aroramage |
And lastly, we come to Espeon-EX,
who I'm gonna just call EXpeon from now on XP
EXpeon has only 2 attacks to go
with her 170 HP and slightly lower costed Retreat Cost
of 1 - at least compared to the other Eeveelution-EXs.
Miraculous Shine is an interesting start, being a 1-cost
Energy that moves the highest Evolution card off of your
opponent's Pokemon and puts it in their hand. That's
actually pretty good when you think about what we're
dealing with - never mind the Stage 1s and 2s, there's
also Mega Evolution Pokemon to consider, and having
their HP reduced from anywhere from 40-60 is a massive
improvement to getting them KO'd. Not to mention the few
BREAK Evos that do see play will also get sent back to
the hand, reducing the HP of those Pokemon by 40!
Course, on its own it doesn't mean
much. Spirit Links will circumvent the Mega rule, and if
you're not KO'ing anything, Miraculous
Shine...technically isn't doing anything either. If
anything, it's just mildly inconvenient for your
opponent to have their stuff shut off for a moment. Then
again, Psyshock is supposed to make up for that in some
way; although it is a miserable 3-for-70 hit, the good
news is that EXpeon will be able to hit anything with it
regardless of whatever effects they may have. No
Resistance Blizzard will stand up to that Psyshock,
which gives some Psychic decks a good tech in the
match-up against Water decks running Regice!
So while EXpeon herself isn't
terribly effective on her own, she can combine with
other Pokemon to become a decent supporter. Miraculous
Shine can certainly finish off the base forms of some
Pokemon if the opponent isn't careful, and Psyshock can
be used as a follow-up to inflict just the right amount
of damage - maybe even with a little damage boost - to
KO the opponent for good.
I mean, it's the thought that
counts, right?
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (okay attacks that
just need a boost to be a good boost)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (at the very least,
you shouldn't expect to be playing EXpeon as a main
attacker)
Limited: 3.5/5 (even in your
Eeveelution deck, which I'm sure you're building right
now)
Arora Notealus: It's interesting
that they took the idea of Eevee evolving in the day to
go with Espeon. I don't think there's too many details
about Espeon that relate to the sun that much, unlike
with Umbreon. The only thing I can think of off the top
of my head is the Morning Sun attack, which parallels
Moonlight, but that's really about it.
Weekend Thought: Eeveelutions sure
are cool, eh? Which of this week's Eeveelution-EX did
you admire the most? Which do you think can work out the
best? Or are you secretly waiting for Umbreon-EX to come
out in the next set? Any hype for the Fates Collide set?
I bet some of you are!
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Otaku |
We conclude this week of Pokémon-EX
Eeveelutions
with Espeon-EX (XY: BREAKpoint 52/122,
117/122). Starting with the most obvious aspect of
this Pokémon, it is a Psychic Type. Currently if a
Pokémon is Psychic Weak, it will be either a Fighting
Type or a fellow Psychic Type, but mostly the latter.
It isn’t the most abundant Weakness to exploit, but it’s
not rare either. Unfortunately, Psychic Resistance
is also not Rare, being found on nearly all Darkness
Types as well as Metal Types. The good news is
that Resistance is far less significant than Weakness,
so this still will likely work out in the favor of
Psychic Types (including Espeon-EX). In
terms of Type support, the Psychic Type enjoys
Dimension Valley to shave off [C] from attack Energy
requirements, but as of yet no Type specific Pokémon
Tool or Supporter. Mystery Energy can knock [CC]
off of Retreat Costs for Psychic Types, and the rest is
either inapplicable, weak, or obscure (sometimes all
three). At least for explicit support that names
the Type; definitely nice being the same Type as
Mewtwo-EX (BW: Next Destinies 54/99, 98/99;
BW: Black Star Promos BW45; BW: Legendary
Treasures 54/113), Mew-EX, and a few other
notable Psychic Types simply because they are already
strong and even if not normally run with Psychic Type
support, the synergy provides an added edge. There
aren’t any cards that specifically counter the Psychic
Type, though thanks to so many Psychic Types being
Psychic Weak, in Expanded at least the common approach
is to include your own Psychic Type, like the
aforementioned Mewtwo-EX.
As I’ve hammered on
the entire week, being a Pokémon-EX comes with three
drawbacks you can’t escape unless the designers
intentionally include a work around in the card itself;
giving up an extra Prize when KOed, being targeted by
anti-Pokémon-EX effects, and being excluded from a few
beneficial effects. Not everyone reads ever CotD I
write (shocking, I know) so there it is again, as well
as the one intrinsic bonus granted by being a
Pokémon-EX. Not improved attributes; even the
universal HP bump can be worth as little as +20, whether
on the smallest Pokémon-EX (Jirachi-EX) or
something in the more typical 180 HP range (Dragonite-EX).
Not improved effects; some Pokémon-EX have horribly
overpriced attacks, without a redeeming Ability or
Ancient Trait. What Espeon-EX gets to enjoy
is being a Basic Pokémon instead of a Stage 1, as nearly
all other Espeon cards are. Being a Basic
is the best; while being a Stage 1 won’t keep a good
card from being played, it can be the difference with
more borderline examples because they end up not being
worth the time and resources. Being a Basic is
simply the best right now, even though there are some
anti-Basic Pokémon card effects out there.
