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As a reminder September 3, 2014 will mark the official
annual rotation, when the Standard format shifts from
the 2013-2014 Modified (BW:Next Destinies to
XY: Flashfire, BW Promo BW33+, McDonald’s
Collection 2012, and all XY Promos) to the
2014-2015 Modified (BW: Boundaries Crossed and
later, BW Promos BW55+, McDonald’s Collection,
and all XY Promos); nothing from XY: Furious
Fists will be legal for sanctioned Standard play
until that time. If I believe I can make a sufficiently
educated guess, I’ll score for both Modified Formats and
the new Expanded Format (Black & White and later
sets, all BW Promo and XY Promo series
cards, all McDonald’s Collection cards) that also
begins then.
This Wednesday we come to Delphox-EX (XY Promo
XY19). Fire-Types are still riding high from XY:
Flashfire; success with Fire decks in general and
Pyroar (XY: Flashfire 20/106), so any solid
Fire-Type can be a serious threat though some are well
worth using over the rest. Virizion-EX/Genesect-EX
has kept hitting Fire Weakness valuable, and of course
Fire Resistance doesn’t exist on anything Modified
legal.
Being a Basic Pokémon is still the best; almost all
Evolving Basic and Stage 1 Pokémon are little more than
filler, so the space and speed advantage is huge. Be
nice if a Stage 2 line was its own self-contained combo,
and at a level worth playing… I think. The top cards in
the format are so strong I always worry comments like
that will backfire. Being a Pokémon-EX is a penalty…
which sounds odd because until around BW: Plasma
Blast they pretty much dominated the format, and
even now are still a major presence. However in terms
of actual game mechanics, they are just worth an
additional Prize when KOed, can’t make use of certain
pieces of support, and have specific counters that
target them for being Pokémon-EX; the benefits of a
Pokémon that should be an Evolution being instead a
Basic Pokémon, having HP scores that violate normal
standards, often having better attacks and Abilities
than their regular counterparts, etc. are not hardwired
into the mechanic, but instead are just design choices
that sometimes don’t materialize (we’ve got some
Pokémon-EX with just 90 HP, after all).
Delphox-EX
itself sports 170 HP; 10 under the maximum we see
printed on Basic Pokémon-EX, but still among the top
scores in the game and more likely to survive a hit than
not, though most decks due have at least a somewhat
clunky combo to take scores this high down in one hit,
and a few just hit hard enough as a part of the core
strategy, though its still usually resource intensive.
Water Weakness seems to be roughly “middle of the road
right now: there isn’t some über-attacker like Mewtwo-EX
or Yveltal-EX but you’ll run into threats that
can OHKO Delphox-EX more than if its Weakness was
Fairy or Metal. The lack of Resistance is disappointing
but also trivial; -20 damage to attacks received isn’t
the issue that x2 damage is. The two Energy Retreat
Cost will be (functionally) average once Heavy Ball
rotates; its low enough you can often pay it but is high
enough it won’t be trivial, but most decks pack tricks
to lower or zero out Retreat Costs, if not bypass
manually retreating entirely so it too is easily glossed
over.
For (R) Psybeam hits for 20 points of damage with a flip
for Confusion. This is underpowered; Confusion isn’t
the threat it was when the game began because
originally, you had to flip a coin to retreat out of it
(tails failed and you couldn’t try again that turn).
Back then, it was arguably the best as it was a 50%
chance of both thwarting your opponent’s attack and
scoring some extra damage. The attack’s base damage is
also too low; being able to hit 50 with Muscle Band
ends up being significant when striking Weakness.
The second attack - Wonder Flare - thus has to carry the
card; for [RCCC] scores 80 points of base damage, plus
40 for each Energy card in your opponent’s hand. Energy
in hand is a bit of a sticky situation; most decks can
only play one per turn, and even in decks that can do
better there just isn’t an incentive to keep it
stockpiled in hand. Most decks run low Energy, Items
that make it easy to keep Energy in the discard pile or
deck and some run both. Hitting a single Energy seems
reasonable, but for the Energy cost you need to hit at
least two (and still have a Muscle Band attached)
and preferably three (so that you don’t need the
Muscle Band).
Still, if you really want to run Delphox-EX, it
does enough to have a real strategy. Double
Colorless Energy plus Blacksmith can ready
Delphox-EX in a single turn, albeit at the cost of
your Supporter for the turn. If you haven’t burned your
Supporter for the turn and your opponent hasn’t taken
too many Prizes, N (already a given for nearly
every deck) can force your opponent to draw and thus
increase the odds of him/her having Energy cards in
hand. I can’t think of any good “tricks” in the current
card pool to bounce Energy from in play to the
opponent’s hand, which could easily have turned this
into a powerful play. Neither BCR-On nor BW-On seems to
make a substantial difference for this. Limited would
likely find this card amazing, given that most decks run
close to half Energy, but as this is a promo that isn’t
happening.
Ratings
Modified (NXD-On):
2/5 - You can build a deck around it and not have an
auto-loss against most competitive decks, but even the
success you do enjoy is tempered by how similar support
would yield better results with a better focus.
Modified (BCR-On):
2/5 - The same as NXD-On, though with a little more hope
as a future combo piece becomes possible.
Expanded (BW-On):
1.75/5 - I didn’t notice anything among the additional
cards that would bolster the core combo but it is likely
that Delphox-EX will face either more competition
or stronger competition here; I can’t see a larger card
pool helping.
Limited:
N/A - If it were legal it’d be an automatic inclusion in
any deck (make room for the few Fire Energy you’d
need) and unlike earlier offerings this week it would
indeed be a decent “+39” candidate as Psybeam buys time
for Wonder Flare, the latter of which should safely take
any remaining Prizes. Well, unless its a set rampant
with anti-Pokémon-EX and/or good Water-Types.
Summary:
Delphox-EX is a textbook example of a near miss
for the Pokémon TCG; something to improve the odds of
your opponent having Energy cards in hand is all it
should take for it to from functional to slightly
competitive. It also suffers due to so much
competition; three different Charizard-EX and
Reshiram-EX make for better “big Fire” Pokémon-EX
attackers. Still, it might be fun to play.
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