aroramage |
...wait, hold the phone. Is this
right? There's a Stage 1 Pokemon as our #2?? And on top
of that there's a BREAK Evo with it?
Yeah, your eyes aren't fooling you
- Zoroark and Zoroark BREAK are our #2 card!...cards?
Something like that, and to be fair, the points added up
that it actually ties with Mr. Mime (I'm sure Otaku's
mentioned the way we rank our Top 10s enough to know how
it works). So technically, Mr. Mime's also our #2 card?
To go with our cards?
Eh, whatever, the point is we've
got Zoroark and Zoroark BREAK here and now - and he's
actually quite a powerful Stage 1! Sure, his 100 HP and
Fighting Weakness might have some people scratching
their heads, but he's probably one of the more solid
Stage 1s to come out in a LONG time. And considering the
BREAK evo only adds an extra 40 HP, what does that give
Zoroark?
Well for starters, he's got the
Stand In Ability, which ought to look familiar since it
works like Keldeo-EX's Rush In Ability - if Zoroark is
on the Bench, you can switch him out with the Active
Pokemon! That's already a great Ability, if Keldeo-EX
was any indication - you can remove Status Conditions,
bring out a fresh face, and potentially flip the game in
your favor. Combine it with Float Stone, which got
reprinted in this set, and Zoroark ends up being a
bigger pain than ever!
Now Mind Jack isn't phenomenal as
far as attacks go - it's a 2-for-10 that does an extra
30 for every Benched Pokemon your opponent has, which
can go a long way against decks that require a lot of
set-up or that like having a lot of Bench-sitters like M
Rayquaza-EX or decks running things like Ariados. I'd
say an average deck though will have around 3 Benched
Pokemon, which is still a great 100 damage, but maybe
that's not enough - maybe you need to do a lot more
damage a lot faster!
Enter Zororark BREAK.
Alongside the additional HP,
Zoroark BREAK brings back an old favorite of Zoroark's
in the form of a cheaper version of Zoroark (DEX)'s Foul
Play. It effectively works the same - copy the
opponent's Active Pokemon's attack. This could work out
well for Zoroark BREAK, since you could copy off an
opponent's Tidal Storm or Emerald Break, among other
things - and unlike SOME MEGAS that have this kind of
attack, you can STILL use Stand In and Mind Jack!
Will Zoroark and Zoroark BREAK
prove to be a powerful duo? Well, if nothing else,
Zoroark and Float Stone oughta show up in a few decks as
tech against Statuses, but I imagine that there'll be
more play than with stuff like the other...BREAK evos.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (solid Ability and a
couple pretty good attacks combine to make a potent
Stage 1)
Expanded: 4/5 (though Keldeo-EX is
a bit better here, but Zoroark BREAK does do Zoroark
(DEX)'s job a little better with Foul Play)
Limited: 5/5 (...yeah, I'd run
that)
Arora Notealus: I know there's not
a lot of good ways to make the card game version of
Zoroark emulate the Illusion Ability without doing some
complicated nonsense, but for what it's worth, they do
make good work with usage of things like Foul Play to
mimic his...well, mimicry!
Next Time: A Stadium to redefine
the game.
|
Otaku |
*Ahem*
Hopefully that helped set the mood or at least backfires
in a manner you find funny, dear reader.
Technically second place was a three way tie in terms of
voting points alone:
yesterday’s subject
Mr. Mime (XY: BREAKthrough
97/162) and the tag team we are looking at for today:
Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough BREAKthrough
91/162) and Zoroark BREAK (XY: BREAKthrough
BREAKthrough 92/162), though that may have been a bit
unfair considering these two were allowed to compete
together. Now let’s see why this dynamic duo
rocks!
Zoroark
(XY: BREAKthrough 91/162) is a Darkness-Type;
when it comes to Weakness and Resistance only a small
chunk of the Psychic-Type (namely those that correspond
to the video game Ghost-Type) while Darkness Resistance
is universal to the Fairy Type… though as they are the
newest Type, the pseudo-Ghost-Types and Fairy-Types are
actually about equal in number. Cards that
explicitly counter the Darkness-Type exist but aren’t
worth playing; they have far more to fear from indirect
Type counters like a particular Darkness-Type’s
Weakness. Darkness-Type support is good, but
mostly because the Darkness-Type includes some great
cards like Yveltal-EX and Darkrai-EX.
