aroramage |
Who would've thought we'd get 2
BREAK Evolutions on this list? Let alone one at #2? When
BREAK Evolutions first came out, they had a lot of
problems. They were an extra Stage above, they took up
deck space, and as a result if they were even remotely
playable, they were an investment in and of themselves.
If you were playing a BREAK Evolution, chances are it
took up most of your deck space.
With Trevenant BREAK, he had the benefit of having a
playable Stage 1 with an amazing Ability. But with
Greninja BREAK? Working at effectively Stage 3? How
could he even begin to compete?
Even past me didn't think the chances of Greninja BREAK
were that great - "Cause let's face it, when was the
last time you saw a BREAK Evolution deck in a
competitive environment?" Well Greninja BREAK was the
one that broke the mold, and looking at most of the
decks focused on him, it's not hard to see why.
Let's start with the line-up -
Froakie is a must simply because of evolutions, but
Frogadier is also frequently run - at 4 copies no less!
Why? Well Frogadier (BKP) has the attack Water
Duplicates, which doesn't do anything...except throws
more Frogadier in the deck to the Bench. This thins out
the deck and quickly sets you up for more Greninja
opportunities - which in turn, means more Greninja
BREAK. The Greninja of choice is currently Greninja
(BKP), who utilizes Shadow Stitching and Moonlight Slash
to deal significant damage while working well with
Greninja BREAK's Giant Water Shuriken!
Because of the deck's intense focus
on getting Greninja BREAK out, there's not a whole lot
of room to pull out with another Pokemon. Enter in
Talonflame (STS), whose Ability Gale Wings allowed it to
be played on Turn 1 and whose Aero Blitz could deal
damage and get out the pieces needed to play Greninja
BREAK as quickly as possible. This led to decks like
those run by Bert Wolters and Cody Walinski, both who
made the Top 8 in the Masters Division at Worlds, the
latter of whom even came in 2nd place!
Add in additional Water support
like Dive Ball and Rough Seas - alongside Bursting
Balloon which kept attackers at bay and punished them
severely if they didn't - and fill up the rest with
staples and Water Energy, and you might as well call
this "Greninja BREAK Turbo!" Bert even threw in a Wally
in his build to accelerate the Evolution process as
early as Turn 1, as well as Delinquent to turn things in
his favor, while Cody opted to go with an extra Super
Rod for the recovery on Energy and Pokemon Ranger to
deal with any ill effects from certain Pokemon.
The deck has seen a lot of success
as a result of these modifications, and while it's a
little hard to say whether or not Greninja BREAK himself
is responsible for them, there's no doubt that the deck
has seen a lot of success. In much the same manner as M
Audino-EX from before, Greninja BREAK shows that if you
can build a deck around his strengths, he can easily
Giant Water Shuriken your opponents into the dust,
paving your way to victory.
...alllllmost.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (once again, I
underestimated Greninja BREAK's talents the first time
around)
Expanded: 4/5 (but seeing a few
decks surge in popularity and seeing the overall success
of the deck, I can say he's probably one of the stronger
BREAK Evolutions around)
Limited: 4/5 (and that's pretty
good to boost my opinion of him in any case)
Arora Notealus: If I were ever a
competitive player, I'd say this is the deck I'd play
this format. It's a lot of fun to play, works really
well, and it features one of my most recent favorites in
the Pokemon world! Can't go wrong with that~
Next Time: And the crowning
champion of 2016 is...
|
Otaku |
Our second place
pick for the top 10 cards of 2016 goes to Greninja
BREAK (XY: BREAKpoint 41/122). For
simplicity, we aren’t officially including Greninja
(XY: BREAKpoint 40/122) and Frogadier (XY:
BREAKpoint 39/122), but they very much contributed
to Greninja BREAK having such a large impact this
year.
Greninja BREAK
(XY: BREAKpoint 41/122) is a Water Type, which
mattered more than I realized at first. It wasn’t
because anti-Water effects haven’t proven that good, nor
was it because Water Resistance is only found on some
BW-era Grass Types; those are appreciated, but not a big
deal. Exploiting the Water Weakness found on some
Fighting Types and nearly all Fire Types matters, but
what I think has proven crucial to Greninja BREAK
is Water Type support. Unlike in Water Toolbox
a.k.a. Blue Box decks, it isn’t about what other Water
Type Pokémon complement Greninja BREAK… in fact
what I believe is the preferred approach to the deck
runs just the Greninja BREAK line plus
Talonflame (XY: Steam Siege 96/114).
Same for effects that reward [W] Energy usage; it is
just those found on the Greninja BREAK Evolution
line. What makes being a Water Type significant to
Greninja BREAK is that as the BREAK Evolution of
a Stage 2 Pokémon, essentially a Stage 3 Pokémon that
requires a significant amount of time and cards to set
up. So even though Dive Ball, Rough Seas,
and Splash Energy have proven worthwhile
elsewhere (well, not so sure about Splash Energy),
it is here where they proved vital.
Greninja BREAK
has 170 HP, making it as big as many Basic Pokémon-EX
and as such just as capable of surviving an attack, if
not a little more so as the there is one anti-BREAK
Evolution effect that makes them easier to KO, while
there are many more anti-Basic Pokémon and
anti-Pokémon-EX effects of that nature. Greninja
BREAK copies the Weakness, Resistance, and Retreat
Cost from the Greninja from which it BREAK
Evolves, as well as any Ability or attacks present on
that card. The only other thing Greninja BREAK
itself brings to the table is its “Giant Water Shuriken”
Ability; while Greninja BREAK is Active you may
discard a Water Energy from your hand to place six
damage counters on the opposing Pokémon of your choice.
