aroramage |
Trevenant BREAK itself is...okay.
He has decent HP and a decent attack in Silent Fear,
which does 30 damage every turn to all of your
opponent's Pokemon, and since it's just placing them
down, it's usually not affected by anything that they've
got. But on his own, he's not doing that much.
What really makes Trevenant BREAK -
or really any BREAK Evolution for that matter - is what
Trevenants he can BREAK Evolve from. The biggest
Trevenant to use was Trevenant (XY), which could lock
down an opponent from using Items during their turn. It
made combating Trevenant BREAK very difficult, seeing as
he could shut down Items rather effectively.
Post-rotation, the Trevenant from BREAKpoint became the
default Standard, which could still cause trouble with
Worry Seed upping the Retreat Cost and Energy Press
providing a powerful smackdown on Pokemon with lots of
Energy as an alternative to Silent Fear.
Trevenant BREAK has seen a lot of
play to be sure, but he might not see as much in the
growing days to come. For the time being, there's not a
crazy Trevenant in sight, but if one does pop up, we may
see a resurgence before the eventual rotation that takes
him out. That oughta at least be a while though.
Rating
Standard: 3.5/5 (on his own, he's
alright)
Expanded: 3.5/5 (but with the right
Treve, he's gonna get...heavy)
Limited: 3.5/5
(OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)
Arora Notealus: OHHHHHHHHHHH-kay
then that happened. Needless to say, Trevenant BREAK has
had presence, and it's possible that he and other BREAK
Evolutions will have presence, but what I wanna know is
what's the real plan going forward? Sure, okay, maybe GX
will replace EX, but what's gonna happen to BREAK Evos?
Just another gimmick? I'M ONTO YOUR SHENANIGANS, POKEMON
COMPANY!!
Next Time: I'm arrested for
challenging authority, and somebody wins Worlds! WHAT A
TWIST~
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Otaku |
Yesterday’s
eighth place finisher was a card that probably should have made our Top 10 for its
expansion (and also my review for it should be up by the
time you’re reading this). Today’s seventh place
subject - Trevenant BREAK (XY: BREAKpoint
66/122) is in a similar boat, though I’m a little less
pained that its initial review
here
was not a part of a Top 10 list. Of course
I’ll explain why through this review.
Trevenant BREAK
is most obviously a BREAK Evolution, in this case of the
Stage 1 Trevenant. This means it operates
as a “worse” version of a Stage 2; same amount of cards
and time to hit the field, but no access to Stage 2
specific support, only generic Evolution support as the
only thing specific to BREAK Evolutions is a single
counter (Starmie BREAK) that hasn’t proven itself
yet. There are some advantages to being a BREAK
Evolution, but it is all relative and based on them
being an add-on to their prior Stage. BREAK
Evolutions retain access to all attacks and Abilities
from their prior Stage, as well as using its Weakness,
Resistance, and Retreat Cost as its own. I don’t
recall if any BREAK Evolution could Evolve from
something with an Ancient Trait, but that’s, the rare
shifting of Type, and specific name based effects are
all a Pokémon can “lose” from BREAK Evolving, which is
usually a significant strength as they become less
pseudo-Stage 2 and more pseudo-Pokémon-specific Tool, if
you’ll pardon my pained explanation. Trevenant BREAK
is a Psychic Type, and as we know from how it has been
used it definitely cashes in on such a thing as
Dimension Valley, Mystery Energy, and in
some builds even Wobbuffet (XY: Phantom Forces
36/119; Generations RC11/RC32).
