aroramage |
And now we'll take a look at the
far superior, more powerful, turbo-charged Magcargo Beta
Edition! Which is to say, we're looking at this Magcargo
now, and by comparison to yesterday's, it's...actually
probably worse. Weird to think on, right? But why?
Notably it's got the Omega Barrier
Ancient Trait. You may remember seeing that on Primal
Groudon-EX a little while back, and knowing that this
Magcargo can't be hurt by your opponent's Trainer cards
is nice. Granted, I'd rather be using it on something
like Primal Groudon-EX that could be dealing lots of
damage rather than Magcargo who's only got a vanilla
attack and a heftier weak attack.
Ram of course is the vanilla
attack, at 2-for-30, which is pretty abysmal. I mean,
you've seen what 2-for-30 CAN do (thank you Seismitoad-EX),
and I know Magcargo here's a Stage 1, but COME ON!! You
wanna make evolutions cool again? Don't give us EX that
can obliterate us! Give us Stage 1 and 2 Pokemon with
attacks that DEVASTATE, abilities that RUIN, ANYTHING
but a VANILLA 2-FOR-30!!!
And Indomitable Blaze is just
EX-fodder. What I mean is that it's one of those attacks
that does more damage to EX than non-EX, and that's fine
and dandy and all - technically it does more than
yesterday's Flamethrower, and if Hawlucha (FUF) has
shown us anything, these kind of limitations aren't
necessarily limiting in the current format - but given
that it's 3-for-60 under any other circumstance,
it's...disappointing to say the least.
I'd hate to say it, but Magcargo
got tossed under the iceberg of this set and has ended
up in that 90% of cards we're not gonna see outside a
trade binder. Magcargo (23) can 2HKO things at least
consistently (and also does 60 total spread damage,
which isn't bad but not exactly phenomenal), but this
Magcargo? Well, at the very least, he's not affected by
Trainers.
Rating
Standard: 1.5/5 (yeah, Omega
Barrier does NOT justify running something with attacks
this bad)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (you've got WAY
better options here)
Limited: 2.5/5 (fair enough against
that one poor soul running Trevenant-EX, but otherwise,
he's only okay)
Arora Notealus: I feel like
Magcargo is one of those Pokemon you forget about when
it's not hanging around. Be honest, did you have to look
up Magcargo to remember who it was? Have you heard of
Magcargo being amazing as of late? Has he shown up in
the anime recently? You'll probably make it a point now
to remember him for how forgettable he is - just like I
did with Doduo and Dodrio.
Next Time: And now something
completely different...on fire.
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Otaku |
So let’s… um… yeah I’m writing this up quickly because I came down
with what I hoped might simply be some seasonal
allergies but its pretty clear I’ve got something due to
my sore throat and related issues. So I’ll try to skip
my normal attempts at (so-bad-I-hope-it’s-good) humor
and get to the review. Oh yeah, its Fire Weak for
XY: Primal Clash. Today we look at the second
Magcargo in this set, XY: Primal Clash
24/160: no surprise I’ll be referencing
yesterday’s review,
Magcargo (XY: Primal Clash 23/160) a
lot. Nothing has changed my mind since yesterday;
being a Fire-Type is a good thing though not as great as
say being a Fighting-Type in the current cardpool and
metagame. Similarly, being a Stage 1 is still a drag
but not as crippling as being a Stage 2: this is a
format built for speed and that favors Basic Pokémon.
You have a solid chance of exploiting Weakness for gain
(if your damage lines up correctly, anyway), no fear of
Resistance and some decent support. 110 HP is 10 less
than yesterday; a little weaker but not a major
threshold to cross. When applying Weakness 50 and below
still falls short of the OHKO while 60 and above
doesn’t… just like with 120 HP. Speaking of Weakness,
again Water Weakness can be nasty but its not as bad as
being Fighting Weak. No Resistance is still
(regrettably?) the norm so no points docked for that.
The Retreat Cost of [CCC] is one better than
yesterday’s but still too beefy to be cost effective;
prepare for Magcargo to fall while Active or else
bring some alternatives to manually retreating at full
Price… which is pretty typical of most decks, lessening
the drawback considerably.
This Magcargo enjoys an Ancient Trait; Ω Barrier means your
opponent’s Trainers can’t affect Magcargo
directly and while this isn’t a perfect defense against
an opponent’s machinations, it deals with a lot of big
threats; Lysandre (though only while Magcargo
is on the Bench), Escape Rope (though only while
Magcargo is Active), Hypnotoxic Laser,
Crushing Hammer, Enhanced Hammer,
Hypnotoxic Laser, Startling Megaphone, etc.
all are considered to directly affect the Pokémon
(though some like Escape Rope only when it is in
a certain board position), even ones that you would
think don’t because apparently effects that target
something attached to a Pokémon have to go “through”
that Pokémon. I have to remind myself this isn’t GURPS
or another detailed table-top RPG, where such details
can receive attention. The card also has two attacks;
the first is Ram for [RC] and the second is Indomitable
Blaze for [RCC]. Ram does a vanilla 30 and to be blunt
that’s just bad; too high of cost/too low of damage.
Indomitable Blaze does 60 damage, plus another 60 if
the target is a Pokémon-EX. Three for 60 is overpriced,
while three for 120 is fairly good, but the two do
not even out for a kind of good attack.
You can stack some bonuses, like Silver Bangle and
Hypnotoxic Laser plus Virbank City Gym to try
and OHKO most Pokémon-EX and even 2HKO Mega Evolutions,
but that’s a lot of effort to be meh against everything
else. Being Double Colorless Energy compliant
also helps to take some of the sting out of the cost,
this card ignores that we have achieved somewhat
“limited” diversity in the game; while its
disproportionately about big, Basic Pokémon, there are
(overly) powerful examples of each Stage seeing
competitive play. When I am running something just to
combat Pokémon-EX, I’m not too thrilled about a three
card combo for the OHKO, especially now that the usual
exceptions (Megas) are becoming more and more
mainstream. Without dramatically altering the card,
just changing the damage split on Indomitable Blaze from
60/120 to 90/120 would have been a huge boon. While it
still wouldn’t have been great and is threatening to be
a Create-A-Card moment, yesterday’s card less its own
“big” attack (Flamethrower) but with the Ancient Trait
and attack of today’s would… still have been a bit
underpowered, but “closer”. You might consider running
this with XY: Primal Clash 23/160 but the two are
still lacking what they need to be viable, and even then
the Ancient Trait and second attack might not be enough
to justify it.
Ratings
Standard: 1.75/5
Expanded: 1.5/5
Limited: 3/5
Summary: While the artwork is fancier, that doesn’t mean it is a better
card. Once again you can see the beginnings of a good
card, though not a terribly creative one, and perhaps
that is why it ends up being a somewhat bland,
ineffective final product. Only get Magcargo (XY:
Primal Clash 24/160) if you need it to complete your
collection, are a Magcargo fan or really like the art
and in all three cases, still hold out for a good deal.
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