aroramage |
Welcome back to another week of
card game madness! To finally celebrate Leonardo
DiCaprio's first Oscar (it's about time!), let's take a
look at something the actor's had to deal a lot with in
his new movie The Revenant: TREES!!
...hey, I tried making it relevant
somehow, you tell me how you'd have made it better. And
no, referencing The Happening wouldn't be the
same.
...WHAT?! NO!!
Anywho, Trevenant has always had an
interesting batch of cards, starting out with his
premiere over in XY and moving forward into today's
card, which comes out a couple sets after his EX debut
and tags along with his own BREAK evolution. Boy,
somebody at the Pokemon Company really likes Trevenant!
And who can blame them? He's a cool Pokemon in general!
Now the thing about Trevenant is
that so far his cards have usually had an Ability that
puts him int the Active slot - with XY, it was Forest's
Curse, which took away the power of Items as long as
Trevenant was out in front, and now Trevenant gets
Nervous Seed, tacking on another Energy to the cost of
your opponent's Basic Pokemon's attacks. It's
interesting to see a lot of cards coming out with this
"Basic hate" vibe to them, especially in an era of Megas.
You'd think the Pokemon Company was trying to get us to
build around Megas...in any case, Nervous Seed is a nice
way to force the opponent to pay more, and combined with
stuff like Head Ringer, it oughta keep them at bay for a
while.
Which is nice considering Trevenant
has Energy Press as his attack! At 3-for-70, it starts
out fairly decent, but then it adds on an additional 10
damage for each Energy attached to your opponent's
Active Pokemon. You can see where this is going - have
Trevenant go up against a Basic, let the opponent stack
on a bunch of Energy to use their Pokemon's attack, and
punish them for it with Energy Press dealing more damage
than it would normally. Heck even against non-Basic
Pokemon, Energy Press is a pretty good damage-dealing
blow that will probably be hitting anywhere from 90-110
damage on most Pokemon, which is enough to 2HKO even
some Megas!
But therein lies the problem with
Trevenant. While he is technically equipped to fight off
the Basics, he doesn't hold as much power over Megas.
Sure, Energy Press could scare off stuff like M Mewtwo-EX
who is weak to Psychic, but most Megas can easily deal
the 110 damage that's standing in the way of Trevenant
going from Active to KO'd. Even the Basic-EX that would
normally be affected by Trevenant's tactics, when they
get there, will have attacks that can easily beat out
Trevenant, and Nervous Seed only really stalls them out
for 1 Energy without Head Ringer to help out.
So is Trevenant a bust? Well not
entirely - again, he can dish out a lot of damage to the
opposing Pokemon if he can get off an Energy Press, and
Nervous Seed does make that easier to work around not
barring things like Garbodor looming in the distance. So
while he might not always be the main star of a deck,
Trevenant can hold his own in the right company and
against the right folk.
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (his attack and
Ability go hand-in-hand, and while the game isn't as
Basic-centric as it once was, he's still got a lot going
for him)
Expanded: 3/5 (never mind that he's
a Stage 1 Psychic Pokemon with an Ability competing with
Garbodor for deck space...again)
Limited: 4/5 (still, who knows what
possible combinations could come up? I mean, the
original XY version seemed to hold onto a deck of his
own for a time)
Arora Notealus: Trevenant's really
got a lot going for him! I mean come on, he's a freaking
haunted tree that can walk - A TREE THAT CAN WALK!!
That's already nightmare fuel. I mean, can you just
imagine if you're walking around at night, and all of a
sudden you start noticing the trees are following you
home? That'd creep me out personally.
Next Time: Time to BREAK it down
for you! :D
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Otaku |
Now it
is time for… some regular Card of the Days, without any
Top Whatever lists. Well, a few cards might be
runners up from past lists, but today we are looking at
Trevenant (XY: BREAKpoint 65/122).