Weakness/Resistance
isn’t directly an issue, though does matter when you use
an attack from the underlying Trevenant; Psychic
Weakness is found on many Fighting and Psychic Types,
while Resistance is found on nearly all Darkness and
Metal Types. While the Resistance is more common,
the combination of -20 being balanced while x2 damage is
not (in the favor of the attacker) and the
specifics of the metagame have kept this a relatively
neutral aspect of the Type. Members of the Psychic
Type cardpool that aren’t restricted to working in
Psychic Type decks, but which do still work a bit better
on Type, also have proven to be a small bonus for
Trevenant BREAK and some of the decks built around
it. Its 160 HP is tied with the maximum found
printed on actual Stage 2 Pokémon, and only 10 to 20 shy
of typical Basic Pokémon-EX attackers; this gives it a
good chance of surviving an attack while active.
With a lot of help, it might even survive two or three.
Weakness, Resistance, and Retreat Cost all are supplied
by Trevenant… but all currently legal versions
share the same bottom stats so until a future release
changes things, you’re looking at Darkness Weakness,
Fighting Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of [CCC] which
are very dangerous, occasionally handy, and something
you’ll have to burn a few deck slots to manage,
respectively. Trevenant BREAK has a single
attack, “Silent Fear” for [PC], which yields a three
damage counter spread that hits all of your opponent’s
Pokémon. More or less adequate for the investment,
but Dimension Valley makes it a good (but not
great) deal.
All of this matters
(for better or worse) to the success Trevenant BREAK
has experienced, but now we’ll get to the heart
of the matter as we look at the rest of its
Evolutionary line. I will not be doing my
usual thing where I cover every single other version of
these lower Stages that is available; as this is a year
end review I’ll only cover what has proven worthwhile
and important. That still begins with the Basic
Stage as Phantump (XY: BREAKpoint 64/122)
matters. While still a small, easy to OHKO Psychic
Type Basic Pokémon with Darkness Weakness, Fighting
Resistance, Retreat Cost [CC], and just a single attack,
that attack is “Ascension”. For [C] you may search
your deck for a card that Evolves from Phantump
and then Evolves into it directly from your deck.
This not only gets around typical Evolution lock
tactics, but it means you can speed into a Trevenant
Turn 2 (that is, the first turn of the player going
second). Why would that matter? Trevenant
(XY 55/146) is why. Reviewed
here
as the third best card of the original XY
expansion, and then again
here
as sixth most important card lost to Standard play via
set rotation this year, it is a 110 HP Stage 1 Psychic
Type with Darkness Weakness, Fighting Resistance, and
Retreat Cost [CCC]. It also provides the attack
“Tree Slam” and the Ability “Forest’s Curse”. Tree
Slam is decent, doing 60 for [PCC] plus 20 to up to two
opposing Benched Pokémon, but Forest’s Curse provides
one-sided Item lock while this Pokémon is Active.
Trevenant BREAK
and the preceding Phantump are from the same
expansion; their release meant preexisting Trevenant
decks not only could rush out Trevenant (XY
55/146) on T2 without having to use Wally
(though it was still included in those decks for T1
usage) but also meant next turn you could add 50 HP and
a two Energy attack (that became one with Dimension
Valley). I don’t know if I can explain how
important Item cards are to a newbie that just decided
to read this article on a whim, but for everyone else,
you don’t need an explanation for why one-sided Item
lock via Ability is worthwhile, even when it requires
running a Stage 1 (and its BREAK Evolution) and keeping
that Pokémon Active. The specifics of the metagame
further rewarded Trevenant BREAK decks; they went
the full on “control” route, so that not only did you
lose access to Items, but you could expect things like
Crushing Hammer, Enhanced Hammer, and/or
Team Flare Grunt to strip away Energy after a
turn, while Head Ringer would ensure all
Pokémon-EX needed two turns to power up, and Mega
Evolutions couldn’t use Spirit Link cards to
avoid giving up a turn. Well, barring certain
countermeasures of course. Any and every deck had
to adjust to losing access to Items, with some doing a
better job than others. Night March, Vespiquen
(XY: Ancient Origins 10/98), and their variants
also tend to be quite vulnerable if they cannot
get a good start prior to Items being locked down.
Their lower HP scores also left them vulnerable.