Espeon-EX
has 170 HP, which is significantly higher than we see on
Espeon cards and which will often allow Espeon-EX
to survive a hit. “Often” is a bit ambiguous but
unfortunately it varies so much by match-up that I can’t
give you even a good estimate; most decks are pushing
for 2HKOs at minimum and OHKOs are almost always a risk,
even before Weakness. Rapidly, reliably, and
repeatedly hitting 170 is not easy, but pick any two of
those three descriptors and it’s typical of competitive
decks. Espeon-EX is Psychic Weak and while that
is to be expected (as the TCG swaps the video game
Psychic Resistance to each other for Weakness), it is
also dangerous. I already named the Mewtwo-EX
that once ruled competitive play, but Night March (with
or without Mew-EX) will basically have to fail
it’s setup to not reach OHKO levels of damage after a
single turn. As is often the case it isn’t all
bad; the examples I just gave were likely to reach OHKO
levels of damage output even without Weakness anyway
(they’ll just have an easier time of it) and the Psychic
Type often favors more technical attacks over brute
force, giving you some chance of escaping a OHKO against
such attackers, like Gengar-EX. The lack of
Resistance is typical, and unlike some of our earlier
reviews this week, Espeon-EX doesn’t do anything
that would make it more than a fringe benefit. The
Retreat Cost of [C] is good; most of the time you’ll be
able to afford both paying it and recovering from having
paid it.
So after all of
that, what does Espeon-EX do? It has no
Ability but does bring two attacks: “Miraculous Shine”
and “Psyshock”. The former requires [C] and
bounces the higher Stage of Evolution from each of your
opponent’s Evolved Pokémon to his or her hand, while the
latter needs [PCC] to do 70 damage which ignores effects
on the opponent’s Active. These are familiar
effects, and past cards that have used them (often by a
different name); sometimes they’ve been huge, other
times they’ve been inconsequential. Here I believe
they will prove useful but not game breaking. I’m
going to cover Psyshock first because it just requires
less explaining. Its wording means game mechanics
like Weakness and Resistance still apply; overall that
is a good thing because exploiting Weakness is much more
beneficial than ignoring Resistance. It also won’t
help in unusual situation where an effect that lowers
damage is placed on Espeon-EX (or something
copying Psyshock). Where it will help is punching
through protection from Abilities or effects of attacks.
This reduces one of the few drawbacks of being a Basic
Pokémon-EX; quite a few effects offer protection from
attack damage because of one or the other aspect.
The damage could be a bit higher, but at least you’ll
manage to 2HKO just about everything relying on such
protection so long as you remember a Fighting Fury
Belt or Muscle Band.
So what about
Miraculous Shine? You’ll notice how it talks both
about being “evolved Pokémon” as well as “Stage of
Evolution”. As far as the game is concerned,
regardless of what Stage a card is labeled as, if it
wasn’t put into play by Evolving from something else, it
isn’t considered an Evolved Pokémon. Did you
Evolve Greninja (XY: BREAKpoint 40/122)
from either a Frogadier or (via Rare Candy)
from a Froakie? Then it is getting bounced.
Did you put it into play directly through Archie’s
Ace in the Hole? Then it stays put. If
a Basic Pokémon could be put into play by Evolving from
something else, then it would get bounced; that may
sound odd but if you are using some older cards in
Unlimited play, it actually is possible! For
Standard and Expanded play, however, it isn’t so if it
seems to confusing, don’t worry about it; there Basic
Pokémon and other Stages put directly into play are
completely unaffected by Miraculous Shine. So what
does bouncing those Evolutions do for you? This is
where things get a bit complicated. I’ll start
with an unfortunate drawback of the timing; when you use
Devolution Spray to devolve your own Pokémon, you
aren’t allowed to immediately Evolve that Pokémon again.
You could take the Stage Devolution Spray
returned to hand and Evolve a different (but compatible)
Pokémon into it, but whatever remained in play is
treated as if it had Evolved this turn. Miraculous
Shine is devolving stuff on your turn, so unless
other factors apply, your opponent can simply play
whatever you bounced to the field again.
