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Empoleon
(Legendary Treasures)
Our final card of the week is the only one which isn’t a
reprint (though some might wish they
had given us
Empoleon DEX all over
again).
kawayoo’s artwork, with
Phione in the background and
Trubbish along for the ride
is absolutely 100% certified adorable though.
The card itself is a lot less spectacular. It seems
decent, sure: Surf is a fairly cheap way of doing
an effect-free 50 damage, and
Emperor’s strike is reasonably priced for what it does:
70 damage, plus another 60 if the Defending Pokémon has
more HP than Empoleon. But
can you spot the fatal design flaw here? A Surf for 50 +
Emperor’s Strike for 130 = 180 damage, also known as
a OHKO on an EX Pokémon.
Unfortunately, if you
did use Surf
you just reduced a Defending EX Pokémon’s HP below the
level needed to trigger the extra damage from Emperor’s
Strike. D’oh!
Ok, I get that if they damage
Empoleon without KOing
it on their turn then it will still work out, but who
wants to rely on their opponent’s mistakes in order for
their attacks to work? No-one (I assume). It’s hard
enough for a Stage 2 attacker to work in this format as
it is, and Empoleon could
certainly do without that kind of failure. This may not
be a terrible
card, but the fact remains that it isn’t even the best
Empoleon in the format, and
is very unlikely to see any competitive play.
Rating
Modified: 2.25 (they needed to think this one through
better)
Limited: 2.75 (kind of an average Stage 2 here)
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