aroramage |
And now we come to our #3 card on
the list, Zygarde-EX!...or should I say "cards" since
we're also reviewing Power Memory? Truth be told, the
latter only works with the former, so of course it makes
sense to review them together. Let's see what they can
do together!
Starting off is Zygarde-EX, and
 to
be honest...he's anywhere from okay to mediocre. I know
he's a Fighting-type and gets access to all that sweet
sweet support that Fighting types get, not to mention
he's a 190 HP Basic-EX which hasn't been seen before,
but his attacks are otherwise just so...meh. And he's
got three of them on the card!
Land's Pulse starts us off at
1-for-20, and if there's a Stadium in play, it'll do an
extra 20 damage. Already, that's 1-for-40 most of the
time, given the frequency of Stadium plays in the
current format, so Zygarde-EX will get a lot of mileage
out of that. It's a shame though since that seems like
the best attack he's got. Cell Storm only does 2-for-60
and will only ever heal off 30 damage from Zygarde-EX -
it would have been better if it could heal off half the
damage he inflicts, since then it would depend on boosts
and changes and what not. And then there's Land's Wrath
which is just a vanilla 3-for-100 strike...meh meh meh.
I was disappointed to see Zygarde-EX
with such lackluster attacks, especially in his
Complete/Perfect form. But you shouldn't really count
Zygarde-EX totally out - it did get Power Memory! This
Tool only really attaches to Zygarde-EX and acts like
how G Booster did to Genesect-EX from back in the day.
It grants him the power to deal out the All Cells Burn
attack, which does a tremendous 3-for-200 blow while
discarding 3 Energy from Zygarde-EX. It's certainly
impressive on its own, but tack on the Fighting damage
outputs, and it becomes a OHKO machine!
...well, not on its own. There are
a couple more Pokemon that can make Zygarde-EX really
shine, and it just so happens that they happen to be our
#2 and #1 spots on the countdown! Who'd have thunk that?
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (Zygarde-EX may not
be exciting on his own, but in tandem with other such
cards, he can be a force to reckon with)
Expanded: 4/5 (already, I can think
of putting Fighting Fury Belt on him to make his HP
rival the other Mega-EX, though Power Memory is just way
too needed to forego that little detail)
Limited: 4.5/5 (don't fret though,
it's not the only thing he's got, and it could be the
case that we see a new archetype form from these pieces)
Arora Notealus:...but seriously
though, Zygarde-EX, please, get some better attacks on
your next card. Let's see you be amazing, not sorta good
but really amazing only with this and this and this
card.
Next Time: Time to BREAK out of
this countdown with something really different!
|
Otaku |
Proving I’m on a roll this week, not only have I already
missed some deadlines but when I finally read
yesterday’s reviews,
as I realized had messed up a few Ability and attack
names. Pretty embarrassing but thankfully Pojo has
already posted the corrected article. At least if
you know the cards, you shouldn’t have been confused and
just gotten a chuckle out of my mistakes. So with that
out of the way, third place on our list is shared by two
cards. It isn’t a tie in the traditional sense,
but because the cards in question are so related that
reviewing one means effectively reviewing the other, we
figured it was once again time to risk reviewing two at
once: Zygarde-EX (XY: Fates Collide
54/124; XY: Black Star Promos XY151) and Power
Memory (XY: Fates Collide 108/124).
We’ll start with Zygarde-EX, who is yet another
Pokémon resembling a Dragon Ball Z character.
As a Fighting Type it enjoys what I’ve often stated is
the best support in the TCG. About the only major
pieces I do not expect to matter at all for
Zygarde-EX in competitive play are Machamp (XY:
Furious Fists 46/111; XY: Black Star Promos
XY13; Generations 42/83) and Maxie’s Hidden
Ball Trick; the former has been replaced by
Regirock-EX (XY: Fates Collide 43/124) and
the latter is wasteful for a Basic Pokémon. The
rest of the cards that specifically benefit Fighting
Type Pokémon are all going to have a use to varying
degrees, as well as some of the other useful Fighting
Types which I will not be listing here because I nearly
built a deck in doing so: that is how much great, Type
related support Fighting provides! Fighting
Weakness is found on the majority of Colorless Types and
both most Darkness and most Lightning Types. It
isn’t all good as a few cards specifically counter the
Fighting Type and Fighting Resistance is the most common
form of Resistance, but even that isn’t as bad as it
sounds: those counters are seldom seen because they
aren’t particularly good, no Resistance is far more
common than any actual form of Resistance, and the -20
damage Resistance provides is more of a nuisance than a
serious issue.
