aroramage |
You see what I did there? With that
whole not-so-clever pun? Eh whatever, MOVING ALONG!!
As the Moon comes down, Trevenant
awakens, but as the Sun comes up, he BREAKs out into a
new form! And now with that obligatory Sun and Moon
reference made, it's time to review Trevenant BREAK!!
I think one of the neat things
about Trevenant BREAK is that, unlike a few of the other
BREAK Evos, he's actually got his pick of Trevenants to
go from. Naturally, there's the one from yesterday with
Energy Press that's oh-so-nice, but then there's even
the XY version with the powerful Forest's Curse that can
lock Items down for your opponent! Either way, Trevenant
BREAK won't mind being Active for the Abilities he may
inherit, since he's got a fair amount more bulk than the
other two.
On top of that, he's got a useful
attack in Silent Fear. It only costs 2 Energy, which is
already cheaper than both the Trevenants' attacks, but
it also does a lot for a little, placing down 3 damage
counters on each of your opponent's Pokemon. Chances are
that, unless the opponent's really crafty about dealing
160+ damage, Trevenant BREAK is gonna lay down at least
60 damage on EVERY POKEMON THEY'VE GOT at the time he
starts up!
"Well that's no trouble," one might
say, "I've been teching in Mr. Mime for a while, so I
can keep my Bench safe!" Well, I thought I'd look into
that cause yes, Mr. Mime's Bench Barrier does in fact
prevent damage. While some of the pros might know about
this, the rest of you might not have realized that
Silent Fear gets around Bench Barrier! Yeah, I had to
double check, cause Bench "prevents damage" but doesn't
prevent your opponent from "placing damage counters" on
your Benched Pokemon - that's why Abilities like
Golbat's Sneaky Bite and Crobat's Surprise Bite can
still work around Mr. Mime's Bench Barrier!
So the long and short of it is
Trevenant BREAK can deal 30 damage-I'm sorry, place down
3 damage counters on all of your opponent's Pokemon
every turn he's Active! And while it might not seem like
much at first, keep in mind that most Evolving Basics
are out at 2 rounds, a good portion of Stage 1s and even
more Basics are out in 3, only the bulkiest of non-EX
Basics survive 4, and so on and so forth. Basically:
Trevenant BREAK, if left unattended, will eventually
cripple everything if not taken care of.
And to think he can either make
your attacks cost more or keep you from playing Items.
That's scary.
Rating
Standard: 3.5/5 (of course, he is a
BREAK Evo for a Stage 1, so he's basically like running
a Stage 2 line-up without the benefits of being Stage 2)
Expanded: 3.5/5 (though I'm sure
once BREAK Evo support becomes more plentiful, then he
may become an even bigger threat than before)
Limited: 3.5/5 (and besides,
they're still gonna end up competing against Megas and
Night March)
Arora Notealus: I wonder if they'll
come up with a way to make BREAK Evos easier to use.
Like maybe a Supporter or an Item that can search out a
BREAK Evo from your deck, since the only really reliable
way to find them is with Ultra Ball. Or maybe like have
more BREAK-centric Abilities and attacks - not stuff
that's like "when this Pokemon BREAK evolves" or that is
anti-BREAK, but like stuff that can support it more so.
I dunno, I feel like BREAK Evos just need something more
to boost them up that extra bit to be competitive...
Next Time: DID SOMEBODY SAY SPECIAL
ENERGY FOR WATER?!
