aroramage |
Welcome to the Top 10 List for
Fates Collide! As always, we'll be taking a look at some
of what we think were the best cards in the set - and
already, we're starting with what was the top of MY
list!
Now at first, you're probably
thinking to yourself, "Wow, this is the first time
Alakazam has been a card in a long while!" And you're
right, it's been almost 7 years since he was last seen
in the game - that last time being in Rising Rivals, as
a Basic Pokemon SP! And now he's back again with
Alakazam-EX and, more importantly, M Alakazam-EX!
So why was this my top pick? How is
it that the big Mega of this set just barely hit the Top
10? Well, really, that should say more about the other
cards on this list, but let's start with the basics. M
Alakazam-EX has 210 HP, which is a little bit on the low
side for a Mega-EX but ultimately not that bad. He is
however weak to other Psychic-types, which in today's
game means he's susceptible to the most powerful deck in
the format, Night March. And that's about it for all the
negatives.
...no, seriously, that's all the
negatives!
His Retreat Cost is only at 1,
meaning a simple Mystery Energy is all that's needed to
get him free retreat. Heck, one Mystery Energy is all
you need to access his attack, which only costs one
Psychic Energy while Dimension Valley is in play! And
that already makes him a MAJOR contender in the upcoming
rotation! But most important of all, of course, is the
attack itself: Zen Force.
At 2-for-10, it looks pretty bleak,
but as we've learned in the past, never underestimate
the weak-looking attacks! Zen Force starts out small,
but it can add on damage to the tune of 30 extra points
for every damage counter on your opponent's Pokemon.
Again, that's 30 EXTRA points for every damage counter!
So that means it'll start out at only 10, but then it
gets bumped up to 40, then 130, and then 400 DAMAGE!!
Over the course of 4 turns, M Alakazam-EX is hitting
numbers UNHEARD OF in the game!
...well, unless you pump up things
like Keldeo-EX and Mewtwo-EX to ungodly levels.
But how does one get damage
counters on all those Pokemon faster than with Zen
Force? Fortunately, that's what Alakazam-EX's main aim
is! He can put 3 damage counters on any of your
opponent's Pokemon with Energy - which is also just
enough to KO small fry like Joltik - and when he Mega
Evolves into M Alakazam-EX, his Kinesis Ability can put
2 damage counters on your opponent's Active Pokemon and
put down ANOTHER 3 damage counters on one of your
opponent's Benched Pokemon, setting them up for 70 and
100 damage on their own! Couple this with other effects
like the Crobat line-up or even Trevenant BREAK, and
you've got a handy deck that's ready to decimate and
keep on trucking.
So while M Alakazam-EX may not be
the absolute best Mega of all time, he's high up on my
list for his access to lots of widespread damage
maneuvers and a super cheap attack that can do a LOT of
damage. And I mean M Tyranitar-EX levels of damage!!
...okay, maybe not that many, but
still!
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (he's got a lot of
power going, but he's just getting released into a weird
format at the moment)
Expanded: 4/5 (with rotation set to
shake things up, he might get more powerful...or less
powerful, depending on the sets)
Limited: 5/5 (there's no question
though that he's going to be a powerhouse!)
Arora Notealus: Mega Alakazam is
probably one of the more interesting Mega Evolutions. I
mean, you go from a Psychic dual-wielding spoons to
someone who looks like they've been training in the
mountains for years, harnessing their mind and enduring
intolerable levels of pain, suffering, and cold to
strengthen themselves in ways unfathomable...
...with more spoons.
Next Time: We BREAK into another
Evolution that...could be useful!
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Otaku |
Welcome as we
finally start covering XY: Fates Collide,
beginning with our Top 10 list for the set. Think
of these as “promising picks”; the set only released
last week be legal for Standard or Expanded play until
May 23 (three weeks after the official May 2, 2016
release date). Unlike our year end review where we
can look at what actually worked, here we are giving our
best guesses as to what will do well. I can’t
speak for the entire review team, but I haven’t been
able to get ahold of, let alone play test, these cards;
I’m operating on the early reports of others and my own
theoretical analysis. What is like our year end
list is each reviewer was free to pick his or her own
criteria for making the list, save for the traditional
“no reprints” rule. We also had a little
discussion about reviewing multiple cards at once,
because in addition to the BREAK Evolutions in this set,
we had a few other cards that were so closely
related, it was worth at least considering officially
reviewing them at the same time. On the other hand
our last few attempts at it were went poorly, so you may
or may not get some two-in-one reviews this list.
