aroramage |
You know what's great about having
lists at times? The fact that you can agree with one guy
about a card being okay and then completely disagree on
what the best card of the set would be and end up having
that okay card being your #1 card. How bout that
shenanigans?
Anywho, enough about we, LET'S TALK
ABOUT JOLTEON-EX!!
He's pretty decent, to say the
least. Swift is a 1-for-30 strike that is guaranteed to
do damage, since it ignores Resistance and any effects
on the Defending Pokemon...well, it won't do double
damage either cause it ignores Weakness, so that's a
thing. It's not an impressive attack on its own, it
really does need a big boost to be remotely threatening,
but it's a start at least. Overall, "okay."
Flash Ray is a more powerful attack
at 3 Energy that prevents the opponent's Basic Pokemon
from doing any damage to Jolteon-EX. That can be useful,
there are several Basic-EX that can do a lot of damage
to Jolteon-EX for sure, and with only 160 HP, there's
only so much he can take. But he's also only dealing 70
damage to the other Pokemon, which pretty much requires
Muscle Band to 2HKO any Basic-EX, and don't even get me
started on Megas - they'll pretty much tear Jolteon-EX
to shreds.
...well, most of the time. At the
very least, if something's weak to Jolteon-EX, he'll be
able to do a solid number back.
So what does this all lead up to
with Jolteon-EX? Overall just a decent EX. His lower HP
score hurts him a little bit, as does his damage output,
but the fact that he can help deal damage to Pokemon
that would otherwise be immune to his attacks while also
protecting himself from powerful Basics makes him a
pretty notable option. Not the best, but certainly
notable.
Which is more than I can say for a
lot of the new EX in Generations. JUST GIVE ME MY SPIRIT
LINKS ALREADY!!
Rating
Standard: 3.5/5 (a pretty solid
option all things considered, and definitely worth
considering)
Expanded: 4/5 (more Basic
attackers, the better)
Limited: N/A (again, I'm not sure
how to rate these cards in Limited, but I'd say he's a
good 4/5 here)
Arora Notealus: I wonder how a
match-up between Jolteon-EX and Regice would go. I guess
it would go in Regice's favor, cause he wouldn't take
damage from Jolteon-EX's Flash Ray, and Swift doesn't
have the damage output to start with to be a good
match-up against Regice's Resistance Blizzard (30 to 70
damage, to give you an idea). Then again, who can say?
Weekend Thought: So what do you
think of our Top 10 List for BREAKpoint? Agree with some
things? Disagree with others? How about our brief Top 3
List for Generations? Any noteworthy cards you think
should have been considered? Or maybe you're just happy
to have your favorite Pokemon printed in EX form. I'll
admit, never would've thought we'd get a Ninetales-EX!
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Otaku |
So we
end this week with the conclusion of our second
countdown, which means another number one pick.
That card is… Jolteon-EX (Generations
28/83)! Kind of obvious given there should be an
image of it on the top of this page and aroramage’s
review comes before mine, but I’m still going to run
through the card to help explain my reasoning (and
hopefully avoid any failures in reading comprehension on
my part).
Jolteon-EX
is a Lighting-Type; great for smacking popular cards
like Yveltal-EX, Shaymin-EX (XY:
Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108), and Lugia-EX
(XY: Ancient Origins 68/98, 94/98) for double
damage thanks to their Lightning Weakness. You do
have to worry about Resistance popping up, but it is
limited to older cards from the BW-era like Landorus-EX,
and -20 damage is usually far less of a concern than x2
damage. There are about five cards with effects
that reference Lightning-Type Pokémon, and two of them
also call out other Types. Worth noting for those
meant to help the Lightning-Type are Flash Energy,
which negates Weakness while a Lightning-Type has it
attached, and Rough Seas, a Stadium that allows a
player to heal 30 damage from each of his or her
Lightning-Type as well as Water-Type Pokémon.
Since there is only one to my knowledge, I will mention
that M Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies
61/108) has an Ancient Trait that reduces the damage it
takes from Fire-Types, Grass-Types, Lightning-Types or
Water-Type attack by 20; mostly a non-issue. All
in all, I think this is a favorable Typing.
