Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Beautifly
(Roaring Skies)
So . . . after yesterday’s breaking news of a worldwide
ban for Lysandre’s Trump
Card (of which I thoroughly approve), the world of
Pokémon is in something of a state of confusion. What
decks will still be good? What cards lose their power?
What will the meta look like
now? With all this plus a rotation around the corner and
a new set (Ancient Origins) slowly being revealed, it
makes reviewing cards a tougher proposition than it
usually is (that’s my excuse anyway).
Take this Beautifly for
instance. Usually, the fact that it is a Stage 2 would
automatically mean using the words ‘Seismitoad’
and ‘unplayable’ in the same sentence, but Toad decks
have been hit hardest of all by the Trump Card ban (they
won’t be disappearing just yet though).
Beautifly is also a Grass
Pokémon, and that means it is going to get some very
substantial support from the next set (which I won’t
spoil, just in case).
Beautifly’s
Miraculous Scales Ability means that it doesn’t take any
damage from the attacks of Pokémon EX. This isn’t
quite as
good as the Safeguard Ability we see on
Sigilyph LTR and
Suicune PLB, as that blocks
effects as well, but if those cards rotate in September,
Beautifly could be the only
game in town. It’s a more than decent Ability to have in
any case though. As for the attack?
Well, Whirlwind is underwhelming without being
completely horrible. 80 for three Energy and an option
to force a switch isn’t
great, but if Beautifly is
taking no damage in return, then you can live with it.
I can’t think of a reason why you would play
Beautifly over the Basic
Safeguarders now, and I am
sure we are going to have better cards to use in the
future too. The only reason I don’t count it out
completely is that there could be some mileage in
Miraculous Scales at some point, but I wouldn’t be a
large sum of money on it (or any money at all really).
Rating
Modified: 2
Expanded: 1.5
Limited: 2.5
|
Emma Starr |
Ever wish you could have a cool
EX-halting card like Siglyph (DE 52) or Suicune (PB 20),
but you don’t run Water or Psychics? Well, worry not,
because now, Grass decks have their answer too! Is it
worth getting excited over? Well, let’s find out!
Off the bat, one can see that it
won’t be as easy to get out as Suicune or Siglyph, as it
is a Stage 2, so be prepared to do some setting up. At
130 HP, it’s still going to be chump-change for most EXs
(and most other attackers, as well), and Fire weakness
isn’t very good either. However, the free Retreat Cost
is great, especially considering the role Beautifly will
most likely be taking – coming in to block and/or attack
and switch up the competition. Neither of the other two
have this blessing of a detail. Sure there has to be a
catch. Well...sort of.
If you examine what her Miraculous
Scales ability does, you’ll realize it only stops the
damage of Pokémon EX attacks. Not the effects. So,
Seismitoad EX can still Item-lock you, Shaymin EX will
still go back to the hand, etc. While she gives up the
ability to shut those side effects down, she can
definitely make up for that downside with her free
retreat, and of course, her attack.
Whirlwind, a 3-for-80 attack, might
look like another ho-hum attack, but the effect can
really cause some mayhem – it’s basically the ability to
Lysandre out your opponent’s active, with some decent
damage tacked on as well. Not to mention that it doesn’t
waste your Supporter for the turn either, obviously.
More importantly, you can get that Quaking Punch
Seismitoad back into the bench, or switch it with one of
your opponent’s benchers such as Garbodor or Absol for
an easy setup, especially with Beautifly’s free retreat.
So, although it’s a Stage 2, if you can get it going, I
am convinced that this can be a very productive,
underrated card, like Beedrill (PC 3).
Standard: 3/5 (great tool against
many, many threats, but being a Stage 2 can be quite
bothersome)
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 2.3/5 (no Rare Candy
sucks, but fortunately, Wally can come to the rescue!
Beutifly can shut down EX damage can save you lots of
trouble. All you need is some luck and/or some good draw
power. (Shaymin EX support comes to mind.))
|
Otaku |
Beautifly (XY: Roaring Skies 5/108) is a
Stage 2 Pokémon, which means right now the deck is
stacked against it; the format is very speed intensive
with players rushing to throw as many resources as they
can at each other (though we’ll have to dialed it back
at least a little come June 15th when Lysandre’s
Trump Card is banned - no more easy mass recycling).
Given what has failed, what has worked and what has
only “kind of” worked in the past, I think the answer is
fleshing out the oft ignored lower Stages so they too
generate some advantage instead of being “dead weight”
but I’m not holding my breath that will happen here. So
if I somehow wasn’t clear, yeah being a Stage 2 is
(regrettably) a serious hurdle to overcome as it
requires more time and space but (usually) the lower
Stages won’t contribute enough to offset these
additional costs.