As a Basic Pokémon, Zygarde-EX is fast to the
field without taking a lot of deck space, naturally
works better with certain effects (like bounce) or game
mechanics (like being your opening Pokémon) than other
Stages. There are anti-Basic Pokémon effects but
also Basic Stage support; the net result is that being a
Basic Pokémon is the best. Being a Pokémon-EX
however is not, though I know a lot of people still
think it is. I’m not denying the influence of
Pokémon-EX in the format; perhaps because they are still
a special mechanic and thus have fewer examples, the
potent ones stick out even more while we forget about
the weak ones. What being a Pokémon-EX does
guarantee for an already Basic Pokémon is giving up an
extra Prize when KOed (via rules text printed on the
card), being subject to certain counters via the effect
text on cards already present in the format and/or that
may be released in the future, and being excluded from
certain beneficial card effects that (again) are either
already here or could be released in the future.
Unless a Pokémon-EX includes something unique to itself
to help overcome these drawbacks, the best you can do is
use other cards to help deal with them. The
improved attributes and effects that Pokémon-EX often
possess aren’t guaranteed; arguably the HP as I believe
the worst it has done is provide a +20 HP bump for the
very small, but some Pokémon-EX wind up with lame
Abilities and/or attacks, and many simply have ones that
are good but even out given the built in drawbacks of
their being.
Zygarde-EX
cashes in on the improved attributes with its 190 HP.
This is not a new thing as we’ve seen it on more
obscure Basic Pokémon-EX like Team Aqua’s Kyogre-EX
and Team Magma’s Groudon-EX, while Wailord-EX
still holds the record for anything in the game
with 250. 190 HP is as much as the smallest Mega
Evolution - M Diancie-EX - and the largest BREAK
Evolution - Chesnaught BREAK. By being 10
to 20 points above the more typically seen Basic
Pokémon-EX, Zygarde-EX gains a disproportionate
advantage because efficiency is incredibly important to
the Pokémon TCG. So while multiple decks can still
OHKO Zygarde-EX, in general decks focus on
scoring a OHKO or a 2HKO against 180 because the
previous exceptions haven’t been worth the added effort;
overkill can be fun but it when it costs extra resources
it hurts the bottom line. The Type that will
probably be able to shoot for a OHKO is the Grass Type,
due to Zygarde-EX being Grass Weak. This
might be one of the best Weaknesses for a card of this
size to have; while still a significant drawback to have
a Weakness at all, the top Grass Type attackers already
feature in decks that could still OHKO something with
190 HP. As such Grass Weakness will allow them to
do so a bit more reliably and/or with less effort.
Given the video game Dragon/Ground Typing of Zygarde,
Zygarde-EX could have been saddled with Fairy,
Dragon or Water (Ice) Weakness.
The lack of Resistance is typical, but this is one of
the rare occasions where I approve of the decision.
As a 190 HP Basic that (as we’ll see) has a damaging
attack that heals it, the four plausible TCG Type for it
to Resist - Fighting (from Rock Resistance), Fire,
Lightning, and Psychic (from Poison) could have created
some real problem matchups. The most likely of
those would have been Lightning, and as most of that
Type is Fighting Weak and the attack I’m already
discussing needs just [FC], several decks could have
worked in a “Lightning Rod” to wreck that Type (never
mind if Zygarde-EX gets its own deck). The
Retreat Cost of [CCC] is chunky and you want to avoid
paying it; pack multiple options to reduce or bypass the
cost. Once again it isn’t all bad: Zygarde-EX
can make use of Heavy Ball and Heavy Boots
and surprising enough, Heavy Ball compliance may
actually matter.
