As we come to the middle of the week, we
look at
Crystal Edge (BW: Boundaries
Crossed 138/149).
Stats
Crystal Edge
is first and foremost a Trainer;
Skyla makes those so much easier to
fetch from the deck now.
It is also an Item;
Sableye (BW: Dark Explorers
62/108) is the best choice for
reclaiming discarded Items (it’s Junk
Hunt attack fetching two) but while it
can function in nearly any deck, it
performs optimally in only certain ones.
As such you may have to go
without recursion or run something
riskier, like
Recycle; for quick reference, that
would be a “tails fails” Item that
allows you to top-deck a card from your
discard pile.
Crystal Edge
belongs to an even more specialized
class of Items, the Pokémon Tool.
Peeking ahead to its effect, this
means you can benefit from it more than
once, provided the Pokémon it is
equipped to isn’t KOed, and an effect
(like that of
Tool Scrapper) doesn’t simply
discard it.
It also means it has to be more
important than the fairly potent Pokémon
Tools we already have this format;
Eviolite is pretty much a must for
Basic Pokémon, and while less popular,
Pokémon Tools like
Exp. Share,
Giant Cape, and
Rescue Scarf are still very good.
Lastly, before getting into the effect
text,
Crystal Edge is one of the new Ace
Spec cards; it will need to be
phenomenal to be worth running over
Computer Search, and still pretty
good to be worth running over
Gold Potion.
This also means it will be hard
to use reliably even with some way of
searching it out and reclaiming it from
the discard pile; one copy of a card
doesn’t go very far, and there is the
risk that it will be in your Prizes.
Effects
Crystal Edge,
while equipped, boosts the damage from
attacks by
White Kyurem EX by 50, at least
against Active Pokémon.
I feel it worth noting that it
can be attached to other Pokémon, it
will just have no effect.
That might seem pretty pointless,
but besides some shenanigans in
Unlimited, even in Modified you might
make use of this through
Ditto (BW: Boundaries Crossed
108/149).
Given the potency we see in the other
Ace Spec cards, I can’t say this sounds
all that good.
The wording ensures we won’t be
able to boost the Bench damage of some
hypothetical, future
White Kyurem EX.
As a note; we currently have just
one version (in terms of game mechanics
being there is no difference between
regular and Full Art) of
White Kyurem EX in English, but
Japan
has access to two different versions, so
more are at least possible).
I’ll explain the interaction between
White Kyurem EX (BW: Boundaries
Crossed 103/149, 146/149) and
Crystal Edge in more detail in later
sections, but why this already doesn’t
bode well is that a Pokémon Tool
requiring a specific Pokémon is hard
enough to build a deck around, but the
inability to run multiples or easily
retrieve said Pokémon Tool from the
discard probably places too high a
burden on
Crystal Edge; no amount of damage to
the Active Pokémon is worth that risk.
At it is unlikely we’ll have to
every worry about boosting self-damage.
Card Family
White Kyurem EX
(BW: Boundaries Crossed 103/149,
146/149) was reviewed yesterday, so you
should have a pretty good idea of how
good it is… or rather isn’t.
The card’s Stats are good enough
as it is a Dragon-Type and possesses 180
HP; thus the Dragon Weakness and lack of
Resistance are forgivable and even the
high Retreat of three at least allows it
to be searched out by
Heavy Ball.
The first attack (Dragon Steam) is just
a little weak; for (RCC) 60 points of
damage is lower than I would like, but
provided you get “heads” on a required
coin toss and have a basic Energy in
your discard pile, you may attach it to
White Kyurem EX.
If the attachment was automatic
and didn’t specify “basic Energy card”
this would be a great attack!
The second attack (Ice Burn) requires a
massive (RRWC) investment.
The Energy pairing is odd;
besides Water and Fire not being present
on the same
Blend Energy, there isn’t an
especially good source of
Fire Energy acceleration available.
The cost does deal 150 points of
damage while also burning the Defending
Pokémon, but as it requires a discard of
two (R) Energy, the return actually
feels a bit low.
