aroramage |
Our #2 pick is a pretty powerful
Pokemon...to be, that is. It's the second time a BREAK
Evolution has hit so high up on our list - the first
being Zoroark BREAK, of course - and it's arguably even
better than him! But let's just get right into the meat
of it - Carbink BREAK hits the scene!
First of all, it's another BREAK
Evolution of a Basic Pokemon, meaning that it's more
accessible than most other BREAK Evolution cards at the
moment. The only other BREAK Pokemon to hold that honor
is Lugia BREAK, but by comparison to what Carbink BREAK
does, well it's certainly no wonder that he's so high
up. And with such high HP and such a powerful attack
too.
...okay, I'm being a little
sarcastic about that, but it's still very useful.
Carbink BREAK's only thing is its attack, and it is
quite a doozy. Diamond Gift is a mere 1-for-20 hit that
allows you to attach 2 Energy cards - read, ENERGY
cards, not just Basic Energy but Special too - onto one
of your Benched Fighting Pokemon. That is a HUGE effect
- just what we needed, a recycler for those lost Strong
Energies that kept showing up in the discard pile.
Now Carbink BREAK on its own isn't
much - 110 HP and a great attack can only get you so far
- but that's where being a BREAK Evolution actually
comes in handy. See, now he can be placed down on any
Carbink to instantly give it a boost AND an amazing
attack. But what options are there? Oddly enough, there
are the Fairy-typed Carbink from Flashfire and Roaring
Skies that are still around (though Flashfire may not be
around for that much longer), but there's also the new
Fighting options over in this very set. That's right, we
have TWO NEW Carbink to look at.
Personally, Carbink (FCO-50)
strikes me as the best, since it's got the classic
Safeguard effect. Carbink (FLF) isn't that impressive,
with Crystal Barrier being its main protective attack
and Wonder Blast being its version of Hydro Pump -
neither's great considering you'd want to use Diamond
Gift. Carbink (ROS) can protect itself on the Bench at
least with Jewel Armor, and Carbink (FCO-49) is really
nifty with Energy Keeper keeping those Basic Energies on
your Basic Pokemon safe! Actually would combine well
with Carbink BREAK on one front.
Obviously there's a few options for
Carbink BREAK to try out in the long run, but I think
the Safeguard-Carbink will be the favored option, making
Carbink BREAK not only a powerful Energy recycler but a
near-untouchable one to any form of EX! Hope you guys
enjoyed the Furious Fists format, cause Fighting decks
are back and better than ever.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (on his own, he
wouldn't be that great, but combining BREAKs with the
right bases are what makes them so powerful)
Expanded: 4/5 (and needless to say,
Carbink BREAK's got options!)
Limited: 5/5 (if you can get BREAK,
you can play hard to beat!)
Arora Notealus: Carbink BREAK ended
up in an up-and-down spot on my list. I've been overall
undecided on whether or not he'd be good enough for
Standard play, but seeing him rank so highly on the list
seems to confirm my suspicions. Really, his main
weakness as a BREAK Evo is just the lack of
searchability specifically for him, but Evosodas and
Wallys can make him work faster if he's just hanging out
in the main deck. I'm sure we'll see a few different
lists to see if those are even necessary to make the
inevitable Zy-Car-BREAK deck viable or not.
Next Time: And our strong
competitor for the #1 slot is...
|
Otaku |
Second place on the
Pojo Top 10 Cards of XY: Fates Collide goes to…
Carbink BREAK (XY: Fates Collide 51/122)!
It has come up in some of our other reviews during this
top 10, but what really makes it so promising? To
begin, it is a Fighting Type. As I outlined
yesterday
the Fighting Type may have a few things going against it
but mostly has a lot going for it. Fighting is the
most Resisted Type in the TCG, but Resistance isn’t
overly important even when it is present and no
Resistance is more common than Fighting Resistance by a
wide margin. Those anti-Fighting Type only get
mentioned because I feel bad completely ignoring them…
even though that is what the competitive scene seems to
do. The positives for the Fighting Type on the
other hand are numerous and significant. Most
Colorless Pokémon and nearly all Darkness Types and
Lightning Types are Fighting Weak; while -20 damage from
Resistance often doesn’t matter, x2 damage from Weakness
usually does. Fighting has a tremendous amount of
Type specific support that also happens to be great,
like Strong Energy (the best of the Type specific
Special Energy cards we received in the XY sets).
Then there are the cards that help the Fighting Type
more than all or nearly all other Types, but can work
elsewhere. Cards like some Fighting Type attackers
that aren’t too hard to splash into other decks or
Scorched Earth, a Stadium that allows you to discard
a [F] or [R] Energy from hand to draw two cards.
