Skip straight to the scores and summary for a concise overview.
Welcome
to my “Liability Week”. You may be shocked we aren’t starting
with the actual EX Deoxys Weezing that has the attack,
Liability. Well, that card isn’t actually being reviewed. Even
though the week is dedicated to Liability, we are looking at the
different Pokémon that combo with Liability for the OHKO. Today
we look at Typhlosion from EX Unseen Forces.
Name:
Typhlosion
Set:
EX Unseen Forces
Card#:
17/115
Type:
Fire
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Quilava)
HP:
110
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Poké-Body:
Burning Aura
As long
as Typhlosion is your Active Pokémon, put 1 damage counter on
each Active Pokémon (both yours and your opponent’s) between
turns.
Attack#1:
(R) Flickering Flames [20]
The
Defending Pokémon is now Asleep.
Attack#2:
(RCC) Rage [50+]
Does
50 damage plus 10 more damage for each damage counter on
Typhlosion.
Name:
Quilava
Set:
EX Unseen Forces
Card#:
45/115
Type:
Fire
Stage:
Stage 1 (Evolves from Cyndaquil)
HP:
70
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(RC) Smokescreen [20]
If the
Defending Pokémon tries to attack during your opponent’s next
turn, your opponent flips a coin. If tails, that attack does
nothing.
Attack#2:
(CCC) Tackle [40]
Name:
Cyndaquil
Set:
EX Unseen Forces
Card#:
54/115
Type:
Fire
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
Water
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Paralyzing Gaze
Flip a
coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now
Paralyzed.
Attack#2:
(RC) Fireworks [30]
Flip a coin. If tails, discard a (R) Energy card attached
to Cyndaquil
Attributes:
Typhlosion is a Stage 2 Fire Pokémon. Being Stage 2,
you’re going to have to run at least its Basic (Cyndaquil)
and then Rare Candy and/or a Quilava to get it
into play. I’ll discuss the lower Stages later though, since
I’d be repeating myself too much otherwise. For now, just be
aware that as this is a minimal three card investment to play –
and realistically its more like nine – that it will have to me
stronger than a Basic or Stage 1 card which require much less
effort to include in a deck and get into play.
As a
Fire Type Pokémon, Typhlosion enjoys a small amount of
Resistance in the overall card pool, and its even smaller for
Modified play; a mere 12 cards, four versions of each Stage of
the Salamence line, that are all Colorless Weak.
Weakness, on the other hand, is still a reasonably common site.
This means the worst case scenario, the Resistant cards becoming
the dominant deck in the format, would be easily handled via
running Crystal Shard. This is not the case to the best
of my knowledge, and all together this means that Fire is at
worst a solid Type and probably a good one.
Typhlosion
has 110 HP, which is the second highest possible in the game
excluding Pokémon-ex. You should survive at least one hit from
all but the biggest attackers, unless they match its Water
Weakness. Water Weakness hurts because Water tends to be a type
that gets played, so again I can say it’s an unpleasant Weakness
without knowing how the State Championships shaped up. Looking
at the last “bottom” Attribute I can say that a single Energy
Retreat Cost is excellent: while not the best, its low enough to
be quite easy to pay and you could even reduce it to nothing
with High Pressure System if you so desired.
There
aren’t many legal lower Stages: just the Pokémon δ versions and
the above listed ones. I recommend avoiding the Pokémon δ
versions. First of all, you then need to include some source of
Psychic Energy, and will be dependant upon it to make any decent
attacks with them. The above cards are solid, with decent stats
and attacks. Of note is Smokescreen on Quilava: it is a
great attack.
Abilities:
Burning Aura a tricky Poké-Body. It places a damage counter on
all Active Pokémon between turns so long as it is Active
itself. So if you used 2-on-2 rules, it’d actually hit both
your own Active Pokémon and your opponent’s two Active Pokémon.
Even in a normal game, it’s hitting Typhlosion itself and
your opponent’s lone Active Pokémon. One damage counter between
turns really adds up if it’s for any length of time: effectively
+20 damage from the end of your turn to the beginning of your
next turn. It is powerful but as fair as this kind of thing
should be in a TCG, since it hits you just as hard. Remember
its still to your advantage: the most obvious is you have some
control over when it’s Active or not.
Flickering Flame is a nice, inexpensive “opening” attack. For
one Fire Energy, you score 20 damage and automatic Sleep; that’s
roughly worth a single Colorless Energy requirement and a solid
bonus for a Stage 2 Pokémon. Its low cost allows you to Evolve
quickly with without worrying: even using Rare Candy on
turn one; you should be able to afford to attack right away.