That’s some serious Ability based sniping, even before
we consider what the various options for Greninja
could contribute. As this is a year end re-review
I won’t be listing all possible options, just focusing
on what was used. Froakie (XY: BREAKpoint
38/122; XY: Black Star Promos XY138) isn’t
brilliant, but at least it has 60 HP and an attack that
can try to Paralyze to stall for time. Frogadier
(XY: BREAKpoint 39/122) is essential to the deck
because of its “Water Duplicates” attack; you end up
sacrificing one Frogadier (and turn’s attack) to
get up to three more in play. Not only that, but
instead of having to Evolve they are put directly from
deck to your Bench. There are decks which are
quicker and/or more reliable, but not when it comes to
swarming a pseudo-Stage 3.
There are two
Greninja proven to be worthwhile for this deck, with
a third that came out more recently and which might be
worth consideration. As Greninja BREAK will
gain any Abilities, attacks, and bottom stats present,
I’ll look at these with my usual level of detail. Greninja
(XY 41/146) is a 130 HP Stage 2 Water Type with
Grass Weakness, no Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of
[C]. It brings the Ability “Water Shuriken” and
the attack “Mist Slash”. Water Shuriken allows you
to select an opponent’s Pokémon and place three damage
counters on it for the cost of discarding a [W] Energy
card from hand; unlike Giant Water Shuriken on
Greninja BREAK the original doesn’t care about being
Active and so can also work from the Bench. Mist
Slash requires [W] and does 50 damage which isn’t
affected by Weakness, Resistance, or any effects on your
opponent’s Active Pokémon. Greninja (XY:
BREAKpoint 40/122) is also a Stage 2 Water Type
Pokémon with 130 HP, Grass Weakness, and no Resistance,
but it has a free Retreat Cost with two attacks.
The card’s two attacks are “Shadow Stitching” for [C]
and “Moonlight Slash” for [W]. The former does
only 40 damage but also shuts down Abilities during your
opponent’s next turn, while the latter does 60 damage
with the option of bouncing an attached [W] Energy from
itself so that the attack does an additional 20 damage.
XY 41/146 and XY: BREAKpoint 40/122 have
been proven partners for Greninja BREAK, with
XY: BREAKpoint 40/122 proving more important.
While another way of spreading damage counters is
appreciated, that free Retreat Cost makes it easier to
pull off multiple Giant Water Shuriken in a turn, while
Shadow Stitching denies much needed Abilities or
Moonlight Slash delivers the hardest hit a Greninja
can for a single Energy.
Greninja
(XY: Black Star Promos XY162) has the same stats
as XY 41/146, but two attacks like XY:
BREAKpoint 40/122. The first is why I am
bothering to mention this card: “Aqua Shower” costs [W]
and hits all the opponent’s Pokémon for 20 damage.
For [WC] it can use “Dual Cut” to flip two coins, good
for 60 damage a piece. Supplementing the sniping
of Giant Water Shuriken with spread could prove useful,
especially as the former is an Ability while the later
is an attack and I don’t think anything protects against
both at the same time, using the exact same effect.
Dual Cut is probably unimportant though if you’re
desperate it does have the highest potential damage of
attacks found in Greninja; while one of the four
possible outcomes from two coin flips will be zero
damage, and two will be 60, the final one of four is 120
damage. Again let me stress that this one is
unproven; XY: BREAKpoint 40/122 is the go-to
option for Greninja BREAK decks and should be two
to four of your Greninja cards. Some builds
use a XY 41/146 or two because it brings a great
Ability and good attack to the table, but it is not an
option for Standard Format play anymore. I doubt
XY: Black Star Promos XY162 is worth it at all
for Expanded, but perhaps a copy makes sense in Standard
play. Surprisingly, even though we’ve reviewed
multiple Greninja cards, of what we have
discussed today only Greninja (XY 41/146)
and Greninja BREAK have received prior reviews,
here
and
here
(respectively). Go ahead and get a laugh over how
I underestimated Greninja BREAK.
It didn’t occur
immediately but Greninja BREAK would eventually
become one of the top decks in the twilight of the
2015-2016 Standard Format, with the second and eighth
place finishers for the Masters Division of the 2016
World Championships running the deck (specifically the
version that uses Talonflame). Rotation
hurt it, but not enough to kill the deck. In both
Expanded and Standard play if still can and has managed
to top cut. This is one of the many anti-Night
March decks that is good in its own right (after all, no
Night March in the current Standard Format). For
Limited play, while it is likely a pain to pull the full
line Greninja BREAK should be a beast once it
hits the field, aided by the fact the entire line is (at
least relatively) good.
Ratings
Standard:
3.5/5
Expanded:
3.6/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Greninja BREAK decks are one of those times I am
so happy to have been wrong. It doesn’t score as
high as one might expect because as a BREAK Evolution,
it relies heavily on the Pokémon from which it
will BREAK Evolve, and in this particular
instance on most of the entire Evolution line.
Several very good cards come together to form a great
deck. Plus it was better prior to rotation,
when it had better answers to certain counters and Night
March to provide juicy targets.
Greninja BREAK
took second place with 24 voting points and showed up on
all three of we reviewers’ individual lists, taking
third place on mine. It lost out to tomorrow’s
number one pick by five voting points.
|
