aroramage |
I don't need to sugar coat it - if
you wanna play a Water deck, you WILL run Manaphy-EX.
That's not a question, that's a
statement. You probably remember a time when somebody
called Darkrai-EX ruled the format? Where every Dark
deck ran him alongside stuff like Hydreigon and Dark
Patch? Yeah, that sort of thing is back!...almost!
Manaphy-EX is basically a Water
reincarnation of Darkrai-EX!...only a bit weaker. Let's
start with the good stuff: Aqua Tube, the Dark Cloak of
the Water tribe! Now any Pokemon that has Water Energy
attached to it will have free Retreat - and we all know
how valuable something like that can be! It practically
spearheaded a whole archetype in the game for the
longest time, and now it's back to aid Water decks
looking for a means of circumventing the high retreat
costs of some of their notable powerhouses.
LIKE M GYARADOS-EX FROM YESTERDAY,
FOR INSTANCE
But that's about where Manaphy-EX
stops comparing herself to Darkrai-EX and decides to
chillax a bit. Her main attack, Mineral Pump, is a
2-for-60 strike that heals off 30 damage from any
Benched Pokemon. That wouldn't be too bad - I mean,
we've seen how Rough Seas helps the survivability of
Water Pokemon - except that Manaphy-EX doesn't do a
whole lot of damage, and she's only got...120 HP.
Why does that sound famili-OH RIGHT
EVERYTHING HITS 120
See, 120 is the new 90, and that's
mainly because the HP scores have gone up quite a bit in
the game - thank you Megas. In order to 2HKO most any
Mega, you need anywhere from 110-120 damage each turn,
depending on the Mega, with 120 being the better end of
the deal and thus the magic number you oughta be aiming
at each turn. Unfortunately, that means that Manaphy-EX
is risking getting one-shot by anyone looking for an
easy 2 Prizes, and that puts her in a really vulnerable
position, whereas Darkrai-EX reveled in being Active
with 180 HP and the powerful Night Spear attack.
So Manaphy-EX can't quite wholly
compare to Darkrai-EX, but that doesn't mean she's
useless - no, she's going to help out those Water decks
easily! But she will be a major vulnerability to anyone
running them, and she should be taken care of with great
care and sensitivity. Leave her open for a bit, and she
won't be around to power that Aqua Tube that's keeping
your guys from suffering Statuses or the threat of
getting 2HKO'd.
That, and your opponent will get 2
Prizes easy. And nobody wants that.
Rating
Standard: 3.5/5 (granting the power
of free Retreat is a major boon to any deck, so Water
decks will love this card)
Expanded: 3.5/5 (but that care must
be met with caution, as Lysandre and Pokemon Catcher are
abundant in many decks)
Limited: 4/5 (stay on your guard,
and Aqua Tube will give you an easy edge if the opponent
can't do anything to stop it!)
Arora Notealus: You know, I'm still
not sure what Manaphy is supposed to be. Like how every
Pokemon's got some cool origin, but Manaphy's like...a
sea fairy? Bulbapedia's got it down as sea angels, but
who really knows? Then again, what the heck's Darkrai
supposed to be, am I right?
Next Time: This item's not so
common in the games, but here it's a brand new
Item!...card. First time it's a card!
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Otaku |
Our
number eight finisher is Manaphy-EX (XY:
BREAKpoint 32/122, 116/122). Even before you
can read the text or make out the art, you can tell it
is a Water-Type (yay color-coding?). Nearly all
Fire-Types and a decent chunk of Fighting-Types are
Water Weak, while Water Resistance is limited to a chunk
(as opposed to all) BW-era Water-Types. There are
some explicitly anti-Water-Type cards but they are
unimpressive enough that I won’t get into details; it is
just bad luck to run into them during competitive play.
There are some cards that really benefit the Water-Type
exclusively, like Archie’s Ace in the Hole and
Dive Ball, some like Rough Seas that
specifically help Water-Types as well as
Lightning-Types, and those that aren’t restricted to
Water-Types but may have better synergy with them in a
Water focused deck, like Keldeo-EX. A good,
solid Type in the end. Being a Pokémon-EX is the
next most obvious thing about the card: they are worth
two Prizes when KOed, they prohibited from using certain
beneficial effects, and they are the target of certain
detrimental effects: if your opponent KOs one of your
Pokémon-EX with an attacker using Silver Bangle,
you have an example of all three at once. Because
Silver Bangle does +30 damage when the equipped
Pokémon attacks a Pokémon-EX, but also states it cannot
be used by a Pokémon-EX, and if the Pokémon-EX gets
KO’d… right, moving on.
As a
Basic Pokémon Manaphy-EX is easy to put into
play, relatively easy to fit into a deck (deck space is
at a premium all around) and enjoys not only some Stage
specific support, but a natural synergy with many card
effects. The drawback to being a Basic is that
some effects expressly apply to Basic Pokémon in a
negative fashion… and I’m unsure if any of those cards
are currently competitive. Basic Pokémon-EX
usually demonstrate their “EXtra” power with at least
their HP, even if the rest of the card is filler and
Manaphy-EX both does and does not do that: it
sports 120 HP which is 50 above Manaphy (BW:
Plasma Storm 34/135) and Manaphy (XY:
Primal Clash 56/106), but is tied with Mew-EX
for the eighth lowest HP score on Pokémon-EX.
