|
Welcome to the last week before the
release of Sun & Moon, and with a new generation things
will take a big dynamic shift in their own right. But
let's not get too ahead of ourselves, eh? This week
we're gonna take a look at a few of the scraps left from
the BREAK mechanic as well as a couple of other cards.
Machamp BREAK here is buff. At 190
HP, that's already a huge improvement on previous
Pokemon Evolution standards, matching up with Pokemon-EX
in terms of survivability. He's got a few copies of
himself to work with too, both in Standard and Expanded.
But before we get to that, there's one thing we gotta
cover: that attack! Boomerang Lariat is a basic
3-for-100 strike that allows Machamp BREAK to do 100
more damage on ANY of his attacks on the next turn.
Keeping Lariat in mind, that's already an attack that'll
do 200 damage on the next turn, and that doesn't include
what he inherits from his previous counterparts!
The one that's built with BREAK in
mind - seeing as it came out in the same set - is the
Machamp from Evolutions. It's an update to the Machamp
from Base Set days, with the Ability Counterattack
dealing 30 damage on any opposing Pokemon attacking him
and Seismic Toss being a vanilla 3-for-120. The set-up's
easy to see, you use this Machamp, have Counterattack do
damage to him while the BREAK bashes through with
Seismic Toss and Boomerang Lariat. That's decent in its
own right, but what about the others?
Machamp (FFI), which is
Standard-legal due to the Generations reprint, has the
powerhouse Ability of Fighting Fury, which ups the
damage from Fighting Pokemon attacks by 20, alongside
Machamp Crush, a 3-for-80 hit that reduces the Defending
Pokemon's damage output by 40 on the next turn. Again,
survival by endurance, and the offensive prowess is
probably a bigger draw to this Machamp than the simple
vanilla Seismic Toss. In Expanded, you've also got the
two Machamps from Plasma Blast, with (49) carrying the
Badge of Discipline to nullify Resistance and the risky
Close Combat, and then there's (50) with the interfering
Knock Off and the Tool-powered Reinforced Lariat.
Combine any of this with the Fighting Support (notably
Strong Energy), and you've got a lot of steamrolling to
do.
But the main issue that comes to
mind is what holds Machamp BREAK: why would you play
what serves as a Stage 3 to try and power up Stage 2s
that are all about damage output? Really Boomerang
Lariat is a slow and superfluous attack that just serves
to do little in improving a line-up that already was
strong in the first place. The 190 HP buff is great on
any of these guys, but does Boomerang Lariat really
scream, "Play me in this deck"? Chances are if you're
not too crazy about Machamp, Machamp BREAK isn't gonna
make the cut for you either.
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (Boomerang Lariat
is basically a lot of set-up damage that's unneeded for
the Machamp line-up)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (but because the
regular version had an Ability, your BREAK Evo has to
have that crazy attack)
Limited: 3/5 (still, the investment
needs to be worth it to be playable in the long run)
Arora Notealus: I had higher hopes
for Machamp BREAK and his Boomerang Lariat, but in a
game where 2HKOs are pretty much the standard of
competitive play, he needs to be the one landing hits,
and Boomerang Lariat is just too slow in its own right
and then too excessive in its usage. Seriously, looking
at the attacks, the lowest amount he'd do is 260 damage
over 2 turns (Boomerang Lariat + (50)'s Knock Off,
basically), and that's already well more than enough to
KO anything.
Next Time: Change your perception
on the world...and change your opponent's weakness for
your own!
|
