Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Garchomp
(Promo XY-09)
Just saying that the Garchomp
EX box was released on April 1st . . . that’s all.
Being a post-XY Dragon, Garchomp
is Weak to Fairy, rather than its own Type. This is good
news as you don’t see attacking Fairy Pokémon used very
often (the occasional Xerneas
EX, I suppose) and it
could have
made him a pretty useful Pokémon to counter
Rayquaza EX. That is if he
wasn’t just so all-round mediocre. Yep, this is yet
another promo EX with a mostly ineffective first attack
(the flippy Dual Chop), and
a second attack that does 120. In this case, Power Blast
also has the drawbacks of a slightly awkward Energy cost
and an Energy discard.
It seems odd to complain about Pokémon that do 120
damage. After all, with Muscle Band and Laser/Virbank
around, they can in theory OHKO a lot of other EX
Pokémon. The thing is though, that we have a lot of
other cards that do the same thing, only much better (Lugia
EX, Yveltal EX,
Rayquaza EX, and so on), so
there really isn’t much incentive to use a card like
Garchomp, which is
completely free of useful Abilities or effects, and
doesn’t even have much support (unless you include
Altaria DRX, which hasn’t
really worked out too well).
If you want a Dragon Type that can mess with other
Dragons, play Druddigon FLF,
and leave this in the box where it belongs.
Rating
Modified: 2 (yawn . . . who would have thought that 120
damage Pokémon could be so dull?)
Limited: N/A (promo)
|
aroramage |
Hey all you crazy folks at home! This is aroramage tuning in to
give commentary on the Pokécards of the future! ...wait,
haven't I already said that before? That's weird, but
it's also strangely relevant. Welcome back to today's
card, Garchomp-EX!
Now why is this card familiar, you might ask? Well that's because
it resembles its cousin from the Dragons Exalted set,
one of the first Dragon-type cards in the game! For
anyone who's been living under a rock the past couple of
years, Garchomp was a Stage 2 Dragon that exploded in
popularity upon first release not only for having a nice
Stage 1 searcher in Gabite but also in having two really
cheap, really powerful attacks: Mach Cut, which did 60
damage for 1 Fighting Energy while also discarding a
Special Energy off of the Defending Pokemon, and
Dragonblade, which only added a Water Energy for an
attack that did 100 damage and milled 2 cards off of
your deck.
Garchomp-EX is similar but different, and we're about to take a
look at why, starting with his first attack Dual Chop!
Dual Chop is almost like Mach Cut in that it costs 1
Fighting Energy and can do 60 damage, but the truth is
that it added on a Colorless Energy to the cost and can
only do 60 damage on 2 heads. That's right, Dual Chop is
one of those "coin flips for damage" attacks, a
significant downgrade from Mach Cut especially with the
removal of the discard.
But wait! Don't lose hope yet! Dragonblade may have been a Water
and a Fighting Energy, but add another Colorless to the
cost and you can get Power Blast! Now if familiarity
were right, you'd expect it to do 100 damage but mill 5
cards or something, right? Makes it a downgrade to even
out the fact that this is a Basic Pokemon in comparison
to a Stage 2, right? WRONG!! Power Blast actually does
120 damage and brings back the Mach Cut discard better
than ever, discarding ANY one Energy on the Defending
Pokemon! Not too shabby!
So would you run Garchomp-EX over his Stage 2 baron of badness
counterpart? Actually, I'd say you'd be better off with
the EX version. True, the Stage 2's attacks are cheaper,
and in Mach Cut's case better, but bringing that Stage 2
into play takes time and resources. Not to mention you
might want to run Altaria (DRX) alongside it to up the
damage output. Alternatively, you could just use Garcomp-EX,
using Evosodas on your Swablu to get out the Altaria and
start swinging in for anywhere up to 200 damage to the
Active Pokemon! That's pretty crazy!
I'd say he'd make a fine substitute for Garchomp in the upcoming
format, though in comparison to other EXs, he does fall
a bit short. Hey, it's hard to get on top with
competition from Mewtwo, Yveltal, and soon Lucario!