So… how are
Trevenant BREAK decks doing now? They are dead
in Standard play, as they lost Trevenant (XY
55/146). They also lost several other important
cards (like Dimension Valley), but the remaining
legal Trevenant (XY: Black Star Promos
XY94; XY: BREAKpoint 65/122) is nowhere near as
powerful as its predecessor. It has the same game
relevant stats, but its Ability “Nervous Seed” just adds
[C] to the attack cost of Basic Pokémon, at a time when
we actually have decent blend of Basic and Evolution
attackers. Its attack “Energy Press” costs [PCC]
and does 70 damage plus 10 for each Energy attached to
the opponent’s Active, which compliments its Ability and
is better than Tree Slam but not enough to
overcome losing Forest’s Curse, Dimension Valley,
etc. Another big blow is Garbodor (XY:
BREAKpoint 57/122) and Greninja (XY:
BREAKpoint 40/122). The latter was a rival for
Trevenant BREAK pre-rotation and still is a
strong choice for Standard afterwards, while the latter
stepped up now that Standard play has no easy way to
remove Pokémon Tools. Both shut down Abilities,
and without the Item lock, Trevenant BREAK decks
just become damage spread decks with a bit of disruption
added in; not totally disarmed but probably an easy
enough win. Klefki (XY: Steam Siege
80/114) even provides a way for Garbodor to be
triggered while under Item lock, though it is a short
term solution. Did I mention Hex Maniac
yet? That or a lucky Lysandre can also
restore Items to most decks for a turn; they would be
bigger issues except most decks don’t run more than 2-3
combined and are relying on VS Seeker (plus
Battle Compressor in Expanded) to really make use of
them.
In Expanded play,
they remain a strong deck because one-sided Item lock,
good damage counter based spread (which is harder to
block), focusing on a non-Pokémon-EX, and
disruption/control elements are a potent combination.
You can see why Trevenant BREAK was a winning
deck towards the end of the previous Standard Format
even though it didn’t win any age bracket at the 2016
World Championships (though it did take second in the
Junior Division and third in the Senior). For
Limited play, not that you’ll likely get an opportunity
to use it there, Trevenant BREAK is quite strong.
The Phantump from this set being the one with
Ascension helps greatly, though that only gets you to
this sets Trevenant (you’ll still have to draw or
have a lucky search card to reach Trevenant BREAK).
If you do, though, its damage spread and HP can be quite
overwhelming, and unlike in Standard and Expanded play
Trevenant (XY: Black Star Promos XY94;
XY: BREAKpoint 65/122) has a good chance of proving
worthwhile.
Ratings
Standard:
3/5
Expanded:
3.5/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
Trevenant BREAK is a good example of the whole
being greater than the sum of its parts. In
Expanded play it still has access to those parts and
thus its deck is still strong. For much of this
year it had that same access in Standard play and was
strong. Lose those bits and now in Standard it’s a
dead deck even though Trevenant BREAK remains
legal. If a new Trevenant were to release,
or the card pool/metagame shift enough to make the
current option worthwhile, Trevenant BREAK could
prove useful again, so I settled for giving it a fairly
average score in Standard play, and just a bit above
average in Expanded.
Trevenant BREAK
tied with yesterday’s Darkrai-EX (XY:
BREAKpoint 74/122, 118/122) at seven voting points.
I had Trevenant BREAK as my personal sixth place
finisher, so unlike yesterday it ranks this due to more
than my own efforts. Seventh place is at worst
just a touch high, but probably a pretty good place for
this card. While as much of a non-entity in
Standard play as something still legal can be, it spent
about a third to half the year as one of the top
Standard decks and again remains strong in
Expanded play. That isn’t the best a card has
managed for 2016, but it is definitely worthy of the Top
10. Tomorrow’s sixth place finisher only edged out
both Darkrai-EX and Trevenant BREAK by a
single voting point.
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