Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Azelf
(Plasma Blast)
Today we have a look at one of the Lake Trio Pokémon
which have come back to the
TCG in this set after a fairly long absence (though
nowhere near as long as Huntail
and Gorebyss). When we last
saw them, way back in Legends Awakened, they were mighty
powerful cards despite being low HP Basics (Uxie
and Azelf even became
staples). This time around they are
still very
weak Basics, but they almost certainly won’t be seeing
much play.
Azelf
is actually the best of them, but it’s still a bit of
a gimmick
card. Trading Places at least gives you a switching
option, which is nice, but the attack most people will
look at is Psyjamming. For
the stiff cost of three Energy,
this does no damage but allows you to move around your
opponent’s Special Energy in any way you like.
Obviously, it’s possible to see ways in which this
attack would be both fun and hilarious. Rob
Mewtwo EX of its DCE’s and
pile them on a support
Pokémon like Virizion EX or
Mr Mime; shove all of your opponent’s Plasma and Blend
Energy on to a Benched Deoxys
EX. Even better if you can KO the Energy-laden Pokémon
next turn and leave your opponent in a terrible board
position.
The trouble is that this is much harder to pull off in a
real game than it is to imagine doing it in theory.
Azelf’s pathetic HP and
relatively heavy attack cost means that your opponent
will have the opportunity to prepare for
Psyjamming and likely more
than enough time to KO Azelf.
The erratum to Pokémon Catcher makes it a little more
usable, but even then it is KO’d on the Bench in two
turns by the snipe damage from
Landorus EX, Darkrai
EX, or Kyurem PLF. What’s
more, most of the top decks at the moment are relatively
unaffected by Azelf:
Blastoise,
Darkrai, and
Genesect variants won’t much
care about Psyjamming at
all.
Azelf
is one of those fancy play cards: spectacular when it
works, but won’t work often enough to earn its keep.
Rating
Modified: 2.25 (try it in casual play if you like, but
approach with caution for real tournaments)
Limited: 1.25 (highly unlikely to be any use here)
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