Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Ninetales (Primal Clash)
Here’s a very interesting Pokemon who is useful now, but
may become even better in the future.
Being a low HP Stage 1 with a relatively expensive and
mediocre attack (three Energy for 70 damage and Sleep
with Flickering Flames), you know that this is going to
be a Bench-sitter rather than an offensive focus. The
reason you might want Ninetales on your Bench? That
would be the Barrier Shrine Ability which prevents both
players from playing a Stadium card from their hand.
Recent sets have made Stadium cards a pretty important
part of the game. Seismitoad is quite reliant on Virbank
City Gym to boost his low damage output; Donphan needs
Fighting Stadium to hit the really big attack numbers;
Night March and Tool Drop decks want to reduce costs
with Dimension Valley; Dark decks remove Weakness with
Shadow Circle; while Fairies love the free Retreat they
get from Fairy Garden. Using Ninetales correctly means
removing these benefits from the Field while locking in
your own Stadium. This can produce a significant
advantage. There are ways around it, of course. Garbodor
LTR will shut off the Ability, while a Gust effect like
Lysandre can simply target and KO Ninetales. Of course
that gives you another turn to prepare for their Stadium
drop and also means they spent a turn dealing with your
Bench tech, rather than a main attacking threat, which
is good news in itself.
Whether Ninetales is worth running right now is open to
question. It’s a very effective answer to M Groudon EX,
which needs to keep putting Stadiums in play to maximise
its damage potential, so if that deck takes off,
Ninetales is a solid counter. Other than that, playing
your own counter Stadiums will probably remain the
preferred strategy. Looking into the future (i.e.
spoilers for the next set), it may be that Ninetales’
Ability becomes a whole lot more important than it is
now. My advice would be to grab a couple of copies while
it is still very cheap and easy to get hold of.
Rating
Modified: 3 (but that could well become 4 or more with
the next set)
Expanded: 3.25 (You also have Tropical Beach and
Skyarrow Bridge to lock in/out)
Limited: 3.5 (some nice Stadiums in the set, so why
not?)
|
aroramage |
A long time ago, a great demon attacked a local village.
The great warriors rose up to protect the village
against the demon's attacks, led by their great leader.
In a last ditch effort to maintain control over the
beast, the leader sacrificed himself to seal the beast
inside of his son, granting him superpowers beyond those
of any other...wait, no, sorry, wrong nine-tailed fox.
The votals for our Top 10 List were pretty close, so for
the next week or so, we're gonna take a look at cards
that caught our eyes and could've almost made it onto
the list! Starting off this week is the legendary
nine-tailed fox, Ninetales! Currently, there are only
two other Ninetales that are legal in Standard: there's
the Color Coordination Ninetales from LTR, and then
there's the promo reprint of the DEX Ninetales with
Bright Look (aka Pokemon Catcher upon evolution). So
what makes this Ninetales comparable or better than
these two options?
Starting off with Flickering Flames, we've got a
3-for-70 strike that also puts the opponent to Sleep.
It's...okay, as far as attacks go. It's not as easy to
work with as Hexed Flame (where all you need is
Statuses) or Color Coordination (which at first glance
sounds hard to work with until you remember Rainbow
Energy is a thing), but it's...decent. It's not gonna
put Ninetales in the Active slot too much if you can
help it, but at least it's something, right?
So now we look at the Ability Barrier Shrine. And no,
this has nothing to do with Omega Barrier, the Ancient
Trait...although that would've been really cool.
Ninetales' Barrier Shrine just prevents players from
putting down Stadiums from their hand. At first, this
sounds like it's...a bit limited. Only Stadiums? What's
the point in that? Then you realize how there's Silent
Lab, Fighting Stadium, Virbank, and a whole other host
of Stadiums that get played - some of them just to
combat other Stadiums!
So what does that mean for Ninetales' Barrier Shrine?
Effectively, it's similar to Field Barrier from Yugioh;
in that game, Field Barrier protected your Field Spell
and kept it from getting destroyed or from another Field
Spell getting played (this was back in the day when
there could only be one Active Field Spell). Ninetales
can work similarly - put down your Stadium, and then put
down Ninetales! Now your opponent can't knock your
Stadium out with their own!...unless they've got
something else that destroys the Stadium.
