Otaku |
Breaking into the top five for this set, fifth place
goes to Ninetales BREAK (XY: Evolutions
16/108). Being a Fire Type has its perks.
Nearly all Grass and Metal Types are Fire Weak, but you
don’t have to worry about facing anything that naturally
has Fire Resistance unless we delve into Unlimited play.
The Fire Type has some great support, but one key card (Blacksmith)
is confined to the Expanded Format. Battle
Compressor for two Fire Energy cards and a
Blacksmith, followed by a VS Seeker to attach
[RR] to a Fire Type is good acceleration, and Fire
Energy support like Fiery Torch and Scorched
Earth also work well with the basic Fire Energy
focus. If you do have room for a Double
Colorless Energy, a Fire Type attacker can go from
zero to [RRCC] ASAP. Attackers like
Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire 12/106; XY:
Black Star Promos XY121; XY: Evolutions
12/108) and Entei (XY: Ancient Origins
15/98) which at least in the past had some competitive
success. Still available in Standard is
Volcanion-EX; since it ups damage done by Basic
Fire Types it actually may hurt Ninetales BREAK.
At least the Volcanion (XY: Steam Siege
25/114; XY: Black Star Promos XY145) can serve as
a solid opener in either Expanded or Standard play,
providing a big Basic that can do a little damage while
accelerating [R] Energy from the discard pile.
There are some anti-Fire Type effects, but they aren’t
so hot. The most competitive of them is
incidental; people run Parallel City for its
Bench shrinking effect, but if you can handle hitting
yourself with that effect, your opponent is saddled with
an effect that drops the damage done by Fire (plus Grass
and Water Types) by 20.
As the BREAK Evolution of a Stage 1, Ninetales BREAK
is a pseudo-Stage 2 Pokémon. We now have an
anti-BREAK Evolution effect, but I don’t recall any
BREAK specific support; at least generic Evolution
support still applies. So while you do dodge a few
(usually unimportant) anti-Stage 2 effects, you miss out
on effects which support them while still having a
similar resource burden. This is somewhat offset
by BREAK Evolutions having a chance of Evolving from
something… well… better. I’ve long stated
the designers need to make Evolving Pokémon more
beneficial, so that the justification for running the
entire Stage doesn’t rest on the final form, and BREAK
Evolutions can demonstrate that a little, provided we
have some good options from which to Evolve (so many
cards, even what released as a fully Evolved Pokémon,
are filler). Ninetales BREAK has 140 HP, a
decent amount for a Stage 2; big enough that a 2HKO is
more likely than a OHKO, but the margin is for this is
just 10 or 20 HP, meaning OHKOs are going to still
happen quite a bit. BREAK Evolutions gain their
Weakness, Resistance, and Retreat Cost from their next
lowest Stage, plus any Abilities or attacks found there,
so we’ll cover the last thing Ninetales BREAK
brings to the table: its own attack. For [RC] it
may use “Explosive Fireball”, which requires you discard
all {R] Energy attached to itself, but is good for 10
damage plus 60 per Energy discarded in this manner.
So minimum base damage output is 70 unless you can use
Explosive Fireball without copying its actual attack
cost, and the return on Energy invested is actually
pretty good if it is all [R] Energy: now the effective
minimum base damage is 130 at [RR], with [RRR] dealing
190, [RRRR] dealing 250, etc. Those are either at
or just above some key amounts for OHKOs, so the
challenge is finding an effective way to supply that
much Energy. Blacksmith can provide [RR],
allowing a manual Energy attachment to hit [RRR]; this
is Expanded only but it would also allow either
Muscle Band or Silver Bangle to bring the
damage into smaller Mega Evolution range. Burning
Energy might be an option, provided we can keep
Ninetales BREAK from being KO’d; attachments aren’t
going to be particularly fast without convoluted combos
that I half remember. If Ninetales BREAK
does not survive to the next turn, all using
Burning Energy does is give you a source of [R]
Energy that can’t work with various effects conducive to
basic Energy card use. Expanded also provides more
access to cards that can accelerate basic Fire Energy
but as they are Evolutions and we already have a
card that is practically a Stage 2, just doesn’t seem
worth it. Perhaps in Standard play it just has to
be Volcanion to open, maybe some Max Elixir
(used on Vulpix) and/or Exp. Share for
when you have an attack that does not shed all
its Energy (so something other than Ninetales
BREAK up front).