Zygarde-EX
is too new to have an Ancient Trait, and it also lacks
an Ability. What it does have for effects are
three attacks (Land’s Pulse, Cell Storm, and Land’s
Wrath) priced in an ascending manner ([F], [FC], and
[FFC]) that bodes well for the card. You should be
able to open with Land’s Pulse and move onto Cell Storm
the next turn. If you survive long enough or have
some acceleration, Land’s Wrath also becomes reasonable
to reach. The Energy requirements have enough [F]
that it won’t be an easy splash, but also don’t require
so much [F] or have additional costs that would make
working it into an off TYpe deck implausible. So
what do these attacks actually do? Land’s Pulse
does 20 damage plus another 20 if there is a Stadium in
play. This is a good start but we have seen
better, as Land’s Pulse obviously this pales in
comparison to single Energy attacks like “Hammerhead”
found on Landorus-EX, but it seems in line with
our other big, Basic Pokémon-EX that sports three
attacks: Lucario-EX. Why don’t we start
comparing and contrasting these attacks with those of
our other three-attack Fighting Type Basic Pokémon-EX?
Lucario-EX
can do 30 for [F] with its “Missile Jab” and while it is
hardly a major player in the competitive scene, it is
a part of it. Stadiums are heavily used and even
against an opponent who doesn’t use them or actively
tries to discard yours (such as with Delinquent)
you still are attacking on your turn, when you may
supply your own. The risk of Land’s Pulse whiffing
because you have no Stadium in play and are attacking
into Resistance is very low and even just doing 20
because of no Stadium is unlikely; instead you ought to
outperform Missile Jab most of the time. The next
attack is “Cell Storm” which does 60 damage while
healing 30 from Zygarde-EX itself. This
seems mediocre in isolation; 60-for-two is decent but
healing effects are rarely worth it. What helps
make it adequate (still not great) are circumstances.
With 190 HP and the possibility of Bursting Balloon,
Fighting Fury Belt or Focus Sash, healing
30 also becomes a bit more useful, and the cost again
means it could work in a deck that isn’t totally off
Type, even if only because of something like Rainbow
Energy. Lucario-EX has “Corkscrew Punch” for
its two Energy attack, and does the same 60 damage but
with the much more useful effect of drawing until you
have six cards in hand. Corkscrew Punch also
requires [FF] though, which makes it unappealing when
you need to splash in a Fighting Type with another.
Land’s Wrath does a flat 100 damage which seems a bit
anticlimactic, but again we need to consider what all
may be going into it. The Fighting Type
specializes in buffs, so by this point it is likely
beefed up to OHKO range for Basic Pokémon-EX or 2HKO
range against Mega Evolutions. Lucario-EX needs
[FFF] for its “Somersault Kick” to do the same 100, and
yes that attack does get used; Zygarde-EX
unquestionably out does it here though both of these
attacks are the least important of their respective
three.
Now seems like the time to bring in Power Memory;
this is a Pokémon-specific Pokémon Tool that provides a
fourth attack (All Cells Burn) to Zygarde-EX
while it is attached. All Cells Burn has the same
Energy cost as Land’s Wrath but does 200 damage and
requires you discard three Energy from Zygarde-EX
itself. As it does not specify Energy card, you
can use something like Double Colorless Energy to
pay for two-thirds of the cost. This is the toned
down version of G Booster, the Ace Spec Pokémon
Tool (and attack) that made Genesect-EX (BW:
Plasma Blast 11/101, 97/101) famous and for a time
the top deck in competitive play. The parallels
between the two are striking, and really paints
Zygarde-EX as a cross between Lucario-EX and
this Genesect-EX [Plasma]. Yes it feels odd
to specify in that way, but we did get a second,
different Genesect-EX in XY: Fates Collide.
Genesect-EX [Plasma] doesn’t have three attacks
but a killer Ability (Red Signal) only one attack (Megalo
Cannon) printed on it. Megalo Cannon needs [GGC]
to do 100 damage to the opponent’s Active while hitting
something on the opponent’s Bench for 20; better than
the 100 Land’s Wrath does but just by the Bench damage,
and for the same cost adjusted for Type: [GGC]. G
Booster has the same cost as Megalo Cannon, like how All
Cells Burn has the same cost as Land’s Wrath. G
Booster does 200 damage, like All Cells Burn, but only
requires a two Energy discard instead of three and
it ignores any damage reducing effects on the Defending
Pokémon. Why stress all this? It is a huge
hint for one of the ways to use Zygarde-EX.