Ninetales can be pretty useful, and I think a good
combination can be found with him and Silent Lab (Silent
Lab won't negate Ninetales' Barrier Shrine since he's a
Stage 1). It's definitely a niche card for a niche
aspect of the game, and I won't fault anyone for making
an effort to make this work. I just don't think it's
good enough to impact the game...then again, Ninetales-Silent
Lab could be the deck that the meta deserves.
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (a niche card that can support a powerful
Stadium to a degree)
Expanded: 3/5 (bout the same here)
Limited: 3/5 (there are a few Stadiums around, so
preventing your opponent from playing any could be
devastating!)
Arora Notealus: Ninetales is one of my favorite Fire
Pokemon out there. There's just so much lore behind him
- the relations to the Japanese mythical creature, the
idea that grabbing a tail causes a thousand-year curse
(I guess people live forever in the Pokemon world, huh?
THAT'S IT I'VE EXPLAINED EVERYTHING) - and look at that
golden glistening fur! Tell you don't want to cuddle up
next to that guy!
Next Time: And speaking of Fire-types, how about we talk
about that straw?
|
Otaku |
Welcome to a
Runners-Up Week for XY: Primal Clash. Our lists
varied a lot this time, so we’ve got a week full of
good(ish) cards that didn’t make the cut to still give
the once over. We begin with Ninetales (XY:
Primal Clash 21/160). This card is a Fire-Type
which could come in handy as VirGen is still a top deck
and people probably aren’t sick of their Bronzong
(XY: Phantom Forces 61/1149, XY Promos
XY21), plus if it turns out this is a good attacker,
Blacksmith is a solid trick especially now that
we’ve got Battle Compressor and VS Seeker.
Being a Stage 1 is a slight drag but its still a lot
easier to pull off than Evolving into a Stage 2 or a
Mega. 90 HP is nice… in Expanded where Level Ball
is still an option; its slight for Standard and that
means Ninetales is a probable OHKO for most
decks, and those that target the Bench will find it
doesn’t take too long to finish it off with only Bench
hits (though probably more than one turn’s effort, at
least). Its Water Weakness could be a problem as people
are trying out the new Water support and even if they
weren’t, Seismitoad-EX isn’t going anyway.
Thanks to that low damage attacker, the Weakness that
might normally not matter (as it would merely lead to
overkill) instead means either Muscle Band or the
Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym combo is
enough to turn Quaking Punch into a OHKO. No Resistance
is the norm so I won’t hold it against Ninetales
and the single Energy Retreat Cost is easy to pay and
recover from.
Ninetales
has an Ability and an Attack. Barrier Shrine is the
Ability, and it prevents players from playing Stadium
cards from hand. This seems handy; Stadiums are
becoming a serious factor in the game again, and not
just “one Stadium to rule them all” a la Virbank City
Gym and its prominence. Barrier Shrine - unless we
get a ruling that states otherwise - should also allow
you to block a Stadium from being played even when there
isn’t one already in play. This is a double-edged
sword; you can use the card to preserve a “neutral”
playing field, but if you are trying to lock a specific
Stadium into play and your opponent uses an attack to
discard it, that then you won’t be able to play down a
replacement. Flickering Flames - the attack - requires
[RRC] and does 70 damage, plus puts the Defending
Pokemon to Sleep. Its overpriced and/or underpowered,
but not terribly; still this is here just so that (when
you can meet the costs) Ninetales can attack if
it must. If this card sees play, it is going to be for
the Ability.
So what related
cards are there? First let’s cover our options for
Vulpix. For Standard, there are just two options:
BW: Legendary Treasures 20/113 and XY: Primal
Clash 20/160. Expanded adds BW: Dragons Exalted
18/124. All three are Basic Fire-Type Pokemon with 60
HP, Water Weakness, a lack of Resistance and a Retreat
Cost of [C]. BW: Dragons Exalted 18/124 can use
Singe for [R], Burning the opponent’s Active Pokemon and
nothing else. For [RC], BW: Legendary Treasures
20/113 can use Firebreathing for 20 damage, plus another
10 if you get “heads” on the mandatory coin flip. XY:
Primal Clash 20/160 has two attacks; for [C] it can
use Roar to force the opponent to change out his or her
Active Pokemon, though it is their choice what to bring
up instead. For [R] it can use Gnaw to do 10 damage.
