This week I thought we’d finish up the “collector candy”
of the set; that is the remaining Pokémon* and the box
topper/Secret Rare.
Name:
Latios*
Set:
EX Deoxys
Card#:
106/107
Stage:
Basic
Type:
Colorless
HP:
80
Weakness:
Colorless
Resistance:
Grass, Fighting
Retreat:
(C)
Pokémon* Rule:
You can’t have more than 1 Pokémon* in your deck.
Attack#1:
(C) Miraculous Light [10]
Remove 1 damage counter and all Special Conditions from
Latios*.
Attack:
(GLP) Shining Star [50]
If the Defending Pokémon is a Stage 2 Evolved Pokémon,
discard all Energy cards attached to Latios* and this
attack does 50 damage plus 100 more damage.
Attributes:
First, this is a Pokémon*. So far, all Pokémon* (also
called “Shiny Pokémon” or “Pokémon Star”) have been Basics,
but no Evolved Pokémon have been made into Pokémon* anyway.
Pokémon* are not Shining Pokémon! Some people
still make this error; they are very similar, but Shining
Pokémon have “Shining” in their names, and only that
specific card is limited to one per deck. The rule printed
on all Pokémon* is that you are allowed a single Pokémon*
per deck. You can have Latios* or Latias* in
your deck, but not both at the same time. So all Pokémon*
compete with each other for deck space. As a whole, so long
as the attacks receive adequate compensation (I say this
because the rest of the card’s attributes merely reflect
being a Latios and not a Pokémon*), then this can
still be a good card. Even if you wanted to more or less
focus your deck around it, it shouldn’t be too bad: Here
Comes Team Rocket! could help deal with it getting
caught in prizes, and Pokémon Retriever/Great
Ball can handle it if it’s hiding in deck.
Latios*
is Colorless, which is a great type now that Colorless
Weakness is so common (at least amongst certain high end
decks) though watch out for Resistance. There is a downside
to being Colorless though: Crystal Shard let’s
anything fake being Colorless for a turn to exploit Weakness
or avoid Resistance. Obviously, that combo won’t work for
Latios*. Fortunately, Resistance is limited to
Gengar ex and EX Deoxys Sableye.
Latios*
has
80 HP, solid for a non-Evolving Basic with no
“Pre-Evolutions”. We are going to need all the HP we can
get though, since Latios* video game type is Dragon;
they gave it the dreaded Colorless Weakness. A Pidgeot’s
Clutch attack can OHKO our boy here. At least we have two
different Resistances. Fighting Resistance is good: even
though most Fighting Pokémon seem to specialize in getting
around Resistance, it’s going to inconvenience things like
Machamp, Magma, and Monarchy (Nidoking/Nidoqueen) decks.
Grass hasn’t found a strong mainstream deck, at least not
yet, but I have seen a few contenders. If not, it’s only
slightly detrimental (since it’s my understanding that
Colorless Weakness is viewed as so crippling that the
dual-Resistance is supposed to offset it). However, as long
as some Grass decks that at least occasionally use a
straight out attack crops up, the balance is met.
The
retreat cost is a simple single Energy. As long as it’s not
going to cripple the cards Energy intensive second attack,
it’s good.
Abilities:
The first attack, Miraculous Light, is the token inexpensive
opening attack on a card like this. It serves its purpose.
Doing 10 for (C) is expected. Since it’s an “isolated”
Basic, you’d expect a little extra on top of that. Removing
a damage counter and all Special Conditions fits the bill.
For one thing, the best that can mean is removing one damage
counter, Poison, Burn, and Confusion; you can’t attack if
you are Asleep or Paralyzed. If you are trying to ditch
Confusion, also remember that you’ll have a 50% chance of
the attack placing 3 damage counters on you instead of its
real effects. Still, early game this isn’t so bad.
The
second attack is what should determine if you make room for
this card or not. Shining Star does base damage of 50. You
put in not only three colored Energy, though, but of three
different types. That’s easily enough to warrant the
damage, and an effect. There is an effect present: if the
Defending Pokémon is a Stage 2, discard all Energy attached
to Latios* and you get to inflict a total of 150 damage.
Let’s see, minimum (and most likely) discard of the same
Energy used to pay for the attack would warrant doubling the
damage, plus there is a restriction on what gets the bonus…
that would easily justify another 60 to 80 points of damage,
so adding 100 is not much of a bonus, especially when you
consider the effect is not optional. Still, it’s
enough damage that only a few Stage 2 Pokémon ex can survive
it.
Over all, I’d say the abilities are… decent, maybe a hair
sub-par.
Uses and
Combinations:
Electrode ex, plus this, could net you enough Energy
to power this up with its Poké-Power (which KOs Electrode
ex but let’s you attach 5 Energy from your discard to
your Pokémon in play however you would like) and nearly
power up most other Pokémon. In this scenario, I’d
recommend focusing on using Shining Star to nuke an
opponent’s big Pokémon ex. A classic Firestarter build
wouldn’t like this card: using an Electrode ex, it’d
be possible to launch a three for four trade; Electrode
ex uses its Poké-Power giving your opponent two prizes
but powering up Latios*, then Latios* could
OHKO a Rayquaza ex and then a Blaziken ex.
Not too likely, but feasible. The main thing would be to
focus on relative speed. If you do the Electrode ex
trick turn two, you could really frustrate an opponent’s set
up (especially if you did nail a Pokémon ex) and likely have
Latios* survive another turn or three. Toss in the
Mass Destruction version of Electrode, and
Electrode ex could be setting you up to take down two
big Pokémon in just two turns. Yes, you’re prizes will also
take a hit, but that is devastating to an early set up.
You
could also TecH a copy into decks that can move around
certain Energy types. Just use it to toss as many
Rainbow Energy as needed onto Latios*, and use it
for the coup de grace.
Ratings
Unlimited:
2/5-Easier to power-up (Harvest Bounty Venusaur) and
it can really put the hurt on Raindance, but
unfortunately not much else. Looks fun though. Given the
fact that we only have mentioned roughly 10 cards for the
deck (Venusaur-line and a Latios*) you might
be able to toss a standard heavy like Neo Genesis Sneasel
in.
Modified:
2.5/5-Harder to power-up, but given all the Stage 2 Pokémon
that deck’s are centered around, this could really put the
hurt on them, especially the one’s that use Stage 2 Pokémon
ex with 150 or less HP.
Limited:
3.5/5-Solid pick. I see roughly 10-20% of player’s set up a
usable Stage 2 line… and those are the one’s that will put
the hurt on you. Miraculous Light (as well as being a big
Basic) is much more potent here, and EX Deoxys at least was
very friendly to tri-color decks.
Summary
Latios*
is as hard to play as Latias* and harder to play than
the previous Pokémon* from EX Team Rocket Returns, but it is
arguably as strong as or stronger than all of them. Still,
especially given its rarity, it looks like this will mostly
be sticking to collector’s binders.
