Hello, and welcome to the end of our uncommon week,
which happily, ends on a high thanks to Leafeon from
Rising Rivals, obviously. Basics of the card first, and
it has a very healthy 90 HP, which for a fully-evolved
Stage 1 is about average, so should survive a hit or
two. +20 Fire Weakness is annoying with Infernape 4 and
Lv.X (RR) and all those Heatran Lv.X (SF) decks running
around (though mainly the former at the moment), but
Umbreon (MD) can get rid of it, which makes it quite
useful with Leafeon really. -20 Water Resistance is very
nice to have, especially against Palkia G (PL) decks. 2
Retreat Cost is a little high, but Umbreon (MD) can get
rid of it if you are really that worried, but you should
have it due to being able to get rid of weakness.
Abilities now, and it has 3 of them, like it's Water
counter-part Glaceon (RR). I'll start with it's Poké-Body,
Enery Refresh, which is quite nice. So long as Leafeon
is you active Pokémon and you attach an energy from your
hand to one of your Pokémon, you get to remove 2 damage
counters from it. Great stuff, removing damage counters
for something as simple as attaching an energy. Unlike
Frost Wind on Glaceon yesterday, this can effect any of
your Pokémon, but like Frost Wind, it still needs
Leafeon as your active. Still, it's very nice, but 2
damage counters might not be enough sometimes. If you
want to attach more energies, then you could use Leafeon
Lv.X (MD), which you should so with this card anyway,
or...
Use Plus Energy, Leafeon's first attack! For LC, it does
an average 40 damage, which isn't too bad. The effect is
quite nice though, since it allows you to attach a Basic
energy card from your hand to one of your Pokémon.
Great, it's energy acceleration, and you also get to
remove damage from whichever Pokémon attach to thanks to
Energy Refresh. It's great stuff really, and is very
nice early on in the game. Later on, while it might not
be very powerful, it's still useful as another way of
healing. Still, not recommended after the early to mid
stage of the game.
It's second attack is good in a different way to Plus
Energy. For GCC, Soothing Scent does a respectable 60
damage. It also automatically put the defending Pokémon
to sleep. That sort of combination is about average for
the cost, so is not too bad. It's also another stalling
ability on this card, which is quite nice to have such a
combination on a Pokémon, so it always has one
objective, annoy your opponent by healing or Special
Conditions.
Combos now, and really, you'll want to use Leafeon Lv.X.
This is almost definitely the best normal Leafeon since
when you attach energies using Leafeon Lv.X's Poké-Power
while active, you also get to remove damage counters.
With 3 energies in your hand, you can remove 6 damage
counters per turn with just one Leafeon Lv.X (1 for
normal attachment, 1 for Poké-Power, 1 for Plus Energy).
Add another Leafeon Lv.X and energy into the equation
and it becomes 8 damage counters. Great Stuff. Add in
Espeon (MD), Shaymin Lv.X (PL Land) and Umbreon (MD),
and you get a Stage 1 Lv.X with 170 HP, an attack that
does lots of damage with lots of energies in play, be an
energy accelerator, and heal 6 or 8 damage counters per
turn depending on how many Leafeon Lv.x you have in
play. Nice, but a little on the slow side.
Anyway, counters for the normal Leafeon, and the main
one is, like Glaceon yesterday, Dialga G Lv.X (PL). It's
Poké-Body stops the frankly brilliant Poké-Body that is
Energy Refresh, meaning you won't have access to all
that brilliant healing. Even worse, Shaymin Lv.X and
Espeon and Umbreon all have their Poké-Bodies stopped,
making the combo alot less effective. Fire types do a
good job countering Leafeon as well, KOing it before it
can begin it's healing antics. Hand destructors are
harsh as well since they may discard an energy from your
hand (obviously), thus mean you can't attach energies
and gain your normal healing. Bronzong (SF) can be used
to always grab energies from your deck, but I feel that
Roseanne's Research, Claydol (GE) and Uxie (LA) will
already be able to get you enough energies.