To begin with, it is a Psychic-Type, which gives it a
solid capacity to exploit the Psychic Weakness found on
a good chunk of Psychic-Types and a good chunk of
Fighting-Types. It will have to deal with Psychic
Resistance, which is found on nearly all Darkness-Types
and Metal-Types, and possibly the most abundant
Resistance out there right now (Fighting-Types are also
about as numerous), though “no Resistance” at all is
truly the most common. Fortunately (from the
attacker’s standpoint) the damage doubling of Weakness
is far more influential than the mere -20 from
Resistance. The Psychic-Type has a few key pieces
of Type exclusive support, as well as some good cards
that aren’t restricted to aiding the Psychic-Type, but
have a bit better synergy with them. There aren’t
many of either but the former isn’t subjective so we’ll
list all of those: Dimension Valley, often seen
because it reduces the attack cost of Psychic-Types by
[C], Gardevoir (BW: Next Destinies 57/99;
BW: Dark Explorers 109/108), the one that causes
basic Psychic Energy cards attached to
Psychic-Type Pokémon to provide [PP] instead of [P] (but
which I don’t recall having had any major, recurring
success in competitive play), Mystery Energy, the
Psychic-Type’s personal Special Energy card that reduces
the Retreat Cost of the Psychic-Type to which it is
attached by [CC], and Wobbuffet (XY: Phantom
Forces 36/119), which while Active stops the
Abilities of all Pokémon in play except fellow
Psychic-Types.
So
being a Psychic-Type looks like it is reasonably good,
how about its Stage? Being a Stage 1 is adequate
in the current environment; Basic Pokémon are dominant
though less in an “every deck must play this Stage!”
kind of a way and more of a “the game just naturally
favors them” manner. Compared to a Basic Pokémon,
a Stage 1 needs an extra card (usually its Basic
counterpart) and an extra turn to enter play.
There are a few cards that specifically help Evolutions,
but there are more and better ones that help Basics (or
else Basics are just so inherently blessed that their
support seems to do more). Of note for what
specifically helps Evolutions is Wally; it eats
up your Supporter for the turn but it allows you to
search your deck for an Evolution that Evolves directly
from something you already have in play, then it puts
that Evolution into play directly from the deck, which
gets around Evolution blocking effects. It also
lets you skip the usual turn wait to Evolve.
Basics have to deal with more Stage-based counters, but
in Expanded Evolutions face a pretty nasty one in the
form if Archeops (BW: Noble Victories
67/101; BW: Dark Explorers 110/108).
Compared to being a Basic, being a Stage 1 is worse
but compared to every other Stage it is better and
the fact that when we ignore Evolutions that enter play
via Archie’s Ace in the Hole or Maxie’s Hidden
Ball Trick, Stage 1 Pokémon are only rivaled by Mega
Evolutions (which are just Stage 1 Pokémon that require
a Pokémon Tool to Evolve without a serious drawback).
Trevenant
has 110 HP; against a lot of attackers that is within
OHKO range. Against the hypothetical average (as
in “typical” not the mathematical mean) attack, this is
still a OHKO against a good, solid set-up. If
something goes wrong though, Trevenant is as
likely (perhaps a little more so) to hang on for an
extra turn. If something major goes wrong, it can
hang on turn after turn. Hint: this card is
designed to make something go wrong, and we’ll get to
that soon. Next though is Weakness, and
Trevenant takes double damage from Darkness-Types.
I’m not on the bleeding edge of metagame awareness, but
thankfully
The Charizard
Lounge has been keeping track of what won in the Masters
Division for recent regionals. Other sites have as well,
but this is the one I use so there you go. Prior
to XY: BREAKpoint joining the metagame,
Yveltal-EX was on top in Expanded and it appears to
still be there. It isn’t the only Darkness-Type
deck either, though without lists it can be hard to tell
how distinct a variant truly is, it is enough for me to
really, really not like that Weakness. I don’t
have recent results for a major Standard event, but
prior to Trevenant and its friends becoming
tournament legal, Darkness Weakness was still one of (if
not the) worst to have and possibly worse than in
Expanded as Keldeo-EX plus Float Stone is
sometimes replaced by Zoroark (XY:
BREAKthrough 91/162). At least Trevenant
enjoys Fighting Resistance, which may be more important
with its borderline HP. Just to finish out the
bottom stats, its Retreat Cost of [CCC] is too high to
pay; include something to lower it or bypass it
entirely.
