Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Lucario
(Call of Legends)
Another Lost Zone-themed card is up for review today
and, unlike yesterday’s Snorlax,
this Lucario at least tries
to do something a bit more interesting with the
mechanic.
It’s going to need to be more than interesting, though.
A 90 HP Stage 1 with one of the worst Weaknesses in the
game (Psychic) is at a disadvantage from the start when
it comes to playability. It does have a couple of
attacks though, and the first, Dimension Sphere comes
with the reasonable cost of two Energies of any colour.
For that, you have a base damage of 30 plus 20 more for
each Pokémon you have in the Lost Zone.
Now while it is
possible to pitch your own Pokémon into the Lost
Zone to fuel Lucario’s
attack, that is a pretty slow process, requiring you to
keep attacking with Absol
Prime while searching out Pokémon to junk. Therefore I
suspect that Lucario was
intended to punish those decks that pitch your Pokémon
into the Lost Zone, namely those revolving around
Gengar Prime and the new
Lost World Stadium. The problem is that by the time they
get Lucario to the point
where it could OHKO a Gengar
Prime, they would be one Pokémon away from fulfilling
their win condition anyway (having six of your Pokémon
in the Lost Zone), making Lucario
a card which only really works at the point where you
are about to lose. When it comes to dealing with
Gengar Prime, a whole bunch
of cards (Absol G,
Weavile G,
Tyranitar Prime,
Honchkrow
SV) will do the job faster. In fact,
Absol Prime itself can OHKO
Gengar Prime without even
needing back up from Lucario!
Although the card does have a second attack (Sky
Uppercut does 70 unresisted
damage for [F][F][C]), it’s
bland, mediocre, and outclassed by a lot of other
Pokémon. That means the main reason to play
Lucario at all would be in
response to Lost Zone decks . . . and once again you
find that there are many better options with a whole lot
less risk attached to them.
Rating
Modified: 1.75 (does something a bit different . . .
just doesn’t do it well enough. Dimension Sphere would
need to be +40 before people would even consider using
it)
Limited: 2 (no real way of fuelling Dimension Sphere,
but Sky Uppercut isn’t terrible)
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conical |
2/2/11: Lucario(Call of Legends)
Now here's an interesting card!
Sky Uppercut isn't very good in Modified: it's mostly
usable in Limited only, with so many Pokemon with
Fighting resistance. Instead, there's Dimension Sphere,
which for 1 DCE does 30 damage plus extra for each
Pokemon in the Lost Zone. In theory, Lucario could be
used as a potential counter to decks looking to abuse
the Lost World stadium. In practice though, Dimension
Sphere won't do enough damage to be effective. For
example, take Lucario versus an undamaged Gengar Prime.
In order for Lucario to OHKO Gengar Prime, it would take
5 Pokemon in the Lost Zone, one short of the 6 Pokemon
needed to win the game with Lost World. It does pretty
well in Limited, especially when combined with Relicanth
CL for draw.
Modified: 2.5/5
Limited: 3.75/5
Combos With: Relicanth CL
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