Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Emolga
EX (XY)
After giving us Legendary-exclusive EXs for the last
couple of years, Pokémon has made some random choices
for the first batch of non-Legendaries:
Chandelure,
Excadrill, and now . . .
Emolga?
Really? Showing the cutemons
some love (and the Full Art treatment), I suppose.
It’s kind of an interesting card too, at least as far as
the attacks are concerned. Energy Glide costs a single
Energy of any kind and allows you to search your deck
for Lightning and attach it to
Emolga before switching him back to the Bench.
This accomplishes two very useful things: it gets a
vulnerable low HP EX away from immediate danger, and it
helps power up Emolga’s
second attack, Electron Crush. This isn’t a bad attack
either: for three Energy it has a base damage of 60, but
you do get the option to discard an
Energy and add another 30 damage. It’s probably
not a coincidence that this means the attack hit the
magic 90: the number you need to two hit KO any EX, or
take out one that is Weak with just a single attack.
Despite the attacks being ok, it’s hard to see a place
for Emolga in the current
format. The fact that it only has 110 HP and gives up
two Prizes means that it is not suitable for trading
KOs. As a tech against Lightning Weak Pokémon, it’s a
little slow and vulnerable. There isn’t a lot of choice
for that role, but I suspect that most decks would
prefer to use Zekrom EX or
Raichu XY (even though they
aren’t exactly ideal either).
Rating
Modified: 2.25 (a low HP EX has to offer a bit more than
this)
Limited: 3 (giving up two Prizes is a very big deal
here)
|
HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150 |
Emolga EX.
Standard.
In a more sensible game this card would be around
the right power-level for a Basic Pokémon EX but
unfortunately we have regular Basics that outclass this
card. In fact, it’s nearly identical to Thundurus
(Emerging Powers, Legendary Treasures) but with the
whopping drawback of being an EX! No one even plays
Thundurus anymore so Emolga EX stands very little chance
of seeing competitive play.
I’m guessing it was included in the set as a possible
counter to Yveltal EX, Emolga EX’s attack doing just
enough to 1 hit KO after applying weakness. Throwing
away 2 prizes on such a frail EX just doesn’t seem worth
it especially seeing as Raichu can do the same job
without having to tech any other energy types.
Unlimited 150.
Things look better for Emolga EX in this format
where its main comparison from above, Thundurus also
counts as an EX. Thundurus sees play as a highly
aggressive attacker in Lighting decks that can apply
pressure before the opponent can set up properly, easily
1 hitting all popular starters such as Spiritomb and
Sableye, the EX errata only serves to make it possible
to recover from in this much slower format. Emolga EX
can serve a similar purpose, assuming you have either no
benched Pokémon turn 1 (risky!), a free retreater or
some sort of Switch effect. This extra criteria is
counteracted by having a choice to discard an energy for
additional damage. Electron Crush is enough to KO both
starters mentioned above, allowing you to use your
energy attachment on another Pokémon.
In the end it will come down to either personal
preference or just whether your deck can support
switching Emolga EX back in for the turn 2 KO.
Ratings.
Standard: 2
Unlimited 150: 3.5 |