Okay,
now we get to the card’s effects, an Ability and an
attack that are pretty closely related. The former
is “Nervous Seed”, which increases the attack cost of
your opponent’s Basic Pokémon by [C] while Trevenant
is Active. No deck fails to use Basic attackers at
all, with some being more or less totally dependant upon
them. Some use them rather sparingly though, like
Vespiquen (XY: Ancient Origins 10/98)/Flareon
(XY: Plasma Freeze 12/116) decks. Without
added support, this also will only slow down said Basic
Pokémon; a serious hurdle for a deck like Night March
but just a speed bump for something that can either Mega
Evolve or attach the extra Energy. As it places
the effect on the opponent’s Active instead of say
blocking damage, the usual workarounds for such effects
won’t apply, but since Nervous Seed only works while
Trevenant is Active, having a different Pokémon on
your Bench allows Escape Rope, Lysandre,
etc. to also provide an out. As such, Nervous Seed
is not a be-all-end-all kind of lock effect, but it is
still a good one (kind of getting tired of the former
turning the game into solitaire anyway). The
attack is “Energy Press” for [PCC], doing 70 damage plus
an extra 1 for each Energy attached to the opponent’s
Active. Not good against something big, Energy
efficient and Resistance like say M Scizor-EX,
and unless it is Energy laden or suffers one of the
usual risks (abnormally small, Psychic Weak) it isn’t
going to score a OHKO. It isn’t hopeless though,
as Dimension Valley turns it into 70+ damage for
[PC] and Nervous Seed can both slow down the opponent’s
attacks (giving you an extra hit) but also force them to
commit extra Energy yielding extra damage. Taken
as a whole, this is a solid combination.
Trevenant
has to Evolve from something and that something is
Phantump (XY: BREAKpoint 64/122). Yes,
there is another Phantump, XY 54/146, and
both are Basic, Psychic-Type Pokémon with 60 HP,
Darkness Weakness, Fighting Resistance, Retreat Cost
[CC], no Ancient Trait and no Ability, the attacks
decide things rather forcefully. XY 54/146 has
been the only option for a while, and we have
appreciated its “Astonish” attack for [P] which allows
its player to select a random card from the opponent’s
hand, then forces said opponent to reveal the card and
shuffle it back into his or her deck. Even its
“Hook” attack for [PCC] wasn’t totally without use
(close to, but not totally). XY: BREAKpoint
64/122 has an attack that almost got it a CotD review:
“Ascension”. Yeah, it would have been more of a
PSA to make sure no one was unaware that this superior
Phantump was out there, but while XY:
BREAKpoint 64/122 has but a single attack, it is
focused on doing the exact thing it needs to do
ASAP: Evolve! It is even priced at [C]; not only
can you do it for a single Energy but if Dimension
Valley is in play the attack requires no
Energy at all! This also means Wally is
only needed for turns where you go first or when you
just need to Evolve in a single turn to attack as well
as get the Ability.
So what
about the rest of the line? There is one other
Trevenant, XY 55/146, and while it isn’t the
kind of the format it has periodically been a major
component of successful, competitive decks. It is
also very, very similar to today’s card with the only
differences (relevant to game mechanics) being a
different Ability and attack. Even then it remains
similar as its “Forest’s Curse” Ability also requires it
be Active to work and its “Tree Slam” attack has the
same [PCC] cost as Energy Press. Forest’s Curse
stops your opponent from playing Items from hand, which
leaves most decks with about a quarter of their cards as
dead in hand or deck, though this number can vary a lot
due both to build and the fact that many (most?) decks
right now are so speed focused that they’ll burn through
several Items on the player’s opening turn. As
such even a deck running more like 20 Items might still
only have 10 left in deck by the time you can get
Trevenant into play, even if you are just going
second but get Trevenant into play first turn.