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Otaku |
As
promised yesterday, here is Trevenant BREAK (XY:
BREAKthrough 66/122)! Being a BREAK Evolution
of a Stage 1 means it functions like a Stage 2 without
the usual benefits of being a Stage 2; no using Rare
Candy, won’t allow “Power Friends” on Miltank
(XY: Flashfire 83/106) to hit for 10+70 damage,
etc. Unless you use a compatible form of Evolution
acceleration (like Wally) you’ll need three total
turns for Trevenant BREAK to hit the field, and
even without acceleration you’ll need two other cards (Phantump
and Trevenant). This will be a serious
hurdle for the card, but it has some advantages most of
the other BREAK Evolutions lack, but more on that when
we get to it. As a Psychic-Type Trevenant BREAK
can use Dimension Valley to reduce the costs of
its attacks by [C], Mystery Energy to reduce its
Retreat Cost by [CC] per Mystery Energy attached
to itself, won’t have the Ability of its underlying
Trevenant shut down by Wobbuffet (XY:
Phantom Forces 36/119) and its “Bide Barricade”
Ability and though it shouldn’t ever matter, you could
provide Psychic-Type specific Energy acceleration with
Gardevoir (BW: Next Destinies 57/99;
BW: Dark Explorers 109/108) as its “Psychic Mirage”
Ability allows basic [P] Energy cards attached to your
Psychic-Type Pokémon to provide [PP] instead of the
usual [P]. In terms of damage its attacks will hit
for double damage (due to Weakness) against a good
selection of Psychic-Types and Fighting-Types, while
you’ll have to deal with Resistance against nearly all
Darkness-Types and Metal-Types.
Trevenant BREAK
has 160 HP; nothing is truly safe from OHKOs and this
falls a bit short of the threshold established by
typical Pokémon-EX (170 or 180), but overall it is a
good, solid amount that will often survive a hit when
fully healthy. As a BREAK Evolution Trevenant
BREAK has no Weakness, Resistance or Retreat of its
own, and I’ll cover the possibilities when I discuss the
options for Trevenant itself. As such we’ll
move onto the lone attack of Trevenant BREAK.
It will gain the Abilities and/or attacks of any
Trevenant from which it BREAK Evolves; so what
Trevenant BREAK itself brings to the table is
“Silent Fear”, which costs [PC] and places three damage
counters on each of your opponent’s Pokémon. Just
barely a decent return for the Energy invested, and only
when your opponent has several Pokémon in play… unless
you use Dimension Valley to turn it into a single
Energy attack. At that point, it is a decent deal
so long as your opponent has at least three Pokémon in
play.
Before
we get to Trevenant BREAK or Trevenant, we
will cover Phantump. There are two
versions, XY 54/146 and XY: BREAKpoint
64/122. Both are Basic, Psychic-Type Pokémon with
60 HP, Darkness Weakness, Fighting Resistance, a Retreat
Cost of [CC], no Abilities, and no Ancient Traits. XY
54/146 can use “Astonish” for [P] to reveal a random
card from the opponent’s hand, which is then revealed
before being shuffled back into your opponent’s deck.
For [PCC] it can use “Hook” for 30 damage.
Astonish can be handy but Hook is mostly filler (though
better to be able to do some damage than not). XY:
BREAKpoint 64/122 has “Ascension” for [C], allowing
you to search your deck for something that Evolves from
it and… Evolve into it! Yeah, that is why I didn’t
gloss over this section: it makes a huge
different to Trevenant decks now that they have
an Ascension Pokémon to rapidly get more out.
Normally this is only a small bonus, but that brings us
to Trevenant: there are two versions of
Trevenant available, XY 55/146 and XY:
BREAKpoint 65/122. Both are Stage 1
Psychic-Type Pokémon with Darkness Weakness, Fighting
Resistance, Retreat Cost [CCC], no Ancient Trait, one
Ability that only works while Active and interferes with
the opponent and one attack that requires [PCC] to use.
Yes, really that similar!
The
Darkness Weakness is a serious hazard as Yveltal-EX
is still a strong, widely used attacker that currently
still appears to be at or at least near the top of the
competitive scene, while especially in Standard you have
Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162) being
used for its “Stand In” Ability with Float Stone,
but most of those decks can drop a Double Colorless
Energy to power up its potent “Mind Jack” attack
attack for a big blow… and while these two might manage
OHKOs before Weakness, it is pretty much guaranteed
afterwards even against the 160 HP of Trevenant BREAK.
