Skip straight to the scores and summary for a concise overview.
Name:
Combusken
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
Type:
Fire
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Torchic)
HP:
70
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(CC) Slash [20]
Attack#2:
(RCC) Super Singe [40]
Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Burned.
Name:
Torchic
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
83/110
Type:
Fire
Stage:
Basic
HP:
40
Weakness:
W
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Peck [10]
Attack#2:
(RC) Flare [20]
Attributes:
Combusken is a Stage 1 Fire Pokémon. Being a Fire
Pokémon is fine: Weakness is fairly common but Resistance is
somewhat scarce. It Evolves from Torchic, and can Evolve
into Blaziken. The Torchic from the same set
doesn’t do anything special, and in fact has sub-par HP and an
over priced second attack. Unless you absolutely have to have a
single Energy attack for it, go with the EX Trainer Kit
version. The Blaziken from its same set (see its CotD)
has nice, solid attacks but nothing that really stands out.
Unfortunately, the story is the same for the other currently
Modified legal Blaziken.
While
it currently doesn’t have any brilliant Evolved forms, it still
is a Stage 1 capable of further Evolution, and will be scored
accordingly. So its 70 HP is acceptable: anything less would be
too low and a major risk. We still have Ancient Technical
Machine [Rock] and De-Evolution attacks are getting a little
more common. 70 HP is also high enough that it will take a
fairly big attack to reliably OHKO it, which means most other
Basics and Stage 1 Pokémon aren’t going to be doing that. The
exception being Water Pokémon, as Combusken is Weak to
Water. This Weakness isn’t great, but it is pretty common for
Fire Pokémon and thus easy to plan for (Holon Energy FF
might be a good idea). There is no Resistance, which is as
always a disappointment, perhaps more so since it appears to be
the direction the game is going. Finally we have a nice, low
Retreat Cost of a single Energy. This is fairly easy to pay:
you should rarely be stranded. Additionally, since this is a
Fire Pokémon, a High Pressure System would then make it
into a free Retreat Cost.
Abilities:
Slash is a straight up 20 for (CC) attack. It is mostly a place
holder attack that you use before you get that third Energy for
Super Singe: true it could be used in a deck that lacked Fire
Energy (or a reliable source of it), but at the moment there’s
no reason to play this card in such a deck, and Super Singe only
needs one of its three Energy be a specific Type (Fire). Super
Singe hits for a respectable 40 damage, and gives you a 50%
chance of Burning the opponent. The way Burn is normally
priced, that means that you over all get a discount of (C) on
the attack. I feel Burn should be priced the same as Sleep due
to its extraordinarily flippy nature. Either way, it’s not that
much better than any other Combusken, though neither is
it really any worse. The main problem is the lack of synergy
between the attacks: the supporting attack is merely a place
holder.
Uses
and
Combinations:
This card exists to help get Blaziken into play, as well
as function as a decent opening/closing attacker if you are in a
bit of a bind.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5 – Not really seeing Blaziken played here, so no
Blaziken means no Combusken.
Modified:
2/5 – If you really needed a Stage 1 Fire Pokémon line to add to
a deck, you could do worse. It’s just you could also do much
better. It doesn’t help that no apparent deck for the currently
legal Blaziken exist.
Limited:
3..35/5 – Here it is hurt a bit because the set has so much
Pokémon δ support that it’s basically a disadvantage not to be
one. Still, it’s a good solid attacker for decks here, even as
the focus, and if you pull the Blaziken for this set its
also a lot better here than in Constructed play.
Summary
Love it
in Limited. Ignore it in Unlimited. If you decide to play
around with a Blaziken, consider including a copy with
it.
-Otaku
