Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Kingdra
(Plasma Freeze)
Remember how Kingdra LA
became the
dominant deck in format for a while, and stayed strong
for a whole year? Well, that had a whole lot to do with
its extremely good attacks (specifically, Dragon Pump)
and ludicrously cheap attack costs. Now we see another
Kingdra enter the format
which, like the earlier version, has the potential to
hit hard very, very cheaply. Is it poised to make a
similar impact? Let’s take a look.
This Kingdra is a Stage 2,
which means it will really need to impress. The 140 HP
is acceptable, but by no means beyond OHKO range for a
lot of decks these days. The Dragon Typing and resulting
Weakness to its own Type is fairly neutral. Unless he
runs into another Dragon deck (Rayquaza
or Garchomp, basically)
Kingdra can neither exploit,
nor be exploited by Weakness. If he
does run
into other Dragon decks . . . well it cuts both ways.
Meanwhile, the retreat cost of one is not really
something you need to worry about.
Kindgra
comes with two very interesting attacks. The first,
Dragon Vortex, costs one Energy
(any Colour will do) and does 20 damage for each Water
and Lightning Energy in your discard.
These Energy are then
shuffled back into the deck. At first glance, this seems
amazing – after all, between Juniper, Ultra Ball and
Computer Search, it’s not difficult to get Energy into
the discard. The trouble is that it is not easy to do
this repeatedly throughout the course of a game. Bear in
mind that you will need nine Energy to OHKO an EX and
you can see the issue here: using Dragon Vortex as a
main attack would mean running a lot of Energy in a deck
where you only need one to attack . . . and that strikes
me as a waste. If anything, Dragon Vortex is something
you use to win the game or take a key KO: it’s not
practical for routine use. Fortunately,
Kingdra provides another
option. For just one Water Energy, Tri Bullet does
30 damage to any three of
your opponent’s Pokémon. 90 damage for one Energy? That
sounds like great value . . . why, it’s the same attack
as Registeel-EX’s Triple
Laser . . . for one third of the cost!
There’s no denying that Tri Bullet is probably the
biggest bargain of all the attacks in the current
format, but there are questions over its effectiveness.
With most decks running 170-180 HP Pokémon, you will
need to get the attack off at least six times to take
the game, and that’s the difficult part – it’s very hard
to stream Stage 2’s in a format where they can be
OHKO’d, even if their Energy
costs are negligible. There are past formats in which
this card would have destroyed everything in its path.
In the current one, it’s a quirky, fun, semi-competitive
choice.
Rating
Modified: 2.75 (they made a turbocharged version of
Kingdra LA . . . and it
isn’t quite good enough)
Limited: 4 (one of the most usable Stage 2s around)
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virusyosh |
Hello once again, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing
a Stage 2 that could possibly see some Modified play if
it gets a combo partner, or if the format slows down
(not likely). Today's Card of the Day is Kingdra.
Kingdra is a Stage 2 Dragon Pokemon. Dragons aren't
all that common around Modified these days, although
Rayquaza-EX does still pop up from time to time. That
being said, there could be an enormous niche for Kingdra
if it can do something interesting or powerful. In terms
of stats, 140 HP is just about average for a Stage 2,
and should allow Kingdra to hopefully take at least one
hit before going down (although with the format's speed
and power, your opponent can easily OHKO if they get the
right combination of cards). Dragon Weakness isn't much
to worry about right now, as Rayquaza-EX would OHKO
anyway; no Resistance is unfortunate; and a single
Retreat Cost is easily payable, even if you don't have
Switch, Float Stone, or the like.
This Dragon Pokemon has two attacks. Dragon Vortex
does 20 damage times the number of Water and Lightning
Energy in your discard pile, then shuffles them back
into your deck for a single Colorless Energy. This is
potentially quite powerful, and other decks with similar
attacks have worked in the past, such as Neo Genesis
Feraligatr with Riptide. Unfortunately, Feraligatr had
an easy way to discard Energy and many abusable Trainer
cards to facilitate the combo, where Kingdra has limited
(though still excellent) options like Professor Juniper,
Ultra Ball, and Dowsing Machine. That being said, Dragon
Vortex is still an excellent card, and can serve as an
excellent attack in a slightly slower format than the
one we have now.
Kingdra's second attack, Tri Bullet, costs a single
Water Energy, and deals 30 damage to three of your
opponent's Pokemon. This is an excellent sniping attack
that works very effectively in Limited, but also has
applications in Modified as well when you don't have
enough Energy in the discard to properly fuel Dragon
Vortex. All in all, this attack is also quite
spectacular, though it doesn't have the potential damage
output that Dragon Vortex can provide.
Modified: 3/5 I think Kingdra has a lot of potential
for Modified, despite the powerful Basic Pokemon-EX
around. Both Dragon Vortex and Tri Bullet are excellent
attacks, and while neither has the consistent damage
output of things like Darkrai-EX or Kyurem, Kingdra
still has the possibility of making a splash. It's too
bad that the format is back to a OHKO-driven format, or
else Kingdra could really see some play.
Limited: 5/5 Kingdra is an excellent Stage 2 for
Plasma Freeze Limited. Although Dragon Vortex will
probably only be used once for great effect, Tri Bullet
can easily grab you multiple KOs and harass your
opponent's setup. If you draft a line and are able to
get it out, you'll probably win.
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