Rating
Modified: 3/5 (technically Altaria's still good, what with that
Shiny print in Boundaries Crossed! Could make for a nice
Dragon deck here with that delicious Evosoda!)
Expanded: 2/5 (there wasn't much Dragon-support behind Dragons
Exalted, but considering Rayquaza-EX will be legal in
this format, I'd probably just stick to him over
Garchomp-EX)
Limited: N/A
Arora Notealus: *kssssh* Garchomp-EX to tower, ready for takeoff!
Over! *kssssh*
...what? They can fly!
Next Time: Wait, where'd the next card of the day go?
|
Otaku |
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.
Garchomp-EX
(XY Promo XY09) is a Dragon-Type; they can enjoy
hitting pre-XY Dragon-Types for Weakness and so far
never face Resistance. There are also two pieces of
Dragon-Type support which may help this card out:
Altaria (BW: Dragons Exalted 84/124; BW
Promos BW48; BW: Boundaries Crossed 152/149)
and Gabite (BW: Dragons Exalted 89/124).
The former is well known for the +20 to damage bonus
granted by its (stackable) Ability, while the latter is
almost as well known for its Ability that allows (once
during your turn per copy) a player to search his or her
deck for a Dragon-Type and add it to hand. Both have
seen some success competitive play, but nothing that is
both recent and major. They are still good to have
access to, though post rotation Gabite will be
gone.
Being a Basic is still the best (it may be repetitive,
but its true) owing to how Evolutions require more time
and effort but most Evolving Pokémon are nothing more
than filler (instead of providing say a valuable opener
you might want to run anyway). Being a Pokémon-EX is a
drawback: the design decisions that result in most
Pokémon-EX clocking in at 170 or 180 HP and possessing
either better-than-normal attacks or Abilities is just
that; a design decision which technically they could
ignore (and sometimes they have). What can’t be
separated out are the number of anti-Pokémon-EX cards,
support cards that exclude Pokémon-EX, or the built in
“opponent takes an extra Prize” mechanic. Of course,
the intangibles have made the best Pokémon-EX either the
outright dominant force of the last two (soon to be
three) formats.
170 HP is just 10 below the maximum we’ve seen printed
on Basic Pokémon-EX; often good enough to take a single
hit. It isn’t a guarantee, however, and when contrasted
with the 180 HP some Pokémon-EX support you notice a lot
of combos that just barely miss the OHKO on 180 that
still take down 170. Fairy-Type Weakness is a bit of an
odd thing; against an actual Fairy-Type deck (re: Fairy
Transfer) it means a regular Xerneas (let alone a
Xerneas-EX) can use its big attack for a
guaranteed OHKO. At the moment, however, those two seem
to be the best Fairy-Type attackers available… so
outside of Fairy Transfer decks it isn’t a serious
concern. I seem to run into Fairy Transfer decks
frequently on the PTCGO, and get the impression they
aren’t exactly “uncommon” in real life, so be wary.
The lack of Resistance is disappointing but not
surprising, and since Resistance is far more balanced
than Weakness, it (fortunately?) is not a detriment to
be lacking it. I will add that as a Dragon/Ground Type
hybrid in the video games, it really should qualify for
one: Lightning or Fire Resistance both can translate
easily and directly, while Fighting (due to Rock
Resistance) and Psychic (due to Poison Resistance)
wouldn’t be terrible stretches as the other two video
game Types involved in each of those TCG Types merely do
“normal” damage in the video games. Also feeling a bit
off is the Retreat Cost of [CC]; its both a faster
Pokémon and able to fly (but not use Fly) in the source
material. In fact, while there is only one
Garchomp-EX, there are multiple other variations of
Garchomp, and they all retreat for [C] or for
free, even the only other “Its a Basic” version,
Garchomp C (and when it Levels-Up to Garchomp C
Lv.X gains a free Retreat). This may seem like a
nitpick, especially given my laid back attitude towards
Resistance, but its easier to exploit a low Retreat Cost
than Resistance.
So Garchomp-EX doesn’t have bad Stats, but what
about its attacks? It has two: Dual Chop for [FC] and
Power Blast for [FWC]. Until they rotate, Prism
Energy and Blend Energy WLFM make the (usual)
oddball double Energy type requirement a little more
manageable, and even after that all you’ll have is
Rainbow Energy and the real thing, basic Energy.
