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As a reminder, EX: Phantom Forces isn’t going to
be tournament legal until November 26th (if I did the
math right) and the official release date is November
5th. As such, I have very little information on how
this set is going to affect the metagame; I will indulge
in some speculation, but overall the review is
considering competitive Organized Play as it is now… or
at least as I understand it to the best of my abilities.
Leafeon
(XY: Furious Fists 7/111) is a Grass-Type, which
is somewhat useful; you’ve got direct support like
Floette
(XY: Flashfire 64/106) and Herbal Energy
as well as indirect like Virizion-EX and you
don’t have to worry about Resistance. It isn’t too bad
at hitting Weakness either; Keldeo-EX,
Seismitoad-EX, Suicune (BW: Plasma Blast
20/101) and Terrakion (latest printing BW:
Legendary Treasures 94/113), perhaps even the odd
Tyrantrum (XY: Furious Fists 62/111).
Perhaps most important of all… it isn’t the easiest
thing to splash into a deck; there isn’t a Grass-Type
equivalent of Mewtwo-EX for example.
Leafeon
is a Stage 1 Pokémon, which is a bit of a drag in the
literal sense as it takes an extra turn to set-up and an
extra card to get into play over a Basic Pokémon. There
is an option open to Leafeon to help speed things
up, but its still two cards to get one Leafeon
into play. It has 90 HP which means it is a probable
OHKO, at least once the opposing deck really gets going.
Fire-Type decks will have it even easier given that the
card’s Fire Weakness will double the damage done and
there is no Resistance to provide a very mild bonus (in
no way proportional to how potent Weakness is), but that
lacking Resistance is the norm. Leafeon has a
Retreat Cost of [C], which is very good as you’ll often
be able to meet the cost and recover from paying it.
Leafeon
has two attacks. For [G] it can use Soothing Scent to
hit for 30 points of damage plus inflicting Sleep on the
Defending Pokémon. This isn’t bad though it isn’t
overly good. For [GCC] it can use Magical Leaf to hit
for 50, with a coin toss to hit for an additional 30
while healing 30 from Leafeon. For the Energy
going into the attack, there shouldn’t be a coin flip
and I would still call it underpowered as the going rate
tends to be 90 for three Energy and healing is
pretty much a waste on a 90 HP Pokémon.
Leafeon
has to Evolve from an Eevee and XY: Furious
Fists 80/111 was so promising we reviewed it
separately
here.
There’s also a quick overview of all the other Eeveelutions
for reference as well. This Eevee has an Ability
that triggers when you attach a Basic Energy to itself
from hand; you can search your deck for a card that
Evolves from Eevee which is the same Type as the
Basic Energy just attached and then you Evolve Eevee
into that card. You can even do this on the first turn
Eevee is in play, even the very first turn of the
game.
The big thing to understand is that there is a better
Leafeon to play than this card; BW: Plasma Freeze
11/116 a.k.a. Leafeon [Plasma]. You can read the
reviews for it
here.
Besides the ups and downs of being a Team Plasma
Pokémon (mostly ups as the Team Plasma counters aren’t
as popular now that they aren’t a dominant force in the
format), the other differences are 10 more HP (so 100),
Water Resistance and a Retreat Cost of two (which is
noticeably worse as this is a smaller Pokémon). For [C]
this version can use Energy Crush to hit for 20 points
of damage per Energy attached to all of your opponent’s
Pokémon, which is fantastic. Its second attack, Leaf
Blade, requires [GCC] just like Magical Leaf but it
does 60 with an extra 20 on a coin flip… and as healing
is so rarely going to be useful that doing 10 more
damage before the coin toss might still make it a better
attack: with a Silver Bangle Magical Leaf will
OHKO a Seismitoad-EX (assuming you can get the
Tool attached in the first place). Mostly though stick
to Energy Crush.
Ratings
Standard:
1.5/5 - The big attack really lets Leafeon down,
squandering the opportunities provided to it through
being an Eeveelution.
Expanded:
1.75/5 - Technically it is a bit better here; Level
Ball is available and there at least might be more
Grass Weakness to exploit. You can use Level Ball
on it but mostly you’ll want it for Eevee.
Limited:
3.25/5 - As is often the case, Limited makes poor card
much better. Eevee from this set makes it easy
to search out and speed into play, and while you’ll need
some Grass Energy (that is the Basic Energy card)
to Evolve, it should be worth it unless you are able to
build a deck around one of the good Pokémon-EX. The HP
isn’t much better here, but the damage output is
effectively better and both the Sleep and healing
effects can also prove more useful.
Summary:
Leafeon is clearly inferior to Leafeon
[Plasma]; when we lose access to that version, it might
become the preferred choice, but hopefully we’ll see
something better released before that point in the next
inevitable batch of Eeveelutions.
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