Usually though this is hard (if not devastating) to your
opponent, and while it has some of the same
vulnerabilities as Nervous Seed (Lysandre out
something else) it is time tested as a good Ability.
Tree Slam is a decent attack; it only does 60 damage to
the opponent’s Active but strikes up to two of your
opponent’s Benched Pokémon for 20 damage. I think
this has less synergy with Forest’s Curse than Energy
Press has with Nervous Seed but again Dimension
Valley can help it remain competitive. Still
I’d say that this version has the strong Ability while
today’s Trevenant has the (slightly) better
attack.
In the
end though, XY 55/146 is the superior
Trevenant and not only are both cards competing for
the same slots in your deck, both must be Active to use
their Abilities. So have we seen today’s version
win any tournaments? Well that brings us to the
final part of the Trevenant family. No,
not Trevenant-EX as Pokémon-EX may as well be
totally different Pokémon as their names are considered
different and they have no interaction with the
Evolution line unless a specific card effect states
otherwise. This set we received Trevenant BREAK
(XY: BREAKpoint 66/122). This BREAK
Evolution has 160 HP the attack “Silent Fear”, which
places three damage counters on each of your opponent’s
Pokémon at a cost of [PC]. It has to be played on
a Trevenant though and it then gains that card’s
Ability, attack, Weakness, Resistance and Retreat Cost.
We are covering that card tomorrow, so I’ll go into
detail then but it is pretty clearly designed to work
with either Trevenant and had an excellent
showing at the most recent Regionals. As I don’t
have decklists and the brief descriptions just mention
Trevenant BREAK and not which regular
Trevenant it Evolved from, I don’t know how much
either is currently being played. It is hard to
imagine XY 55/146 not being the main
version, but based on more casual encounters on the
PTCGO, a copy of XY: BREAKpoint 65/122 might
actually be a good idea. When you can’t get
Trainers locked down fast enough but are still facing
either Basics or Energy laden attackers, it can be a
good deal. You might even risk two if the deck is
built around Energy control… and though it means that
this does once again become solitaire, that is the best
way to run these cards. Sure removing Energy means
Energy Press does less damage each time it hits, but it
also probably means it gets to hit at least one extra
time. Crushing Hammer, Enhanced Hammer,
Team Flare Grunt (against Pokémon-EX) Head
Ringer can leave most Basics totally worthless
against Nervous Seed and still devastate your opponent
if he or she is slamming into Forest’s Curse instead
and/or is attacking with Evolutions.
I think
this card is going to matter in both Standard and
Expanded, though again the other Trevenant is
still going to be the main focus. I think we have
that odd dynamic where XY: BREAKpoint 65/122 may
end up less important to Trevenant decks but more
successful than it would have been on its own thanks to
XY 55/146. In Limited play it is a
magnificent pull. Yes you need a Phantump
as well, but that is a Common so the odds are not
terrible that you will pull at least one in addition to
Trevenant. Remember this Phantump?
Yeah, so unlike most other Evolutions you get to bring
out Trevenant from your deck instead of
desperately trying to draw into it. Your opponent
will likely be relying on Basic Pokémon, so Nervous Seed
and Energy Press are going to be much stronger, and your
110 HP is likely to last much longer.
Ratings
Standard:
3.35/5
Expanded:
3.25/5
Limited:
4.75/5
Summary:
Today’s Trevenant may be overshadowed by the
original but it is still a good, solid card. I
think a single copy of it will become a common play in
Trevenant decks and Trevenant decks appear
to be doing quite well right now, though I do not know
how long that will last. I scored the card
ever-so-slightly higher in Standard because there are a
few additional Evolution decks that see play here.
This isn’t something to rush out and trade for like
crazy, but if you plan on making using of Trevenant
BREAK, which we will cover tomorrow, you really
ought to have at least one copy of XY: BREAKpoint
65/122.
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