aroramage |
Well now, this is very interesting!
Never would I have thought to see one of the Kyurem
forms as just a Water-type. Most of those have been
Dragon-types - in fact, outside of the original Kyurem
cards, this is the only other Water-typed Kyurem, and
Black Kyurem still doesn't have one of those! Nifty, eh?
Trivia aside, White Kyurem comes in
with all the benefits of a non-evolving non-EX Basic
Legendary - 130 HP, Retreat Cost of 3, and attacks that
are...interesting, to say the least. Burning Icicles
costs 2 Energy and deals 40 damage, with an added
benefit of doing 20 more damage to 2 of your opponent's
Benched Pokemon if he's got any Fire Energy attached.
Dealing 80 damage in one turn for 2 Energy is pretty
amazing in its own right, but running Fire Energy
alongside Water Energy doesn't seem like an immediate
go-to. Not saying it's impossible to run into Water-Fire
decks, but they don't strike me as being very
common...or that any strategy currently available would
run both.
Blizzard Burn doesn't exactly help
White Kyurem's case though. It's a 3-for-130 strike,
which is amazing...but then it's completely reversed by
the inhibition of being unable to attack with White
Kyurem on your next turn. Ideally you're KO-ing with
this attack, cause while 130 damage is a LOT of damage
to deal with, it still can only 2HKO most Pokemon these
days, and because of its own restriction, it can't even
do that!
Needless to say, White Kyurem's
better off sticking to the EX treatment, or at least in
the Dragon Typing...at least there, he can get both his
Water and Fire Energy...technically.
Rating
Standard: 1.5/5 (can't say that his
first iteration as another Water-typed Kyurem card was
that stellar)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (really, the
original's better, and that's not saying much)
Limited: 3/5 (at the very least
though, he could see some good play in Limited)
Arora Notealus: I wonder if they'll
ever come out with a Water-typed Black Kyurem...that
requires Electric Energy and also has an attack that
paralyzes himself...
Weekend Thought: What do you think
of this week's cards? Sorry about the lackluster ending
on this week, but hey, at least the opening was strong!
And that Kingdra-EX holds some promise, like that
Delphox! Huh? Huh?? Maybe? Eh...
|
Otaku |
We conclude our
week with White Kyurem (XY: Fates Collide
21/124; XY: Black Star Promos XY128). This
is a Water Type, which means it hits some Fighting and
nearly all Fire Types for double damage thanks to
Weakness, will have to deal with some Resistance (BW-era
Grass Types), some weak anti-Water Type (one side of
Parallel City), and an ample helping of support.
Said support can be broadly classified in four
varieties. The first variety includes the cards
like Dive Ball and Splash Energy which
only work for Water Type Pokémon; they may have
counterparts in the other Pokémon Types (for example
Grass has Revitalizer and Herbal Energy)
that are similar but still distinct, filling the same
role but in a notably different manner. Then there
are cards like Archie’s Ace in the Hole; not
every Type has its own Supporter, but some of the others
do as well and there is even Maxie’s Hidden Ball
Trick which is just Archie’s Ace in the Hole
but for Fighting Types. We have some shared
support like Rough Seas, which does expressly
stated it only works for Lightning Types and Water
Types, but nothing else can use it. Then we have
more general support that favors the Water Type, usually
because it is a Water Type Pokémon with [W] requirements
in its attacks or its effects involve [W] Energy.
They can (and often are) used with other Types,
sometimes being the only [W] card in an entire deck. Blastoise
(BW: Boundaries Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma
Storm 137/135; BW: Plasma Blast 16/101) and
Keldeo-EX are the most famous examples of this.
This much support is great, even if specific examples of
it are not; this is one of the best supported Types in
the game.
White Kyurem
is a Basic Pokémon, which gives it many natural
advantages as the game mechanics and pacing favor Basics
above all other Stages. There are some anti-Basic
effects, but there are also bits of Basic Stage support,
so on top of being a legal Pokémon with which to open
the game, no waiting to put it into play so long as
there is room, no additional cards required to enter
play, and several less well defined benefits that
directly result from those three, it has been and
remains the best Stage for a Pokémon to be. Since
we are so used to using them, I’ll remind us both
(whether you needed it or not) that this is not a
Pokémon-EX. Though I’ll often be comparing
White Kyurem to them, that is just because they are
such a huge part of the format; even if White Kyurem
doesn’t measure up, as it only gives up the normal
single Prize when KO’d and is a Basic Pokémon, it may
still come out ahead while doing less than an Pokémon-EX
or an Evolution. Speaking of which it has 130 HP,
which for a Basic Pokémon that is not a
Pokémon-EX is great. We haven’t reviewed it (yet)
but so far there is only a single “regular” Basic
Pokémon with a higher printed maximum HP score,
Snorlax (XY: Fates Collide 77/124), and it
just bumps it up to 140. Until this latest set,
130 was the maximum and while it didn’t guarantee
surviving a hit, it was solid enough to go either way.
Unless of course
Weakness is involved; White Kyurem is Metal Weak.
