aroramage |
You know, I'm kinda surprised I
didn't look more at Max Elixir. Really, it's not that
surprising that it's high up on the list, and heck maybe
it could've taken the #2 spot if I remembered it was a
thing.
Truth be told, Max Elixir is the
greatest non-specific Energy accelerator in the game
today. It searches out the top 6 cards of your deck and
brings out a basic Energy from your deck straight to a
Benched Pokemon, no questions asked. It's an Item card,
and while that does make it susceptible to various
Pokemon Abilities, it also means it's not restricted to
being used once per turn. And since it's not trying for
any specific Energy, you can run it in any build.
The problem that comes with Max
Elixir that I find is whether or not it's worth the deck
space. Even though it searches a decent amount of cards,
there is a chance it will fail, and that's not a great
thing to have. Most decks would prefer to either draw
into their Energy or put it into the discard pile to
accelerate out of there later. There's also a few decks
that focus more on Special Energy rather than basic, and
it can be damaging to find a Special Energy in those six
cards and be forced to shuffle it back into the deck.
If it's worth it, you should
probably run it. If it's not, don't worry about it.
It'll be here.
IT'LL ALWAYS BE HERE.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (great Energy
acceleration for any deck lacking it)
Expanded: 4/5 (and very useful
overall!)
Limited: 5/5 (definitely a must-run
for slower decks)
Arora Notealus: It's interesting
that they took the Item that gives you back your PP for
your moves in the game and made it a chancy Energy
accelerator. Then again, if it just whisked out an
Energy straight to a Pokemon, everyone would play it at
max copies and it'd be the best card ever printed. But
such is how it is.
Next Time: You'd be surprised, we
managed to BREAK a new one!
|
Otaku |
Note:
Yes my reviews for
Monday
and
Tuesday
went up very late. They should be up now, or
shortly after you read this.
Max Elixir
(XY: BREAKpoint 102/122)is our third place
finisher. This is an Item that looks at the top
six cards of your deck; if you find any basic Energy
there you may select one and attach it to one of your
Benched, Basic Pokémon. If you have no such
targets to receive the Energy, you cannot use
Max Elixir. Even with the targeting
restrictions and the need to promote a Pokémon prepped
by Max Elixir, this card has proven amazing and
has been a huge factor in multiple decks this format.
From now on, attacks that cost [XX], where “[X]” is a
non [C] Energy requirement, are still easily accessible
in the right deck, and in some even attacks that cost up
to three Energy. If you read our
original review
for this card, you know I blew it. It managed to
make our top 10 for XY: BREAKpoint as the number
seven pick, but it was a few places shy of making my
personal top 10 list for the set. That is because
I was so fixated on running decks with special Energy
that I lowballed how many decks could make room for
sufficient basic Energy to make Max Elixir worth
the space. I was very wrong.
This card doesn’t
belong in every deck, but several decks have made it
work, even while running fewer basic Energy cards than I
expected. This card isn’t a must run for Standard
or Expanded play, but it is definitely one of those
cards you eliminate from your deck, as opposed to
looking for reasons to include it. Now quite often
you will have a reason; while more decks than I expected
have made it work, we are still talking a good deal of
space for both the Item itself and the basic Energy
cards. It becomes especially vicious in the decks
that operate with attackers like Darkrai-EX (XY:
BREAKpoint 74/122, 118/122) or Xerneas BREAK.
I think it might be a bit more potent in Standard play,
but only because there are less Item lock tactics,
alternate Energy acceleration methods, and competition
for general deck space. It is still a great card
for Expanded play, and a must run if you pull it at a
Limited Format event. At least so long as your
deck will have a Bench.
Ratings
Standard:
4.5/5
Expanded:
4/5
Limited:
5/5
Summary:
Yes I am scoring this card almost the same as I scored
Garbodor (XY: BREAKpoint 57/122). It
is a bit harder to count how many top decks are making
use of Max Elixir; unless you have a full deck
list it isn’t likely you’ll see Max Elixir listed
in the deck name or quick description. The speed
boost provided by Max Elixir, even if it isn’t
always reliable, somehow made our fast paced game even
faster, and it might owe its influence to said
Garbodor. Afterall if Abilities were safer to
rely upon then that would include several that
accelerate Energy.
Max Elixir
took in 17 voting points, only one ahead of fourth place
Garbodor and seven below tomorrow’s second place
finisher. Just over half (nine points) came from
me because I had Max Elixir as my second place
pick. Third place still seems like a good fit.
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