Actually when I put it that way, it doesn’t seem quite
so bad but be well aware that this is a probable two
Prize OHKO (2POHKO?). Its Grass Weakness is
typical of TCG Water-Types that correspond with the
video game Water-Type, at least in the XY-era
(exceptions are either dual-Types in the video game,
Ice-Types, or both). The good news is that most of
the Grass-Type attackers I can think of hit much harder
than this when fully powered, but if you run into a deck
still using Virizion-EX (and a source of [G]
Energy so it can attack), a Muscle Band or
Fighting Fury Belt (XY: BREAKpoint 99/122)
will allow it to Emerald Slash for the KO. No
Resistance is typical and with 120 HP, would have only
been helpful in a select few edge cases, while the
Retreat Cost of [C] is low enough to be easy to pay and
to recover from having paid.
That
Retreat Cost won’t often matter though because of the
card’s Ability “Aqua Tube”, which zeroes out the Retreat
Cost of Pokémon with an attached [W] Energy. This
is very familiar as Darkrai-EX (BW: Dark
Explorers 36/108, 107/108; BW: Black Star Promos
BW46; BW: Legendary Treasures 88/113) has an
essentially identical effect with its “Dark Cloak”
Ability, while Fairy Garden provides a similar
benefit as a Stadium, just requiring a different Energy
Type (Darkness for Dark Cloak and Fairy for Fairy
Garden). We know from experience this is a
useful effect as it makes it difficult to strand
anything of yours up front and can conserve Energy.
The card’s only attack, “Mineral Pump” requires [MM] and
hits for 60 damage while healing 30 from all of your
Benched Pokémon. On its own that is a decent
attack, but it will only be used if you absolutely must
(or are just being a bit sadistic and want to finish off
your opponent with it) because of how vulnerable
Manaphy-EX is with its 120 HP, and its usefulness as
a Bench-sitter.
There
are no other cards named Manaphy-EX so let us
discuss its usage. This is now part of the
Water-Type support available in both Standard and
Expanded, and is the only Pokémon based option to
provide a “Dark Cloak” like effect in Standard.
When Darkrai-EX first released, it quickly became
either the best or second best card in the format, so
how will Manaphy-EX fair? No where near as
well: Darkrai-EX even now is still a solid
attacker in addition to a worthwhile Bench-sitter, but
even it isn’t what it once was as it was released
alongside its own Item-based Energy acceleration (Dark
Patch), a fantastic partner in the form of
Sableye (BW: Dark Explorers 62/108), when the
only other Pokémon-EX that could really challenge it was
Mewtwo-EX (BW: Next Destinies 54/99,
98/99; BW: Black Star Promos BW45; BW:
Legendary Treasures 54/113). Manaphy-EX is
not a great attacker, and another difference between the
two is that Darkrai-EX has 180 HP and debuted at
a time when that amount was almost always guaranteed to
last two turns. Other than the current rules
disallowing first turn attacks, things are faster and
even Darkrai-EX faces being OHKOed now. Darkrai-EX
predated effects that could shut down Abilities as well.
Manaphy-EX
also faces a rival; while Zoroark (XY:
BREAKthrough 91/162) is a Stage 1 and I already
emphasized that deck space it tight, its Ability “Stand
In” allows it to force itself into the Active position;
coupled with a Float Stone this allows you to
fake having a free Retreat Cost for everything else, in
addition to the combo allowing your manual retreat for
the turn to act as a Switch. Zoroark has
less HP than Manaphy-EX, but it doubles as a good
attacker thanks to “Mind Jack”, which only costs [CC] to
do 10 damage plus another 30 for each of the opponent’s
Benched Pokémon. Manaphy-EX doesn’t need the
Float Stone, but sometimes you won’t have the Energy
where it needs to go and Manaphy-EX alone won’t
let you fake a Switch. In Expanded play it
is even worse for Manaphy-EX; Keldeo-EX
has “Rush In” which is functionally identical to Stand
In, but on a Basic Pokémon-EX. Throw in “Secret
Sword”, a 50-for-[CCC] attack that does an extra 20 for
each [W] Energy attached, and any deck that could use
Manaphy-EX will be able to bump that damage to a
decent 70 for three… and on a 170 HP Pokémon-EX instead
of 120. Manaphy-EX definitely has a place in
certain Water-Type decks, but I don’t think it is going
to be a must run for anything that can readily supply
[W] Energy in the way Darkrai-EX was for a time
in any deck that could readily supply [D] Energy.
Still
that makes it a good (just not great) addition to
Standard play and still decent for Expanded. In
Limited it is nearly a must run; you take a big risk
with a small-ish Pokémon-EX here as the game is played
with only four Prizes, and you are not running
Manaphy-EX in a +39 deck (a deck where it is the
only Basic). Unless you absolutely cannot fit both
Manaphy-EX and a few basic Water Energy
cards into a deck, you’re using it for Aqua Tube.
Though it is an okay attacker here because average HP
scores and damage outputs are both lower than normal.
Ratings
Standard:
3.15/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
4.75/5
Summary:
Manaphy-EX is the new Bench-sitter for certain
decks to work in; if you can provide enough [W] to
enable Aqua Tube for your Pokémon, free retreating is
yours. Unfortunately this comes at a time when
Bench-space is at a premium and mostly counts on there
being too many more important things for your opponent
to take the easy two Prizes off of Manaphy-EX.
It is more useful in Standard than in Expanded, where
other cards fill a similar role.
Manaphy-EX
did not make my list, but I’ve had many tell me
I’m wrong; in fact it owes largely to most of the new
Water-Type support disappointing me. If I’m wrong
about it, I’m wrong about Manaphy-EX and at this
point I almost expect it. Manaphy-EX narrow beat
out tied 9th and 10th place cards by one point, and
itself tied with tomorrow’s CotD, which won out because
even though it ranked lower than Manaphy-EX on
the list that had both, it managed to appear on two
lists instead of one.
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