#3
Thundurus-EX
So, we move into the top 3 in our Plasma
Freeze countdown and something very
strange happens . . . all of the top
three cards are used in a brand new deck
archetype which is predicted to be
highly successful in forthcoming
tournaments. I don’t remember our
countdown ever turning into a mini deck
review/analysis like this before.
Anyhoo,
first up for consideration is
Thundurus-EX,
which functions as a starter/Energy
accelerator for the new Plasma Basics
deck. It’s a 170 HP Lightning Type EX
Pokémon, which benefits from all the
nice Team Plasma support out there. The
Fighting Weakness makes it vulnerable to
certain fairly common Pokémon (notably
Landorus-EX),
but on the plus side, you have a retreat
cost of one, which is easy enough to
work with if you need to pay it.
Thundurus’
first attack,
Raiden Knuckle, is the one you
are going to get sick of over the next
few weeks. For the low cost of a single
Lightning Energy, it does 30 damage,
which might not be devastating in
itself, but
it is good value and can very easily be
increased, as we shall see later in the
week. What makes this a great attack
though is the effect: you get to attach
an Energy
from your discard pile to one of your
Benched Plasma Pokémon. Note the word
‘Energy’. That’s
any Energy card, not just Basic.
Yes, you can use
Thundurus-EX with Special Energy
cards like Double Colourless, Prism, or
Blend and this is what makes it so
effective. It enables you to lead with
Thundurus on
the first turn, do 30+ damage
and start powering up any benched
attacker using Energy you managed to
discard (Ultra Ball or Juniper being two
obvious methods). This allows for a
potentially explosive second turn and/or
gives you superiority in terms of Energy
in play for the mid-late game. What’s
more, Thundurus-EX
makes Special Energy re-usable: an
opponent can’t just run you out of DCE
with Enhanced Hammer or by taking KOs
because you now have a way to recover
and attach them with an attack. This
means that
Thundurus-EX can function as more
than just a starter – he’s also there to
help you recover from unfavourable board
positions later in a game.
Thundurus-EX
does have another attack, Thunderous
Noise, which is a little on the
expensive side, costing two Lightning
and two Colourless. It does do 90 damage
though (generally enough to two-shot an
EX) and can discard an Energy from the
Defending Pokémon if
Thundurus-EX
has a Plasma Energy attached.
Realistically, you are rarely going to
use this. Maybe
against a Lightning-Weak Pokémon like
Tornadus-EX
when you can’t boost
Raiden
Knuckle enough to get the KO, or when
you don’t have any other attacking
options. Plasma decks do
have
a
lot better options than this though.
So, what we have here is cheap damage
and (Special) Energy acceleration, both
from one relatively durable, easy to use
Pokémon. If you’re using a Plasma deck
(and that is looking like a very good
idea), then this guy is pretty much
indispensible, whatever you choose to
run alongside him.
Rating
Modified: 3.75 (a powerful starter/set
up Pokémon, but the second attack is
lacking)
Limited: 4 (almost all big EX Basics are
great here, though
Thundurus-EX can’t match the
damage output of some of the others)