I’m seeing four options for Vulpix: BW:
Dragons Exalted 18/124, BW: Legendary Treasures
20/113, XY: Primal Clash 20/160, and XY:
Evolutions 14/108, while our options for
Ninetales are BW: Dragons Exalted 19/124
(also BW: Black Star Promos BW66), BW:
Legendary Treasures 21/113, XY: Primal Clash
21/160, and XY: Evolutions 15/108. Only
those with an XY-era release are still Standard legal.
All are Fire Type Pokémon with Water Weakness, no
Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], and no Ancient Trait.
Since Ninetales and Vulpix share bottom
stats and Ninetales BREAK just uses
whatever is on Ninetales, let us evaluate those
quick. Water Weakness is not good, but exactly how
bad it is, I cannot say. Why? Circumstances;
there are enough Water Types that go from 2HKO to OHKO
against the lower Stages thanks to Weakness, and even
enough that pull the same trick against Ninetales
BREAK that it is pretty bad. However at the
same time, this isn’t like the Fighting Type where
nearly anything that attacks for damage can be
buffed into OHKO status, even when fueled by a single
Strong Energy. No Resistance is easy; it’s the
worst Resistance but the mechanic already provides niche
benefits so lacking Resistance is mostly a non-issue.
The Retreat Cost of [C] is nice and low; free would be
better, but odds are you won’t need to include anything
beyond the usual complement of alternatives to manually
retreating at full Price.
All Vulpix have 60 HP and no Abilities, and all
but XY: Primal Clash 20/160 have just one attack.
BW: Dragons Exalted 18/124 can use “Singe” for
[R] to afflict the opponent’s Active with Burn. BW:
Legendary Treasures 20/113 can use “Firebreathing”
for [RC] to do 20 damage and flip a coin; “heads” means
another 10 damage, “tails” means just the base 20. XY:
Primal Clash 20/160 can use “Roar” for [C] to force
your opponent to change out his or her Active (your
opponent’s picks his or her new Active) while for [R] it
can do “Gnaw” for 10. XY: Evolutions 14/108 can
use “Confuse Ray” for [RR] to do 20 damage and flip a
coin; this time “heads” Confuses the opponent’s Active
while “tails” adds nothing (in either case, 20 damage is
done). So as an Evolving Basic, Vulpix
should mostly be setting up for a Ninetales and
none of them do that job particularly well. BW:
Dragons Exalted 18/124 and XY: Evolutions
14/108 cause Special Conditions, something a particular
Ninetales enjoys, with the latter possibly
helping to avoid damage (“heads” to Confuse, opponent
can’t ditch Confusion, either doesn’t attack or does
attack and gets “tails”). If Special Conditions
are a concern, try to use BW: Dragons Exalted
18/124, otherwise I’d favor XY: Primal Clash
20/160 just in case “Roar” can mess with your opponent’s
set up.
Getting to the Ninetales, BW: Dragons Exalted
19/124 has 90 HP with one Ability and one attack.
The former is “Bright Look” which triggers when you
Evolve Vulpix into this Ninetales and
allows you to select one of your opponent’s Benched
Pokémon and force it into his or her Active slot.
In short, it’s a bonus Lysandre provided you can
make use of one when you go to Evolve (at least you can
decline if you don’t) and assuming Abilities are
working. The latter is “Hexed Flame” for [R],
which does 20 damage plus 50 more for each Special
Condition currently affecting the opponent’s Active.
While there are five Special Conditions (Burn,
Confusion, Paralysis, Poison, and Sleep), three of them
(Confusion, Paralysis, and Sleep) are mutually exclusive
so the most you can layer at once is three (Burn,
Poison, and one of the three indicated by changing your
card’s position). That still means upwards of 170
damage from Hexed Flame, but scoring that many can be
tricky plus there are effects which block Special
Conditions. Still these are both a good Ability
and attack, though be careful not to let the two clash,
like forcing up a new Active after you already
layered Special Conditions on the previous one. We
reviewed it before
here
and it still exists in that grey area where it isn’t
bad, but no deck has forged it into something great.
