Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Lapras
(XY)
There’s a really cool Lapras
moment in the XY video games which reminds me of the
original encounter at Silph
Co back in the days of RBY. Plus surfing with
Lapras looks awesome. This
card, sadly, is considerably less awesome.
You may remember Manaphy
from Plasma Storm, whose Seafaring attack allowed you to
attach Water Energy from the discard to Benched Pokémon
if you flipped some heads. It saw a tiny bit of play in
a few Blastoise decks, but
became pretty much redundant when we got Superior Energy
Retrieval in the next set. Lapras
has exactly the same attack, and it isn’t really any
more use on this Pokémon than it was on
Manaphy. There is an
offensive option in the shape of Hydro Pump, but you’ll
need to attach a
lot of Water Energy to Lapras
to make it worthwhile. Much better
just to use Keldeo EX or, if
you wanted a non-EX attacker, Hydro Pump
Keldeo from BCR which has a
superior version of the same attack.
Lapras
has a nice Weakness and good HP for a non-Legendary
evolving Basic, but the fact is that there aren’t any
decks that need him, or would be improved by his
inclusion. Off to the binder with him, then.
Rating
Modified: 2 (does some things, not well enough)
Limited: 3.25 (solid Basic
that can function usefully in this environment)
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HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150 |
Lapras.
Unlimited 150 review.
Just like in Standard, Blastoise decks are big in U150
and because Keldeo EX isn’t legal people have found a
good alternative in one of the other Keldeo cards
(Boundaries Crossed 47). Being able to pile on as many
Energy as you need to hit a vital HP number for a KO is
very useful. Lapras has this same functionality but
somewhat weaker at 3 Energy but more powerful later. For
example whereas Keldeo gets 90 damage for 3 Energy and
120 for 6, Lapras gets 70 for 3 but 130 for 6. Lapras
also comes with a nice 1 Energy attack that supports
your other Pokémon, quite useful in the first few turns
or if your Blastoise gets taken out.
It’s quite hard to call which is the better out of the
two, it will probably come down to which numbers you
want to hit and how much Energy you want to invest in a
Basic ex with 110 HP. I’ve been on the receiving end of
an Expert Belt Keldeo sweep before and though the
eventual 3 prizes were nice it had taken more than that
itself!
Rating:
4 (Another very powerful Basic Pokémon for Blastoise/Feraligatr
decks to choose from)
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