Pokémon-EX are less likely to survive a hit or two than
in the past, also making the Energy costs less appealing
as you’ll need something more effort than something
simple like running Double Colorless Energy
(which is a waste anyway unless you need to retreat
Garchomp-EX) to get either attack powered up in a
single turn… and that isn’t good.
Neither is what you get for [FC]; competitive Pokémon-EX
are usually good for 30-60 points of damage (possibly
more) at that price, but this only provides an average
of 30 and the threat of “double tails” causing
Garchomp-EX to completely whiff on its attack.
Power Blast actually does a decent job once you get it
powered up initially; 120 isn’t a guaranteed OHKO of
most competitive Pokémon, but its a solid enough
foundation that a little boosting will get it into
range. The discard cost isn’t good, but it isn’t
especially bad; you’re still getting good damage for
what was paid, and with all the Pokémon that hit for
more damage based on the Energy attached to the
Defending (or both Active) Pokémon, it can even come in
handy on rare occasions.
Unfortunately, there isn’t really a good reason to run
Garchomp-EX because of the lackluster first
attack and difficulty of powering up the second; there
are definitely tricks to get it hitting harder and/or
faster but they yield better results with different
attackers. Even as a big, Basic Dragon-Type to exploit
Dragon Weakness, we’ve got Druddigon (XY:
Flashfire 70/106). Had the Energy costs been a bit
more reasonable/damage been a bit better, Druddigon
usage may have even justified including Garchomp-EX
into your typical Garchomp (BW: Dragons
Exalted 90/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 120/116;
BW: Legendary Treasures 96/113)/Altaria (same
version as above) decks. If you insist on running it,
that may be the best way to go anyway; even if you had
to use up its Pokémon Tool “slot” on something like
Exp. Share, three Altaria put Power Blast
into Pokémon-EX OHKO territory.
There is a slight silverlining; while Expanded probably
won’t help it, XY: Furious Fists (again legal at
rotation) actually might. Among the Fighting-Type
support is Landorus (XY: Furious Fists
58/111) is a big, Basic Fighting-Type that for [F] hits
for 20 while attaching a basic Energy from the discard
pile to something on the Bench. It isn’t a huge amount
of acceleration (you aren’t even Energy ahead unless it
attacks twice), but because its a 120 HP body to soak
the first hit or two while also dealing an early 20-40
points of damage, it could be just enough.
Obviously it isn’t legal for Limited play, but if it was
it would be a mostly solid pick. The unreliable nature
of its first attack can cause problems if your opponent
has time to set-up a solid attacker because of it; if
you go second they might have three turns without any
damage being taken while they chip away at Garchomp-EX,
then launch something big. Once Power Blast is good to
go, their odds will plummet, however. So a “+39” build
is probably worth the risk. The Energy costs would make
it trickier to work into fleshed out decks, though if a
deck has room for both Fighting Energy and
Water Energy (probably totalling half the deck’s
Energy, maybe more if other stuff needs it) then sure
its another obvious must run… or at least it would be.
Ratings
Modified (NXD-On):
2/5 - Perhaps I am being overly generous, but despite
the weak first attack, the second is solid. The support
is there to boost the damage to OHKO range, so its just
the Energy acceleration that is really lacking.
Modified (BCR-On):
2.5/5 - Here the card will have at least one Energy
acceleration option that seems workable in the new
Landorus, but even then this is cautious optimism as
the two only have a tiny bit of synergy.
Expanded (BW-On):
2/5 - While it also has access to said Landorus
here, it now faces competition both old and new, which I
suspect will drop it right back down.
Limited:
N/A - As stated, it isn’t legal but if it was, it would
probably be worth about a 4/5.
Summary:
Garchomp-EX is another classic example of a card
that is nearly “there”, where “there” is some level of
competitive play. As is, you can probably build a
functional deck around it that can win some matches, but
most of the time established, competitive decks will
prove too much to handle outside when all else is equal
(re: they don’t get a bad open, supporter drought,
etc.). If the first attack was even a vanilla 30 or 40
for [F], it could have been something.
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