I can think of four ways to really use Zygarde-EX
as the main attacker of a deck. We’ll start with
most obvious: Zygarde-EX using all (or at least
most) of the new Fighting Type support along with much
of the established Fighting Type support. This
actually bears a resemblance to VirGen decks, especially
after Virizion-EX and Genesect-EX [Plasma]
were more regularly joined by Deoxys-EX. Carbink
BREAK (XY: Fates Collide 51/124) is a
pseudo-Stage 1 Evolution but it stands in for
Virizion-EX with Energy acceleration and - depending
on whether Carbink (XY: Fates Collide
49/124) or Carbink (XY: Fates Collide
50/124) underneath it, having a useful Ability as well.
Regirock-EX takes on the role of Deoxys-EX
but is more important. That is because unlike
Genesect-EX [Plasma], Zygarde-EX has smaller
attacks worth using (but which we still want to buff)
since All Cells Burn is a little more likely to need a
buff than G Booster. Heavy Ball can substitute
for that clutch Plasma Ball, and other cards
(Fighting support or more general) will keep filling in
where needed for Plasma support or just augmenting the
deck in general.
The second deck uses almost all the same tricks, but
with the emphasis significantly shifted. Optional
attackers like Hawlucha (XY: Furious Fists
63/111), Landorus-EX (in Expanded), and
Lucario-EX now share the spotlight with Zygarde-EX,
giving you four powerhouse FIghting Types with wicked
single Energy attacks and all different Weaknesses.
In my experience, one of the dangers of older
Landorus-EX decks as well as both past and present
Lucario-EX decks has been even with the variety
in Weaknesses already present, the decks still needed
one more. Grass Weakness is hardly safe (as I
already pointed out) but most of the existing Weaknesses
have a nasty problem as competitive decks can double or
even triple up on them. Hitting all four is still
possible, but a lot less likely. Carbink BREAK
and the two new Carbink are (likely) still here,
but less for the Energy acceleration and more for not
being Pokémon-EX (and in the case of Carbink BREAK
not being a Basic Pokémon). With so many potential
buffs the single Energy attacks are going to be fierce
and a Super Scoop Up can wipe away all damage
while preserving all those pieces. We already know
from current Fighting decks that the damage bonuses can
stack up fast, leading to relatively fast and easy 2HKOs
and quite a few OHKOs as well for Zygarde-EX and
company.
Super Scoop Up
is a great lead in to the next archetype being
revisited: Fighting Bats. I’m not sure what the
current popular name is but that describes it better
than titles like “Landobats” because once again attack
duties are being shared pretty equally across the board;
the difference is instead of focusing on buffing the
damage of the low Energy attacks with our Bench sitters,
we’ll fake it with damage counter placement via
Crobat (XY: Phantom Forces 33/119) and
Golbat (XY: Phantom Forces 32/119;
Generations 31/83) while spamming AZ,
Super Scoop Up, and (in Expanded) Scoop Up
Cyclone. I know from experience that deck
space ends up being incredibly tight, but because you
have such a wide array of options it can be worth it.
You can decide whether to OHKOs against the Active or
set up for multiple KOs by spreading the damage around.
When Water Weakness became too dangerous for Landorus-EX
alone, we used Lucario-EX to help… but Psychic
Weakness wasn’t much better and Mewtwo-EX (BW:
Next Destinies 54/99, 98/99; BW: Black Star
Promos BW45; BW: Legendary Treasures 54/113)
was commonly splashed into those Water decks anyway. Hawlucha
was only useful if your opponent could shift to a
non-Pokémon-EX attacker and Miltank (XY:
Flashfire 83/106) required you get a Crobat
in play; what we needed was a big, Basic Pokémon (EX or
otherwise) with another alternate Weakness and a good,
single Energy attack.