Also
favorable is being a Pokémon-EX, though it is not
guaranteed as such. What is guaranteed is that a
Pokémon-EX is worth two Prizes when KOed, are excluded
from a select few beneficial effects, and are the target
of certain counter-cards. There are of course
benefits to being a Pokénon-EX (usually better HP,
attacks, and/or Abilities) but Jolteon-EX can
cash in on an additional benefit that based on all other
non-Mega Evolutions is guaranteed; a Pokémon that is
normally an Evolution (like Jolteon) end up being Basic
Pokémon when they get the EX treatment. So
Jolteon-EX enjoys being able to be your opening
Pokémon, played from hand with no other requirement save
an open Bench spot, natural synergy with many card
effects, and even some Stage specific support. The
only drawback to the Stage is that there are a few
effects that are bad for Basic Pokémon. So about those
other benefits I alluded to that aren’t always
guaranteed: most Pokémon-EX have more HP than their
“regular” counterparts and while Jolteon-EX is no
exception, it does fall just a bit short of the usual
range as it has 160 HP (10 to 20 shy of the 170 to 180
HP range most other Basic Pokémon-EX enjoy).
This
hurts, but it isn’t as bad as it might seem; how many
decks do you know that hit for 160 before bonuses?
Most of the time, you’ll be facing a deck that would
already score a OHKO against 170 (or more) HP, or one
that will still fall a bit short; the main issue comes
from attacks that do variable amounts of damage, like
Night March Pokémon. Sure Garchomp (XY:
BREAKpoint 70/122) does hits an exact, but as a
Fighting-Type it actually rockets into overkill
territory because Jolteon-EX has the typical
Fighting Weakness. Speaking of which yes, being
Fighting Weak is still pretty dangerous, though at least
you might be able to include Flash Energy to deal
with that problem. Metal Resistance is better than
nothing, but I don’t think there are a lot of Metal-Type
attackers in the competitive scene right now.
Still better than nothing, unless we are talking about
the Retreat Cost; nothing is the best there and that is
what Jolteon-EX enjoys.
Jolteon-EX
has two attacks and just their Energy costs show
promise; the first requires [L] and the second requires
[LCC] so you can use a manual Energy attachment to hit
the first attack in a single turn and follow up with a
Double Colorless Energy also attached from hand
on the next turn to use the second attack. Even a
minor secondary sort of Energy acceleration (do we risk
Max Elixir?) coupled with Double Colorless
Energy can take Jolteon-EX from zero Energy
to fully loaded. Of course if these attacks are
junk, that won’t matter. The first is “Swift”,
hitting for 30 damage with its typical effect: said
damage isn’t altered by Weakness, Resistance or any
effects on the opponent’s Active. Exploiting
Weakness is pretty great, but as a Basic, Pokémon-EX it
might be worth giving up that bonus so that this attack
cuts through everything else. The main concern is
that even with Muscle Band, you’re not going to
be hitting particularly hard. The second attack is
“Flash Ray” and that is why this card topped the list;
while it only does 70 damage, all damage done to
Jolteon-EX (or rather “this Pokémon”) by attacks
from Basic Pokémon is prevented. This is at least
a good effect, and I’m about to present my case why it
might be great.
We’ve
seen similar protection, only against Pokémon-EX instead
of general Basic Pokémon, serve Regice (XY:
Ancient Origins 24/98) well. It hasn’t made
Regice into the top attacker in the format, but it
has gotten it some success. The attacks both cost
three Energy (one requirement on-Type, the other two
Colorless) while doing 70 damage, and both are on Basic
Pokémon. Yes Regice is protected against
Mega Evolutions while Jolteon-EX is not, but then
again Jolteon-EX is safe from Night March
Pokémon. Both have protection against the many
Basic Pokémon-EX attackers, while neither has protection
against Evolutions that are not Megas. I am
uncertain which effect is better, actually; the main
reason Regice seems a bit better is that it is
only worth a single Prize when KOed… and even that is
balanced out somewhat by my preference for exploiting
Lightning Weakness over Water Weakness.
So for
Standard or Expanded, give this card a shot if you can
make the Energy work. It seems pretty difficult to
enjoy this card in Limited just because of how
Generations is being released, but if you manage it
yes, this is a great pull. Probably a very good
+39 candidate as while your opponent will be running
Evolutions, he or she will need to get it into play and
attacking (probably twice) to take out Jolteon-EX.
That is a lot of time for the Jolteon-EX player
to take four Prizes.
Ratings
Standard:
3.9/5
Expanded:
3.8/5
Limited:
5/5
Summary:
Jolteon-EX has a good Type and great protective
effect, but it is something a decent amount of decks can
get around, and without that protection it is in
trouble. Still something I’d try to snag a full
playset of eventually; for now just getting one
or two for experimentation is likely enough.
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