If
you find the review is too long, skip straight to the
Ratings and Summary!
Name
:
Meteor Falls
Set :
EX Deoxys
Card#
:
89/107
Rarity :
Uncommon
Type
:
Trainer
Sub-type:
Stadium
Effect Text:
This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this
card if another Stadium card comes into play.
Each
player’s Active Evolved Pokémon (excluding Pokémon-ex)
can use any attack from its Basic Pokémon or its Stage 1
Evolution card. (You still have to pay for that
attack’s Energy cost.)
Attributes:
As a Stadium card, this stays in play and is available to
both players. Your opponent can get rid of it by simply
playing their own Stadium… but that is the only “general”
way; the other option involves running Pokémon with
abilities to do it. Of course, most decks only run three or
four Stadiums, and unless they have Pidgeot out and
can spare a Quick Search, your Stadium will usually be
safe. Four cards is not a lot, and by now most players
should know to “jockey” for position when it comes to their
Stadium cards. What that means is you don’t play something
unless it’s going to actually help you that turn. For
example, lowering your hand size to use Stephen’s Advice
is okay. Knocking out an opponent’s Stadium that is giving
them an advantage over you is good. Playing one that will
benefit you that turn is good. Playing a Stadium when your
opponent has a Stadium out that will not harm you nor really
help them (for example, Ancient Tomb when you don’t
have their Weakness nor they yours) is not good. It gives
them more time to try and counter your current one. Same
for if you get no use out of it: it’s just begging to be
wasted.
Abilities:
Meteor Falls
actual ability is one that used to only be available via
Pokémon Tool or Pokémon Power. The obvious advantage of
Meteor Falls
is that it
is a single card to run that affects all of your Pokémon
(assuming they aren’t Pokémon ex), and is Modified Legal.
The older examples (Memory Berry and Neo Revelation
Aerodactyl) may no longer be legal, but have a
distinct advantage of working for Pokémon ex, and Memory
Berry only affected the attached Pokémon, not all
Pokémon (including your opponent’s like the other two).
Still, as a whole this is a good card. Decks focusing on
attacking with Basic Pokémon and/or Pokémon-ex aren’t going
to get any benefit from the card, where as some lower Stage
Pokémon have attacks that become rather potent when made
available to higher Stages.
Uses/Combinations:
There are probably enough for me to end up forgetting too
many should I try and list them, so here are some general
guidelines:
1)
If the
highest Stage requires a lot of Energy to attack and the
lower Stage(s) do(es) not.
2)
Attacks
that are dependant upon HP. This can be further split into:
a.
Rage like
attacks that do damage based on the amount of damage
counters on the Pokémon; the higher your max HP, the more
damage you can score with such attacks.
b.
Healing
attacks that say things like “Remove all damage counters
from [Insert Card Name/].” These attacks may not
have been so great when it meant removing a maximum of 3
damage counters on a Basic, but when they now let you remove
up to 11 from a Stage 2, its rather nice.
3)
Attacks
with draw backs for repeated use, or that become more
significant thusly. This applies to any of the Stages: if
your only attacks are either flippy or require an Energy
discard, and then a nice solid damage attack is very useful
for scoring the kill. You can also turn it around: a flippy
attack on a lower Stage may be unreliable… but it may be
able to score a OHKO.
4)
Attacks
that are quite good… but exist on very puny Pokémon or that
at least become better on something bigger. One Metang
can retrieve Metal Energy from the discard with its attack.
This is much better when available to a beefier Metagross.
I am sure
there are more, but those should cover quite a bit.
Ratings
Unlimited:
2/5-There are some second/third tier decks that can really
make use of this, and most top decks simply can’t.
Modified:
3.5/5-There will be some decks that can really abuse this,
but I don’t think its going to be a huge problem. Holding
back its usefulness is the fact that it may help your
opponent as much or more as well.
Limited:
4/5-Just to have a counter Stadium makes it important for
Limited. Add to the fact that its doubtful most opponents
will be able to make good use of it.
Summary
Meteor
Falls
seems like
a solid card to me that has a place in many a deck, but far
from all decks or even a marginal majority. If you can find
the right lower Stages to exploit, it can be amazing how
versatile a single Evolutionary line becomes when its peak
may have up to eight attacks…
