aroramage |
Manectric-EX and M Manectric-EX
were probably the first Mega deck that everyone was
excited to play when it came out in Phantom Forces.
Sure, we had Gengar-EX/M Gengar-EX, but only one of
those was ridiculously playable, and while we had had
several other Megas show up by then, it wasn't until
this set that Spirit Links started getting printed and
became an essential staple into the decks.
Manectric-EX has a lot going for
him, being a 170 HP EX with his most expensive attack
costing only 2 Energy. Overrun is a simple starting
attack though, at 1-for-20 that also did an extra 20
damage to a Benched Pokemon. Nothing to get terribly
excited for, in all honesty. Assault Laser though costs
2 Energy, and it deals 60 damage plus 60 more damage if
the opposing Pokemon has a Tool attached to it.
That was all fine and dandy in its
own right - Muscle Band was proving to be a popular
card, after all - but this set also brought with it Team
Flare Gear, which were Tools that could be attached to
the opposing Pokemon to inflict crippling effects on
them. Combined with Assault Laser, Manectric-EX could
easily overpower opponents that were struck with a Head
Ringer or a Jamming Net and take an early lead!
Rating
Standard: N/A
Expanded: 3.5/5 (a pretty good
start-up, which sadly not many Pokemon with Mega
Evolutions can say at the moment)
Limited: 4.5/5 (and probably one of
the best Pokemon in the set)
------
And then M Manectric-EX showed up,
and it was just a matter of time.
Arguably the best Mega Pokemon
 ever
printed, M Manectric-EX comes in with the lower end of
210 HP but a single attack that only costs 2 Energy - an
insanely low number compared to the 3-4 Energy costs of
some of the other Megas (or 5 Energy, if you look at M
Steelix-EX). Only top of that, Turbo Bolt didn't just
deal 110 damage - it brought out any 2 basic Energy
cards and attached them to one of your Benched Pokemon.
Which if that just so happened to
be another Manectric-EX or even another M Manectric-EX,
well then you were pretty much set!
The deck has had a good following
throughout its lifespan in Standard, and I imagine it'll
continue to hurry along in Expanded without too much to
worry about. After all, how many other Megas can tote
that they can deal a good bit of damage while also
charging up their Benched Pokemon?
Rating
Standard: N/A
Expanded: 4/5 (an awesome Mega
Evolution that deserves a lot of respect for what it can
do)
Limited: 5/5 (powerful, chargeable,
and cheap!)
Arora Notealus: The Manectric
line-up is one that, while not as dominating in the
game, held a lot of speed and power that could leave
other decks in the dust. That said, there wasn't much it
could do against decks of its time period if they got
set-up, and that's the real kicker - against slower
decks, the deck could power through and dominate, but
against fast decks with fast set-ups, it ends up falling
behind.
Next Time: The greatest fighter of
our time!...or at least one of them.
|
Otaku |
Today we have an
intentional draw for our review. Why?
Because the two cards involved are so closely
related it seemed like a waste to treat them as separate
entities: Manectric-EX (XY: Phantom Forces
23/119, 113/119) and M Manectric-EX (XY:
Phantom Forces 24/119, 114/119). If you want
to see what we initially thought of them, Manectric-EX
was our
10th place
finisher
and M Manectric-EX our
6th place pick when we gave our Top 10 picks for XY: Phantom Forces.
Though not perfect, those reviews are pretty good.
It helps to remember that the Standard Format was still
BW: Boundaries Crossed through XY: Phantom
Forces: Lysandre’s Trump Card had just
debuted (instead of having been used, abused, and
finally banned), while several important cards
like Acro Bike, Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring
Skies 77/108, 106/108), and Trainer’s Mail
were still a set or two away. If you don’t
feel like reading though, I’ll run through Manectric-EX
and M Manectric-EX quick. Both are
Lightning Type Pokémon-EX with Fighting Weakness, Metal
Resistance, no Ancient Traits, and no Abilities.
So… what does that mean?
