Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Electivire
(Furious Fists)
Today’s card is the partner in crime for
Magmortar FFI. He’s very
much the junior partner, though.
That’s because, with this card on your Bench, the big
fiery clown Pokémon can hit for a massive 160 damage,
and that’s just a Muscle Band away from
a OHKO on anything short of
the rarely played Mega Pokémon. As an attacker,
Electivire just can’t
compete. I suppose you could use his Tag Team Spark
attack against Lightning-Weak Pokémon such as
Yveltal EX and
Lugia EX, but for that to
work out, Magmortar would
need enough Energy attached to it to make the OHKO
anyway.
Electivire/Magmortar
is a classic gimmick deck that can be devastating in
theory, thanks to Magmortar’s
power. In practice, it is incredibly Energy intensive
and relies on easy-to-KO Stage 1 Pokémon. This means it
really struggles to keep up with the pace of today’s
format and I can’t honestly recommend it for anything
other than fun/casual play. On the plus side, the
artwork is great.
Rating
Modified: 2 (the lesser of two Pokémon in a deck that
isn’t all that good)
Expanded: 1.75 (see above)
Limited: 3 (you would need the
Magmortar though . . .)
|
aroramage |
You may remember from a couple of weeks ago that we
reviewed Magmortar,
the great partner-in-crime to our friend Electivire
here. Now we're taking a closer look at the other half
of this "Gen IV evolutions to Gen I Pokemon that also
got baby Pokemon back in Gen II" tag-team match-up!
In the review for Magmortar, I mentioned Electivire's
first attack, Tag-Team Spark, dealing damage based on
the number of Magmortar in play rather than whether or
not you had one in play like Magmortar's Twin Bursts.
Diving into it, we see it's a 1-for-20 attack that does
20 more damage based on said guideline, which means
Electivire has the potential to be dealing 100 damage
with 4 Magmortar in play, all at the cost of one. I do
appreciate that this is an additive number rather than a
multiplicative number, meaning that Electivire will
always deal at least 20 damage with this attack when
you're struggling to get those Magmortar out for
whatever reason.
The problem with Tag-Team Spark, though, is fulfilling
its condition on getting out more Magmortar. Chances are
that even in an E.M.B. (Electivire-Magmortar build),
you'll probably be running 3 of each tops while maxing
out on 4 Evosodas to guarantee the evolution when you
need it. So at most, Tag-Team Spark is dealing 80
damage, still not a bad sum but that also assumes you're
getting out all 3 Magmortar. 40-60 damage is about
average for this attack, if I had to guess, which for 1
isn't bad but it's not something I'd actively rely on,
like the Twin Bursts attack from Magmortar.
Electivire's not without options though, as he too has a
nice secondary attack. In the event a Magmortar falls
short of their Twin Bursts and gets overrun, Electivire
can always step in and decimate opponents with 3-for-60
Gigavolt - and a coin flip. This is one of those
"win-win" coin flips, where you can flip it and benefit
from either end. Heads gets you an extra 30 damage for a
solid 90 damage overall, but Tails nabs you a Paralysis
on the opposing Active Pokemon.
Some of you may recall the era of Vanilluxe (NVI), whose
attack Double Freeze revolved around flipping 2 coins
and dealing damage based on the number of heads while
also Paralyzing if any of them landed heads. While
Gigavolt isn't as lock-worthy, it does remind me a
little of that, and so the best card to include
alongside these two in an E.M.B. would be none other
than Fliptini-er, Victini (LTR), still around in the
Legendary Treasures set! Then you can snag whichever
effect you want and flip for the other if it's better -
not that you'd be flipping again that often unless you
REALLY need that Paralysis or that extra damage.
Electivire's a pretty solid Stage 1, all things
considered. He's not as reliant on Magmortar for a good
damage output, though the latter does have a much more
powerful attack than the former could possibly amount
to. Still, Electivire can fight on his own if he needs
to and isn't required to have Magmortar, though it does
make Tag-Team Spark more effective. Perhaps his biggest
downfall is his weakness to a popular Type at the
moment, but then again that's why Magmortar's the
offense, eh?
As put by the Quad City DJs, "You run the 'O' and I run
the 'D', so come on baby just jam for me!"
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (Tag-Team Spark doesn't do much without
Magmortar, and while Gigavolt doesn't have the offensive
force of Twin Bursts, it does have that powerful 50/50
Paralysis chance)
Expanded: 3/5 (E.M.B. gets good acceleration here; I
stand by what I said with Magmortar in that it helps out
a bit here)
Limited: 3.5/5 (I'd even rate Electivire a little higher
than Magmortar here if only for Gigavolt, even with
Magmortar's insane damage output - that paralysis too
good!)
Arora Notealus: COME ON AND SLAM, AND WELCOME TO THE
JAM!! Admit it, you're thinking of Electivire and
Magmortar playing basketball now.
