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Well now, looks like we've got a
double review today, and it's...well, for the same
Pokemon actually! Zygarde has been receiving a lot of
attention thanks to his new forms popping up (BUT IN MY
GAMES WHEN???), and today we're gonna look at the
smaller non-EX versions to see how well they'd fit in
any build.
Zygarde (52), or as he oughta be
called "Zygarde 10%" or "Zydog", is the first one we
look at, and he's pretty simple. Non-evolving Basic, 90
HP, pretty standard I suppose. His first attack is
Lookout, though it's not really as much of a "lookout"
move as a "GIVE ME THE POKEMON I'M LOOKING OUT FOR".
See, it acts like a free Pokemon Catcher or Lysandre,
switching out one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon for
their Active. The lack of targeting makes it pretty cool
too, but no damage output is a little risky, especially
if your opponent just switches it out again.
Aura Break isn't a terribly great
attack to use either. It's 3-for-70 which is okay, but
at the least if the opposing Active Pokemon is Dark or
Fairy Typed, it won't be able to attack during your
opponent's turn. That's a pretty nice plus, but it's
also very niche and not that applicable when your
opponent can switch it around again. Thus Zydog becomes
a bit of a touch-and-go kind of Pokemon whose main use
would be for switching things around to set up, only for
your opponent to potentially undo it in a moment's
notice if they've got the card for it.
Never mind that 90 HP is still a
magic number.
Rating
Standard: 1.5/5 (pretty
underwhelming for the "first form" of Zygarde)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (he's got niche
potential at least, and the Fighting support should even
things out a little)
Limited: 3/5 (but aside from that,
I don't see him seeing much play)
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With all that in mind, let's talk
about Zygarde (53), or "Zygarde 50%".
This one's got 120
HP, the other "magic number" of sorts but for Megas.
That's okay, at the least he may last a little longer
than Zydog, but I'm sure we'll see about that. In the
meantime, he's got two attacks, one of which is Rumble.
At 2-for-30, Zygarde can deal some damage and keep the
Defending Pokemon from Retreating. This would be great
to combine with Zydog's Lookout, if it was a little more
like Lysandre to be used during your Main Phase and what
not.
Then there's Geostrike, which is
3-for-120 that deals 10 damage to your Benched Pokemon.
While there are ways around the negative recoil, such as
Mr. Mime and Mountain Ring, it's a big mediocre in the
first place, and in this day and age it's better to push
that damage output to be higher than ever. Luckily,
there are plenty of ways to do that for Zygarde.
The obvious is Muscle Band of
course, but Fighting Fury Belt is probably a better Tool
for Zygarde 50%. It'll push his HP to 160, making him
rival other Pokemon-EX while dealing out 40 damage on
Rumble and 130 damage on Geostrike. Strong Energy can
also stack on top of that to push Geostrike into
potentially OHKO range, making Zygarde more powerful
than before. Course the investment may or may not be
worth it, but Zygarde can at least do more than...well,
Zydog.
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (the drawback to
Geostrike makes Zygarde a little dangerous to use
recklessly)
Expanded: 2/5 (but if you use him
smartly, you can get the edge in a match pretty easily)
Limited: 3.5/5 (it'll do some good
in even these formats)
Arora Notealus: One of these days,
they'll give us the forms...BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY!!
Next Time: DOUBLING UP YOUR ENERGY
POWER!!
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