Review
too long? Skip straight to the scores and summary.
Name:
Absol ex
Set:
EX Power Keepers
Card#:
92/108
Rarity:
Pokémon-ex
Pokémon-ex Rule:
When Pokémon-ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2
Prize cards.
Type:
Darkness
Stage:
Basic
HP:
100
Weakness:
Fighting
Resistance:
Psychic
Retreat:
(C)
Poké-Power:
Cursed Eyes
Once
during your turn, when you play Absol ex from your hand
onto your Bench, you may move 3 damage counters from 1 of your
opponent’s Pokémon to another of his or her Pokémon.
Attack:
(DC) Psychic Pulse [30]
Does 10 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon
that has any damage counters on it. (Don’t apply Weakness or
Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Attributes:
Absol ex is a Basic Pokémon-ex. This means it needs to
be roughly twice as useful as a normal Basic Pokémon to offset
its double Prize penalty, inability to make use of certain
cards, and vulnerability to anti-Pokémon-ex cards. Basic
Pokémon are nice because they are easier to fit into a deck, and
a Basic Pokémon-ex is often on par with a normal Stage 1
Pokémon. In this case, Absol ex has 100 HP, which is the
third best you can get for a Basic Pokémon (ex or otherwise),
but still above the practical minimum (though not by much).
Still, this should let it survive at least one hit that doesn’t
match it Weakness.
Fighting Weakness is not happy for Pokémon-ex. As stated, while
I don’t know exactly what Type or Types will come out on top
after States, I do know we got back the Overzealous version of
Machamp in EX Power Keepers. That means that with a
Double Rainbow Energy, Machamp could hammer Absol
ex for 120 points of damage thanks to the Weakness! On the
bright side, Absol ex does have a Resistance, Psychic.
Any Resistance is welcome, so even though I don’t know the
post-states metagame, we know this is at least “nice” and could
be “great”. Finally, it has a nice, affordable Retreat Cost of
one Energy, which is rarely going to be an issue.
Abilities:
Cursed Eyes basically makes Absol ex into a Trainer.
When it’s played from hand, you can move three damage counters
(all if there are less than three) from one of your opponent’s
Pokémon to another. This is almost as good as an “extra attack”
in the right deck.
Psychic
Pulse is an alright attack. It is a tad underwhelming on a
Pokémon-ex, but the Poké-Power might be good enough to warrant
it. Either the Power can set up for the attack or the attack
can set up for another use of Cursed Eyes (either via recycling
the same Absol ex or playing a second.
Uses
and
Combinations:
As stated, think of this largely as a searchable but potentially
costly Trainer. I saw it used with a lot of Bench damaging
Pokémon, including Jolteon ex to get a decent amount of
damage in play without ever attacking (the deck did attack it
scored some KOs just via this). Just remember that as a
Pokémon-ex, to retrieve it from play you must work a bit harder
to recycle it without giving up a lot of Prizes. Super Scoop
Up works, though it only on heads, as does Holon Farmer
after using Giant Stump to discard it from your full or
nearly full Bench.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3/5 – I think it might actually be worth it here. If an
opponent pulls a miracle survival with a Focus Band, and
you’ll KO them this turn anyway even after removing 3 damage
counters from them, risk it: you have normal Scoop Up to
effortlessly retrieve it for future use, Baby Pokémon and
Pokémon Flute to ensure its generating KOs.
Modified:
3.5/5 – Not as easy to abuse in general, its still pretty handy
even as TecH: think of all those “almost got them” moments when
something retreats and survives. Now, without even burning an
attack, you can finish them: remember, it’s not like most
Pokémon are precisely KO’d (you can “heal” the Defending Pokémon
but not enough for it to survive the next attack).
Limited:
4/5 – This is even without Darkness Energy, folks.
Though it’s horrid if you have to open with it and then just
retreat it to avoid it being KO’d, if you don’t start with it
you can hopefully save it for that final, surprise, KO.
Summary
Absol ex
is a card that keeps becoming more and more intriguing. Its
ability to take what would have resulted in excess damage and
put it somewhere useful might make it a key piece of TecH for
many decks, and even a focus for a select few.
-Otaku
