Shining Genesect – Shining Legends – Pokemon Card of the Day

aroramage

Having been a little lax on reviews, I did want to say that while I like that the folks at the Pokemon Company decided to bring back “Shining” Pokemon to the game, I’m not as…enthralled? Enthusiastic? I guess I’m generally unimpressed with them outside of the unique shiny color artwork.

Shining Jirachi for instance has a unique mechanic with Stellar Reign, allowing players to completely undo their opponent’s work for but a single Energy. Sure it’ll take the opponent a long time to build it up again, but Shining Jirachi also only has 70 HP. So you’re ideally planning around Stellar Reign to undo your opponent’s handiwork before tearing it apart with another Pokemon. On its own, though, it’s not that threatening.

Similarly, Shining Mew from yesterday has the ability of Legendary Guidance to automatically provide 2 Energy cards straight from your deck to your Pokemon, INSTANTLY powering anything up with ease for a single Energy. And yet you’re basically letting your opponent gain the lead, since you’re attacking to do it, and you’ve only got 30 HP to work with. That’s not much to work with, at best you’re getting it off…once. If you’re lucky. And not going first. And not having to deal with your opponent setting up.

So it’s from that sort of general “okay” to “geez” perspective that I look at Shining Genesect and realize how much it wanted to be Keldeo-EX that it basically has Energy Reload to charge itself up and Gaia Blaster to go 3-for-50 and Hydro Pump 20 more damage based on the amount of Grass Energy on it. At least you can draw off Grass Energy with Energy Reload from your other Pokemon (course, you can only draw off Grass Energy with Energy Reload, but still).

There’s not much else to really say about Shining Genesect. It’s alright for what it does, but otherwise I think it’s a little…subpar. That’s probably the best way of putting it – it’s a good card, but it’s gonna get outclassed by other options. At least it’s not putting anything out there risky to accelerate the game the way Shining Mew does, and it’s not likely to be a somewhat terrifying tech option for players the way Shining Jirachi will definitely become, if it isn’t already.

Rating

Standard: 2.5/5 (Hydro Pumping is pretty strong, but it only works with the right Ability)

Expanded: 2/5 (Deluge or Inferno Fandango are hand-spammy, but they work)

Limited: 3/5 (Energy Reload just isn’t the same)

Arora Notealus: The Shining Pokemon are nice, and I hope that there will be some good ones in the future, but for now…well, okay, maybe there should be some Shiny GX Pokemon at some point, THAT’D be pretty neat.

Next Time: THE ONLY IMPORTANT LETTER IS THE V

21times

Shining Genesect (Shining Legends, 9/73) definitely qualifies as a little bit of miss on our part when it came to reviewing Shining Legends.  None of us had Shining Genesect in our top five.  This 130 HP Basic Grass Pokemon makes for a great pairing with Tapu Bulu GX (SM32) and Venusaur (Shining Legends, 3/73) decks.  Shining Genesect has a good ability and a good attack.  Energy Reload, reminiscent of Flareon EX’s (RC6) Flash Fire ability, allows you to move a Grass energy from one of your other Pokemon to this one, and Gaia Blaster can crank up the damage when paired with Venusaur. 

Shining Genesect works as a great counter to Hoopa (Shining Legends, 55/73) and Alolan Ninetales (Burning Shadows, 28/147), and it can potentially help turn a match into a seven prize card game without having to rely solely on Tapu Bulu GX as your only attacker.  I have seen Shining Genesect more than any other Shining Legends Pokemon with the exception of Venusaur and Hoopa.  I’ve seen Shining Genesect 6 times, while I’ve come across Hoopa 13 and Venusaur 8 times.  I’ve seen these Pokemon more than I’ve actually seen any other Pokemon from Shining Legends, including Zoroark GX (Shining Legends, 53/73) (5 times). 

So I know that PTCGO does not reflect the competitive “meta” of the game – in 361 matches this month, I have faced “meta” decks only 134 times (37%).  I still feel that we underestimated the value of Shining Genesect, however, and, certainly in my case, overestimated the impact Raichu GX (Shining Legends, 29/73) and Entei GX (Shining Legends, 10/73) would have on the game (I’ve seen both of those Pokemon combined a total of six times – as many as Shining Genesect).

Rating

Standard: 3.5 out of 5

Conclusion

I think Shining Genesect best serves as a partner to Tapu Bulu GX and probably works best in the Venusaur builds we’ve seen this month that have supplanted the Vikabulu (Buluvolt?) decks that have traditionally paired Vikavolt (Sun & Moon, 52/149) with Tapu Bulu GX.  I’ve gone 3 wins and 3 losses against Shining Genesect this month – but in full disclosure I played Greninja (Breakpoint, 40/122) more than any other deck in October and 2 of these Shining Genesect matches were against my blue frog (both losses).  Still, I’ve been really impressed by Shining Genesect, and if I could redo my Shining Legends rankings, it would definitely move up to the top five, and maybe even as high as second.

Vince

Today, we’re looking at Shining Genesect which, I think, has potential as a one prize Grass type attacker. And looking at its card effect text, you can see the direction it is going. Energy Reload grabs one grass energy from your other Pokémon to this Pokémon, so that you’ll be able to fuel up Gaia Blaster’s attack cost as well as doing an extra 20 damage from that attack (because it does 20 more damage for each grass energy attached to this Pokémon).

Loading up Energy on one Pokemon has its advantages and disadvantages. Attacks like Gaia Blaster, Secret Sword, Thunder Lance, Blaze Ball, or Slash Blast gives incentive to the user investing a specific type energy to gain the maximum effect. In this case, Shining Genesect with four grass energies can 2HKO, although you can pump even further to reach 250 damage (due to 50 plus 200 for ten energies). The disadvantage would be other Pokemon punishing you for having too many energies such as Mewtwo EX X Ball or Gardevoir-GX. Also, those energies goes to the discard once Shining Genesect gets KOed, tremendously slowing down your setup.

Even with such disadvantages, we have another option of performing such a role. And it’s no surprise that it can function in a +39 deck in Limited.

Standard: 3.5/5

Expanded: 3.5/5

Limited: 4.5/5 (load up energy and wreak havoc!)