Moltres ex – Genetic Apex
Date Reviewed: January 19, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The third best Pokémon of Genetic Apex is Moltres (Genetic Apex 047/226, 255/226, 274/226; Promo Series A 025/P-A)! Its a (R) Type Basic Pokémon ex with 140 HP, (L) Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, no Ability, and two attacks. The first attack is “Inferno Dance” for (R). Using Inferno Dance lets you flip three coins; for each “heads” you may attach a (R) Energy to one of your Benched (R) Pokémon. For (R)(C)(C), you can use “Heat Blast” instead, which does 70 damage. There’s currently four versions of this card: one ♦♦♦♦, two ★★, and one Promo.
Let’s begin with being a Pokémon ex. They’re worth two points when KO’d, and even though they’re going to share an almost identical name with the baseline version of that Pokémon, mechanically, they’re no more related than any other card with the same Typing, Stage, etc. Pokémon ex are intended to be significantly more potent than the equivalent single point Pokémon, but its not guaranteed. I’ll still bring up Moltres (Genetic Apex 046/226) later on, as it’ll give us a better idea of those gains.
The Fire Type is good in the Pokémon Pocket TCG. The second most prolific Type (Grass), and the second least abundant Type (Metal), are all (R) Weak. (M) decks aren’t overly competitive, but (G) decks have a solid presence, both competitively and casually. As for actual Type support, Fire Types have… Moltres ex, for reasons we’ll soon discuss. As they’re supporting their own archetypes, the fact they have multiple competitive or promising attackers is also worth counting. Being a Basic is the best. No waiting to evolve. No additional cards required to hit the field. Being a legal Poké Ball target.
The 140 HP is pretty good. It’ll take something on the higher end of heavy hitters to score a OHKO. Too bad that Gyarados ex (Mythical Island 018/068, 076/68) and Mewtwo ex (Genetic Apex 129/226, 262/226, 282/226, 286/226) both qualify. L) Weakness is good. The only non-(W) Weak Fire Types are Moltres ex and Moltres (Genetic Apex 046/226). (L) Weakness isn’t currently worse than (W) Weakness, but even if it was, it’s better to have some of Pokémon Weak in two match-ups than all your Pokémon Weak in one. The (C)(C) Retreat Cost on Moltres ex is adequate; you should probably run Leaf to manage it.
Inferno Dance is what ultimately makes this card. Yes, it is a “flippy” attack; three coin flips means eight possible outcomes… but as the order in which “heads” are flipped does not matter, there’s actually only four. Out of those, one in eight outcomes is no Energy, three in eight attach one (R) Energy, there in eight attach two (R) Energy, and one in eight attaches three (R) Energy. It’s also important to remember that you can only attached to the Bench, and then, only to fellow Fire Types. Moltres ex can help a second Moltres ex on your Bench, however.
Heat Blast is a decent attack, doing 70 for three Energy, and two of those can be of any Type! As a Moltres ex using Heat Blast either managed to survive multiple turns using Inferno Dance, while its player manually attached the requisite three Energy, or it was built on the Bench, most likely by another Moltres ex in the Active spot, using Inferno Dance…
…which means, even if it would have made Moltres ex like so many other Fire Types, I think it would have been better off hitting harder and/or needing fewer Energy attached to attack, even if all Energy requirements were (R) and/or it had to discard some (maybe even all) of its attached Energy. Yes, this is a nitpick on my part. Thanks for indulging me.
Now for a quick look at regular (or “baby”) Moltres (Genetic Apex 046/226). It has a rarity of ♦♦♦. It’s also both a Fire Type and (L) Weak, but only has 100 HP, a Retreat Cost of (C), and one attack. “Sky Attack” cost (R)(R)C) and does 130 damage but requires a coin flip: tails fails. So it looks like the ex-ification paid for Moltres ex having +40 HP and a second attack. I don’t think being a Pokémon ex is why Moltres ex needs (C)(C), but that probably helped pay for the increased HP, second attack, or permitted it to have Inferno Dance in the first place. As for baby Moltres… no thanks. I don’t like coin flips enough to justify investing three Energy into an attack (even with Energy acceleration), and that attack splits evenly between no damage and 130.
What (R) Types partner with Moltres ex? Technically, all of them. Even the ones that need just one Energy, Moltres ex can be up front to soak a hit or two while Inferno Dance powers up two or three of them. I haven’t tried it myself, nor even seen it, because it sounds like a waste. Such inexpensive attackers should probably just go on the offense ASAP.
Which is what Blaine Decks do. When I mentioned (R) Type support, I didn’t mention the Gen 1 Fire Gym Leader’s card. Because Blaine only works with cards named “Magmar”, “Ninetales”, and “Rapidash”. The effect is sweet though, as Blaine lets them do +30 damage. Blaine decks also don’t want to give up two points for one KO. Hence not running Moltres ex.
Getting specific, decks built around Arcanine ex (Genetic Apex 041/226, 254/226) and/or Charizard ex (036/226, 253/226, 280/226, 284/226) are have proven very competitive. Not as much as Mewtwo ex decks or Gyarados ex decks, but still up there. That the prominence (and dominance) of a Water Deck has not chased away all the (W) Weak attackers lets you know that these two still have some power behind them. They’re two more cards I hope to review soon(ish), so the short version is both of these two are hard-hitting, beefy boys that usually need Moltres ex to setup for them.
Seen less often (and with less success) are decks using Charizard (Genetic Apex 035/226) or Centiskorch (Genetic Apex 052/226). In my experience, both are “budget” versions of Charizard ex, being ♦♦♦ and ♦♦, respectively, and worth only one point when KO’d, but also having less HP and doing less damage. The other (R) attacker of note is Volcarona (Mythical Island 014/068; Promo Series A 028/P-A). Again, we’ll probably get around to reviewing it sooner or later, but it’s the biggest sniper we’ve gotten so far, though it needs to discard its Energy to do so.
Ratings: 3.75/5
Yes, lower than Weezing, though not by much. Moltres ex has proven itself with more and/or higher performing competitive decks than Weezing, but Moltres ex itself by itself less useful and more deck specific than Weezing. SPOILER alert for this countdown, we won’t be reviewing Arcanine ex or Charizard ex as part of it. I had a hard time deciding between the two, and then realized Moltres ex was still in the running. Without Moltres ex, these two might still be competitive, but Mid Tier at best. Through these two, Moltres ex has helped shape the metagame, so it gets to be an exception.
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