Being a Lightning
Type means exploiting some key bits of Weakness;
Yveltal-EX and Shaymin-EX are two of the
noteworthy examples that reward you for running a
Lightning Type attacker. Lightning Resistance
seems limited to certain BW-era Fighting Type Pokémon;
good that it is relatively rare but bad in that
Manectric-EX, M Manectric-EX, and most other
Lightning Type are Fighting Weak. Anti-Lightning
Type effects are almost non-existent, which is good for
the Lightning Type. There isn’t a lot of explicit
Lighting Type Pokémon support and what is there is good
but not great: Flash Energy, Rough Seas,
and Zebstrika (XY: BREAKpoint 49/122).
Things are arguably a bit better on the [L] Energy
front, mostly because Eelektrik (BW: Noble
Victories 40/101) is still a solid form of Energy
acceleration in Expanded and was originally great when
introduced to the Standard Format years ago. Magnezone
(XY: BREAKthrough 54/162) provides mass [L]
Energy acceleration from hand, is Standard legal, but it
has not proven competitive (I almost didn’t
mention it). There are some Lightning Type
attackers worth noting like Jolteon-EX, Raikou,
and Raikou-EX, plus while it is a Dragon Type,
Rayquaza-EX (BW: Dragons Exalted 85/124,
123/124; BW: Black Star Promos BW47) runs
(mostly) on Lightning Energy. So the
Lightning Type isn’t totally lacking in anyone area, but
its strength comes from Type matching.
Pokémon-EX means
give up an extra Prize when KO’d, are targeted by
certain counters, and excluded from certain pieces of
support. So far it has also always meant better
stats (usually HP), being a Basic or Mega Evolution
instead of the usual Stage plus a BREAK Evolution, and
often means improved effects (some Pokémon-EX are real
duds though). Manectric-EX is a Basic, which is
as good as it gets; minimum card count to run, no
waiting to Evolve, etc. M Manectric-EX is a Mega
Evolution, so you do have to run two cards instead of
one, wait a turn to attack, and (if you can’t get
Manectric Spirit Link into place) your turn ends
when you Mega Evolve. It also includes access to
Mega Evolution support but dealing with Mega Evolution
counters. Manectric-EX has 170 HP while M
Manectric-EX has 210; the former is the lower of the
two typical scores while the latter is a bit low for a
Mega Evolution. Both are high enough that the
cards aren’t often facing rapid, reliable, repeated
OHKOs but low enough that at least one (usually two) of
those “three R’s” apply. Fighting Weakness is
dangerous because it allows that Type to claim all three
R’s, even in Standard and whether Manectric-EX or
M Manectric-EX is up front. Resistance
isn’t a major lifesaver, but having any is better than
none and you can do worse than Metal Resistance.
The Retreat Cost of [C] on Manectric-EX is good
(easy to pay and recover from having to pay) while the
free Retreat Cost on M Manectric-EX is perfect.
Let us take a look
at what these two Pokémon can actually do. Manectric-EX
has two attacks. “Overrun” costs [C] and does 20 to the
opponent’s Active and 20 to one of your opponent’s
Benched Pokémon. For [LC] it can use “Assault
Laser” for a solid 60 before its effect; +60
damage if the opponent’s Active has a Tool attached.
This isn’t mindblowing, but it’s good; up to 40 damage
for one Energy and 120 for two. As long as it has
a low cost like Overrun, some small Active/Bench split
can be handy for finishing off something hiding on the
Bench while few decks lack Pokémon Tools, and most
stick them on the important cards. M Manectric-EX
only has one attack, “Turbo Bolt”, and the cost is still
just [LC]. This keeps the entire line inexpensive
with both Max Elixir and Mega Turbo being
options (before and after Mega Evolving, respectively)
for Energy acceleration. That is mostly a backup
(or startup) plan though because Turbo Bolt does 110
damage while attaching two Basic Energy cards from your
discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon. This
means one M Manectric-EX can set up the next and
you’ll still have a manual Energy attachment to spare.