The support that explicitly works for the Darkness
Pokémon-Type includes the still good Dark Patch
and not much else that is good. Dangerous Energy
is merely “okay” (if room is tight, some of the more
generic Special Energy will likely crowd it out) and
there just isn’t anything else for Standard.
Though it was a huge boon at the time, now it seems the
Darkness-Type pays for being the first Pokémon-Type to
receive Type-specific support as cards like Dark Claw
are totally obsolete; if you use what is simply a
Darkness-Type only Muscle Band instead of
Muscle Band, you telegraph your decks focus
(possibly content) to your opponent. Shadow Circle
just cares about a source of [D] Energy being attached
to a Pokémon, but it does negate Weakness when that
condition is met making it handy for actual
Darkness-Type cards, at least some of the time.
Being a
Stage 1 isn’t good, but it isn’t bad either. If
you can make room you can use something like Wally
to surprise your opponent with a first turn appearance,
though that only makes sense when you have an Ability
you absolutely wish to rush into play or if you’re going
second and you’ve got a formidable attack. Most of
the time it means an extra card and a turn delay (and
Wally just trades the turn delay for an additional
card). The 100 HP is actually a bit annoying; my
guesstimate is that means only the lower half of attacks
will fail to score the KO, but I am taking damage being
done by at least remotely competitive decks not
frequency of attacks over all. A lot of things are
going to score the OHKO and while 10 more wouldn’t have
made much of a difference even just another 20 so it had
120 likely would have, but wishing for more HP is
typical. Zoroark also makes you wish it had 10
less HP because it is just outside of Level
Ball range and only barely more durable for it.
It isn’t even any better off against Fighting-Types due
to its Weakness; not only does it mean things like
Lucario-EX and Landorus-EX just need a
Strong Energy or (other source of [F] plus Muscle
Band) for the OHKO due to their damage being
doubled, but that would be true with only 90 HP as well.
The Psychic Resistance is appreciated but only gets us
to the slightly better 120 threshold for OHKOs.
The Retreat Cost of two would normally be more or less
average; low enough you’ll often have it handy and be
able to recover from having paid it, but high enough
you’ll want to find a workaround… and as we are about to
discuss, this card gives you a reason for wanting it as
low as possible.
Zoroark
lacks an Ancient Trait but sports the Ability “Stand
In”, which allows you to promote it from the Bench to
the Active slot, replacing your current Active Pokémon,
sending it to the Bench. It is a once-per-turn
Ability, but multiple copies may each be used once per
turn. It is quite familiar as this is the same
wording as the “Rush In” Ability found on Keldeo-EX.
This is a good Ability: we know from experience that
this can enable many useful tricks like resetting attack
effects, ditching Special Conditions or simply saving a
retreat or Switch, so the only question is
whether the rest of Zoroark keeps it useful.
The attack is “Mind Jack”, which costs [CC] and hits for
10 damage plus another 30 per Pokémon on your opponent’s
Bench. This is another familiar attack, but this
time the name is the same and the details are adjusted.
Absol (BW: Plasma Freeze 67/116 also can
use Mind Jack, but its version requires [DC] and hit for
20 plus 20 per Benched Pokémon. Again, this means
we know it can be a vicious attack from past experience,
and Zoroark even does it better than Absol
did, albeit as a Stage 1 and not a Basic Pokémon… and
again that is a significant difference.