That isn’t to say it lacks a deck; it is often partnered
up with a good source of Special Conditions, often
Amoonguss (BW: Next Destinies 9/99) as it has
a coming-into-play Ability that inflicts Confusion and
Poison.
Ninetales
(BW: Legendary Treasures 21/113) also has 90 HP
and one attack, but no Ability this time. The
attack is “Color Coordination” which for [CCC] does 50
damage, plus 40 if Ninetales has a basic Energy
card that is the same Type as the Defending Pokémon.
For three Energy you ought to be hitting for 90 damage
anyway; we reviewed this Ninetales
here
but when it comes to playing you ought to just skip it.
Ninetales (XY: Primal Clash 21/160) once
again has 90 HP, one Ability, and one attack. This
time the Ability is “Barrier Shrine” which prevents
both players from playing Stadium cards from hand;
this allows you to lock in a particular Stadium or lock
out all Stadium cards. Well, there are a few
caveats; obviously if Abilities go down, Stadiums are
back online, and even if you lock a particular Stadium
onto the field a card like Delinquent can still
discard it. Really obscure is Gothitelle (XY:
Furious Fists 45/111), whose Ability allows it to
play Stadium cards from the discard pile, which means it
also gets around Barrier Shrine. Its attack is
“Flickering Flames” for [RRC] and does 70 damage and
puts the opponent’s Active to Sleep. The Ability
is great in the right deck, useful in general, and
useless (or backfires!) in the wrong deck. The
attack is solid, especially in light of the Ability
probably being the card’s focus. We looked at it
before
here.
Finally Ninetales (XY: Evolutions 15/108)
is the update of the original Ninetales (Base
Set 12/102; Base Set 2 13/130; Legendary
Collection 17/110). It has 100 HP (instead of
the original 80) and revised attacks. “Lure” allows you
to force an opponent’s Benched Pokémon into the Active
slot, just like the original, but now it only costs [R]
instead of [CC] and it prevents that Pokémon from
manually retreating until the end of your opponent’s
next turn. “Fire Blast” requires [RRC] (it used to need
[RRRR]) and does 120 damage (the original did 80), while
having you discard an [R] Energy from Ninetales
itself (the original specified “[R] Energy card”).
Both attacks are improved, but mostly because Energy
Removal/Super Energy Removal really hurt the
original Ninetales; yes Rain Dance was an issue
regardless, but the infamous Haymaker deck really
needed to keep Ninetales from powering up, as
Haymaker doesn’t work too well when it cannot OHKO the
opponent’s Active but said Active can OHKO the typical
Haymaker Pokémon. Needing one less Energy and
doing 40 more damage is a definite improvement, but
probably isn’t good enough to justify running it, at
least on its own. Lure is better, but the same
problem applies; you’re giving up an attack to change
out your opponent’s Active and you need to use it
instead to go on the offensive. Oddly still better
than back in the day, where you had Gust of Wind
(Lysandre as an Item, before Trainer lock was
really a thing) to do the job and it didn’t have the
added effect of blocking the target’s retreat the next
turn.
Time to put it all together; we don’t have a great
Vulpix but both Ninetales (BW: Dragons
Exalted 19/124, BW: Black Star Promos BW66)
and Ninetales (XY: Primal Clash 21/160)
provide useful Abilities. Bright Look is better,
but requires more effort to reuse; Barrier Shrine can
also be tricky to properly time, but once it’s in play
it’s in play, so you could run both in the same Expanded
deck. If you have room for a few copies of
Hypnotoxic Laser then Hexed Flame can be a fallback
attack. Blacksmith plus a manual Energy
attachment can hit most key damage amounts, and if we
add in Muscle Band, Hypnotoxic Laser, and
Virbank City Gym we can take out most targets in
one hit (with everything only needed for things like
Mega Evolutions). In Standard you may as well
blend the two legal Ninetales together, trying to
lock in a solid Stadium with XY: Primal Clash
21/160 while XY: Evolutions 15/108 might just
barely be worth it as an alternate attacker. For
Energy acceleration, either you’ve got to try to use
Max Elixir on Vulpix or Volcanion on
whatever is Benched and hope it survives to the next
turn. Not thrilled with either approach as using
Max Elixir means that Vulpix has to
survive at least one more turn, and that assumed you
immediately Evolve into Ninetales this
turn. I guess with Wally you could pull it
all off in a single turn. If you go with
Volcanion, the issue is simply why bother with
Ninetales BREAK at all? I guess if you needed
XY: Primal Clash 21/160 to lock in a Stadium
anyway, a single one might be a decent TecH option. Volcanion,
thanks to Volcanion-EX, can become a great
attacker hitting so hard for a single (attached) Energy.
