Name:
Blaziken ex
Set/Card#:
Team Magma Vs. Team Aqua, #89/97
Type:
Fire
Stage:
2 (evolves from Combusken)
HP:
150
Weakness:
Psychic, Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC
Attack#1:
(R1) Blaze Kick [30+]
Flip a
coin. If heads, this attack does 30 damage plus 20 more
damage. If tails this attack dos 30 damage and the Defending
Pokémon is now Burned.
Attack#2:
(RRCC) Volcanic Ash
Discard 2
(R) Energy attached to Blaziken ex and then choose 1 of your
opponent’s Pokémon. This attack does 100 damage to that
Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for
Benched Pokémon.)
Attributes:
So, does a Stage 2 Fire Pokémon ex stand a chance? Well,
being a Stage 2 makes it harder to play than a Basic, or
course, requiring it get benefits denied a Basic or Stage 1.
It evolves from Combusken, and one
can check the Blaziken reviews to see which version they
should use of that and Torchic.
Being a Fire Pokémon is fine-nothing is Resistant, but there
are things that are Weak. It’s a Pokémon ex, which means
that, so long as it receives compensation for being worth two
prizes, it’s fine. Note that some cards don’t work on Pokémon
ex (Double Rainbow Energy) while some have nasty effects that
only apply to them (SS Wobbuffet). Again, so long as some
compensation is made, it’s fine.
Blaziken ex
(or Blex as I like to call it) has
150 HP. This isn’t bad-50% more than the popular
“Firestarter” version. It doesn’t make it immortal, but it
does make it so that outside of Weaknesses, it’s hard to OHKO
it… unless you’re Rayquaza ex-but that’s true of everything.
;) Speaking of Weakness, this card has two: Water and
Psychic. Both are going to hit it hard-Suicune ex/Swampert
gives Water a heavy hitter, and who can forget Gardevoir/Gardevoir
ex or the ever present SS Wobbuffet? It has no Resistance,
the worse Resistance. Last for the attributes is a retreat of
two. This is average in terms of being neither an advantage
nor a disadvantage.
Abilities:
Blaze Kick is nice. Pay for 25, but get
either 30 damage plus Burn or a nice fat 50 damage. So
we are averaging 40 with Burn half the time, which would
normally be worth about (RRR). Nice solid discount here.
Volcanic Ash is similarly nice: (RRCC) would yield 50, but
there’s a discard of (RR). This would be worth probably
another 40-I have come to realize that discarding multiple
Energies at once should be worth more than discarding a single
energy at a time, so in addition to my normal “treat it like
an additional requirement of the discarded energy”,
I also think a 10 damage bonus is deserved. Now, for being
Stage 2, you would expect a nice damage bonus… but we only get
10, more like what a Stage 1 would get. We do see something
worthy of being an ex though-the attack lets you chose any of
your opponent’s Pokémon for the target. This is probably why
the damage is capped at 100-anymore would probably break the
attack. So, Blaze Kick is worthy of a Stage 2 Pokémon ex for
certain, and Volcanic Ash seems worthy as well.
Uses/Combinations:
Simply put, help Firestarter decks spread the cheese-with this
active and an Energy mover on the bench, and your opponent
can’t hide: 100 to one of their Pokes means that they can’t
hide on the bench. Remember though, the deck still uses
Rayquaza ex as the main attacker-after all, each
Blex is one less Firestarter
Blaziken.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3/5-You can build a deck around this, and it can win. It’s
just not going to win most of the time without a lot of luck.
Modified/2-on-2:
4/5-On its own, it is a good card, well designed; combined
with Firestarter Blaziken and the Energy movers, its pretty
sick.
Limited:
0/5-If you draft just this set, there is no way to play this,
so it is worthless. If you draft it with a set that has
Combusken and
Torchics, then it becomes a 3/5-If you build it on the
bench, it can win you the game, but if it comes out too early,
its probably going to cost you half
your prizes.
TMP:
3.75/5-Pokémon ex aren’t so hot in this format, because they
are plump targets-everyone will dog pile on the guy worth two
prizes.
Summary
This is a
good card that is well designed and would not be a problem but
for the combo available to it via the Energy moving cards and
Firestarter Blaziken. There has been some demand to ban it,
but the cards that probably need banned are the ones that
allow Energy placement “cheats”: Firestarter Blaziken,
Gardevoir (not ex), and Water Call Swampert (without Blaziken/[Insert
Energy mover]/Rayquaza ex, this with Suicune ex becomes the
next big thing). I am not certain on those, though, and maybe
just limiting the Energy movers more would do it…
-Otaku
