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Shaymin (HS Unleashed)
Here's another legendary from the HS Unleashed set,
with more of the 3D art that I like to complain about.
This card doesn't look nearly as bad as the Metagross
though. Moving on...
This is the Sky form of Shaymin, which I will now
refer to as Skymin (the other form is usually called
Landmin or Groundmin). This form seems to be a good
choice for the card as it gets the -20 resistance to
Fighting (though that won't matter to Machamp SF). The
other vital stats are 70 HP (could be better, but
standard for Skymin) with 1 retreat, x2 Fire Weakness
and both a coming-into-play poke-power and an attack.
The power, Celebration Wind, allows you to move your
energy around on your Pokemon in any way you like during
the turn you play Skymin. Simple but requires good
timing to be useful. The attack, Energy Bloom, costs GC
and deals 30 damage while healing 3 damage counters from
any of your Pokemon in play with energy attached to
them. This synchronises well with the power, and the
healing effect fits well into the sort of decks where
Skymin is commonly played (I'm thinking ShayMega and the
much more popular LeafTile). A combo that comes to mind
is moving energy onto Sceptile PA for his Leaf Blast
attack, or moving the energy around the field and
powering Skymin to attack for the healing.
Currently, the reason people play Skymin or Groundmin
is for the 2 Lv X that came in Platinum, so how Skymin
HSU works with them will be what makes or breaks this
card. Just to recap, the Groundmin Lv X gives Grass
Pokemon (excluding any Shaymin) +40 HP with an attack
that attaches Grass energy from the hand and the Skymin
Lv X is played for the poke-body that gives +60 damage
to Skymin the turn after any of your Grass Pokemon were
KOed by damage (also Skymin Lv X has an attack that
gives the same effect as this Skymin's power).
Celebration Wind isn't all that helpful to either of
the Lv X forms but the attack will remain useful once
you Level Up. The only other Shaymin that gives this one
any competiton is the one from Platinum with Energy Blow
(10 damage plus 10 more for each energy on Shaymin,
extermely useful to Skymin Lv X as it's free to use) and
Aromatherapy (deals 40 damage and heals 2 damage
counters from each pokemon for GCC) which is roughly
equal to Energy Bloom in terms of effectiveness. The
Aromatherapy Shaymin (a Groundmin, there are 2 others in
the Platinum set) also has +10 HP and only +20 weakness
to Fire, but loses the resistance.
In my opinion, this Skymin is useful, even great in
any deck that runs Skymin Lv X or Groundmin Lv X as it
allows you to save deck space on Sceptile SF or Energy
Link if you need to move energy around. However, most
people will find Celebration Wind too difficult to use
if they really depend on moving energy around and most
other players would just use Skymin Lv X's attack if
they occasionally needed to move something. Most decks
will run better with the Platinum Shaymin for the
consistent healing, and the x2 weakness also hurts this
card. Expect to see 1 or 2 around from players that love
surprises, but chances are that Skymin HSU will just
become more binder fodder.
Just to clarify, both the Sky and Ground forms of
Shaymin have the same name despite the difference in
stats and appearance, as do the Lv X, so you can use
them together and you can only have 4 total in a deck.
Also, you can't stack Lv X on top of each other, even
though it would be so funny to see both cards on top of
the same Shaymin. Hope this clears up any confusion
Modified: 3 (has potential but too easy to kill and
too finicky for most people to use)
Limited: 3 (the power and healing are great but not
enough Grass in the set)
Combos with: Shamin Lv X (both forms) and Sceptile PA
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