aroramage |
Man, what could be said about
Zebstrika? Personally, I think this is one of the best
Electric-types in recent years, and I think it oughta
have a spot in most Electric decks that can run this
Stage 1!
Alright, so Electric's not been a
prominent deck as of late, but I think Zebstrika's still
great to play with it! His attack isn't terribly
noteworthy though; Crashing Bolt does 2-for-50 with the
chance to do 60 more damage on anything with a Fighting
Resistance. The only thing with that is that anything
with a Fighting Resistance is usually also weak to
Electric, so technically Zebstrika's dealing out 220
damage to anything that has a Fighting Resistance! I
mean, unless it's the new Ho-oh-EX, but outside of that,
Zebstrika's not really going to be your go-to Electric
offense - besides, not every Pokemon with an Electric
Weakness has a Fighting Resistance.
So what's the appeal in Zebstrika
then? Probably his Ability, which is one of the best
Abilities you could have. Zap Zone is what gives your
Electric-types the Ability to get past "Safeguard"
Pokemon - Suicune, Sigilyph, Regice, you get the idea,
anything that could protect itself from your attack.
Because Zap Zone lets you ignore any effects on the
opponent's Active Pokemon, as far as dealing damage to
them goes. Sure they won't be affected by your effects,
but when was the last time you saw an Electric-type
Pokemon dealing Poison Status as part of their effect?
...note to self: would love to see
Electric/Poison type using Poison moves to Poison...
Anywho, Zebstrika can be great for
Electric decks looking to break into the mold of the new
stuff and keep their damage flowing regardless! He's a
fairly strong option, it's just unfortunate that
Electric decks haven't been prevalent as of late. But
maybe if we get something big...
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (Zap Zone is the
biggest reason to run a Zebstrika line-up in your
Electric deck - no more getting stalled out by
Resistance Blizzard and the like!)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (though you will
have to watch out for Garbodor seeing play, as well as
Wobbuffet - they'll shut his Ability down until they're
dealt with)
Limited: 4/5 (give him a run, and
he might make a run with your money!)
Arora Notealus: Electric Zebra is
Best Zebra. Otherwise known as "EZBZ"!!
Next Time: And now for a little
dangerous Item...
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Otaku |
Our second subject
this week is Zebstrika (XY: BREAKpoint
49/122). It is a Lightning-Type, allowing it to
exploit Weakness when facing popular cards like
Yveltal-EX and Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring
Skies 77/108, 106/108). There are some
Type-based support cards like Flash Energy and…
um… Rough Seas which is shared with the
Water-Type? At least the cards with
anti-Lightning-Type effects are also few and not very
good: in fact all I can find with a quick search is M
Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 61/108), with
its Ancient Trait that reduces by 20 the damage done
from the attacks of your opponent’s Fire, Grass,
Lightning and Water-Type Pokémon. Lightning
Resistance seems to have been phased out of the XY-era
card templates, though you’ll find it on some of the
BW-era Fighting-Types; annoying but not a huge issue in
and of itself. The Type does have a few notable
members, with the ones relevant to the rest being
Elektrik (BW: Noble Victories 40/101) and
Magnezone (XY: BREAKthrough 54/162), both of
which can accelerate Lightning-Type Energy, Eelektrik
only in Expanded and from the discard, Magnezone
in either Standard or Expanded and from the hand.
Exploiting Weakness is probably the Type’s strongest
feature, and enough that I still consider is
average-to-good.
Being a Stage 1 is
not good, but it isn’t particularly bad, especially
compared to everything other than Basic Pokémon.
You’ll need at least two cards to get Zebstrika
into play (itself plus a Blitzle), and if you
don’t want to take two turns then you’ll also need a
third card (Wally). Slow and space
consuming compared to Basic Pokémon but no Spirit
Link cards, no Rare Candy, no Archie’s Ace
in the Hole or Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick,
etc. required. Zebstrika has 100 HP, which isn’t
large enough to survive a hit unless the opponent
has a lackluster set-up or has a deck not focused on
dealing damage (such as some lock decks). Said
Weakness will fall to all but the worst openings against
competitive Fighting-Type decks; just 50 damage gets
doubled into the needed 100 damage for a OHKO.