No Weakness is the best to have, but as that wasn’t
likely an option for the card, Metal Weakness is
actually pretty good. Not only is it different
from some key pieces of Water Type support like
Blastoise and Keldeo-EX, but while both the
Grass and Metal Types have some strong attackers, the
Metal Types seem significantly less represented in
competitive play. The lack of Resistance is
typical, but a bit less easy to ignore since we are
dealing with a 130 HP Basic; I’m saying it may have had
a real chance to matter, though given the card’s video
game Typing of Dragon/Ice, the three options (Water,
Grass, Electric) don’t translate as well to the TCG.
The Retreat Cost of [CCC] is chunky; pack an alternative
to paying it at full price, if not avoiding the cost
entirely. It does allow White Kyurem to
make use of Heavy Ball and Heavy Boots,
but so far nothing has made good use of the latter. Heavy
Ball does sometimes help, but given that White
Kyurem also has Dive Ball to search it out,
that seems unlikely.
So diving into the
card’s effects, we find it has no Ability but two
attacks. The first is “Burning Icicles” for [WC].
It does 40 damage and if you have a source of [R]
Energy attached, 20 to two of your opponent’s Benched
Pokémon. If you remember
yesterday’s review I was disappointed with the “Knock Back” on Grumpig (XY:
Fates Collide 31/124) doing 50 for [PP] and forcing
the opponent to change out his or her Active afterwards…
but I stated it in a somewhat odd way. Today’s
card is why. 40 for two is still poor, but probably
better than that Knock Back attack because the attack
costs [WC] and is the opening move on a big, Basic
Pokémon. In a sense it is almost like this attack
costs [WR] but by pricing and wording it this way, you
still can do 40 if you can’t meet the [R] Energy
requirement and attacks like “Foul Play” used by
Zoroark (Black & White 71/114; BW: Black
Star Promos BW09; BW: Next Destinies 102/99)
still have to met that [R] Energy requirement to get the
full effect. Burning Icicles isn’t a great attack,
but it looks decent; remember that decks which are the
most vulnerable to Bench damage are probably packing
something that blocks Bench damage.
The second and
“big” attack on White Kyurem is “Blizzard Burn”
for [WWC]. This does a 130 damage, but places an
effect on White Kyurem itself preventing it from
attacking again the next turn. If we ignore that
damage output is effectively halved as White Kyurem
can’t attack the turn after, then 130-for-three is a
good deal and enough to build upon. Add in a
Fighting Fury Belt, Muscle Band or Silver
Bangle add enough extra damage that the classic
Hypnotixic Laser plus Virbank City Gym combo
brings it up to an effective 170/180/190 damage before
Weakness or Resistance. If you take out a
Pokémon-EX you still are coming out ahead (at least in
Prizes, if not resources) should White Kyurem be
OHKO’d right back. It also means the effect of
Blizzard Burn doesn’t matter. If you do survive,
there are combos to deal with that drawback; this is the
kind of attack effect that “rests” on the Active Pokémon
and is considered to reset if it leaves the Active slot.
Bouncing it means resupplying all that Energy, but
Benching and re-promoting just requires a double
Switch or (more likely) Keldeo-EX plus
Float Stone.
We have to consider
what else White Kyurem is competing with, though.
First would be other versions of itself. We have
BW: Boundaries Crossed 102/149 (reprinted as
BW: Black Star Promos BW59) and XY: Black Star
Promos XY81. Both are Basic Dragon Type
Pokémon with no Resistance, no Ancient Trait, no
Ability, and two attacks. BW: Boundaries Crossed
102/149 has 130 HP, Dragon Weakness, and a Retreat Cost
of [CC]. Its first attack is “Damage Rush” and
requires [RC]; Damage Rush has you flip a coin until you
get “tails” and does 20 damage times the number of
“heads”. The second attack is “Cold Fire” for
[RWCC], which does 80 damage plus has you flip a coin:
“heads” means +40 damage, while “tails” means you just
do the base 80. We actually looked at this one
when it was new
here.
While power creep means its attacks are effectively
weaker, Double Dragon Energy and Reshiram
(XY: Roaring Skies 63/108) mean these attacks are
also much easier to afford. Not enough to make
this worthwhile, though. XY: Black Star Promos
XY81 has 120 HP, Fairy Weakness, and Retreat Cost [CCC].
Its first attack is “Hyper Beam” for [RCC] doing 40
damage and giving you a coin flip to discard an Energy
from the opponent’s Active. Its second attack is
“Flare Blizzard” for [RRWC] to do 120 damage, plus the
attack’s effect states it cannot use Flare Blizzard on
your next turn. Both attacks are noticeably
overpriced, again even when we include Double Dragon
Energy and Reshiram they aren’t worth it.
It is a pretty card though, released as a Full Art promo
that was released as part of the “Hoopa-EX Legendary
Collection” outside of Japan; in Japan it was part of
the “Legendary Shine Collection”.