“Burn” is unreliable, so while placing
two extra damage counters is welcome it
isn’t guaranteed, and even when it hits
the biggest Pokémon-EX (amongst a few
other cards/combos) are going to survive
if they began uninjured.
I would much rather Ice Burn did
a straight 150 and the discard clause
was absent; you’re not reliably KOed
stuff even with the Burn.
While the two attacks combo, the synergy
isn’t great enough to overcome my
concerns and frankly, they would have
been better without any effects (good or
bad) and the Dragon Steam hitting a
little harder or requiring less Energy…
and probably different names since I’ve
just removed the “flavor” of them.
Does this evaluation remain true when
Crystal Edge is added in?
Usage
Yes, yes it does, but what I say next
will make it sound like I believe the
opposite.
Crystal Edge improves the damage
yield for
White Kyurem EX and that improves
the attacks, and even their synergy to a
degree. Dragon Steam begins OHKOing
smaller Stage 1 Pokémon and all but the
biggest Basic Pokémon.
The latter group includes most
Pokémon-EX, but a second hit will finish
most things off.
Once Ice Burn is ready to go, the
it will OHKO anything without lacking
significant protection (just
Eviolite isn’t enough for
Pokémon-EX).
So why do I say that
Crystal Edge doesn’t make
White Kyurem EX worth playing?
Crystal Edge is an Ace Spec, so it
isn’t reliable enough, and
White Kyurem EX isn’t fast enough
without major support that as explained
earlier, isn’t especially viable.
Unlimited fairs worse since I
would take
Focus Band or
Expert Belt over
Crystal Edge, even before
considering I would rather run
Computer Search as my Ace Spec.
In Limited, while I would run it
if I managed to pull both it and
White Kyurem EX (highly unlikely),
odds of pulling off the combo is also
highly unlikely.
Future Possibilities
This section will contain spoilers, so
skip it if you are still the kind of
player that likes being surprised by
future releases.
Ether
will help
White Kyurem EX and thus
Crystal Edge; with it a first turn
Dragon Steam becomes possible, and even
a first turn Ice Burn.
While not easy, one might even
build a donk deck around it.
I actually helped a friend design
one and… it didn’t strike me as
something I would expect to win a lot,
but something I would hate to sit down
against.
Even if he missed the donk, the
damage output when coupled with
acceleration (and even lacking
Crystal Edge) is not easy to deal
with.
When we do get
Ether, we will also get “Plasma”
Pokémon and their support, and to be
brief I think what little shot
White Kyurem EX (BW: Boundaries
Crossed 103/149, 146/149) had is
completely gone, but I’ll be happy if I
am wrong.
As for the upcoming
White Kyurem EX (which we don’t know
when we’ll get), it has the same Stats
but does 60 for (CCC) with no additional
effect and for (RRWC) does 100 plus 10
per damage counter on
White Kyurem EX.
I might like this better since I
can ignore discard costs, and if it
isn’t OHKOed your opponent has to barely
touch it as part of a 2HKO or risk some
major nastiness coming back at him or
her.
It still doesn’t strike me as
being especially strong, and the Energy
requirements still make it unlikely to
see competitive play.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
1.5/5
Limited:
3/5
Summary
Ace Spec Pokémon Tools seem like a poor
idea, and even worse when they only work
for a specific Pokémon.
I know there is isn’t the only
one, but I think it is a lose-lose
proposition; something powerful enough
to be worth the hassle is going to have
to be flat out broken, making this game
feel more like Yu-Gi-Oh than
Pokémon.
The only way that can be avoided is if
there is some support, or even a built
in effect, that can help reclaim this
kind of Ace Spec from the discard.
Not to play Create-A-Card, but if
Crystal Edge said something like
“You may add this card to your hand
instead of drawing a card from your deck
at the beginning of your turn” or “While
this card is in your discard pile, you
may discard two cards from your hand to
return this card to your hand”,
something like that is probably the only
way it could be worthwhile without
giving it some truly obscene effect.