With all that said,
10th place goes to M Alakazam-EX (XY: Fates
Collide 26/124, 118/124)! This marks the
return of Alakazam in any form to the TCG. Current
Psychic Type support seems to do them well, though it
isn’t as much as the Types I usually praise (like
Fighting). The big payoff is going to be
Dimension Valley, as it should matter for this card
(more on that when we get to the card’s attack and
usage). Also of note is going to be Wobbuffet
(XY: Phantom Forces 36/119; Generations
RC11/RC32); besides being a useful card that is also a
Psychic Type, its “Bide Barricade” shuts down Abilities
except for Psychic Type Pokémon and while M
Alakazam-EX lacks an Ability, I’m going to be
explaining why it’s often going to rely on some from
other Psychic Types. I don’t recall anything that
explicitly affects the Psychic Type in a negative
manner, nor did a quick search turn any up. The
main branch of the Fighting and the Psychic Type are
both Psychic Weak, while while Psychic Resistance is
abundant as it is found on nearly all Darkness and Metal
Types. Just remember that plenty of Fighting and
Psychic Types won’t be Psychic Weak while even one of
the most common forms of Resistance is still far less
common than a Pokémon having no Resistance at all.
As a Mega
Evolution, you get some extra bonuses and drawbacks
alongside the usual for being a Pokémon-EX. Being
a Pokémon-EX means giving up an extra Prize when KOed,
being the specific target of certain counters, and being
unable to use a few beneficial effects. I say this
every time we look at one, but even the first of those,
but if you’re online or at League you know plenty of
people who seem to forget any or all of these when
brainstorming around a particular Pokémon-EX.
There is an added benefit because of the specific
Pokémon involved; the short version is legal problems
with Kadabra means it doesn’t show up in the TCG
anymore, so in addition to the Basic Pokémon Alakazam-EX
not having to deal with being a Stage 2,
the-powers-that-be don’t have to worry about said
Kadabra issue. M Alakazam-EX would be incredibly
hard to play if (legal issues aside) you had to Evolve
it from a Stage 2. Yes the Mega Evolution rule
means your turns end once you Mega Evolve, but we have
Alakazam Spirit Link to get around that;
Spirit Link cards make Mega Evolutions easier than
Stage 2 Pokémon to manage, though a little trickier than
Stage 1 Pokémon. It also grants access to Mega
Turbo and Stantler (which we won’t probably
be using), but also means dealing with Faded Town
placing damage counters on all Mega Evolutions in play
between turns, Giratina-EX (XY: Ancient
Origins 57/98, 93/98) being immune to both attack
damage and effects thanks to its “Renegade Pulse”
Ability. How much those two matter will depend on
your local metagame.
Being a Pokémon-EX
usually means an HP boost, while being a Mega Evolution
means being bigger still. The last plain
Alakazam card, DP: Mysterious Treasures 2/123
(from almost nine years ago!) only had 100 HP.
Even taking into account power creep, if we had a
regular Alakazam right now I doubt it would have
more than 130 HP, but M Alakazam-EX enjoys an HP
score of 210. The good news is that this makes
OHKOs difficult for many decks, just as it is with most
Mega Evolutions, but the bad news is that 2HKOs should
be pretty reliable unless you can interfere with them.
Even 220 has a noticeably better chance of avoiding a
OHKO and sometimes even a 2HKO, and that is before
Weakness. Psychic Weakness was to be expected and
even if we had a radical metagame shift that meant every
other Psychic Type stopped seeing play, M Alakazam-EX
would still have to contend with itself. I am not
predicting such a shift so instead M Alakazam-EX
will have to worry about splashed in Psychic Type
attackers, Night March decks, and Trevenant BREAK
decks. No Resistance is typical so I won’t hold it
against the card, but I will point out that not only
might Mega Evolutions be a good place to test out giving
some Types access to appropriate forms of Resistance,
the only one that would apply here (Fighting) would be
welcome as even if the Fighting Type often overpowers or
bypasses it, with 210 HP you benefit from making them
rely on such tricks. The Retreat Cost is a nice
note upon which to end the attributes; [C] is a good
Retreat Cost that is easy to pay both up front and in
the long term.