Carbink BREAK
is the BREAK Evolution of a Basic; it still counts as an
Evolved Pokémon - not a Basic - making it function
similar to a Stage 1, but unable to access any effects
that mention Stage 1 Pokémon (like Training Center).
Although being a Basic is best, being a Stage 1 or BREAK
Evolution of a Basic is still quite manageable, needing
only one extra card of space and one extra turn to hit
the field. You may even use Wally to
exchange on extra card of effort (and your Supporter for
the turn) to search out and instantly BREAK Evolve.
The 110 HP of Carbink BREAK is low; typical
competitive decks will have no problem managing a OHKO
if they have their full setup. Less than a full
setup is iffy, which isn’t much but better than the
alternative. Mostly Carbink BREAK can
survive against attacks focused on something other than
damaging one Pokémon, like damage spread or effects.
The remaining card attributes will come from whichever
Carbink we BREAK Evolution from so that just
leaves the card’s one attack.
“Diamond Gift”
requires [F] to do 20 damage and attach two Energy cards
from your discard pile to one of your [F] Pokémon.
While you can only use it with the Fighting Type, you
can pick two of any Type of Energy, and Special Energy
are also fair game! As it does any damage,
this also means you have the option of stacking buffs to
even make it a decent offensive play; the common
Fighting Type combo of Strong Energy plus
Fighting Stadium plus Muscle Band will still
deliver a solid 80 damage, and while that is a bit shy
of taking out Fighting Weak Basic Pokémon-EX, by the
time Carbink BREAK is legal for competitive play,
so is the new Regirock-EX, which can buff it
further so that it can OHKO Fighting Weak Pokémon-EX
(even Mega Evolutions) and Shaymin-EX (XY:
Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/180). It might seem
a bit foolish to invest too heavily in Carbink BREAK
but remember, while you are invest a Basic, a BREAK
Evolution, time to Evolve (or Wally), and an
Energy card (possibly a Strong Energy), plus any
Pokémon Tools, you get two Energy from the discard pile
attached to your Fighting Type of choice. Why is
that so important? You can give up one Energy,
even a Strong Energy, and either attach one from
the discard to break even or two to still come out
ahead. With enough buffs, even if Carbink BREAK
is just lightly damaging something, whatever you prepped
can probably finish off that something. Since the
Lost Zone has been abandoned as a mechanic, anytime you
lose Energy, it's ending up in the discard pile, and
Carbink BREAK can reattach it over and over again.
At least while Carbink BREAK survives.
So what are our
options for Carbink? Can’t skip it and
whatever Weakness, Resistance, Retreat Cost, Ability (if
any) and attack (or attacks) are going to also belong to
Carbink BREAK. There are four options, all
legal for both Expanded and Standard play: XY:
Flashfire 68/106, XY: Roaring Skies 47/108,
XY: Fates Collide 49/122, and XY: Fates
Collide 50/122. All of these are Basic Pokémon
without any Ancient Traits. XY: Flashfire 68/106
jas 70 HP, Metal Weakness, Darkness Resistance, Retreat
Cost [CC], and two attacks. First is “Crystal
Barrier” for [Y], which blocks all effects of attacks
(including damage!) done to Carbink itself during
your opponent’s next turn but the attack is
“tails fails”. The second attack is “Wonder Blast”
for [CCC] which does 40 damage plus 20 more for each [Y]
Energy attached to Carbink itself. We
reviewed it
here and I found
it quite niche, basically meant to be a desperation or
final attacker for a Fairy Transfer deck; load it up
with all your [Y] Energy and go for a big shot but only
if it doesn’t matter that it ought to be KO’d the next
turn. Now M Gardevoir-EX does it better so
it would fair much worse, and doesn’t suit Carbink
BREAK. XY: Roaring Skies 47/108 is also a
Fairy Type with 70 HP, Metal Weakness, Darkness
Resistance, and Retreat Cost [CC]. It has the
Ability “Jewel Armor” that protects it from damage while
it is on your Bench and the attack “Spin Tackle” for
[YCC] does 60 damage while having you flip a coin; if
tails it also does 20 damage to itself. This one
was reviewed
as well
we were not impressed; again don’t bother BREAK Evolving
from it, though technically since it would protect
itself on the Bench it would make more sense than the
other Fairy Type Carbink.
XY: Fates Collide
49/122 is a Fighting Type with 80 HP, Grass Weakness, no
Resistance, Retreat Cost [C]. It has the Ability
“Energy Keeper” which protects Basic Energy cards
attached to your Basic Pokémon from being discarded by
your opponent’s Abilities, attacks, or Trainers.