That can make it
seem pointless to use Miraculous Shine at all, and in
some cases it will be worthless to use. The most
obvious example where it is not is when you are hitting
something that has damage counters on it, and while the
highest Stage on it had more HP than damage, the Stage
below it does not; this KO’s that Pokémon. While
not a major example, next is certain cards attached to
your opponent’s Pokémon; said cards may require they be
attached to Pokémon of a specific name, Stage, Type,
etc. Sometimes you will be fortunate and the the
previous Stage still in play won’t quality. More
likely is when your opponent used up a resource in
Evolving. If your opponent used Rare Candy
to jump from being a Basic to a Stage 2 and that Stage 2
is bounced, Rare Candy doesn’t come back from the
discard. Your opponent can use another Rare
Candy (or something to recycle the copy they used
before) if they have it, or manually Evolve into the
Stage 1 form if it is available, but they can’t just
play the Stage 2 down on the Basic form. Thanks to
BREAK Evolutions, another resource is simply time; let
us go back to the Greninja (XY: BREAKpoint
40/122) example. If your opponent is trying to get
Greninja BREAK into play, spamming Miraculous
Shine can leave them in a bind. If they haven’t
gotten Greninja BREAK to the field yet, they will
need Wally or a Greninja you put into play
directly (so it cannot be bounced) to get around
constantly having to re-Evolve. Unless of course
Greninja BREAK has already hit the field; BREAK
Evolutions are a Stage of Evolution in the TCG so
they are bounced, but the Stage below them remains and
so they can just BREAK Evolve again the next turn.
There are two more
cases where devolving can matter. One is timing;
this can be used to temporarily turn on or off certain
effects because something else is preventing them or
because said effect is on a prior Stage. I am not
thinking of a Stage 1 with such an Ability that you
would want to expose it to turn said Ability back
on, but I can come up with a relatively straightforward
example of turning off an Ability by devolving and
having it matter even if your opponent re-Evolves right
away. If your opponent has something like a single
Garbodor (XY: BREAKpoint 57/122) in play
with a Pokémon Tool attached. Your Espeon-EX
is currently Poisoned, but has a [G] Energy attached.
You also have Virizion-EX on your Bench; bouncing
Garbodor with Miraculous Shine will do away with
Garbotoxin so that Verdant Wind starts working again,
curing Espeon-EX of Poison. Not a huge
deal, but what if your opponent cannot Evolve
again the next turn? What if you have Archeops
(BW: Noble Victories 67/101; BW: Next
Destinies 110/108) on your Bench? Its “Ancient
Power” starts working again, so unless your opponent has
Wally handy and another Garbodor in deck,
the Garbodor in hand is stuck there. While
we are adding in more cards, let us also consider Mega
Evolutions; most are put into play via Spirit Link
cards, to avoid giving up a turn due to Mega Evolving.
Just flash the field with Startling Megaphone to
discard all of your opponent’s Pokémon Tools in play,
then do a mass bounce; just like with Rare Candy
your opponent has to supply another or pay the price.
In this case they still can Mega Evolve without needing
another card, but ending your turn right away hurts.
If your opponent is actually dependent upon the Mega
Evolved form to attack, you just created a lock (this is
not likely though).
So do we have two
specialized areas of use that together create a reason
for Espeon-EX to see play, or is this an example
of doing one or two things that nothing really needs, or
at least don’t need bad enough to justify the space? Espeon-EX
is useful, but not enough to work into most decks.
Miraculous Shine is something almost every deck could
afford, but which very few decks need. There are a
few deck that will want Espeon-EX primarily for
MIraculous Shine; Jolteon-EX/Archeops
decks spring to mind, though if you’re doing a lot of
spread, that mass devolution could rack up multiple KOs.
Psyshock actually should come in handy fairly often, in
that protective effects are out there. Here the
catch is that [PCC] isn’t easy for a lot of decks and
there is also competition from running a different
counter instead. Still if you already are running
a Psychic Type deck, Espeon-EX should be high on
your list of potential TecH. Why? Dimension
Valley. Miraculous Shine is a lot better when
it costs no Energy. Psyshock doesn’t gain as much
of an edge; after all [PCC] can use Double Colorless
Energy to still take just two turns to prep but [PC]
is going to require something more to avoid also
taking two turns to ready.
Still you will find
decks where Espeon-EX seems like the missing
piece, and many decks would be happy to include it
except there just isn’t enough room (admittedly a low
threshold to clear). In Limited, you’ll definitely
run this if you pull it but opportunities to do so are
low as the most common form of Limited Format play is
the Pre-Release and XY: BREAKpoint is long past
those. Though normally one is tempted to run a
card like this as your only Basic in Limited, ensuring
you open with it but also that you lose if Espeon-EX
gets KO’d. Espeon-EX doesn’t hit hard enough,
fast enough to pull off that trick, at least not well
enough for my tastes.
Ratings
Standard:
3/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
This review was a slog to get through; Espeon-EX
is not a bad card, but because of the misconceptions
I’ve run into with this card, caused in part by the
nuances in game mechanics exposed by the current card
pool. It won’t affect Evolutions put directly into
play as “unevolved” Pokémon and your opponent won’t have
to wait a turn to re-Evolve, or rather they do but since
you’re devolving on your turn, your opponent’s
turn is the next turn.
With all that out
of the way, we get a solid card; part of me wishes it
did what it did just a little more efficiently or with a
little more power behind it, but this is a
Card-of-the-Day and not a Create-A-Card session.
Once you understand how you ought to use it, you’ll find
where Espeon-EX is the best choice for getting
around problematic protective effects or where mass
devolution is going to make a real difference. The
net result is something that could function in most
decks but not particularly well except in select cases.
Now I really wish I had scheduled this for Thursday as
it is the second best card we’ve looked at this week.
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