M Alakazam-EX
lacks an Ancient Trait, which isn’t a surprise since the
mechanic seems to have been dropped after XY: Ancient
Origins. Ancient Traits are the only effect
other than a single attack we have - as of yet - seen on
a Mega Evolution. So the one attack present is
“Zen Force” for [PC], a nice looking price as it means
Dimension Valley would drop the cost to just [P].
Zen Force does 10 damage, plus 30 more for each damage
counter on the opponent’s Active Pokémon. For a
Pokémon that is neither Psychic Weak nor Resistant or
other effects that block or reduce the damage being
done, no damage counters still means 10 damage done, one
counter means 40, two means 70, three means 100, four
means 130, five means 160, six means 190, and seven
means 220. Respectively, that would mean KOs at
the 10, 50, 90, 130, 170, 210, 250 HP levels. Why
did I list all of those? While the 10 damage the
attack can do against an uninjured Pokémon is bad (even
for a single Energy), at least it can get the ball
rolling. The rest we see hitting some key KOs, but
we have to also remember how much work is going into
them. Taking out bigger, non-Pokémon-EX Basics
means a solid three damage counters have to already hit
the field. The smaller of the two common Basic
Pokémon-EX cards requires four. Doesn’t sound like
much, but it has to come from somewhere. The next
amounts do start to sound like a lot, at least if you
aren’t going for 2HKOs using another attacker before
changing out to M Alakazam-EX. So let’s
talk strategy.
First we’ll cover
Alakazam-EX (XY: Fates Collide 25/124,
117/124, 125/124), which actually does work at being a
strong lead in to M Alakazam-EX. It is a
Basic Psychic Type with 160 HP, Psychic Weakness, no
Resistance, Retreat Cost [CC], no Ancient Trait, the
Ability “Kinesis”, and the attack “Suppression”.
The aspects of the card that are the same as M
Alakazam-EX are as good or bad as they are for M
Alakazam-EX. 160 HP is a concern for two reasons:
the going rate for attacking Basic Pokémon-EX is split
between those with 170 and 180 HP so those decks already
score a OHKO, while others that just barely whiff on the
OHKO can hit 160. Weakness again plays a huge
role; the classic Mewtwo-EX (BW: Next
Destinies 54/99, 98/99; BW: Black Star Promos
BW45; BW: Legendary Treasures 54/113) and the
Psychic Type attackers in Night March decks can reach
OHKO levels with relative ease. Mewtwo-EX needs
a little more help but it also is easy enough to fit
into several decks. The Retreat Cost being a bit
higher isn’t too bad, but it does mean the deck might
have to dedicate more slots to lowering Retreat Costs or
bypassing manually retreating than would otherwise seem
needed.
Kinesis triggers
when you go to Mega Evolve into M Alakazam-EX and
places two damage counters on the opponent’s Active and
three on the opponent’s Benched Pokémon of your choice.
This means 90 HP or less Pokémon become an easy KO,
while 130 HP or less can be set up for an effective
OHKO, by Zen ForceIt also sets up for some future
combos, which I’ll get to after covering Suppression.
Suppression has the same [PC] cost as Zen Force and
places three damage counters on any and all of your
opponent’s Pokémon with an Energy attached. More
than one Energy attached to a particular opponent’s
Pokémon still means only three damage counters are
attached, and most decks won’t have Energy on multiple
in play Pokémon until they’ve got at least a partial
setup. A few decks will rarely have Energy
attached to something on the Bench, and some decks that
would can cut back once they realize that they are up
against Alakazam-EX. Suppression isn’t bad,
but it isn’t likely to do a lot of good without a lot of
additional combo pieces we won’t be discussion and which
still can’t ensure it does a lot of spread. It
isn’t worthless for leading into a Zen Force the next
turn, but I wouldn’t want to leave it up front and
Active in order to try.