So what
happens when we BREAK Evolve this card? Zoroark
BREAK remains a Darkness-Type, loses its status as a
Stage 1 Pokémon as it becomes a BREAK Evolution, gains
40 HP (so that it clocks in at 140) and an additional
attack: “Foul Play” for [D], which allows you to select
and use one of the attacks from your opponent’s Active
Pokémon and use it as Foul Play. If that sounds
confusing and like it might need some rulings for
clarification, no worries; this is another case of
recycling, though this time it is from a card we will
get to a bit later. This is a context sensitive
attack because even though you get to ignore the upfront
costs (namely Energy requirements), sometimes you’ll
only have a weak, inexpensive attack to copy in the
first place or even no attack at all. You have to
still do everything else required (at least if you are
able) and apply all effects, which can also leave you
effectively unable to attack. It doesn’t usually
do Zoroark BREAK a lot of good to copy Night
March because unless you’re tossing it into a Night
March deck you’ll swing for zero damage. Not so
great against attackers like the original Rayquaza-EX
(BW: Dragons Exalted 85/124, 123/124) that do
damage based on a specific Energy Type being discarded
from it; even if you’re running Rainbow Energy or
the exact needed Type how likely are you to have enough
attached (and not need it for other purposes) so that
you can discard it all for a “Dragon Burst”?
Then
there are attackers like Landorus-EX:
“Hammerhead” only costs Landorus-EX a single [F]
Energy to use in the first place, so you’re coming out
ahead copying it with a pseudo-Stage 2 like Zoroark
BREAK for [D]. The second attack “Land’s
Judgment” does 80, with an optional discard of all
attached [F] Energy to add [70] damage. The magic
phrase “If you do…” means that you can’t cheat the
system and discard “zero” [F] Energy to use the clause;
you can Foul Play Land’s Judgment for 80 damage no
problem, but you’ll need a source of [F] attached so
that you can discard it if you want to swing for 150
(80+70). With something like a Rainbow Energy
card paying for Foul Play, you could do just that to
score 150 for one, though. Things can be really
great though; when Zoroark BREAK is facing down a
Tyrantrum-EX you won’t enjoy the benefits of its
“Despotic Fang” Ability, but you can use “Dragon Impact”
for the bargain price of [D] and while you still will
get hit by the “Discard 3 Energy attached to this
Pokémon.” clause, if you have less than three attached
to Zoroark BREAK, you just have to discard as
many as you can. That means you’ll probably be
swinging for 190 for just [D] plus discarding that [D]
Energy.
Zoroark
BREAK
has to come from another Zoroark and it doesn’t
have to only be today’s version, so we should look at
the other options available. Before that, however,
we ought to look at the Zorua available as
Zoroark must Evolve from them. There is
Black & White 70/114 (also released as BW:
Trainer Kit - Zoroark Half Deck 13/30 and 23/30),
McDonald’s Collection 9/12, BW: Emerging Powers
66/98, BW: Black Star Promo BW12, BW: Dark
Explorers 69/108 (also released as BW: Legendary
Treasures 89/113), BW: Dark Explorers 70/108,
XY 72/146, XY: BREAKthrough 89/162 and
XY: BREAKthrough 90/162. There are also other
Zoroark we can BREAK Evolve from: Black &
White 71/114 (re-released as BW: Black Star
Promos BW09 and BW: Next Destinies 102/99),
BW: Emerging Powers 67/98 (re-released as BW:
Trainer Kit - Zoroark Half Deck 17/30 and 30/30),
BW: Black Star Promos BW19, BW: Dark Explorers
71/108 (re-released as BW: Legendary Treasures
90/113) and XY 73/146. All Zorua and
Zoroark are Darkness-Type Pokémon with Fighting
Weakness, Psychic Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], no
Ancient Trait and no Ability (today’s card excluded).
All
Zorua are Basic Pokémon with Retreat Cost [C]. Black
& White 70/114 has 60 HP and can use “Lunge” for
[CC] to hit for 30 damage if you get “heads” on the coin
flip (“tails” means the attack does nothing). McDonald’s
Collection 9/12 has 50 HP and two attacks: “Scratch”
for [C], doing 10 damage and “Fury Swipes” for [DC]
giving you three coin flips good for 10 damage per
“heads”. BW: Emerging Powers 66/98 has 50 HP,
“Ram” for [D] and doing 10 damage and “Rising Lunge” for
[DC] doing 20 damage plus another 10 if you get “heads”
on the mandatory coin flip. BW: Black Star Promo
BW12 has 60 HP and the attack “Jump On” for [DC]; it
does 20 damage plus 10 if you get “heads” on the
mandatory coin flip. BW: Dark Explorers 69/108
has 50 HP, “Ascension” for [D] which allows you to
search your deck for a card that Evolves from Zorua
and Evolve into it plus “Scratch” for [CC] which does 20
damage. BW: Dark Explorers 70/108 has 60 HP; for
[C] it can use “Paralyzing Gaze” (flip a coin; if
“heads” the opponent’s Active is Paralyzed) or for [DC]
can use “Shadow Bind” (20 damage and the Defending
Pokémon can’t retreat during your opponent’s next turn).
