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Beautifly
(Dragons Exalted)
If I didn’t give Silcoon
such a big build up yesterday, it is a least partly
because he evolves into today’s card.
Beautifly is one of those
cards that some players (especially new or younger ones)
look at and think ‘wow, that’s really useful’.
Except it really isn’t. Let’s
find out why . . .
Beautifly
is a Stage 2 Grass Pokémon with a relatively low 120 HP,
Weakness to Fire (not really a problem as of the time of
writing) and a reasonable Retreat cost of one.
A bit frail, but nothing to
completely count him out of contention.
Yet.
Triple Energy is Beautifly’s
first attack. For a single Grass you can search your
deck for three
different Types of basic Energy and attach them to
your Pokémon however you want. Energy acceleration is
great, we all know that (which is why we play Eelektrik),
but there are limits, and setting up a Stage 2 and using
a non-damaging attack really goes beyond them. The need
for different Types of Energy is also a bit of a kick in
the teeth. The only Pokémon that would really benefit
from that are Ho-oh-EX, which has its own acceleration
Ability, or Colourless Pokémon, which have Double
Colourless Energy. Already
Beautifly is looking redundant, even in the decks
where you think he would work best.
Beautifly’s
second attack is much more expensive.
Drainpour costs [G][C][C],
does a mere 40 damage, but does let you heal 40 from
each of your Benched Pokémon. Again, healing is nice
enough (which is why we play Max Potion), but using a
fragile Stage 2 and an expensive attack to do it? No
thank you. You could get the same net effect after two
turns by setting up a couple of
Serperior BLW with their Royal Heal Ability, but
when was the last time you saw that in a deck?
The things that Beautifly
does might be useful, but they are a country mile away
from being useful enough to justify inclusion in a
competitive deck. Stage 2 Pokémon are
still hard to
use in this format and need to offer something very
special in order to be played.
Beautifly most emphatically does not fall into
that category.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (not worth the deck space or the effort)
Limited: 2.25 (being a Stage 2 counts against it, but both of the attacks are slightly more
effective here)
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