The four and final approach has us come full circle and
return to All Cells Burn as the focus; instead of using
something to attack while setting up Zygarde-EX
on the Bench for the next turn, we look for something
that can power it up and still allow it to attack on the
current turn. We shoot for two copies of
Bronzong (XY: Phantom Forces 61/119; XY:
Black Star Promos XY21) on your Bench to accelerate
basic Metal Energy from the discard pile to one
of your Benched Pokémon. Keldeo-EX (in Expanded)
or Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162) with
Float Stone to get Zygarde-EX into and out
of the Active position turn after turn. One
Benched Smeargle (XY: BREAKthrough
123/162, in case you have forgotten about it) allows you
to swap one of your Metal Energy attached to
Zygarde-EX for a Fighting Energy (again, both
Basic Energy cards). Attach a second basic Energy
card from hand, make sure you’ve got Power Memory
handy, and you can thump the opponent for 200 turn after
turn with the option of Max Potion to flush away
all damage. Speaking of options, instead of
working in other Fighting Type attackers, this build
would allows us some additional options. You’ve
got various Metal Types since we are including that
Energy, but if we can work in a few more Basic Energy
card Types, we could incorporate a wide variety. I
do not think it worth trying to cover all Types, but
with just basic Fighting Energy and Metal
Energy, Tyrantrum-EX would already fit in
(and provide a way to deal with protective effects).
In fact it might be more a matter of Zygarde-EX
slipping into existing decks that use this setup for
cards like Tyrantrum-EX and Giratina-EX (XY:
Ancient Origins 57/98, 93/98); don’t worry about
Power Memory but give them another fall back for if
Abilities go off line.
I haven’t even gotten to the many small changes that can
have a big impact with these decks. For example
what Stadium do you run? It might seem obvious at
first, but with Land’s Pulse and the current Stadium
wars providing an incentive to run several diverse ones,
you might need to consider Fighting Stadium,
Magnetic Storm, Skyarrow Bridge, Scorched
Earth, or Virbank City Gym and maybe even a
few even less obvious ones. I am not claiming all
of these decks are strong prospects that will become the
top deck in the next few months; I only wish I had the
cards to test myself (working on it) or the data from
reliable sources to know second hand. I do expect
that they will matter for at least a time, and that
something will emerge that uses Zygarde-EX well.
So with Standard and Expanded out of the way, what about
Limited? Zygarde-EX is the kind of Pokémon you
can afford to run entirely on its own in Limited play;
just include 39 cards that aren’t Basic Pokémon.
You don’t want to miss an Energy attachment, so most of
them will just be Basic Fighting Energy cards
unless you also pull Strong Energy or Double
Colorless Energy (the latter makes sense if you also
get a Power Memory). This is not without
risk as there are other Basic Pokémon-EX with which to
contend, the few Grass Types in this set actually look
good for Limited play, and in general you may just be
overwhelmed, but the odds look to be in your favor.
You can also just squeeze it into whatever else you
manage for a deck.
Ratings
Just a reminder, the following scores are an abstract of
the overall usefulness and importance of the card in the
format. This includes considering how it interacts
with other cards, but not just scoring it for the impact
of the overall deck or combo. Also I will have
scores for both cards we covered today, even if most of
the review has been focused on Zygarde-EX
Zygarde-EX
Standard:
4.25/5
Expanded:
4/5
Limited:
5/5
Power Memory
Standard:
3.5/5
Expanded:
3.25/5
Limited:
1/5 (no Zygarde-EX) or 5/5 (with Zygarde-EX)
Summary:
Zygarde-EX reminds me of the Dragon Ball Z
villain “Cell”, and like that character Zygarde-EX
draws from a lot of existing cards and the strategies
that have let them work well. Its three attacks
aren’t complex but combined with hits Type and HP,
create a strong foundation upon which many different
decks can be built. That assumes Zygarde-EX
is the deck’s focus; while not super splashable, its own
attack costs are reasonable enough to work in mixed
company. Power Memory is weaker than G
Booster, but not only is G Booster weaker now
than when it was originally released, Power Memory
is just a regular Pokémon Tool and not an Ace Spec, so
it may be the better card. Power Memory needs
Zygarde-EX but Zygarde-EX can work without
Power Memory, especially if you’re slapping on
various damage buffs. Power Memory allows
Zygarde-EX to effectively outsource a fancier
attack, and much like when a Transformers toy can
externalize a gimmick, this is a good thing.
Again, you can tell I think highly of this card; for my
own Top 10 list I ranked it in third place! For
the group list, Zygarde-EX managed to score 30
voting points; two above our fourth and fifth place
finishers, and two below tomorrow's runner up.
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