Unfortunately, my work load is a little heavier than I
thought this week, so please forgive me for cut and
pasting sections where the Deoxys overlap
completely (like how their Poké-Power performs). Today
we’ll be looking at what is referred to often as
Deoxys (Attack). The “attack” part refers to the
forms Deoxys can take and their special properties from
the Video games… or at least the movie (I am soooooooo
behind on Pokémon video games).
Name:
Deoxys
Set:
EX Deoxys
Card#:
17/107
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:
(PCC) Energy Crush [10+]
Does 10 damage plus 10 more damage for each Energy
attached to all of your opponent’s Pokémon.
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.
Unlike the first Deoxys we covered, this one actually has a
useful attack. Unfortunately, it’s rather pricey so you’ll
either have to find a way to attach extra Energy or just
wait it out. Energy Crush should prove useful against the
majority of decks. While many decks will have Pokémon that
can attack for little Energy, most don’t have just that
Pokémon powered up. As long as there is a total of four
Energy spread out amongst the opposing Pokémon, you’re more
or less breaking even. There are some decks where this will
be a problem though. Fortunately you can switch out to
another Deoxys with the Poké-Power, so over all, I say this
is a good attack.
Uses and
Combinations:
I recommend at least on of this version if you are running
Deoxys in a deck. Simply put, it has the most
aggressive attack and looks to be a bit easier to use than
Monday’s. Given that a lot of decks excel at getting a lot
of Energy into play, this Deoxys should be able to
bring out a pretty heavy hit. Not enough to run on its own,
but with a little support, it could be the star of a deck,
or at least a solid back up hitter/opener (if used with
Friday’s CotD).
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5-The Deoxys cards just aren’t that great here, and
there isn’t as much Energy in play here for most decks.
Modified:
3/5-Solid enough to bring out a big hit mid to late game,
though it may not survive. It’s fortunate that Friday’s
Deoxys isn’t half bad early game to keep it useful.
Limited:
3/5-If you pull more than one Deoxys, it’s worth a
3.5/5. Pulling multiple copies of this rare was a
comparatively common occurrence in this set. Expect to see
it in once in roughly every ten decks with a second or third
Deoxys. On its own, it can just be decent for
splashing a little Psychic Energy in (due to the mostly
Colorless cost), and for a big whack late game.
Summary
The “middle” ground of the Deoxys, this one wouldn’t
be that good without Friday’s. Fortunately, Friday’s
Deoxys does exist to set up for this one earlier in the
game, allowing it to become a reasonably solid hitter,
albeit likely for just one shot.