Sticking to the
M Alakazam-EX line, we’ve got a solid but not yet
competitive combo; effects that reduce damage, block
damage counter placement, or heal can really throw off
reliable 2HKOs which may not have been enough to prove
competitive anyway. The suggestion I’ve seen most
is using the Abilities on Crobat (XY: Phantom
Forces 33/119) and Golbat (XY: Phantom
Forces 32/119; Generations 31/83) to place
the damage counters you need to score the OHKOs. Crobat
backed decks were made famous by Landorus-EX but
presently, while they still exist they are no longer the
powerhouse they once were… unless you’re facing
something like Night March, where you’re probably better
off sticking to just the Crobat and ignoring your
M Alakazam-EX line, or at least saving it until
you don’t have to worry about the unfavorable Prize
exchange rate. Lest that sound like a major coup,
my point is that whatever other Crobat deck you’d
be using to try and mess up Night March is probably a
better call than M Alakazam-EX. Using cards
like AZ, Devolution Spray, and Super
Scoop Up you can spam the Evolution triggered
Abilities like mad, but we are adding a lot of moving
pieces in order to try and get the needed damage
counters in play to capitalize upon Zen Force.
So what would I do?
Well, if I decide to give M Alakazam-EX a chance
I probably will try the Crobat version, but I’m
thinking there has to be better options. Looking
at attacks, there are quite a few Pokémon skilled at
spreading damage or damage counters. Maybe the
M Alakazam-EX line should be backing up Trevenant
BREAK, providing a few extra damage counters as they
Mega Evolve, then popping up front to take the last OHKO
needed to win. I am most inclined to try going the
opposite direction of adding lots of extra Pokémon:
Kinesis provides three damage counters on a Benched
target and two to the Active, so what if we use Absol
(XY: Roaring Skies 40/108)? Its “Cursed
Eyes” Ability moves exactly three damage counters from
one of your opponent’s Pokémon to another. That
means Evolving Alakazam-EX into M Alakazam-EX
followed by Benching an Absol can get five damage
counters on the opponent’s Active Pokémon, so that Zen
Force hits for 160 damage before Weakness, Resistance,
and effects, which effectively OHKOs up to a 210 HP
Pokémon. This leaves you room for the many bounce
effects you’ll need to spam these things plus other
cards to assist in setup and maintenance. Sounds
fun and effective, though you may need to consider some
supporting attacker(s) because of the various protective
effects, as well as certain cases of Type matching.
So that covers
Standard and Expanded. What about Limited?
Take this with more than a grain of salt because not
only has it been years since I’ve been able to make a
Pre-Release, this is the set where the new rules go into
effect. I am guessing that it will be difficult to
pull both Alakazam-EX and M Alakazam-EX,
and a little more luck also get Alakazam Spirit Link
as well. If you manage all three, do not
attempt to run Alakazam-EX as your only Basic;
besides the fact your Evolution pack should have the
decent beginnings of a deck in it, the M Alakazam-EX
line should be terrible on its own. Your opponent
by all rights should be able to take out M Alakazam-EX
before you take four Prizes, even with its 210 HP,
because Suppression and Zen Force can’t hit hard and
fast without help. Kinesis can set up for two
relatively easy KOs, but if your opponent has to they
can just stop attaching Energy cards to infinitely stall
against Suppression, and unless said opponent blunders
into it, only two solid OHKOs are happening from Zen
Force, and that might be after several turns of trying
to get M Alakazam-EX onto the field. Backed
by a fleshed out deck, you should be able to take the
risk, even without Alakazam Spirit Link. Do
the normal back and forth with other attackers and save
M Alakazam-EX for critical KOs.
Ratings
Standard:
3.5/5
Expanded:
3.5/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Summary:
M Alakazam-EX has some slick tricks that actually
have substance behind them, but in the end I think this
card is going to be a better M Tyranitar-EX as
this tactic seems better for bounce spam than tanking.
It is entering a crowded field where almost all of its
moving parts are going to be attacked by disruption or
negation, so I don’t expect it to become the new top
deck, let alone hold that position for a little while.
It might enjoy its 15 minutes of fame while holding onto
a loyal base that won’t let it die out.
M Alakazam-EX
did not make my own personal top 10 list and missed by a
decent margin, however I know that many think
I’ve sold it short, and I can see why with what it
brings to the table. It received 15 voting points,
beating out the next highest ranked card by three and
missing a tie with tomorrow’s 9th place finisher by just
one point. There are several cards that I think
are just as deserving of a review, but I no longer am
sure they deserved it more. In fact my only regret
about M Alakazam-EX taking 10th place is that it
took more time and effort than expected, and as such
this review is going up late.
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