Next Time: Get off that skyscraper, and please put down
the pretty lady!
|
Otaku |
Today we will take a look at Electivire (XY:
Furious Fists 30/111). It is a Lightning-Type, and
while the lack of Type support (coupled with running
into the occasional bit of Resistance) is a concern,
scoring double damage against the likes of the popular
and potent Yvelta-EX, less popular but still
played Lugia-EX and the odd Empoleon (BW:
Dark Explorers 29/108; BW: Plasma Freeze
117/116) deck (among others) is pretty good. Being a
Stage 1 is not, though at least they still are showing
some life, unlike most Stage 2 Pokémon that have really
suffered due to the loss of Tropical Beach and
(more importantly) the popularity of Seismitoad-EX
as the Item lock is a double whammy, shutting down
popular search cards and blocking Rare Candy.
120 HP falls into that “weird” grey area: it’s small
enough most decks can definitely score a OHKO but big
enough that they’ll need a good set-up, often burning
non-renewable or at least difficult to replenish
resources. : a Seismitoad-EX isn’t going to do it
using Quaking Punch, even slapping on a Muscle Band
and comboing with Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank
City Gym. If it is a build that runs Water Energy,
however, without any extra help Grenade Hammer would do
the job. Fighting-Types have it even easier thanks to
the Weakness; 60 x 2 is much easier to hit than a
straight 120 and against Electivire such
attackers will quickly find itself in overkill
territory. Even then the results are mixed; as easy as
that is the Fighting-Types currently popular as
attackers need at least small combos to do the job. The
Metal Resistance isn’t a major advantage but is
appreciated nonetheless and may prove more valuable
after the next set, while the Retreat Cost is a minor
annoyance (pricey enough to be painful or unaffordable)
as most decks need switching cards anyway… and in
Expanded its a small bonus since it makes Electivire
Level Ball-compliant.
Electivire
has two attacks: Tag Team Spark and Gigavolt. The
former requires [L] and does 20 for each Energy attached
to your Magmortar. Pokémon names don’t
officially add an “s” (or make a similar change) to
indicate when they are plural, so this is counting the
Energy attached to all of your Magmortar
in play. On one hand, this means you need Energy
attached to something else of yours in order to do a
useful amount of damage. On the other hand, this means
you can prep multiple Magmortar with Energy
(which might be useful in and of itself) and then drop a
single [L] onto Electivire to score massive
damage… and unlike when loading up a Mewtwo-EX or
Yveltal-EX you’re only out one Energy when
Electivire goes down. You can even spread the
Energy out so taking out any one Magmortar
doesn’t lower your damage yield by too much. At only 20
points of damage per Energy on an attack performed by a
Stage 1 Pokémon with 120 HP, you’ll need to getting into
at least 2HKO range, preferably OHKO; that means four to
five total Energy attached to your Magmortar (on
top of the Energy attached to Electivire,
remember) for just the 2HKO while a OHKO is requires 9+
Energy (well, unless you’re facing non-Pokémon-EX).
The second attack requires [LCC], making is Double
Colorless Energy compliant (as well as other more
general forms of Energy acceleration) and has a coin
flip dependent effect. I am glad it is not “tails
fails”, but the split is between 90 points of damage
(the minimal going rate for cards, usually requiring a
bonus effect or amazing stats to prove worthwhile) or…
Paralysis. 60 and Paralysis for three is not so good
and blending the two is… still not so good. Certainly
better than a vanilla 60 (+30 on “heads”) but hardly a
competitive rate. This concept would be better suited
to something that was going to either score a OHKO or
set-up for a 2HKO while Paralyzing the target. Factor
in many decks either blocking Special Conditions or
having a method of dealing with them and it seems clear
Tag Team Spark should be our focus, if we use this
version of Electivire at all.
There is one other Standard legal Electivire
(Expanded doesn’t go back far enough to add anymore):
BW: Boundaries Crossed 54/149. We never got around
to reviewing it back when it was released, so a quick
run through is in order: it has the same Attributes
(yes, I know Erik Nance uses the term differently than I
do) as today’s card, save for lacking Resistance (so a
Lightning Type Stage 1 with 120 HP, Fighting Weakness,
no Resistance and a Retreat Cost of three). It also
sports two attacks: for [LCC] Electriwave does 30 to
each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon while for [LCCC]
Shock Wave does 80 and doesn’t apply Resistance. Those
were pretty bad back then (probably why we skipped it)
and are a little worse now. Electriwave is almost
acceptable; against a full Bench that is an effective
150 for three, but it ignores the Defending Pokémon
(leaving it safe to swing away), can be played around by
at least some decks (Bench few if any Pokémon) and by
now has two generic counters since it does damage
instead of placing damage counters, Mountain Ring
and Mr. Mime (BW: Plasma Freeze 47/116).
Shock Wave failed to meet that 2HKO minimum threshold
(which was still a thing when this version of
Electivire was new). While supplying the Energy it
needed was easier at the time (there was compatible
Energy acceleration still legal when it released) four
Energy really needs to hit hard enough that you can at
least combo to get it up to a OHKO (so another 40 or so
points of damage). Ignoring Resistance is also pretty
trivial given that Resistance itself is a small of only
minor use; the effect is a situational bonus against
another situational bonus. For being so disappointing
(...Shockwave is a very popular Transformers
character), this attack gave me enough I had to spend a
paragraph outlining how bad it is… and even getting back
the old support I mentioned - Eelektrik (BW:
Noble Victories 40/101) it still will be clearly
inferior to today’s CotD. Unless you absolutely aren’t
running Magmortar, even if you insist on running
Electivire stick to today’s card, and even
without Magmortar they might simply become equal.