As you can tell, this is me coming up with totally
untested ideas that aren’t even good enough to be called
Theorymon, but if you really want something… there it
is. At least in Limited play, yeah Ninetales
BREAK is great (assuming you pull Vulpix and
Ninetales as well). Enjoy it there for
sure.
Ratings
Standard:
2/5
Expanded:
3.25/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Summary:
Ninetales BREAK has a very good attack, but it’s
basically a Stage 2 without some of the perks and
I can’t think of a good way to fuel it except in
Expanded play. Don’t write it off, but know its
role.
Ninetales BREAK
took fifth place with 10 voting points; six of those
came from me because it was indeed my fifth place pick,
but I’m having some buyer’s (voter’s?) remorse. So
far, the first six cards we’ve reviewed haven’t been
overly impressive, and would be lucky to sneak onto a
Top 10 at all if they had been in a more - shall we say
- competitive expansion. Just one point separates
today’s card from
last Friday’s
sixth place finisher, Brock’s Grit, and only one
point separates it from
tomorrow’s
fourth place finisher as well.
|
Zach Carmichael |
Today we begin our countdown for
the top 5 cards from the new Evolutions expansion with
Ninetales BREAK. It’s interesting that Pokémon decided
to pay fan service to a number of Pokémon from the first
generation, such as Nidoking and Starmie, though new
BREAK cards. Unfortunately, these cards miss the mark in
terms of playability, and that is why ultimately I
cannot recommend Ninetales BREAK outside of casual play.
With only 140 HP, Ninetales BREAK
is lackluster for being what is essentially a glorified
Stage 2 (if not worse because it cannot take advantage
of Rare Candy). Its Explosive Fireball attack does 10
damage and forces you to discard all Fire Energy on it,
in return doing 60 additional damage for each Energy
card discarded. I can’t really justify playing this card
in either Standard or Expanded because it just doesn’t
keep up with other attackers. In order to KO a typical
Pokémon-EX that has a Fighting Fury Belt, you would have
to discard a whopping four Energy, a feat that is near
impossible without proper acceleration.
That said, there are a couple
options as to which Stage 1 Ninetales you will want to
pair th BREAK with. First we have the one that was
recently released in Evolutions. It has a 10 more HP
than its Roaring Skies counterpart, and its Lure attack
is essentially a Lysandre without the drawback of having
to use your Supporter for the turn. Fire Blast is
mediocre at best, doing 120 damage for three Energy and
having to discard. The BREAK will be able to use these
attacks, but I don’t see it really coming out until
mid-game given such low HP on the Stage 1.
The other option is the Ninetales
from Primal Clash, whose “Barrier Shine” Ability makes
both players unable to play Stadium cards. Again, the
attack is pretty bad, but the Ability is very strong in
a format dominated by the polar opposites of Parallel
City and Sky Field. But that is where the line is drawn
as far as playability of Ninetales – unfortunately it
just lacks the “oomph” to keep up with other decks,
particularly Water-type ones like Greninja BREAK and
Seismitoad-EX.
Ratings
Standard: 1/5
Expanded: 1/5
Limited: 1.5/5
Summary: While it is good to
see Pokémon release cool-looking cards for a number of
popular Pokémon from the original games, the majority of
them will remain in binders of collectors, Ninetales
BREAK included. It is slow to set up, has mediocre HP,
and its attack needs a lot of Energy do really make a
dent in the popular Pokémon-EX attackers that continue
to dominate the format.
|