Metal Resistance won’t make a huge difference, but it is
far better than nothing and sometimes an effective 120
HP will matter. The Retreat Cost of [C] is good
and low; easy to pay for and to recover from having
paid.
Zebstrika
has one Ability and one attack. The Ability is
“Zap Zone”, which causes the damage from attacks by your
Lightning-Type Pokémon to be unaffected by effects on
your opponent’s Active Pokémon. This can be
amazing when it allows your attacker to get through
strong protection like Safeguard, to a small bonus when
trying to attack Landorus-EX, to unneeded because
are no such effects, to backfiring if you face one of
the handful of Pokémon that place a damage boosting
effect on themselves. That last one shouldn’t
matter in competitive play, but the most likely of the
remaining three is that Zap Zone won’t have anything to
negate. It is important to remember that Weakness
and Resistance are not effects, but game
mechanics, so they should apply as normal. If your
opponent is using a card like Altaria (XY:
Roaring Skies 74/108; XY: Black Star Promos
BW46) I… am not sure what happens. At a glance I
assumed this was where you would really want
Zebstrika but reading the actual card text, Zap Zone
only prevents damage from being directly
manipulated by effects on the opponent’s Pokémon. Altaria
has the Ability “Clear Humming” that doesn’t alter
damage, it causes Colorless Pokémon to simply have no
Weakness. At least Zap Zone should still punch
through protection such as is provided by “Flash Ray” on
Jolteon-EX!
For attacks,
Zebstrika has “Crashing Bolt” at a cost of [CC].
This cost is efficient enough that a Double Colorless
Energy covers it, can many other forms of Energy
acceleration. So what does Crashing Bolt do?
It hits for 50 damage, and if the opponent’s Active has
Fighting Resistance, it hits for another 60 damage.
50-for-two is pretty solid and the effect is better
than it sounds; 110 for two is great, plus most Fighting
Resistance Pokémon are Lightning Weak so it would
actually jump to 220! This doesn’t just OHKO but
overkills Yveltal-EX and Shaymin-EX (the
former by a little and the latter by a lot). So
what is the catch? Well the good news is that the
two things this card can do can give it a purpose in
Lightning-Type decks (the Ability) or decks that need a
Lightning-Type splashed in (the attack). A deck
isn’t likely to need both though; Zap Zone is already
niché, but in a way so is Crashing Bolt; in your typical
Lightning-Type deck you aren’t too likely to need a
Lightning-Type Stage 1 attacker that can punish Fighting
Resistant Pokémon. Thanks to most of those Pokémon
being Lightning Weak as well, just about any and every
serious Lightning-Type attacker can already do it!
So instead of covering two uses that have a decent
overlap, we still just have that one use.
Of course, we need
to consider the rest of the card pool; the right dance
partner can do wonders, be it among the lower Stages of
a card, alternate versions, additional Evolved forms or
even branched Evolution lines. Zebstrika keeps
it somewhat simple; there is just Blitzle and
Zebstrika, with nothing else. There are quite
a few of these with seven Blitzle - Black &
White 40/114, Black & White 41/114,
McDonald’s Collection 2011 6/12, BW: Noble
Victories 35/101, BW: Next Destinies 47/99,
BW: Boundaries Crossed 56/149 and XY:
BREAKpoint 48/122 - and six Zebstrika -
Black & White 42/114, Black & White 43/114,
BW: Noble Victories 36/101, BW: Next Destinies
48/99, BW: Boundaries Crossed 57/149 and XY:
BREAKpoint 49/122 - including today’s version!
Though they are a homogenous lot, there are no reprints
among them: all are Lightning-Type Pokémon with Fighting
Weakness and no Ancient Traits. Blitzle (XY:
BREAKpoint 48/122) and today’s Zebstrika (XY:
BREAKpoint 49/122) are the only Standard legal
options, and also the only versions with Resistance (in
this case, to Metal); all others are Expanded only
options and have no Resistance at all. All
Blitzle and Zebstrika are Lightning Types
with Fighting Weakness and no Ancient Trait. All
Blitzle are Basic Pokémon with Retreat Cost [C],
no Ability and a single attack, and all but one have 60
HP (BW: Boundaries Crossed 56/149 has 70).