None of these are mind blowing, but unless you have a
reason to need Special Conditions, go for new one,
XY: Primal Clash 20/160: it won’t help often but
sometimes you can buy a turn by forcing an unfavorable
change out of the Active. Now let’s talk Ninetales,
specifically the ones legal for Expanded and Standard
(technically, today’s isn’t legal for Organized Play
yet): BW: Dragons Exalted 19/124, BW Black
Star Promo BW66 and BW: Legendary Treasures
21/113. BW Black Star Promo BW66 is a reprint
(different art though) of BW: Dragons Exalted
19/124 so not only are there really just two other
choices, both are legal for Standard (and of course
Expanded). The attributes are identical to today’s card
as well, so it just comes down to the effects.
BW: Dragons Exalted
19/124 and BW Black Star Promo BW66 have the
Ability Bright Look, which triggers when you Evolve one
of your Pokemon in play into Ninetales (meaning
this specific version of Ninetales): you can
select one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon and switch
it with your opponent’s current Active. This Ability
proved useful and got the card some play, especially
after Pokemon Catcher received the errata that
made it require a coin flip and before Lysandre
was released. Even now, this Ability is still fairly
good though it isn’t used much. Its attack is also
solid; for [R] Hexed Flame does 20 damage plus 50 per
Special Condition afflicting the opponent’s Active
Pokemon. If you can manage to inflict Burn, Poison and
one of Confusion/Paralysis/Sleep you can manage an
amazing 170 for one, but we (thankfully?) never got a
great way of scoring Burn that wasn’t part of an attack,
so usually it was combined with Hypnotoxic Laser
to try for two Special Conditions. BW: Legendary
Treasures 21/113 just has the Color Coordination
attack for [CCC]: it does 50 damage, plus an additional
40 if the attacking Ninetales has a Basic Energy
card attached to it that is the same type as the
Defending Pokemon which is… a poor attack. For three
you really should be hitting for 90 and given that there
is no basic Colorless or Dragon-Type Energy, even if you
built a deck around getting the effect it just couldn’t
be done for some targets. This one isn’t going to help
or hurt today’s version get played, but the Bright Look
version could either compliment or crowd out today’s
CotD.
Ninetales
seems like it is meant for decks that really, really
need to keep a certain Stadium in play. I’m not sure if
we have such decks yet, but the game might be evolving
that way, especially peeking ahead at the next set.
Sadly I don’t have even a “fun” deck to suggest for
this card; it is mostly likely going to be a supporting
Bench-sitter and little more, though that might be
enough to make it an important play in the future, maybe
even the immediate future. I would be remiss though if
I didn’t point out that Gothitelle (XY:
Furious Fists 41/111) might like this card for
ensuring the Stadiums it puts into play stay in play.
Its Teleport Room plays Stadiums from the discard, so
it can get around Barrier Shrine completely.
Ratings
Standard:
3/5 - A specialized card that does its “job” of
protecting Stadiums reasonably well, but the effect is
two-sided and that can make attacks that discard
Stadiums a painful loophole for opponent’s to exploit…
especially as you won’t be able to replace what was
discarded thanks to Barrier Shrine!
Expanded:
3/5 - Same; I am not noticing anything in the enlarged
card pool that screams “Super-Special-Awesome-Combo”,
and the smaller combos I think I see are probably
balanced out by the increased counters that might be
worth playing here.
Limited:
4.9/5 - Unless you’re running a +39 deck or don’t have a
Vulpix, run it. It is Limited play so having a
Bench-sitting Stage 1 that might not ever show up isn’t
too much of a price to pay for protection from opposing
Stadiums and for your own… or even just locking out your
opponent’s if you run none! Vulpix and its Roar
attack might even come in handy, and if you can spare
some room for Fire Energy cards, then Flickering
Flames is a good attack here.
Summary:
On my list at #6, though in hindsight this was way too
high. Not because locking in a Stadium isn’t useful,
but because of the risk of no Stadium or the wrong
Stadium being in play when you’re ready to Evolve into
Ninetales, coupled with the risk of your opponent
being able to discard the Stadium in play with an
attack. Sure something like Primal Groudon-EX
and Donphan (BW: Plasma Storm 72/135)
wouldn’t be able to hit hard again until another Stadium
could enter play, but just one massive hit while you
lose the Stadium that was worth running a Stage 1 to
protect lessens the usefulness of Ninetales.
Throw in Abilities often being shut down also bypassing
your protection, and Ninetales looks less
appealing than it did to me at first.
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