Being a
Grass-Type allows Beautifly to potentially exploit some
useful Type matching: popular Grass Weak Pokémon include
Keldeo-EX, Primal Groudon-EX and of course
Seismitoad-EX. There actually is Grass-Type
support, it is just most of the direct support (that
absolutely can’t work for non-Grass-Types even with
combos) just hasn’t seen much success. The indirect
support includes Virizion-EX though, well known
for helping Pokémon with a source of [G] Energy attached
avoid Special Conditions via its Ability (Verdant Wind)
and accelerating basic Grass Energy from the deck
through its attack (Emerald Slash). There also is no
Grass Resistance to worry about unless you’re actually
messing around with the Unlimited Format. We also know
that the Grass-Type is going to get both some direct and
indirect support in the next TCG expansion, unless for
some reason XY: Ancient Origins differs greatly
from it’s Japanese counterpart XY7: Bandit Ring.
Beautifly has 130 HP, which means without some
added measure of protection its going to run a high risk
of being OHKOed, though overall it is just a little more
likely to survive a hit than not: this includes against
incomplete set-ups like early game as well as against
decks that don’t hit as hard, relying on effects, such
as Seismitoad-EX decks, so again don’t let my
pronouncement give you a false sense of security. Fire
Weakness is typical of Grass-Types (even those that are
video game Bug-Types) and right now, it isn’t too
terrible a burden. It may even one of the less
dangerous Weaknesses to have with which to cope since it
just doesn’t have that much of a presence right now.
The lack of Resistance is a bit disappointing but also
the norm, as most cards lack it so I no sense docking
the card for not having what few others have. Something
most cards have that this cards doesn’t is a Retreat
Cost… but that’s actually perfect, making this card as
easy as possible to get to the Bench!
Beautifly a single Ability and a single attack.
The Ability (Miraculous Scales) blocks damage done to
Beautifly by Pokémon-EX. Unlike Safeguard, the older
Ability that protects a Pokémon from the attacks of
Pokémon-EX, this won’t block effects of attacks: damage
counter placement, Special Conditions, etc. can still
get through. Not sure why the lower investment Basic
Pokémon get a better form of protection than the Stage 2
but it is what it is, and Miraculous Scales is something
well worth having as even with the gaps in its
protection, it will at least blunt the attacks of most
Pokémon-EX, completely stopping those that just do
damage with no other effect. Of course as an Ability
there are a few effects that can shut it off but the
only relevant one is Garbodor (BW: Dragons
Exalted 54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 119/116;
BW: Legendary Treasures 68/113) since the others are
obscure or defeat the point like Wobbuffet (XY:
Phantom Forces 36/119) since it only works while it
is Active and thus when your opponent is not attacking
you with a Pokémon-EX. It does bring up the second big
concern though… it does nothing to help against all the
various non-Pokémon-EX attackers you’ll face.
The attack
(Whirlwind) requires [GCC] and does 80 damage while
giving you the option of forcing your opponent to change
out his or her Active Pokémon. You do not choose
the new Active, rather your opponent does, so it is
handy that it isn’t mandatory. The damage isn’t so low
that the attack is worthless, but it is just a bit shy
of being especially valuable. Against Pokémon-EX, it
needs boosting to hit key numbers; 80 damage doesn’t
OHKO even the smallest Pokémon-EX and while 160 damage
will 2HKO them, by that point you you should be
threatening the typical 170 and 180 HP basic Pokémon-EX
but you’re also just shy of 2HKOing them (or OHKOing the
Grass Weak ones). At least it does 3HKO anything that
isn’t protected even without a boost, with the normal
exceptions of Wailord (BW: Dragons Exalted 26/124) and
Wailord-EX going down in just two hits due to Weakness.
With boosting you can hit the key numbers but even then
you’ve got to be careful or you may whiff on the 2HKO
against larger targets like non-Grass Weak Mega
Evolutions.
Beautifly is part of a branching Evolution line
which begins with Wurmple. The only Standard legal
option here is set-mate XY: Roaring Skies 3/108
while Expanded offers that as well as BW: Dragons
Exalted 6/124. Both are Basic, Grass-Type Pokémon
with 60 HP, Fire Weakness, no Resistance, a Retreat Cost
of [C], no Ability and no Ancient Trait. The older
BW: Dragons Exalted 6/124 can use Sleep Poison for
[C], which inflicts both Sleep and Poison on the
opponent’s Active but only on a successful coin flip: it
has no other attack. XY: Roaring Skies 3/108 can
use Flock for [G] to add another Wurmple to your
Bench from your deck or use Tackle for [CC]to do 20
damage. I’d go with the newer as while the Active is no
more likely to survive you can Evolve the replacement
the next turn, though at least both do seem to realize
they are there to get to an Evolution.