That isn’t the last
card we need to compare today’s White Kyurem
with, though they did show why I wish it had been a
Dragon Type: even with the [W] Energy requirements,
Double Dragon Energy and Reshiram made it
possible to power it up in a single turn, plus in
Expanded one could try Altaria (BW: Dragons
Exalted 84/124; BW: Black Star Promos BW48;
BW: Boundaries Crossed 152/149) to boost the
damage being done to the opponent’s Active.
Wanting to boost the damage is natural, but this
specific lament is because of Kyurem (BW:
Plasma Freeze 31/116). It is a card we’ve
reviewed
twice
before with each
being part of a Top 10, though it might be more obvious
if I refer to it as Kyurem [Plasma], one of the
potential main or backup attackers in typical
Team Plasma decks. Apart from the name and being a
Team Plasma Pokémon, its attributes are the same as
today’s White Kyurem. Its attacks are very
similar as well; Kyurem [Plasma] can use “Frost
Spear” for [WC] to do 30 damage plus 30 to an opponent’s
Benched Pokémon or for the same [WWC] as White Kyurem
it can use its own Blizzard Burn for 120 damage.
Frost Spear is much easier to use but does 10 less to
the Active and a total of 10 less to the Bench (20 to
two Benched Pokémon being 40 total damage), while its
Blizzard Burn is actually a little weaker. Kyurem
[Plasma] hasn’t always been a top attacker, but even
with Team Plasma decks not not making a showing in the
last two weeks of the Spring Regionals, Kyurem
[Plasma] itself is still pretty strong.
So what does (or
did) Kyurem [Plasma] have going for it that
White Kyurem doesn’t? This is where it all
comes together; the Dragon Type support I mentioned
parallels some of what made Kyurem [Plasma] great
for a time, then good, and still solid even if it isn’t
winning events. Deoxys-EX provides +10 damage to
Team Plasma Pokémon not named “Deoxys-EX”
via its Ability, and that bonus could stack. You
had Colress Machine and/or Thundurus-EX (BW:
Plasma Freeze 38/116, 110/116; BW: Black Star
Promos BW81) to attach extra Energy (from the deck
or discard pile, respectively), with Colress Machine
not costing you your attack but only working with
Plasma Energy while Thundurus-EX [Plasma]
worked with any Energy (including Special Energy cards).
In a format where - like now - many decks were relying
on Pokémon-EX these combos meant fast damage that was
often from a non-Pokémon-EX but still scoring
OHKOs or setting up for easy 2HKOs (sometimes even a
multiple KO) the next turn. White Kyurem lacks
the support to do that… but what can it do with the
support it has?
In decks that can
quickly power it up, it is a solid 2HKO machine against
almost anything that currently sees competitive play;
the exceptions are stuff it can OHKO and stuff
completely protected from damage by Basic Pokémon.
In Expanded, this might earn it a spot mostly a TecH in
Blastoise decks. Keldeo-EX is already
there as both a main attacker for its Ability, so you’d
be able to ditch the “cannot attack next turn” effect.
It is possible the deck could even include a basic
Fire Energy to get the Bench spread for the few
times when that would also be useful; there is enough
basic Energy search and recovery cards already present
in the typical Deluge deck. The real reason this
isn’t a big deal is that even if White Kyurem
ends up squeezing in there, I’m not seeing any Deluge
decks placing for the first two weeks of the 2016 Spring
Regional Championships; unless the addition of XY:
Fates Collide cards change the final two weeks, then
we have just found a niche use in a has-been deck.
If you want to be a
bit more creative, though, there is another route; focus
more on White Kyurem itself. In both
formats you’ve got tricks like Max Elixir to help
speed up Energy attachments; maybe Palkia-EX (XY:
BREAKpoint 31/122) as well or instead. In
Standard it will have to be about 2HKOs but in Expanded
you could use Hypnotoxic Laser, Virbank City
Gym, and the correct Pokémon Tool to take out things
below Mega Evolution HP levels. Zoroark (XY:
BREAKthrough 91/162) can use Float Stone to
pull off the same trick as Keldeo-EX in Standard,
but for a bit more room. There maybe be three
strikes against this deck idea already, though; it is
completely untested, I haven’t even heard murmurings of
it anywhere, and several pieces of support seem like
they do more good elsewhere. In Limited, you can
finally enjoy White Kyurem; you might even risk
running it and it alone, though odds are too good your
opponent can overwhelm your 130 HP before you can take
all four of your Prize cards in this format. Don’t
sweat the Bench damage for Burning Icicles; if you can
manage some basic Fire Energy in the deck go
ahead, but even without it 40 for two is decent here, as
is Blizzard Burn even when you have to give up an
attack.
Ratings
Standard:
2.25/5
Expanded:
2/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
White Kyurem is another card where it seems like
one simple, plausible change (in this case, its Type)
would make a world of difference. White Kyurem
isn’t actually that bad of a card though, with solid
attributes and effects, but there isn’t a place for it
right now in competitive play. Nothing currently
doing well can make good use of White Kyurem or
if it could, it has something as good or better. White
Kyurem itself is not good enough to forge its own
path, so in the end it comes across as barely mediocre.
|
