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Name:
Machamp
Set:
EX Legend Maker
Card#:
9/92
Rarity:
Holographic-Rare
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Machoke)
HP:
120
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC
Attack#1:
(FC) Derail [40]
Discard a
Special Energy card, if any, attached to the Defending Pokémon.
Attack#2:
(FCC) Swift Blow [60+]
Does 60
damage plus 20 damage for each React Energy card attached to
Machamp.
Name:
Machoke
Set:
EX Legend Maker
Card#:
39/92
Rarity:
Uncommon
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Machop)
HP:
80
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Poké-Body:
Paranoid
As long as
Machoke is Confused, Machoke’s attacks do 50 more damage to the
Defending Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance).
Attack#1:
(F) Split Kick
Does 20 damage
to each Defending Pokémon.
Attack#2:
(CCC) Magnum Punch [40]
Name:
Machop
Set:
EX Legend Maker
Card#:
57/92
Rarity:
Common
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
(C)
Attack:
(F) Mach Punch [10]
Does 10
damage to 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. (Don’t
apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Attributes:
Let us begin by examining the new lower Stages available to the
Machamp line: a good foundation and all that.
The new
Machop has the same Attributes as all previous versions,
save 10 more HP than the puniest from Neo Destiny. As
for attacks, Machop have never been brilliant attackers
(save Giovanni’s Machop). This one does a total of 20
damage for just one (F) Energy, though 10 of it is too the
Bench. Bench damage can be nice, but it just isn’t enough to
matter for constructed play. I’d stick with EX Hidden Legends
for Modified and Base Set for Unlimited.
The new
Machoke is somewhat interesting. It matches the best
attributes to be seen on Machoke, though for such a
“burly” Pokémon I find the HP a hair low. The Retreat is nice
and manageable at one, though. Moving onto its abilities, we
see a Poké-Body, Paranoid. It is reminiscent of Frenzy, the
Pokémon Power of Dark Primeape: both increase damage done
by the subject Pokémon when it attacks. Paranoid increase the
damage by an outstanding 50 points, compared to 30 from Frenzy.
Another improvement here is that Machoke does not
increase the damage it does to itself, just to the Defending
Pokémon. Only way for that to be bad is if there’s a combo for
it to hit the Bench. Even if you somehow attack yourself,
Machoke won’t do more damage to itself. The actual attacks
are less interesting, but good. Ultimately, though, you’re
going to get more out of the Machoke from EX Hidden
Legends.
Now that we
have those covered, let us examine the actual Machamp.
Being a Fighting-Type is okay. It is the most heavily Resisted
Type, but also the most common Weakness. Additionally, there
are some decent options to bypass Resistance for Fighting
Types. 120 HP is as good as it gets for a non-Pokémon-ex,
though it will need it with Psychic Weakness. Psychic Types
aren’t being seen everywhere (at least the last time I checked),
but they are out there and at least a few prominent decks have
them. Still, that’s just how it is in Pokémon. What is annoying
is the lack of Resistance. Not a whole lot of things
Fighting-Types Resist in the video games, but there are a few.
The Retreat Cost is a respectable two: it’s not low enough to
ignore it, but it’s not so high that you’ll need a lot of
forethought to pay it.
Abilities:
This Machamp has two attacks. Derail is quite well
named: it is inexpensive enough to use quite early, and does a
solid 40 damage (30 with a Double Rainbow Energy). More
importantly, the effect of the attack lets you discard a Special
Energy card (if there is one) attached to the Defending
Pokémon. With the new Holon Energy dependant effects
(like this card itself has), as well as so many Metal Pokémon
thanks to EX Delta Species, and of course good Special Energy
cards like Double Rainbow Energy, Rainbow Energy,
and Scramble Energy, you should have plenty of important
targets.
The second
attack, Swift Blow, is pretty nice. Base 60 damage is always
useful (any non-Pokémon-ex Fighting Weak guy is OHKO’d), and it
has an effect allows you to easily hit for 80-100, and with a
focused deck, upwards of 140 points of damage.
Both attacks
are bargains: as stated, the first attack can be paid entirely
with a Double Rainbow Energy. The second can do 140 with
just five Energy cards if four of them are React Energy.
You only need to provide for one actual colored requirement
(Fighting), and Swift Blow can be utilized with just three
Energy. Finally, even stripping away the effects, you do okay
damage with these attacks.
Uses and
Combinations:
I can see three main uses for this card in Modified:
1)
As the focus of its own deck, trying to counter the Special
Energy rich Meta while abusing React Energy yourself.
2)
TecHing in a copy into an EX Hidden Legends focused
anti-Pokémon-ex deck.
3)
A real hardcore anti-metagame deck running both Machamp
in even amounts, able to exploit Pokémon-ex or Special Energy
use/abuse.
Keep in mind,
no matter which path you choose, I recommend adding one of the
other legal Machamp just to round out the deck.
For option
one, use the cards that are good for manipulating React
Energy, like EX Legend Maker Delcatty and Huntail.
Option two you should be able to find solid builds from past
CotDs and other articles, I believe, so I will skip to Option
3. It would be a little odd, seeing as how EX Hidden Legends
Machamp won’t get any benefit from React Energy and
it will be harder to try and use, say Holon FF and some
Basic Fire Energy cards to cover your Weakness since you
already need so many other Special Energy cards for the deck.
If that made little sense, let me explain that I use some
Fire Energy and Holon FF to cover EX Hidden Legends
Machamp’s Weakness in one of my decks.
Ratings
Unlimited:
2/5-As usual, you could use it with Neo Genesis Slowking
and have an okay deck. Winning a serious competitive tournament
is doubtful, but a remote possibility.
Modified:
3.5/5-This score is a bit low, as we have been encouraged to
keep things simple (e.g. stop having so many decimal points).
That being said, I can see a fun counter-deck using it, and I
could even be underestimating it. In my learned
Pokémon-opinion, it won’t quite have enough to push into the
“top decks” level, but anyone unwary will find themselves
getting slapped around by it if they use a lot of Special
Energy. After all, when Scramble Energy gets discarded,
it kinda hurts that miraculous comeback.
Limited:
3.5/5-Mainly because it and its lower Stages are just solid
Pokémon. If you do pull a few React Energy of your own,
then it becomes a 4/5, for its damage potential increases
greatly.
Summary
A good card
that counters some current trends, to keep them from totally
dominating. The new Machamp has some synergy with the
older (but still Modified-legal) version, though it clashes just
a bit too much with how I seem them being effectively run to
form a truly outstanding “anti-meta” deck.
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