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#2 Kyurem
In yesterday’s review, we looked at the Energy
accelerator for Plasma Basics decks. If you were
wondering ‘ok, but what would you accelerate to?’, then
wonder no more because the answer is found in the #2
card of our top 10 countdown. When the Black and White
set was released, both Zekrom
and Reshiram found
themselves in top tier decks . . . now
it’s
Kyurem’s chance to shine.
Kyurem
is a Basic Pokémon with a (still) very good 130 HP, and
Weakness to Metal (which is only
really a
problem against decks running
Cobalion – either the EX or the NVI version).
He’s a Water Type, which makes him very useful against
Landorus and (much less
common) any Ability Emboar
based decks that you might see from time to time. He
also has a pretty serious Retreat cost of three, so
obviously you are going to want to run Float Stone or
Switch in a deck with him, especially bearing in mind
the drawback of his second attack.
Speaking of attacks, Kyurem
has two and they are both good. The first, Frost Spear
costs one Water and one
Colourless Energy and is basically the same as
Landorus-EX’s Hammerhead –
it does 30 damage to the active and 30 to a Benched
Pokémon. When boosted (for example by
Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank
City Gym) this is usually sufficient to OHKO an evolving
Basic like Squirtle and the
Bench damage is more than useful for setting up KO’s on
bigger Pokémon later in the game. If it’s big damage you
want, then Kyurem does that
too with his Blizzard Burn attack. Two Water and one
Colourless gets you 120 damage
with the drawback that Kyurem
cannot attack at all next turn (which is why you will
need to partner him with a switching card). Now some
people may be thinking ‘120 damage? Sure, it’s pretty
good but no more than Reshiram
or Zekrom BLW manage, and
it’s not enough to OHKO an EX either’, and that would be
fair comment . . . if it wasn’t for the fact that
Kyurem is a Team Plasma
Pokémon.
What does this mean? It means a ton of good things in
terms of speed and the ability to hit those ‘magic
numbers’ that get you a OHKO.
Thanks to Colress Machine,
Kyurem can use Frost Spear
on the first turn. Thanks to
Thundurus-EX, it can be powered up on the Bench
while Thundurus does some
early damage. Thanks to Deoxys-EX,
the attack power of Blizzard Burn and Frost Spear can be
boosted by between 10 and 40. Throw in a Laser and a
Virbank Gym, or maybe some
previous damage from Frost Spear or
Thundurus, and you have a
non EX Basic
Pokémon that is well up for trading blows with the big
boys in a way that makes sure you stay ahead in the
Prize exchange.
And that is really the key to why
Kyurem is going to be such a powerhouse for the
foreseeable future. Thanks to the Plasma support we have
a non-EX that acts like an EX. A normal Basic that can
match the damage output of Pokémon that give up twice as
many Prizes when they are knocked out.
Kyurem is one of those rare
cards that is actually better in game play than they
seem when you just look at the card (more often, the
opposite is true). Put him in a deck with the right
support and you will see just how well he can trade with
pretty much everything in the format. Oh, and of course
he isn’t fazed by EX counters like
Sigilyph DRX or Plasma
Klinklang either.
This card is quite possibly the best attacker in the
game right now. Certainly the best
one that isn’t an EX.
Rating
Modified: 4.5 (This was my #1 pick)
Limited: 4.5 (durable, with attacks that will just
devastate most Pokémon)
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