Otaku |
Today we tackle Kingdra-EX (XY: Fates Collide
73/124, 122/124), a Dragon Type Basic Pokémon-EX.
Being a Dragon Type is pretty good because of Double
Dragon Energy, but unfortunately as we’ll see, while
Kingdra-EX can use the card, it doesn’t really
help it out a lot. There are other pieces of
Dragon Type support, but the Energy is the big thing.
There are also explicit Dragon Type counter cards but so
far, none of them have proven important (or particularly
effective). Nothing Resists Dragon Types but
unfortunately almost nothing in the TCG is Weak to them
either (only BW-era Dragon Types). All in all,
Kingdra-EX doesn’t get much out of its Typing.
Being a Pokémon-EX guarantees giving up an extra Prize
when KO’d, being the target of certain detrimental
effects, and being unable to access certain beneficial
ones. It also means the card in question may have
better attributes and/or effects than its “regular”
counterparts, but I believe only the improved HP is
guaranteed (and sometimes the bonus is quite low).
One other benefit that only applies some of the time is
that so far, the only Evolved Pokémon-EX are Mega
Evolutions; if a Pokémon like Kingdra, which is normally
a Stage 2, is released as a Pokémon-EX it instead is a
Basic Pokémon. This is a huge advantage as being a
Basic is currently (and has been for a while) the best
for the usual reasons; least cards required to hit the
field, least amount of time required to hit the field,
can be your opening Pokémon, and a natural synergy with
certain card effects (often for the preceding reasons).
There are some anti-Basic Pokémon effects, but there are
also some effects that specifically favor Basic Pokémon,
and the net result is that being a Basic remains the
best.
Kingdra-EX
has 170 HP; the lower of the two typical Basic
Pokémon-EX scores. Competitive decks are usually
shooting for this amount as at least an occasional OHKO.
Those doing nothing but damage usually try to reach 170
damage rapidly, reliably, and repeatedly, but if an
attack has the right kind of effect or is designed
around damage spread, it may fall well below either OHKO
or 2HKO levels. 170 HP is a good score, it just isn’t
exceptional like it seemed when we first received
Pokémon-EX. Fairy Weakness is probably good; Fairy
Type decks aren’t heavily used, even though they exist.
Just watch out for Rainbow Force decks built around and
named after the first attack on Xerneas (XY:
BREAKthrough 107/162), the familiar Fairy Transfer
decks built around and named after the Ability found on
Aromatisse XY 93/146), and some much more
obscure decks; it is worse than it sounds as these decks
only have a few (combined) recent quality finishes.
No Resistance is typical, though it would have been
helpful. Moving on we have the Retreat Cost of [C]
which is nice and low; you’ll still want an alternative
to manually retreating (especially at full Price), but
when you actually need to pay to retreat it ought not to
be difficult to both afford it up front and in the long
run.
Kingdra-EX
has two attacks, the first of which is “Big Storm” for
[C], doing 20 damage and discarding any Stadium in play.
The damage isn’t much but neither is the Energy
invested, and the effect can be handy; just remember it
is not optional so your own Stadium card will
also be discarded should you have one in play. The
second, larger attack is “Dragon Trail” for [WCCC].
It does 60 damage plus 30 more for each basic [L] Energy
attached to Kingdra-EX (that is, the attacking
Pokémon). At least in Standard and Expanded, the
only basic Energy cards that count as [L] are basic
Lightning Energy cards, but in the past there have
been ways to change a basic Energy so that it provides a
different Energy Type than printed. If you use
nothing but Lightning Energy cards plus a source
of [W] to fuel the attack, Dragon Trail hits for 150,
enough that a Muscle Band would allow Dragon
Trail to OHKO 170 HP Pokémon. Larger targets (as
well slightly smaller if Muscle Band isn’t
available) require a fifth Energy card. Energy
attached to an Active can be quite vulnerable, both to
cards like Team Flare Grunt and to being lost
when the Active is KOed (especially against attacks that
get a damage bonus from Energy in play). Still
this is a good, solid attack. Is it enough to
justify running Kingdra-EX in competitive play?