Those are all the Expanded only options.
XY
72/146 has 50 HP, “Scratch” for [D] doing 10 damage and
“Nasty Plot” for [DC] to allow you to search your deck
for a card to add to your hand. XY: BREAKthrough
89/162 has 60 HP and two attacks: “Moon Madness” for [D]
which Confuses the opponent’s Active and “Dark Edge” for
[DC] which hits for 30 but you have to discard an Energy
from Zorua. XY: BREAKthrough 90/162 has
60 HP and can use “Whiny Voice” at a cost of [D] to pick
a random card from your opponent’s hand, reveal it and
then shuffle it into your opponent’s deck, then also has
Dark Edge for [DC] to hit for 30 but also require you
discard an Energy from itself. The top picks are
BW: Dark Explorers 69/108, XY 72/146,
XY: BREAKthrough 89/162 and XY: BREAKthrough
90/162 with BW: Dark Explorers 69/108 being the
choice for Expanded because Evolving is this card’s job;
the three XY-era Zorua offer you unrestricted
search of your deck (though at a price you’re only using
it when you’re desperate), Confusion to try and slow the
opponent down or hand disruption to try and slow the
opponent down. Break the tie with what suits your
deck best or roll a die if you think it is a tie.
All
Zoroark are Stage 1 Pokémon with 100 HP and two
attacks (again, excluding today’s version). Black &
White 71/114 has a Retreat Cost of only [C] and
sports familiar moves, though some of that is because we
looked at it after discussing cards released well after
it. It has Nasty Plot for [D], which debuted all
the way back on Weavile (Diamond & Pearl
40/130) for the same cost, but nothing between the two
appears to have it (the earlier Zorua released
after this Zoroark). Foul Play uses a
mechanic that dates all the way back to Base Set,
but the attack itself was new to the TCG when introduced
on this Zoroark with a cost of [CC]; Zoroark
BREAK copied it. It was first reviewed
here
and then one of its reprints got a look
here:
needless to say reviews that are over four and three
years old are pretty out of date, though still have some
merit. The short version is that the first set of
reviews are overly generous while the latter are closer
to what was true then, with the present being slightly
less favorable due to increased competition.
Unless Zoroark BREAK proves too much of a hassle,
this Zoroark is probably ready for retirement as
Foul Play was its main claim to fame; Nasty Plot was a
nice for emergencies, but ideally you shouldn’t need to
burn an attack (with a serious chance of being OHKOed)
just to search your deck for a card.
BW:
Emerging Powers
67/98 is one of those cards you forget even exists.
It has a Retreat Cost of [CC] and two vanilla attacks:
for [D] it can use “Fury Swipes”, flipping three coins
good for 20 damage per “heads”; an average of 30 damage
isn’t bad, but it isn’t good either. “Night Daze”
requires [DCC] to do a flat 80 damage, definitely below
the competitive threshold without extenuating
circumstances, though if you insisted on using it at
least with a Muscle Band it could 2HKO anything
with 200 HP and no healing, HP boosts, damage reducing
effects, etc. It actually received
a review
and while it was from a format long past, the basic gist
of it remains: this card just doesn’t do enough for what
it asks and what it does do, it does in plain,
predictable manner. Don’t worry about this
version. BW: Black Star Promos BW19 is in a
similar boat, though it has a better Retreat Cost of
[C]. Its “Punishment” attack required [C] to hit
for 20, with a bonus of +20 if you were attacking a
Stage 2 Pokémon. Yes, this was a card released
either right before or as Pokémon-EX released and not
only did they dominate right away, but prior to them it
was mostly regular big, Basic Pokémon as well as Stage 1
cards doing the attacking. Even if you wanted
something that was good to use against Stage 2 Pokémon,
the damage bonus is so small it hardly matters. “Snarl”
is even worse though: [DDC] to hit for 60 and reduces
the damage done from the Defending Pokémon during your
opponent’s next turn by 20. Don’t use this one
either.
