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Before we review our final card for the week, we’ve got
two things to address. One is that I still don’t
have information for the second week of the Autumn
Regional Championships; the usual places I go for such
data hasn’t had it, nor have I found a good alternative.
The other thing is that all of
pojo.com is getting a break next week, so no new
Pokémon CotDs next during that time though maybe you’ll
catch me on the message boards (in general; I got
nothing planned).
So we close with Vaporeon (XY: Ancient Origins
22/98) and it is *gasp* another Water-Type. Since
I have no new data, nothing has changed; the Water-Type
seems good but not “great”. If that sounds odd
since Water-Types are involved in (if not the focus of)
multiple top decks right now, I’m talking about what
benefits a Pokémon gains from being that Type; if
a Type grants the best benefits but nothing in that Type
does enough with them to succeed, it can still be the
best Type. In this case, Water hits for Weakness
again nearly all Fire-Types and a chunk of
Fighting-Types, runs into Resistance against most BW-era
Grass-Types (but no Water Resistance in the XY-era
releases), technically could run into a few “meh”
anti-Water-Type cards (that mostly see play in Theme
Decks) and has some great Type support but gets shown up
by others like the Fighting-Type that offers
counterparts to everything Water has and then some.
Again, “good” just not “great”.
Vaporeon
is a Stage 1 which means two cards to get and a turn
wait for it to hit the field versus the dominant Basics
which are one card and one turn, barring specific forms
of Evolution acceleration (one quite relevant and
mentioned later). It also is one of the many
cards that Evolve from Eevee, which you’ll see me
referring to as “Eeveelutions”; it isn’t an
official game term so don’t waste time looking for it on
the cards. 90 HP makes Vaporeon a legal Level
Ball target, but means that apart from a substandard
set-up or attack being used for its effect. This
also means the Grass Weakness only matters when one of
those “exceptions” apply, like Virizion-EX using
“Emerald Slash”. No Resistance is typical so
moving on we see a Retreat Cost of [CC] which is also
pretty typical; low enough you can afford it but high
enough you’d prefer to not to pay it if you can avoid
it.
Vaporeon
has no Ancient Trait but it does have one Ability (Aqua
Effect) and one attack (Hydro Splash). The former
causes all your Stage 1 Pokémon in play to count as
Water-Types in addition to whatever Types they normally
are while the latter requires [WCC] to hit for 70
damage. The Ability allows any Stage 1 to tap
Water-Type support and exploit Water-Type Weakness,
which is (again) good but not great while the attack is
adequate due to the Energy cost; even in an off-Type
deck a few basic Water Energy or special Energy
cards like Rainbow Energy can cover the [W], with
the rest handled by any Energy acceleration in the deck
(Double Colorless Energy working in many decks).
So the entire package seems like a nifty trick for some
decks. What about the rest of the Eeveelution
family?
Normally I’d give into my more obsessive compulsions and
run through all currently legal versions of
Eevee and its Evolutions, but this time I’m just
going to focus on the best options to consider for these
roles. Eevee (XY: Furious Fists 80/111)
is a great pick if you’re running some basic Water
Energy and/or have at least one Eeveelution
that matches a Type of Basic Energy in your deck: its
“Energy Evolution” Ability triggers anytime you attach a
Basic Energy card to Eevee from your hand and
allows you to both search your deck for and then
immediately Evolve into an Eeveelution.
Even if you won’t often be manually attach a Basic
Energy to Eevee, it is a useful bluff and
fallback option, plus when it probable you skip the turn
wait for Stage 1 Pokémon without having to include any
additional cards. Still in some decks this will be
so rare (or impossible because you’re not running any
applicable Basic Energy cards) and that is when Eevee
(BW: Plasma Freeze 90/116) is your next best bet,
at least in Expanded. Its first attack (Signs of
Evolution) requires [C] lets you search your deck for
and add three Eeveelutions hand. While you
really want to avoid having to attack with an Evolving
Basic in most circumstances, when an Eevee is
stuck up front it is a good option to have.
As for the Eeveelutions themselves, the primary
relevant ones are Flareon (BW: Plasma Freeze
12/116), Flareon (XY: Ancient Origins
13/98), Jolteon (XY: Ancient Origins
26/98) and Leafeon (BW: Plasma Freeze
11/116). The two Plasma versions are strong,
established attackers; being able to shift them to part
Water-Type simply means more favorable match-ups,
assuming you can do so without hurting the deck’s
reliability too much. Jolteon and the “plain”
Flareon might see play with Vaporeon because
the three together can help a Stage 1 attacker hit up to
three more kinds of Weakness. You usually won’t
have a reason to use them all at once, so if a deck
doesn’t call for running them heavily, you might run as
few as one Eevee (though I prefer a minimum of
two because of Prizes) and one of each of the XY:
Ancient Origins Eeveelutions (I again favor a
minimum of two for any that are particularly useful).
The Abilities don’t affect Stage 1 Pokémon in the deck
or discard pile so the best Water-Type specific support
(Archie’s Ace in the Hole and Dive Ball)
won’t be particularly useful; Vaporeon is about
hitting a few more cards for Weakness (and maybe tapping
an opponent’s copy of Rough Seas) in Standard and
Expanded. I haven’t seen a lot of Fire in the
recent Top 8s we do have for Autumn Regional
Championships except for Flareon [Plasma]; not
much point in most attacks shooting for double damage
against something they can already OHKO. so that limits
the appeal of this Eeveelution over the others. Flareon
(XY: Ancient Origins 13/98) may have some utility
because while the Fire-Type doesn’t show up that much it
actually has some really good support that may be worth
tapping, while exploiting Lightning Weakness is pretty
big right now and so Jolteon (XY: Ancient
Origins 26/98) also has more appeal. In
Limited play, Vaporeon is a great pull for both
the attack and (if you have another Stage 1 worth
attacking with) the Ability. The mostly Colorless
Energy cost should allow it to work with just about
anything else that you pull, though obviously if you get
a Pokémon-EX worth using in a +39 deck, go with that
instead.
Ratings
Standard:
2.9/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
4.75/5
Summary:
An obvious piece of the new Eeveelution combo
from XY: Ancient Origins but while it might have
the best attack of the three, they seem to mostly be
about their similar Abilities, in which case changing a
Stage 1 to the Water-Type is currently the least useful.
That might change with the next set and if you’re
looking for the next broken combo, digging through old
and new cards that can only be used together because
you’re changing something’s Type seems like a probable
route.
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