Next up is
Silcoon, at least if Beautifly is the goal
and we don’t want to rely on just Rare Candy.
Again you have one Expanded only option plus something
newer available for both formats: BW: Dragons Exalted
7/124 and XY: Roaring Skies 4/108. Both are
Stage 1 Grass-Types with 80 HP, Fire Weakness, no
Resistance, no Ability and no Ancient Trait. BW:
Dragons Exalted 7/124 can use Harden for [C] which
can completely block the damage from attacks during your
opponent’s next turn so long as the damage is 60 or less
but unfortunately anything stronger hits full force
while for [GCC] it can use Bug Bite to hit for 40
damage. XY: Roaring Skies 4/108 only has String
Shot for [G] to hit for 10 damage and (on a successful
coin flip) inflicts Paralysis on the opponent’s Active.
Again I favor the newer version because while it isn’t
much, the Paralysis seems more likely to help Silcoon
survive to Evolve into Beautifly.
So there is one
other Beautifly to consider: XY: Dragons
Exalted 008/124. It sports 10 less HP than today’s
version as well as a Retreat Cost of [C] (instead of
being free). Not a promising start. It has two
attacks, with no Ancient Trait or Ability. The first
attack (Triple Energy) requires [G] and not only
searches your deck for three types of basic Energy but
allows you to attach them to your Pokémon as you like.
The second (Drainpour) requires [GCC] to hit for 40
while also healing 40 from each of your Benched Pokémon.
The might look nice, but it mandates different basic
Energy cards - if you have less than three different
Types then you do as much as you can and accept a
majorly diminished return. You already are investing a
Stage 2 line, a [G] Energy and attachment and an attack…
plus given the HP on this thing odds are you’re also
giving up a Prize. Widespread healing can be nice, but
not nice enough as an attack on something that might be
just a hair more likely to survive than be OHKOed: the
exact threshold is uncertain - it is an educated guess,
not the mathematical mean of attacks. Maybe if it hit
harder but even then, probably not. This card was
actually reviewed when it was relatively new (here)
and while technically obsolete, the overall opinion of
the card remains accurate. Oh and if you were wondering
why we’ve been doing sort-of-Type-themed-weeks then it
is because of another review from around this time: that
older Silcoon we discussed
was reviewed
as well! I try to avoid this when I make picks, only
giving lower Stages their own review when they have
something particularly noteworthy about them (I wish
that was the norm and not the exception).
Of course we
could Evolve our Wurmple into a Cascoon
and then a Dustox but we’ll be looking at those
tomorrow.
This time, I’m just going to let you go there for
details, but yes the added utility of being able to
alternately Evolve into a Dustox adds more
potential to using either Beautifly. I wouldn’t
bother with the Cascoon as you should already be
running Rare Candy, at least if the focus is on
Beautifly. So why would you do that? The
protective effect is tempting; backed by Virizion-EX
and you only have to worry about non-Special Condition
attack effects from Pokémon-EX… and attacks from
non-Pokémon-EX. Therein lies the rub - I’m just not
sure what else would make a good partner for this card.
There are a few other walls but all are also
situational and I’m not sure where the best coverage
would come in.
I suppose
Latias-EX and/or Aegislash-EX might do the
trick, but the Stage 2 line seems so clunky and you
could just turn to a Safeguard Pokémon instead, at least
for now. Even with Evolutions as an option for this
hypothetical “variable wall” deck, there is Pyroar
(XY: Flashfire 20/106) so that between them all
your opponent must attack you with an Evolved
non-Pokémon-EX that lacks an Ability and isn’t using
Special Energy cards… assuming you can throw the correct
blocker up at the correct time and your opponent won’t
have the correct counterplay ready (like Lysandre).
Fun pull for Limited though where it shouldn’t be too
difficult to work into most decks and it could wreck +39
decks if it gets out in time (as they usually are built
around a lone Pokémon-EX).
Ratings
Standard: 1.75/5
Expanded: 1.7/5
Limited: 4.75/5
Summary: Beautifly looks like blast for
Limited play where even if its Ability isn’t useful, it
is still a Stage 2 line you can fairly easily work into
most of your decks and if you do run into a Pokémon-EX,
it keeps them from dominating like they normally do
here. In Standard and Expanded, though, that Ability
isn’t enough to carry it as you opponent’s deck is
likely already running the needed workarounds because
they also apply to other, more potent protective
effects.
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