Maybe. In the immediate future, probably, because
we love playing with “new toys” even in the competitive
sphere. In the long term its options are decent
because eventually rotation will eliminate some of its
competition (more on that later). It is in the
short term, beyond the immediate future but well before
rotation where it probably won’t see much use. All
are predictions that could prove quite wrong, of course.
As for what to use with it, in Standard and Expanded we
have Magnezone (XY: BREAKthrough 54/162)
to enable massive commitments of Lightning Energy
with its “Magnetic Circuit” Ability. There are
also multiple ways to initially search out later recycle
the Energy from your discard pile after Kingdra-EX
is KOed; as most of it will be basic Lightning Energy,
Clemont remains an option (but mostly if you are
concerned about Item lock). If you can get and
keep Magnezone in play, then powering up
Kingdra-EX over and over again to OHKO anything
lacking protective effects becomes a significant
strategy. In Expanded, you might also consider
Eelektrik (BW: Noble Victories 40/101) to
attach from the discard pile instead, but it’s
“Dynamotor” only attaches one [L] Energy at a time and
to something on your Bench, so you’ll need to swarm
them. It is worth noting that somewhat similar
decks have been successful in the past, but less so in
more recent times. For example, Blastoise (BW:
Boundaries Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma Storm
137/135; BW: Plasma Blast 16/101) has Archie’s
Ace in the Hole to not only hit the field in one
turn, but from the discard and without its lower Stages.
There are other attackers for Kingdra-EX to
compete with as well.
In Limited play, Kingdra-EX looks to be a good
pull. Just to do some damage while discarding a
Stadium means it is worth splashing into decks that
can’t even use its big attack. Remember you can
retreat after an attack or two and unlike in Standard or
Expanded play, your opponent isn’t going to have a
Lysandre handy. If your deck is running on
mostly Lightning Energy with room for a few
(about three) basic Water Energy or even mostly
Water Energy with room for a handful (I’d say
about five) Lightning Energy you can enjoy it as
a nice, big attacker that can probably win you the game
once it is ready, unless your opponent has a massive
lead and/or incredible field already happening. It
is also a good candidate for a +39 build where you only
run Kingdra-EX for Basic Pokémon, with the rest
of your deck being mostly basic Energy cards of the
appropriate Types. Unless your opponent has a
lucky setup (including sufficient resources to run one
of the eight Fairy cards in this set), you will most
likely overwhelm him or her. Remember that in
Limited you only must take four Prizes, not six.
The +39 strategy is riskier now thanks to the Evolution
Packs making it so that even with bad pulls you still
can build a solid Limited format deck at a Pre-Release,
but still often worthwhile. As I ended up having
both the time and space this review, those eight Fairy
Types in this set consist of the Common Basics
Jigglypuff (XY: Fates Collide 65/124), Cottonee
(XY: Fates Collide 70/124), and Snubbull (XY:
Fates Collide 68/124), the Uncommon Stage 1 Pokémon
Wigglytuff (XY: Fates Collide 66/124) and
Whimsicott (XY: Fates Collide 71/124), the
regular Rare Mr. Mime (XY: Fates Collide
67/124), the Holo Rare Basic Pokémon-EX Diancie-EX
(XY: Fates Collide 72/124), and the Holo Rare
Mega Evolution M Altaria-EX (XY: Fates Collide
69/124). All but the Pokémon-EX are either
Evolving Basics (and thus weaker in damage output),
require a source of [Y] Energy (less easy to splash), or
require coin flips (thus being unreliable): Snubbull
is all three and there isn’t an Evolved form for it this
set! The Mega Evolutions are going to be almost
impossible to beat, but are also much less likely to be
pulled.
Ratings
Standard:
3.15/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
4.65/5
Summary:
Kingdra-EX is a solid beatstick looking for a
good home. Maybe, like Black Kyurem-EX (XY:
Plasma Storm 95/135) it will find it, or maybe it
won’t; that Black Kyurem-EX replaced Keldeo-EX
before itself being replaced by other attackers,
including a return-to-form Keldeo-EX so things
can shift dramatically. So I’m going to score it
just a bit into the happy side of “average”, a bit lower
for Expanded where there is more competition, and quite
well for Limited.
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