Rage is
the big attack, and this is one version of Rage that delivers:
the Energy going into it should pay for about 35 points of
damage. The base damage is 50. Then there is the additional
effect so common to Rage: an extra 10 points of damage for every
damage counter on Typhlosion. These bonuses are easily
worth another two colorless Energy, and more compensation for
being a Stage 2 Pokémon.
What is
most impressive is how all these abilities work together:
Burning Aura wicks away each Actives HP. Flickering Flame makes
it harder for the opponent to attack you, so most of the damage
you take will be from your own Body. Eventually you should get
to the point where Rage can OHKO most of your opponent’s
Pokémon, especially with Burning Aura continuing to slowly
increase its damage. It can do all this before combining it
with other cards.
Uses
and
Combinations:
Typhlosion decks are about controlling your Poké-Body.
This is best done with certain Pokémon Tools. Yes, Pokémon
Tools are very vulnerable to Windstorm. A smart
Typhlosion player won’t drop more than one Pokémon Tool at a
time or a Tool alongside a Pokémon Stadium until s/he is certain
that the opponent has no more copies of Windstorm
available. This varies, but the most cautious simply wait until
that fourth Windstorm hits the discard. The Pokémon
Tools to use used to be Energy Root, since it gave you an
extra 20 HP to play with while shutting of your Poké-Body.
Sitrus Berry and Solid Rage were also useful, but
wouldn’t shut off your Poké-Body. Now though, since it’s
riskier to depend upon a Pokémon Tool for extending HP, it’s
probably best to go with Cessation Crystal. This shuts
off not only your Poké-Body when the equipped Pokémon is Active,
but all Poké-Bodies and Poké-Powers as well. In general, this
will leave you with a solid bruiser and your opponent at
diminished capacity.
Stadiums are also important to Typhlosion. First and
foremost, they can help draw out Windstorm. The second
thing is that Typhlosion tends to be a natural fit for
some Stadiums: Cursed Stone,
Holon
Circle,
Battle
Frontier,
and Holon Legacy. The top pick of those is Cursed
Stone. With it, you’ll get yet another extra damage counter
per turn against Pokémon with Poké-Powers, including Benched
Pokémon this time. With Cessation Crystal on an Active
Typhlosion, you don’t get as much damage but make Poké-Powers
not only useless but vulnerabilities, and that will affect a
sizable hunk of the competition. If those aren’t available to
you, Holon Legacy might be a good choice since it would
still shut down a large amount of Poké-Powers and then you could
attempt to use of the Pokémon Tools other than Cessation
Crystal for good effect. Battle Frontier would be
another alternate choice for similar reasons and running two of
each should cover a wide assortment of match-ups.
Holon
Circle
would be the best of the rest, I think, since you could stall to
allow Burning Aura to hurt them while increasing your Rage
damage. Keep in mind Cessation Crystal/Cursed Stone
are far better than any of the others.
Of
course this all leads to the theme of the week and probably the
best dance partner for Typhlosion, Weezing from EX
Deoxys. This Stage 1 Pokémon, for one Energy and KOing itself,
leaves the opponent with a mere 10 HP left. Weezing KO’s itself
as part of the Liability attack’s effect, so you have to bring a
replacement Pokémon up before your turn ends. If you promote
Typhlosion that doesn’t have something shutting off Burning
Aura, said Poké-Body will kick in for the last damage counter
needed for the KO. Unlike many other partners for Liability,
Typhlosion is quite strong in its own right, so you will
often be able to save the Weezing for an essential OHKO
against the biggest threats your opponent has: usually
Pokémon-ex, large Stage 2 Pokémon, or Energy intensive Pokémon.
This allows you to “come out ahead” since either you take more
Prizes and/or used up less cards on the exchange than your
opponent.
Ratings
Unlimited:
2/5 – Slight bonus in that Burning Aura would let you still KO
something that survived on a Focus Band flip. As a whole
though, Liability here is pointless as too many attacks can just
OHKO something anyway. Like most at strong Stage 2 Pokémon of
recent release, you could get by running it with Neo Genesis
Slowking if you insisted on playing it.
Modified:
3.65/5 – Windstorm really hurts this card, more so than
the other Liability variants. It is still a very solid Pokémon
and deck focus, though.
Limited:
5/5 – Feel the burn! Only one Fire Energy for colored costs
ensures the attacks work well in Limited, the lower Stages also
have solid attacks for the format, and Burning Aura/Rage should
lead to many KOs. It even can inflict a Special Condition with
its first attack!
Summary
Typhlosion
is a great Pokémon that seems to have been forgotten by many.
That is a mistake. Due to its presence in the Golden Sky Theme
Deck it’s relatively easy to obtain, and is a nice for people
who don’t want to over commit to the Liability strategy.
-Otaku