Their Resistance does them some good, but does more for
Trevenant BREAK with its 160 HP. The
Retreat Cost of three is a pain but you should have
multiple options for dealing with it. XY 55/146
should be known to you for its Ability (Forest’s Curse)
because it blocks the opponent from using Items while
this Trevenant (or a Trevenant BREAK with
it underneath) is Active. Its attack is “Tree
Slam” which hits for 60 damage to the opponent’s Active
and two to up to two of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.
A bit underwhelming for damage and spread (especially in
light of Silent Fear), but solid. While Active,
the “Nervous Seed” Ability of XY: BREAKpoint
65/122 will force your opponent’s Active Basic Pokémon
into paying an extra [C] to use its attacks. While
less of an issue for most decks than losing access to
Items, it can still be quite devastating if a deck is
mostly Basics and doesn’t have copious amounts of Energy
handy… or you supplement the Ability properly. The
“Energy Press” attack hits for 70 plus 10 per Energy
attached to the opponent’s Active; good synergy with
Nervous Seed and a better for a Trevenant BREAK
that needs raw damage.
XY
55/146 is the better Trevenant to use, and as
they have to be Active you can’t stack their Abilities
without using some kind-of-obscure rules variants that
competitive play and even League haven’t used in
probably a decade. XY: BREAKpoint 65/122 isn’t a
waste though; a single copy (maybe even two if people
were to cut back on Items) is a nice alternate strategy.
Just remember you can only run four Trevenant
total (Trevenant BREAK does not count
against that limit, though!). So… what do you do
with such a deck? Apparently do well in the most
recent Regional Championships! Over on
The Charizard Lounge you can go and read a nice summary of what is winning in the
Masters Age Bracket for the most recent Regionals and
Trevenant BREAK decks have had a good showing.
Unfortunately for you I can only guess how the decks
were played, but with what few hints I have it looks
more or less like previous Trevenant deck
strategies just cranked it up to 11 thanks to
Trevenant BREAK. I can also relay what I have
encountered on the PTCGO, and that is decks mostly using
XY 54/146 (on its own and under Trevenant
BREAK) but with disruptive cards like Head Ringer
and Crushing Hammer to affect both Items and
Energy… and supplement a copy or two of XY:
BREAKpoint 65/122. When you’re running
something like Night March, that is pretty devastating
to slam into. Some of the decks in the tournament
have also made use of Bursting Balloon; it is a
Pokémon Tool that discards itself at the end of your
opponent’s turn,but if your opponent damages your
equipped Pokémon before then they must place six damage
counters on the attacking Pokémon! Plus as it does
get rid of itself, while you can’t count on it forever,
you can swap in whatever else you need (like a Float
Stone) afterwards.
The
Regional Championships were held in Expanded, and I
suspect that in Standard things are just as good for
Trevenant BREAK. I could be totally wrong as
I’ve got very little data to base this on, but I cannot
think of any major differences that wouldn’t help
Trevenant BREAK. So for Expanded and Standard,
yeah this is an important new card. For Limited,
if you can pull it, Trevenant and even one
Phantump, it will be magnificent.
Ratings
Standard:
4/5
Expanded:
4/5
Limited:
4.5/5
Summary:
Trevenant BREAK has impressed so much that I
wanted us to look at not only it but its lower Stages.
Yes, plural; if we had the time I was going to cover
Phantump (XY: BREAKpoint 64/122) separately
because of how important it is! Trevenant (XY:
BREAKpoint 65/122) also warranted an individual look
because while it isn’t the main version to use with
Trevenant BREAK, it’s another good one. Its
solid HP, potent potential Abilities from whichever
Trevenant you BREAK Evolve and even its attack are a
threat that can be easily underestimated.
I had
Trevenant BREAK as my seventh place pick for
XY: BREAKpoint. On the group list, with 9
total voting points it finished in 13th place, one point
above the 14th place card and one point below both 12th
and 11th place (which were tied). Just two points
below our actual 9th and 10th place finishers, M
Gyarados-EX and M Scizor-EX, respectively.
Neither of those two made a showing in the results from
the latest Regionals; this confirms that I should have
ranked Trevenant BREAK far higher on my own list
so that even after averaging out, it would have made the
Pojo list!
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