BW:
Dark Explorers
71/108 has the slightly worse Retreat Cost of [CC]
again, but sports two strong attacks. “Brutal Bash”
requires only [CC] and does 20 damage for each
Darkness-Type Pokémon you have in play; solid with a
full-ish Bench of Darkness-Types and brutal like it
claims to be when you’ve got Sky Field in play
and eight Darkness-Types on your Bench (that’s 180
damage!). The second attack - Dark Rush - requires
[DD] and also can swing hard but is more difficult to
optimize because it does 20 damage times the number of
damage counters on Zoroark, so without HP boosts
that means upwards of 180. Tricky for a 100 HP
Pokémon to reliably soak a hit, though. This
Zoroark took
7th place
on our Top 10 for BW: Dark Explorers, never lived
up to expectations but it is still a good card and may
be worth BREAK Evolving from… after all 140 HP can
survive a hit better. XY 73/146 drops back down
to a Retreat Cost of [C]. Its first attack is
“Corner” which requires [D] to hit for 30 and prevent
the Defending Pokémon from retreating during your
opponent’s next turn; not brilliant but sometimes
useful. For [DCC] it can use “Night Claw” for a
solid 100 damage, but unfortunately you have to flip a
coin and if it is “tails” you have to discard two Energy
from Zoroark. This one is a “maybe”, just
because it is the only Standard legal option besides
today’s pick; if you can’t force your opponent into a
large Bench you may need a fallback like a copy of XY
73/146. Maybe.
So… how
do you run Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough
91/162) and Zoroark BREAK? Well, for
starters Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162)
is the real winner of the two; Zoroark BREAK has
a real chance of working out because the new Zoroark
looks good and Zoroark BREAK looks solid.
Stand In won’t work better than Keldeo-EX most of
the time, but Keldeo-EX isn’t Standard legal; if
you can manage to work in a Stage 1 line for the same
switching effect, it will serve its purpose and be a
good back-up attacker. In Expanded you still may
consider switching over; while it needs more slots, some
decks can’t utilize Keldeo-EX very well as an
attacker and so should still consider if they can
squeeze in a Stage 1 instead. Most of the time the
answer will be “no”, but not always. In Standard
play one expects Zoroark plus Zoroark BREAK
decks. Though most players and decks can learn to
operate with a smaller Bench to minimize the
effectiveness of Mind Jack, that is when you fallback to
Foul Play and see if you can squeeze a few copies of
Target Whistle into your deck; few decks don’t have
Basics in the discard pile you could forcibly revive.
In
Expanded, Mind Jack is still good, so while it probably
won’t be the next big thing, you could build a deck
around Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162),
Zoroark (W: Dark Explorers 71/108, BW:
Legendary Treasures 90/113) and Zoroark BREAK;
while all have attacks that are set-up reliant by
spreading things out between three of them it is much
harder for all three to fail. It will happen and
that’s a lot of cards worth of set-up, so while I fancy
the idea in practice it hasn’t gone so well. In
Limited play, only skip these two if you are building a
+39 deck, a deck where you select a single big, Basic
and fill the other 39 card slots with non-Basic Pokémon
cards. Remember, the attack doesn’t even need [D]
Energy and there are two Zorua, improving odds of
pulling at least one, though both of those do
need [D] Energy to attack.
Ratings
- Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162)
Standard:
4/5
Expanded:
3.35/5
Limited:
4.9/5
Ratings
- Zoroark BREAK
Standard:
3.25/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
4.8/5
Both
Summary:
Another new toy to play with, this one looks like it has
some staying power at least in Standard where it the
competition is less. Zoroark and Zoroark
BREAK can deliver a real pounding as well as a
replacement for Keldeo-EX and its Rush-In
Ability.
This
was my second place pick, though mostly for what it
might accomplish in Standard. We’ll see if this is
rookie has staying power.
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