Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Greninja
EX (Promo XY-20)
We finish the week with a look at the last in the trio
of XY starter EX Pokémon. By now, you will see that
there is a definite pattern to these cards: relatively
cheap but uninspiring first attack, followed by a second
attack that does 120 damage.
Actually, Greninja’s first
attack, Sharpshooting, isn’t terrible: a 30 snipe to the
Bench is always a useful way of setting up a future KO
or (more rarely) finishing off a heavily damaged
Pokémon. The thing is that Landorus
EX (which will soon get a ton of support) does it
better, and so does Plasma Kyurem
for that matter. As for Aqua Blast, the 120 damage is
ok, and the cost and single Energy discard are bearable,
but in a format of overpowered EX Pokémon, it registers
as barely adequate. Being a Water Type means that
Greninja can benefit from
the Energy acceleration of
Blastoise BCR, but the fact is that he can’t make
the very best use of it, not compared to
Keldeo EX and Black
Kyurem EX, anyway.
Greninja
is probably the best of the three tinned starter EXs. He
has good Typing and reasonable, if not spectacular,
attacks. You could use him if you really wanted to, but
better options exist, and that is enough to stop him
seeing significant amounts of play.
Rating
Modified: 2.5 (Decent, but decent isn’t good enough)
Limited: N/A (promo)
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aroramage |
And now the card you've all been waiting for (whether
you knew it or not)! Welcome back guys, we're wrapping
up this week with another EX promo, and naturally we
didn't forget about our third Gen VI starter! Here we
have the magnificent Greninja-EX!
Now is he really as magnificent as I say he is? And
is he better than his XY counterpart, a tall order given
that that guy's got a nice damage-dealing Ability AND an
attack for 1 Energy. Granted, that cheap attack only
does 50 damage that can't be messed with in any form,
but we'll see what an EX Greninja can pull off!
His first attack, Sharpshooting, fires off a blast of
30 damage to anyone on board, ignoring Weakness and
Resistance on Benched Pokemon. It's similar to the
Ability of his XY counterpart, except that that one
required 1 Water Energy to be discarded, and you could
still attack after the fact. Here you only need the 1
Water Energy attached to Greninja-EX, but you have to
attack to pull it off. They both have their advantages
and disadvantages, but ultimately the Ability wins out
simply because multiple Greninja can deal up to 120
damage on their own before an attack whereas Greninja-EX
will only ever be able to do 30 once per turn.
His next attack ought to prove more useful, Aqua
Blast, which is essentially a Water-themed version of
Garchomp-EX's Power Blast from yesterday, though with
the notable exception that you must discard a Water
Energy from Greninja-EX in order to deal the 120 damage.
Its cost is about as hefty as Garchomp-EX's attack,
though it's much more manageable and replenishable
within a Blastoise deck. Question is, would you really
be running Greninja-EX in a Blastoise deck?
At the moment, probably not while Black Kyurem-EX
(PLS) and Keldeo-EX (BCR) are around, and seeing as
they're both still in the format, that's not going to
change soon. Greninja-EX does match up rather well with
his XY counterpart; though the counterpart does have
that sweet Ability, Greninja-EX does have the advantage
of being more versatile in Water decks.
Still, don't expect many to run Greninja-EX over
their favorite piledrivers. Sure there may be some who
run him, but ultimately you'll see far more Black Kyurem
and Keldeo beating you outright than Greninja.
Rating
Modified: 2.5/5 (he stacks up favorably, but falls
short in favor of what's been timeless)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (about the same, honestly, just not
that much better)
Limited: N/A
Arora Notealus: Charging up dat shuriken just like in
da movies!
Weekend Thought: If you could make a Pokemon-EX,
which Pokemon would it be and what would you give them?
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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.
We wrap up the week (and start the month) with
Greninja-EX (XY Promo XY20). We begin with
the obvious at a glance; its a Water-Type. Water
Weakness is reasonably common thanks to the current
popularity of Fire-Types, and as some Fighting-Types are
also Water Weak things should remain solid in the near
future. In terms of Type support, true Type Support
(that which is based on the Pokémon’s Type) is severely
lacking while they are well known for pseudo-support in
the form of Blastoise (amazing Water Energy
acceleration), Keldeo-EX (Great Ability, solid
attack) and Suicune (Safeguard Pokémon with a
decent attack)... though I refer to it as such because
Blastoise doesn’t care about Pokémon-Type and the
other two are easy to use with neither Water Pokémon nor
basic Water Energy (though the latter is nice
when attacking with Keldeo-EX).
Being a Basic Pokémon is great; fast and minimal space
requirements. Being a Pokémon-EX is not so great,
giving up an extra Prize when KOed, being unable to
access certain support cards and being targeted by
certain counter-cards. The benefits of being a
Pokémon-EX are external to the actual game; the
designers tend to favor them with better HP values,
Abilities, and/or attacks but its not guaranteed… as
we’ve seen with the many Pokémon-EX that no one bothers
using. Speaking of HP, Greninja-EX sports a
respectable 170 HP, just 10 below the max printed on
Basic Pokémon-EX; enough to usually survive one hit but
noticeably less safe than 180 due to popular attack
combos hitting 170 easier than 180.
Grass-Type Weakness is bad; Virizion-EX scores an
easy 2HKO and feasible OHKO with Muscle Band,
Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym. Genesect-EX
obviously scores an easy OHKO even without G Booster.
