aforementioned one plus
Greninja (XY 41/146). That gives
Greninja BREAK decks another damage counter placing
Ability (the regular Water Shuriken), plus if necessary
access to “Mist Slash”, a 50-for-[W] attack that ignores
Weakness, Resistance, and effects on the opponent’s
Active.
The only kind-of
Glaceon-EX focused deck I can think of is to tag
team it with Jolteon-EX, with Glaceon-EX
being the alternate for when your opponent does get an
Evolved Pokémon into play (Second Bite can also be
handy). Otherwise it is a solid choice for
slipping into a deck that can meet the attack costs for
Second Bite and Crystal Ray relatively easily.
When you aren’t making it your deck’s focus, it becomes
a handy distraction or hurdle for your opponent to
expend resources dealing with, and if you are really
fortunate they may not even have those resources handy.
This is where we run into issues with the rest of the
support. Even in Water Type decks, Dive Ball
may be better off replaced by Ultra Ball and
Rough Seas by another Stadium. If you’re not
running other Water support, then Keldeo-EX
doesn’t get any synergy bonus, and in fact may reduce
the need for Glaceon-EX as Keldeo-EX can
somewhat function as a totally off Type attacker and
becomes better the more actual [W] Energy it has
attached. For Limited play it’s a great pull but
you’ll have to choose whether you run it alongside other
Pokémon or try to use it alone (the latter ensuring you
open with it). The former means you’ll have to
draw into it or a search card for it, so it may not show
up in time to matter, while the latter carries the risk
of Glaceon-EX being overwhelmed before it can
take four Prizes (Limited only uses four Prizes instead
of six). Against other Pokémon-EX, it will depend
on exactly what it is facing; some like Zygarde-EX
probably can take out Glaceon-EX before Second
Bite/Crystal Ray can build to a KO, but others like
Umbreon-EX shouldn’t have the chance.
Ratings
Standard:
3.25/5
Expanded:
3.25/5
Limited:
4.25/5
Summary:
Any deck that can reasonably meet the cost of Crystal
Ray ought to consider working in a Glaceon-EX; it
can really frustrate decks reliant upon Mega or BREAK
Evolutions. Unlike Basic Pokémon decks versus
Jolteon-EX and its Flash Ray, many Evolution decks
can more easily work around the protective effects of
Crystal Ray. Still both Crystal Ray and Second
Bite are useful, so Glaceon-EX is still a solid
card.
As you may have
gathered, I didn’t rank Glaceon-EX very high on
my list. In fact, it didn’t make my own Top 10 or
even my Top 15. I do think it does something
useful, just not well enough to warrant being ranked so
highly. Hopefully if it really is as good as its
placement suggests, someone else can explain why it
should be worth it. Glaceon-EX managed to get 28
voting points, tying with our fourth place finisher.
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