Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Celebi
(Triumphant)
I dunno . . . you wait years
for a modified legal Celebi
and then two come along at once! Let’s just hope this
one is better than the Prime, shall we?
Well, hilariously it has more HP than the Prime (making
Celebi unique amongst the
Primes for its lameness). 70 HP is good (but not
special) for an unevolving
Basic, while the Psychic Weakness is a bit of a problem
(most decks run some Psychic, even if it’s just
Uxie), and the Retreat cost
of one is ok-but-could-be-better.
For an unevolving Basic to
be playable it needs to either act as a starter Pokémon
(see Spiritomb AR,
Jirachi RR), or have some
kind of use of a tech attacker (see
Relicanth SV). This Celebi
seems to be shooting for the starter slot with an attack
which we have all seen many times (Girafarig
LM, Cresselia MD and lots
more). Future Sight costs one Psychic Energy (Colourless
would have been nicer) and allows you to look at and
re-arrange the top five cards of either your, or your
opponent’s, deck. Obviously, this has its uses: you can
try to manipulate your own draw next turn so that you
get a card you need, or you can try and prevent your
opponent from getting an advantageous
topdeck. Is this useful
enough to get Celebi some
play though? I seriously doubt it. Although Future Sight
is a nice attack to have as a bonus on an otherwise
needed Pokémon (such as Ralts
PL in a Gardevoir deck), it
doesn’t really justify running a Pokémon just so you can
have access to it. Fixing your opponent’s deck is only
really useful as part of an overall lock/hand disruption
strategy (and even then Slowking
HGSS and Chatot G will do it
without wasting your attack), due to the sheer amount of
draw and search in Pokémon. Meanwhile, manipulating your
own draw is only slightly useful compared to the set up
options offered by cards like
Sableye SF.
Celebi
does have a second attack with the very annoying cost of
[G][C] (yay,
now I need to run two types of Energy to use it!). This
does 30 damage and offers you
a coin flip for Paralysis. That’s not too bad, as
Paralysis is pretty much the best Status Condition in
the game, but the flip is off-putting, as is the very
moderate damage: you would need to get very lucky to
take a Prize with it.
This Celebi might be a
better card than the Prime, but it’s still some way off
being a competitive choice.
Rating
Modified: 1.75 (Not terrible attacks, but you are better
off looking elsewhere for your starter)
Limited: 3.25 (anything at all that helps your draw is
worthwhile, and the attack can be cheap and annoying)
|
Otaku |
Today we look at the “normal”
Holo-Rare
Celebi from HS – Triumphant.
It is a Basic Pokémon, making it
easy to run but not promising much
potency.
As Psychic Pokémon, it can nicely
threaten some popular supporting
Pokémon.
It has a sturdy 70 HP: even
though it can’t evolve, on its own it
should be able to take a hit or two from
supporting Pokémon or even something
like
Donphan Prime and survive (at least
barring damage enhancers).
The Psychic Weakness is expected,
and is the double-edged sword of being a
video game Psychic-Type and TCG
Psychic-Type.
Lamentably, no Resistance is
present to help balanced this out and so
we’ll finish off the bottom stats with
the single Energy Retreat Cost: low
enough you can pay it without seriously
inconveniencing yourself.
I’ll get straight to it: the attacks
don't do enough. Future Sight requires
one (P) Energy
and lets you peek at the top five cards
of either (but not both at the same
time) deck and rearrange them how you
see fit.
If this had been a Poké-Power it
could have created a nice niche use for
the card: I can think of a few attacks
that would be enhanced by knowing and
possibly reordering those cards.
The second attack, Leaf Bind, is
deceptively pricey.
One Energy
can be of any type, but the other needs
to be Grass.
That means to use both attacks,
you’d have to burn a
Rainbow Energy or be running both
types.
You only get
30 damage with a 50% chance at
Paralysis: had both Energy requirements
been Colorless, the speed that
Double Colorless Energy granted
would have made it just barely worth it.
Clearly that means that as it
actually is, it’s just too slow and weak
to be any real use.
Neither modified Celebi is all that
great, but at least with the Prime, you
can ignore its attack, send it up front
with a
Call Energy so you can use its
Forest Breath Power to get a replacement
Energy attachment before fetching two
Basics. If your opponent ignores that
version, you can get a good set-up out
of it!
Since they are Basics, though,
they can be replaced with other Psychic,
Grass, or Colorless Energy utilizing
Basic openers.
I'll end by saying of course it is
actually decent for a Limited event.
Future Sight will speed things up a lot
by burying bad cards/unearthing good,
and hitting for 30 with a chance of
Paralysis is passable on a 70 HP basic.
Ratings
Modified: 1.5/5
Limited: 3/5
|