Ratings:
Modified: Energy Refresh is simply brilliant, Energy
Plus is a nice way of abusing Energy Refresh even more
than you could normally, and Soothing Scent is a nice
little back-up attack that can allow you to bide your
time as you wait to draw into what you need, though
there is a 50% chance it's do nothing at all. The
abundance of Fire types in the format do limit this
cards playability a little, but that's the same for more
Grass types though. If you are going to run Leafeon Lv.X,
this is the best one. And it's only uncommon, so you'll
probably already have loads lying around. 3.5/5
Limited: Since you'll probably be drawing a load of
energies since you play so many in here, it's nice to
have energy acceleration in the form of Plus Energy, and
ways of abusing every energy drop because of Energy
Refresh healing your Pokémon. Special Conditions are
always nice, so if you don't need the healing or energy
acceleration, then Soothing Scent becomes a very nice
attack. This will be a difficult little Pokémon to take
down, I imagine, and can deal some nice damage out as
well. 3.75/5
Meganium45
OK, not quite as much love here as yesterday, but a
CRUCIAL piece to my deck. Without this card I NEVER
would have made it out of the swiss rounds (and been the
#63 seed that took 2nd!!!)
Once again, a very nice limited card.
A body that, when you place an energy from your hand,
you remove 2 damage counters. And Leafeon Level X lets
you attach extra energy?? And this IS from any Pokemon,
and not just grass Pokemon, or itself…so, WOW. Put this
together with a Leafeon X, and a high energy tank that
is tough to knock out, and your opponent MAY have a
problem!
Weakness to fire is not great, resistance to water is
good, but not great.
Retreat cost of 2, well, there had to be a drawback,
right?
Then the attacks are pretty proper.
2 for 40 and energy and attach an energy from your hand
to one of your Pokemon (and take 2 damage off of that
Pokemon!!!)
3 for 60 and auto-sleep. Both nice attacks.
Add to that that, the fact that this card is SEARCHABLE
by Eevee from RR, and you get a card that needs to have
attention paid to it!
What to combo it with? Man, there are options…could this
be a Tyranitar partner? A gallade booster? WOW.
This card screams “break me ‘mon” so England, I am
looking to you to break it. Faisal, Sami, Tom, give me
your best shot.
Usually I would turn to Jimmy Ballard for an Eevee
inspiration, but this card has such a British feel to it
(don’t ask, I can’t explain).
Ratings…
Higher than I thought walking in.
Modified…just because I am not smart enough to find the
combo does not mean it is not out there…4/5
Limited…just get the eevees to go along with it…5/5
Oh, and it was GREAT seeing Tom (Ape101) at our St.
Peters League on Tuesday…all the way from the UK. We
went 1-1, so I know there is a 3rd game coming sometime
soon!!!!
Meganium45
Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats
Leafeon
Now this is a bit more like it.
A PokeBody that allows you to heal your Pokémon whenever
you attach a Grass Energy (lots of fun with Dawn Stadium
in play), and an attack that gives you Energy
acceleration while doing a respectable 40 damage for [G][C],
Leafeon RR has pretty good synergy with its LV X form
(which also accelerates Energy and increases its attack
by 10 for each Energy you have in play).
Soothing Scent is a little expensive at [G][C][C] for
60, but the auto-sleep is nice and could keep Leafeon
around long enough to Level Up. Fire Weakness is bad at
the moment, thanks to Infernape 4 being everywhere, but
a Resistance to Water is nice, especially as Palkia G is
also popular. A Retreat cost of 2 is on the high side,
and you definitely won’t want to pay Energy to retreat
in a Leafeon deck, so make sure you run some Warp Points
and/or Switches.
Leafeon RR is a solid card, and well worth considering
if you are running Eeveelutions. It won’t make the deck
a top tier competitor, but it does give it a slight
boost.
Rating
Modified: 2.75 (good card for a deck that is a bit weak
at the moment)
Limited: 4.75 (healing, Energy acceleration, and decent
attacks make this one of the best cards in the set for
limited)