Of course there is more to this; we need to see if
Electabuzz contributes anything worthwhile.
Although most Evolving Basic Pokémon serve as mere
stepping stones (exacerbating the balance issues between
the different Stages of Evolution), Electabuzz
debuted in the first generation of Pokémon and was
fairly popular back then; it may still get a good
treatment. Standard (and Expanded) give us two options:
BW: Boundaries Crossed 53/149 and XY: Furious
Fists 29/111. Both a Lightning-Type Basic Pokémon
with 80 HP, Fighting Weakness, a Retreat Cost of two and
two attacks. BW: Boundaries Crossed 53/149 has
no Resistance, can score 20 points of damage for [LC] or
50 points for [LCC]. XY: Furious Fists 29/111
has Metal Resistance and can score 10 for [L] or 20 (+20
with a “heads”) for [LC]. Both are bad, but XY:
Furious Fists 29/111 at least requires less Energy
while enjoying any sort of Resistance, so its the
winner.
With all that said, I will finally delve into the
obvious combo: Magmortar (XY: Furious Fists
11/111, already reviewed
here.
Simply put even if you want an “Electivire”
deck, you really need to be running a Magmortar
deck because as long as you’re already stockpiling
Energy on it and running Electivire, you may as
well enjoy an attack that hits for 160 points of damage
(Twin Bursts). The two make for a solid but not quite
competitive deck. That isn’t to say running it gives
you no chance of winning an event, but as the effort
involved is as much or more than the current crop of top
decks and you’ll be a bit more prone to misfires
due to the complexities of running two Stage 1 Pokémon,
about the only positive is not having to worry about
Pyroar (XY: Flashfire 20/106) (or rather
adding a counter to an otherwise all Basic deck). Magmortar
can be powered up in a single turn via a Blacksmith
and Double Colorless Energy, but even with
Blacksmith, Tag Team Spark won’t be hitting hard
without prep. Besides simply using it only to hit
Weakness or in emergencies and relying on Magmortar
I see only two options, and one is for Expanded only.
You might work in Emboar (latest printing BW:
Legendary Treasures 27/113). Inferno Fandango won’t
work with Rainbow Energy or Lightning Energy,
but your one manual attachment for the turn should cover
that. Space will be very tight though, even if you
Emboar as an “extra” and not your primary
acceleration (meaning you’re still running Double
Colorless Energy and/or Blacksmith). For
Expanded only, you could run Eelektrik (mentioned
earlier); its Dynamotor Ability won’t work on Fire
Energy but you still have Blacksmith for
that. Dynamotor can still attach Lightning Energy
to cover the [C][C] requirements for Twin Bursts and as
with Emboar you have the option of spreading out
Energy across multiple Magmortar on the Bench
(assuming you have multiples). Either way, Tag Team
Spark is too difficult to turn into your main attack, at
least compared to having Twin Bursts. A note for
Expanded; while three Stage 1 Pokémon are even more
difficult than just running two, you will have access to
both Level Ball and Heavy Ball with the
former getting everything but Magmortar and
Electivire, which the latter searches out.
For Limited play, the Weakness is legitimate concern and
thus potential deal breaker, even if you might otherwise
work Electivire into your deck. You also would
have to be quite lucky to pull Magmar/Magmortar
in addition to Electabuzz/Electivire and
luckier still to get them both out in a timely manner. Gigavolt
is much better here (as is its 120 HP), which means that
overall the line is still a good pull.
Ratings
Standard:
3/5 - This card’s effectiveness is greatly bolstered by
the usefulness of striking Weakness, and by being the
“trigger” for Magmortar and its Twin Burst (or
rather, the additional damage clause of said attack).
This score assumes you’re using them together and thus
are building a deck around them; it nearly bottoms out
on its own. Do not assume you need as many
Electivire as you do Magmortar.
Expanded:
3.25/5 - As above, and just as I mentioned in the
Magmortar review the two might actually be a little
better here due to some key pieces of support being
present (Level Ball and Heavy Ball).
Limited:
3.5/5 - Mind that Weakness and remember you’ll probably
be relying on Gigavolt alone. 90 or 60 with Paralysis
is a lot more effective here. Also remember that
Electabuzz isn’t quite as bad here as once again,
lower average HP scores and damage yields work their
“magic”.
Summary:
This card and its Magmortar set-mate have
interesting synergy, but it is clearly the weaker or the
two. Perhaps someone will find just the right build
(and/or timing) for a deck built around the two to
really shine, but it should at least provide a good
fun-but-borderline-competitive deck. If it had
possessed at least a half decent Ability it could use
while on the Bench, we might be complaining about
Magmortar decks dominating the metagame right now.
If the attacks were a bit better, we probably would see
this winning some events. Of course, dwelling on things
that could have been but aren’t is rather… iffy.
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