Name:
Celebi*
Set:
EX Crystal Guardians
Card#:
100/100
Rarity:
Pokémon*
Type:
Grass
Stage:
Basic
HP:
60
Weakness:
Fire
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Pokémon* Rule:
You can’t have more than 1 Pokémon* in your deck.
Poké-Power:
Time Travel
If
Celebi* would be Knocked Out by damage from an opponent’s
attack, you may flip a coin. If heads, Celebi* is not Knocked
Out, discard all cards attached to Celebi* and put Celebi* on
the bottom of your deck.
Attack#2:
(G) Leaf Shade
Count the amount of Energy attached to Celebi*. Put that
many damage counters on 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon.
Attributes:
Celebi* is a Grass Pokémon, which is fine: peeking ahead
we see that it doesn’t do damage, so Weakness/Resistance is
mostly irrelevant. It has 60 HP. This is a bit low for a basic
that can’t Evolve, and since this is a Pokémon* and thus can be
the only Pokémon* in your deck, it really seems low. As such,
Celebi* had better wow us with something else. Fire
Weakness is risky since Fire decks have always seemed like a fan
favorite, even when the format is under the thumb of a Water
deck. No Weakness is depressing as always and Celebi*
has a nice, affordable single Energy retreat cost. Almost a
sound base as long as the Abilities are good.
Abilities:
Time Travel is a toned down built-in Focus Band. Simply
put, you have a 50% chance of avoiding being KO’d by the damage
from an opponent’s attack. There is a balancing factor built
into this, though. First, it is nearly impossible to build a
deck around it since it is limited to a single copy. Second,
when Celebi* survives it then ditches anything attached
to it and boogies on down to the very bottom of your deck.
Leaf
Shade is an okay attack. It’s not very Energy efficient, but it
is a solid effect: more Energy for more damage counter
placement. Since the Poké-Power is so potent, it needs to be a
bit of a low return. It can hit any Pokémon in play, which
really makes it ultimately a fair return at one Energy but a bit
questionable at higher levels.
Uses
and
Combinations:
One, most decks could consider it as a ‘default’ Pokémon* if
they wished. Just make sure you have a Multi Energy or
something so you can attack, and let it harass the opponent
early game. If they have a slow start, you can probably get a
Prize’s worth of damage out (if not actually take a Prize) and
then get heads so they don’t get the Prize back. It isn’t
brilliant, but it could work.
Otherwise, the next best use is any deck that can a) retrieve it
from the deck easily and b) load it up with Energy easily. It
may not be much damage, but with the Poké-Power you should keep
your Prize loss down and if you can dump large quantities of
Energy onto it you can take a good deal of Prizes, or at least
relative to the investment.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3/5 – Searching your deck is easy in this format. You can dump
a Double Colorless Energy after actually paying for the
initial attack cost with a Rainbow Energy, send it up
front and… snipe a Benched Baby Pokémon. The opponent swats it,
and you bring up your real attacker. If time permits, set it up
again.
Modified:
3.5/5 – I can see some decks that attach Energy from the
discard, like Dragonite δ add a copy for recyclable
sniping in their deck.
Limited:
4/5 – Celebi* should be run as long as you have even a few Grass
Energy in the deck and don’t mind risking a valuable card. It
doesn’t hit hard but has a 50% chance of not being KO’d and
instead returning to the bottom of your deck. The ability to
hit their bench can also be useful.
Summary
Celebi*
appears to be yet another respectable Pokémon*. Even though I
dislike having two Pokémon* in a set (I’d rather it was just
one) I do enjoy them actually being usable. You could work
this card into a variety of decks if you wanted, and once again
I must say to TPC “Good work.”
