Name:
Deoxys
Set:
EX
Deoxys
Card#:
16/107
Stage:
Basic
Type:
Psychic
HP:
70
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
(C)
Poké-Power:
Form Change
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may
search your deck for another Deoxys and switch it with
Deoxys. (Any cards attached to Deoxys, damage counters,
Special Conditions, and effects on it are now on the new
Pokémon.) If you do, put Deoxys on top of your deck.
Shuffle your deck afterward. You can’t use more than 1 Form
Change Poké-Power each turn.
Attack:
(PC) Link Blast [40]
If Deoxys and the Defending Pokémon have a different
amount of Energy attached to them, this attack’s base
damage is 20 instead of 40.
Attributes:
Deoxys is a Basic Pokémon, which is great: easy to search
out (Sandstorm Dunsparce, Great Ball, etc.)
and to get into play (just need an opening on your bench).
It is a Psychic Pokémon, which is good: Psychic Weakness is
seen in reasonable amounts (Sandstorm Wobbuffet,
Gardevoir, Gardevoir ex, and Blaziken ex
spring to mind). Resistance isn’t as common as it used to
be, but it does exist. 70 HP is solid for a Basic Pokémon
that doesn’t Evolve and has no Pre-Evolutions. It’s enough
to take a few blows from all but big Stage 1s and 2s
(excluding Weakness). It does have a Weakness: Psychic.
Three out of the four commonly played Psychic Weak Pokémon I
listed are also Psychic, so as you can tell that’s not a
great Weakness to have. Deoxys has no Resistance,
which is naturally the worst. Finally, we have a good
retreat cost of just one Energy, which is fairly easy to pay
in most circumstances.
Abilities:
Form Change is very nice. It allows all versions of
Deoxys to naturally combo, instead of them competing for
deck space. It also allows you to essentially have a vast
array of attacks: to my knowledge, the only Deoxys
currently available are from EX Deoxys, and each has a
single attack. So if you run at least one of each (not too
terribly difficult), you have three attacks to choose from
unless Form Change is disabled. Very nice.
What isn’t nice is Link Blast. We have a Pokémon incapable
of Evolving, and lacking a “Baby Form” to possibly help set
up for it. As such, the standard “Link Blast” attack
costing (PC) (which should yield about 25 damage before
bonuses for Stage, if applicable) gives a 20/40 split on a
very temperamental condition: the amount of Energy attached
to Deoxys must be the same as the amount attached to the
Defending Pokémon to do the 40 damage. Two Energy cards
is not extremely rare, but most
opening Pokémon will only need on Energy and most focal
Pokémon will need three or more. This means that
“naturally” using this attack will usually mean doing 5 less
damage than paid for. Given that the other Deoxys have
attacks that cost as much or more, had this attack been more
along the lines of (P) for a 10/30 split would have been
much more useful.
Uses and
Combinations:
The only use for this card is to insert it in a Deoxys
using deck for extra options with Form Change. In any other
case, I find the Deoxys we will be reviewing later in
the week better.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.5/5-The Deoxys cards just aren’t that great here,
although this one benefits from more Pokémon using two
Energy cards.
Modified:
1.75/5-Ocasionally, this could be useful for sniping a small
(or Weak) opening Pokémon. Still, I would prefer using the
others.
Limited:
3/5-Much better here, especially if you pull one of the
other Deoxys. More Pokémon have that two Energy card
cost, and being a Basic with 70 HP is also rather nice.
Weakness is very common, because Psychic Pokémon are very
common here.
Summary
This is the least effective of the Deoxys. It really
needed to have a single Energy attack, as then you could use
the Power to start with this one, be able to attack, attach
an Energy next turn and switch to the “Defense” version that
has a two Energy attack, and then have the option of going
to the “Attack” version that requires three Energy. Pity.