For the Zebstrika, all have 90 HP other than
BW: Boundaries Crossed 57/149 and XY: BREAKpoint
49/122 (they each have 100 HP), no Ability except for
XY: BREAKpoint 49/122 (today’s version), and a
Retreat Cost of [C] except for BW: Next Destinies
48/99 (which has a perfect free Retreat Cost).
Black & White
40/114 can use “Rear Kick” at a cost of [LC] to hit for
20 damage. Black & White 41/114 can use “Stomp”
for [C] to do 10 damage and flip a coin; “heads” means
it does an extra 10 damage while “tails” means just the
base 10. McDonald’s Collection 2011 6/12 can
make use of “Quick Attack” for [LC] to do 10 damage,
plus an extra 20 if the coin flip is “heads” (“tails”
just does the base 10 damage). BW: Noble Victories
35/101 has “Ability” priced as [L]; it does 10 damage
and has its traditional effect of preventing all damage
and effects of attacks by your opponent’s Pokémon during
your opponent’s next turn, provided you get “heads” on
the coin flip (again, “tails” just does the base 10
damage). BW: Next Destinies 47/99 calls upon
“Thunder Jolt”, which costs [LC] and hits for 30 damage,
but requires a coin flip; “tails” means it does 10
damage to itself in addition to hitting the opponent’s
Active for 30, while “heads” means the attack just does
the 30 to the opponent’s Active. BW: Boundaries
Crossed 56/149 keeps it simple with “Smash Kick” for
[C], doing 10 damage. XY: BREAKpoint 48/122 has
“Reckless Charge” which also only requires [C], but does
20 damage to the opponent’s Active and 10 to itself. Blitzle
is here to Evolve and not attack, so in Expanded (where
you have a choice) I would go with either BW: Noble
Victories 35/101 as Agility may help keep it alive
to Evolve or BW: Boundaries Crossed 56/149 so
that its 70 HP may also give it a slight boost in trying
to survive.
Moving onto the
Zebstrika, Black & White 42/114 brings back
Stomp, this time requiring [CC] and doing 20 on “tails”,
40 on “heads”. [LLC] pays for its “Wild Charge”, which
does 70 damage to the opponent’s Active and 10 to
itself. It was reviewed
here
and all I can add is that it is even less worth it in
Expanded now than it was for the current Modified
(Standard) format back then. Black & White
43/114 also brings back an attack from a Blitzle,
with its Rear Kick still costing [C] but now hitting for
30, while its second attack is “Electrispark” that costs
[LLL] and hits for 70 to the opponent’s Active and 10 to
the opponent’s Bench. This was actually the first
Zebstrika reviewed on Pojo (here)
and again, we pretty much got it right. Just lower
the score from back then as this card is now nearly six
years of power creep behind, like its set-mate. BW:
Noble Victories 36/101 did not get a past
review; it continues the trend of recycling as it opens
with Quick Attack to do 10 (+20 on “heads”), but this
time it only costs [C]. Its second attack is
“Shock Bolt” which requires [LLC] to hit for 90, plus
requires a coin flip where “heads” means the attack
works as normal but where “tails” means you still do the
damage but also have to discard all [L] Energy
attached to itself. In a sense, the review team is
three for three because not reviewing this card was
probably doing it a kindness as it was bad back then,
and it is bad now.
BW: Next Destinies
48/99 knows “Disconnect” for [LC] and “Lightning Crash”
for [LLC]; the first hits for 40 while blocking your
opponent from playing Item cards from his or her hand,
while the second does 80 to the opposing Pokémon of your
choice, but you have to discard all [L] Energy attached
to Zebstrika (or whatever used Lightning Crash in
the case of attack copying). In one sense this
card is better than it once was as Item is even more
crucial, while a Wide Lens would allow Lightning
Crash to take out a Shaymin-EX in one shot… but
we have better means of blocking Items or hitting the
Bench. This Zebstrika was reviewed
here and from
what I remember while it had a deck that even saw a
little success, but overall being a disappointment as it
never seemed to do as well as it ought to do, so while
the scores are only a little above average, they are
also a little above what it probably deserved back then…
and like I said now we can do what made it special, and
do it better, with other cards. BW: Boundaries
Crossed 57/149 was the last Zebstrika
released and reviewed (here), where it
was most noteworthy for its first attack (Flame Charge)
which required [C] and had you search your deck for an
[R] Energy to attach Zebstrika itself.
