|
Raikou & Suicune Legend (Unleashed)
Our second Legendary Dog combination comes to us
courtesy of Raikou and Suicune and will be know as R&S
for the rest of this review because I’m lazy like that.
I went over some of the difficulties and complications
of playing Legend cards yesterday, so I am going to be
even more lazy and refer you to that review for details.
R&S is a dual type Lightning /Water Pokémon, which is
pretty nifty as it can hit quite a few archetypes for
Weakness. Kingdra Prime, Donphan Prime, and Gyarados
will all fold pretty quickly to this card although,
given the ridiculous damage output of the first attack,
the type advantage becomes almost irrelevant. The double
Fighting/Lightning Weakness certainly is not an
irrelevance, but it is worth pointing out that R&S’s
massive 160 HP will save it from being OHKO’d by natural
enemies Luxray and Donphan unless an Expert Belt is
used.
Thunderbolt Spear, R&S’s first attack, is somewhat slow
as the cost of [L][L][C] means that you can’t take
advantage of Double Colourless Energy. Assuming R&S can
stay on the Field long enough to power it up, you do get
a huge reward for your efforts as it does a massive 150
damage. Enough to OHKO pretty much anything playable
short of a Belted Regigigas or a Steelix Prime loaded
with Special Metal Energy. The downside (you knew there
would be one, didn’t you?) is that R&S does 50 damage to
itself.
That 50 self-damage is a pretty hefty price to pay, even
for a OHKO. R&S does have a second attack, though, which
is an attempt to mitigate that cost. For [W][C][C]Aurora
Gain does a pathetic 50 damage, but has the very useful
effect of removing five damage counters from R&S.
Obviously, the idea would be to alternate the attacks to
keep R&S in the game. Nice in theory, but don’t forget
that your opponent will have a shot at a damaged R&S
before you get the opportunity to use the healing
attack. Should they manage the KO, you just lost two
Prizes and have the tricky job of getting it back into
play.
Almost obscenely powerful, but slow and very awkward to
use, R&S is probably the least playable of the new
Legends. The big numbers are obviously tempting, but a
Pokémon needs so much more than that to make it in a
competitive sense.
Rating
Modified: 2.5 (awesome attack power, but very hard to
keep in play)
Limited: 3 (I’d give it 5 if I thought pulling it was a
realistic prospect)
|