For [FFC] this Carbink can use “Stone Edge” to do
60 damage and flip a coin; on “heads” it does an
additional 30 damage. The attack is overpriced but
the Ability is pretty sweet, though remember that while
the Ability keeps working after BREAK Evolving, it will
no longer apply to itself; Carbink is a Basic but
as Carbink BREAK it is not. XY: Fates Collide
50/122 is a Fighting Type with 90 HP, Grass Weakness, no
Resistance, and Retreat Cost [C]. Carbink has a
time tested Ability: Safeguard. Being immune to
damage and the effects of attacks made by your
opponent’s Pokémon-EX. There is an important
change from before; this version of Safeguard specifies
the opponent’s Pokémon while other recent versions (for
better or worse) blocked damage and effects by attacks
from your own Pokémon as well. It also has the
attack “Power Gem” that does 40 for [FC]. The
Ability is great, the attack is okay. With this
under Carbink BREAK, it could buy several turns
to attack Energy, no extra turns, or just a few
depending on how hard it will be for your opponent to
deal with Safeguard. Unless you’re running very
few basic Energy cards or are powering up mostly
Evolutions, I recommend using both of the XY: Fates
Collide Carbink.
So now that we know
what we are BREAK Evolving from, in what decks do we use
Carbink BREAK? Any Fighting Type deck where
you can fit Carbink and Carbink BREAK,
even as a 1-1 line, probably should: adjust your
Carbink based on whether you have Basic Pokémon with
Basic Energy attached to protect or not and again, if
you have more than one don’t be afraid to split between
the two versions. Carbink BREAK has another use,
which sometimes will include its primary job of
attaching Energy from the discard pile; dealing with
Jolteon-EX, Safeguard Pokémon, and anything else
that wall against a lot of more typical Fighting Type
attackers (which tend to be Basic and/or Pokémon-EX).
You could even really commit to Carbink BREAK and
try to stream it, making it your main attacker as most
non-Pokémon-EX can be brought into OHKO range (though
things like Greninja BREAK will be pushing it)
while 2HKOing Pokémon-EX will still keep pace.
You’ll need to take out a Shaymin-EX, or just get
Energy enough ahead so that you can periodically (or at
least for your final attack) skip Diamond Gift in favor
of one of the attacks Carbink BREAK gets from its
underlying Carbink. They weren’t great, but
they do hit just hard enough to finally reach OHKO range
with an optimal setup. Might be fun, but I doubt
it would be effective enough for competitive play.
Otherwise enjoy it
in most Fighting Type decks in Expanded and Standard.
I don’t want to say all of them can make use of it, but
it is at least trying. I suspect the exceptions
will come from decks that simply do not have the space,
decks that must attack with something else, and
decks that have other special field requirements.
For Limited you should have good odds of pulling at
least one other Fighting Type, and if you have the right
Evolution Pack it looks like you’ll even get a few
Carbink (the list I am using doesn’t specify which
one). Given the nature of Limited, as long as you
can run Carbink BREAK (that is, you have at least
one of the Carbink) just using it and attaching
to itself to use whatever other attack it has is still a
solid addition. Well, unless those Evolution Packs
are far, far more influential than I realized.
Ratings
Standard:
3.8/5
Expanded:
3.8/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
I went back and forth over how to score Carbink
BREAK. It is a great card, but it is a great
card for Fighting decks; if a deck isn’t at least part
Fighting, it shouldn’t have Carbink BREAK.
It is also a great support card, but as support it needs
something else to really shine. After all, without
Energy in your discard pile its main trick doesn’t work.
If it is your only Fighting Type Pokémon in play, it
might barely work since it could attach to itself and
might survive long enough to use a slightly stronger
attack… and that hopefully clarifies why it scores lower
than Zygarde-EX or (from
Tuesday)
Mew (XY: Fates Collide 29/124). With
their support, those two can be amazing main attackers,
but without it Zygarde-EX is still a decent
beatstick. Mew is not but it’s also a flexible
Basic that can try to search out a Pokémon to restart
your deck.
Carbink BREAK
was my fourth place pick for this set. Even as I
quibble with myself over the specifics of its score, I
actually don’t mind it taking second place; it really is
high quality support and if I overrated Zygarde-EX,
Mew and
last Friday’s
Lugia (XY: Fates Collide 78/124) - the
cards that topped it in my personal list - then it
probably the best remaining card. As is it is
nearly their equal. No wonder it earned 32 voting
points, just two points less than tomorrow’s first place
finisher earned.
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