Apparently this is a video game attack reference but not
one that the TCG ever gave a means to really make
worthwhile. The second attack (Thunder) needs
[LCC] so I guess it would have given a partial to mostly
Fire Energy based deck a Lightning-Type Stage 1
attacker. Unfortunately Thunder just does 90
damage, with a coin flip to see if it also hits itself
for 30 (“heads” means no self-damage). The reviews
for it are pretty much spot on.
So looks like there
is no major boost from Blitzle options, and at
best you might consider also working in BW: Next
Destinies 48/99 if you had room and were already
running today’s Zebstrika because extra Item
denial is extra Item denial. I do not think you
really ought to be running today’s version, though.
For the most part, having a Stage 1 Lightning-Type
attacker leaves very few protective effects to punch
through, with solid Lysandre or even Hex
Maniac usage tackling those problems (and providing
other advantages). We even have one that is likely
to at least match and most of the time surpass
Zebstrika in damage output, yes even for the same
Energy cost: Raichu (XY 43/146;
Generations 27/83, RC9/RC32). As I just
listed, it was even re-released twice in the latest set;
while Generations isn’t the easiest set to buy
given how it is being distributed, the supply of
Raichu has gone up and you can even choose between
“serious battler” and “Aren’t I just so pretty?”
Artwork! I recommend going for the sub-set’s
version as whether because they like the art or just
find it weird to have a Raichu staring at them
and winking, you’ll get all of the usual benefits and
some level of distraction. No, really; it won’t
work all the time and I did say it to be funny, but it
is also true. Anyway, thanks to “Circle Circuit”
this Raichu has and at least until Sky Field
rotates out (but possibly still afterwards) it will
continue to shock and awe with its big, affordable hits.
Which means the niché for Zebstrika grows smaller
and smaller.
Ah, but what about
Zebstrika BREAK? It… does not exist.
It is not planned to exist, either. So
Zebstrika seems like an overly specialized tool to
do something a more general Stage 1 does better, at
least in Standard and Expanded. In Limited, as is
often the case, things change. Its Ability may or
may not come in handy for something other than itself,
or at all, as your opponent’s attack selection is going
to seem kind of random because this is Limited; the most
commonly seen example of the Limited Format is the
Pre-Release, where you get six booster packs (plus up to
39 Basic Energy cards) to build a 40 card deck, and
because the decks are smaller you play with four Prizes
instead of six. Big Basic Pokémon and complete
Evolution lines are often a luxury (sometimes a
Luxray) and because you are working with whatever
you got, decks are rarely monotype but instead consist
of at least two Energy Types (and without the usual
tricks that makes it common in constructed formats).
So long story short, a 100 HP Stage 1 that can attack
using any Energy and (thanks to its own Ability) can’t
have its damage reduced is a good pull, even when just
hitting for the base 50 damage.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5
Expanded:
1.75/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
Please note that if I am totally wrong about how Zap
Zone interacts with Clear Humming, then the Standard and
Expanded scores should jump a quarter point each.
Even with that, though, this seems like someone tried to
combine two specializations and instead of giving the
card broader usage, like how Keldeo-EX is used
for its Ability or attack or both, here it will be one
or the other and rarely the two together because it will
be redundant. You have Raichu for your
Stage 1 Lightning-Type attacker that can be splashed
into almost anything, and if the deck demands a small
Bench then would you even have room for Zebstrika?
As you can tell,
Zebstrika didn’t make my list, but it did make the
site’s Top 12 as the number 12 pick. In terms of
voting points, it had 10 which tied Slowking (XY:
BREAKpoint 21/122) and was only one point away from
tying our 9th and 10th place subjects, though also only
one point away from being tied by our 13th place pick,
Trevenant BREAK. I haven’t heard of this
doing well in current competitive play but then again,
it only became legal for competitive play during the
last weekend of the 2016 Winter Regionals. I also
have noticed this card making a few Top X lists on other
sites, so maybe I just missed something?
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