There are others, but those are the two most likely to
cause issues. There is no Resistance to even feign
balancing this out (Resistance is more or less
functional; Weakness is grossly overpowered), which is
disappointing. In the video games, Greninja is a
Water/Dark-Type hybrid, so that should qualify it for
Darkness, Fire or Water Resistance (with no conflicts)
or Psychic Resistance (with video game Poison-Types
hitting for less than they should). The single Energy
Retreat Cost is nice; anything that lowers its Retreat
Cost will zero this out (hello Skyarrow Bridge…
and good by given your pending rotation), though it
isn’t as valuable as it would be if most decks aren’t
more or less required to have Retreat Cost lowering
tricks or alternatives to manually retreating.
Sharpshooting requires (W) and allows Greninja-EX
to attack one of your opponent’s Pokémon for 30 points
of damage (obviously not applying Weakness/Resistance
for Bench targets). This is… actually fairly balanced
but in the current format that translates to
“underpowered”: it pales in comparison to the 30 to the
Active/30 to the Bench for [F] you get from something
like Landorus-EX. Aqua Blast requires (WWC) and
scores 120 points of damage, but requires you discard an
Energy from this card, similar to Power Blast on
Garchomp-EX (yesterday’s CotD). This isn’t as easy
as one might like to power-up outside of Blastoise,
but in decks that can boost the effective damage, its a
decent number.
Which is where we find the small niche that Greninja-EX
occupies. I have no proof it beyond minor usage on the
PTCGO, which is hardly compelling, but in my limited
personal experience, this is a solid choice for
Greninja (XY 41) based decks. Why? The
preferred partner for Water Shuriken Greninja is
Miltank; one Energy buys 80 points of damage,
with one Water Shuriken boosting that enough for the
2HKO against almost anything, two putting anything with
140 HP into OHKO range and three putting 170 HP
Pokémon-EX into OHKO range with four taking out anything
but M Pokémon-EX (based just on printed max HP scores)
in one shot. What use is a mediocre Pokémon-EX?
Set-up can take time. Ideally a Greninja deck
gets its first Greninja onto the field come the
player’s second turn (first turn Evolution is legal).
That may be the goal, but even a “successful” build
will often enough not get a Greninja out until
that player’s third turn. If your luck is bad, it can
be a bit longer, and smart opponent’s will exploit a
lone Greninja in play, prioritizing its KO,
should the situation allow: then Miltank can only
do 10 for [C] or 60 for [CCC] until you get another
Stage 2 into play. Neither Greninja nor
Miltank are especially big; most competitive decks
should OHKO either, though Greninja takes just a
bit more work. Greninja-EX can usually take a
hit and still get off one or two attacks that help
set-up for later Greninja and Miltank. If
you need to, while Greninja decks do struggle
with that much Energy on the field, you can even power
up Aqua Blast, which needs all of two Water Shuriken to
become a OHKO even against 180 HP Pokémon-EX.
Sharpshooting plus two Water Shuriken OHKO a Benched
Jirachi-EX in one turn; of course three Water
Shuriken do the same but I find getting three
Greninja in play all at once to be a sign that I am
already winning while one or two is much more common.
Sharpshooting is blocked by more effects than Water
Shuriken, but is nice for those times when you can’t use
Abilities.
In fact, the main reason not to run Greninja-EX
in the deck boils down to Tropical Beach; if
you’ve got that, you are going skip attacks often enough
anyway. So if Greninja decks can handle the
shift to BCR-On, this is probably a little better there.
The new Expanded Format is still largely conjecture to
me, but I suspect it will either have even more
competitive decks than the previous BW-On, current
NEX*-On or future BCR-On Modified Formats or that
there will be less but they will be that much stronger…
so odds are Greninja-EX won’t perform as well
there. It is illegal for Limited play, but would likely
be amazing there; single Energy snipe and a since you’re
not using the Energy for anything else, having to attach
an Energy over and over again for a steady 120 would
quickly win you the game, barring a very fortunate
opponent.
Ratings
Modified (NEX*-On):
2.75/5 - I think is good for Greninja decks, but
didn’t even allow for such a thing until after I faced
it, and then I tried it myself and find it does
reasonably well. Greninja decks are seen as
competitive but not “top Tier”, so being
useful-but-optional to such a deck doesn’t create that
high of a score.
Modified (BCR-On):
3/5 - Another of my optimistic scores (I’ve awarded many
this week), but without Tropical Beach for early
game competition, this card gains a much needed edge,
though still only in Greninja decks.
Expanded (BW-On):
2.5/5 - Again hopeful; there were some small
Bench-sitters when BW-On was the “Standard” or current
Modified Format, which in turn helps Greninja
decks in general plus Greninja-EX a bit directly;
otherwise the increased competition would likely drive
out any deck that isn’t currently near the top.
Limited:
N/A - If it were legal I’d give it a 5/5. I believe it
to be an excellent “+39” candidate, though this isn’t
just Theorymon but speculation over a hypothetical, as
you don’t get to use this in official Limited play as it
is a Collector’s Tin promo.
Summary:
Greninja-EX is not a great card, but it has just
enough of a nice that if I have to choose between
labeling it as “good” or “bad”, I’m calling it good.
Like a lot of cards, even if you don’t want to call it
“good” in terms of competitive play, its probably better
balanced than most of the competitive Pokémon-EX that do
see heavy play.
*I have no clue why, when writing out formats this week,
I kept referring to BW: Next Destinies on and
later Modified as “NDX-On”. I think it might have been
a typo that I absentmindedly kept copying over and over
again. Even “looking funny” probably wouldn’t be
enough, as I personally abbreviate BW: Boundaries
Crossed as “BOX” so BCR-On doesn’t really look right
to me either; I just use the latter because it seems to
be the closest to official and appears to be more widely
understood.
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