In fact if M Manectric-EX isn’t being OHKO’d and
you have the Energy available, the first M Manectric-EX
can set up two more while your manual Energy attachments
set up a fourth!
Which is just how
Manectric-EX and M Manectric-EX have been
used in competitive play, with much success. The
moderate damage amounts often become OHKOs thanks to
Weakness, and while Turbo Bolt cannot make use of
Special Energy cards there is enough basic Energy
support that an M Manectric-EX deck can easily
accommodate a non-Lightning Type attacker, even one with
heavier Energy demands. Cards that just need a
single Energy don’t really need M Manectric-EX
while those that need four or more tax even Turbo Bolt,
but those with two or three Energy requirements are
“just right”, especially if only one of those Energy
requirements is Type specific if it is not an [L]
requirement. This has enabled M Manectric-EX
decks to take a Toolbox approach, where you have
different attackers (based on Type and/or attack
effects) that you favor for a particular match up, but
the deck itself runs a variety. For example,
Jolteon-EX is on Type anyway, but has a free Retreat
Cost and useful walling effect from its second attack,
while Glaceon-EX and Regice are off Type,
don’t Retreat for free but do have good walling
effects in their second attacks (and covering a match up
than Jolteon-EX). Manectric-EX can be
quite fierce as well, with abundant Pokémon-EX usage and
Pokémon Tool F cards or Lysandre and Shaymin-EX
making for some fast and/or safe Prizes. This is
just a sampling of the ideas that have been built around
these two (together or separate), and if you didn’t
notice the lack of Abilities, I’ll add that yes they
sometimes are also backed with Garbodor (BW:
Dragons Exalted 54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze
119/116; BW: Legendary Treasures 68/113) or
Garbodor (XY: BREAKpoint 57/122).
Okay, so these are
good cards, but why are they more important than all but
18 of the other cards that rotated out of Standard play
alongside them? They do lose access to Pokémon
Tool F cards, but they also lose a lot of rivals and
counters. As stated before, the Fighting Weakness
is dangerous but it is safer in Standard than in
Expanded. Standard has no Trainer based Tool
removal (at least not yet) so players are running more
Tools, which helps Assault Laser. While Mega
Evolutions are on a lot of people’s minds when it comes
to the competitive scene, seems like there is actually a
good deal of variety for intended Active Pokémon; that
means Assault Laser and Turbo Bolt can enjoy OHKOs
against the smaller Actives and 2HKOs against the larger
ones. If that seems obvious, remember that in
Standard there is no more Night March and Karen
may make Vespiquen (XY: Ancient Origins
10/98) obsolete as a main attacker, so this level of
damage output can better keep up. Type matching is
trickier because players are still figuring out the
Standard Format, but it looks like those skilled at
reading a metagame can make sure to run the right
supporting attackers alongside M Manectric-EX to
optimize results at tournaments. So no single,
blatant reason but a lot of smaller points that all add
up.
Keep enjoying
Manectric-EX and M Manectric-EX in Expanded.
Both are great cards that can still do well, plus
Karen is here now to reduce the number of Night
March and Vespiquen match ups. If you
manage some Limited Format play with XY: Phantom
Forces, which is impressive as most Pokémon Limited
play comes in the form of Pre-Releases, then
Manectric-EX is a fantastic pull and almost
certainly is going into your deck. M Manectric-EX
needs Manectric-EX but as long as that is the
case, it too is going into your deck. Normally I’d
be more certain, but this set includes some obvious
exceptions; Night March Pokémon (remember the rule of
four doesn’t apply in Limited), plus a few other Basic
Pokémon-EX that might be worth running completely on
their own, even if you pulled Manectric-EX.
Ratings
Manectric-EX
Standard:
N/A
Expanded:
3.65/5
Limited:
4.5/5
M Manectric-EX
Standard:
N/A
Expanded:
3.9/5
Limited:
4.25/5
Summary:
Manectric-EX and M Manectric-EX are two
strong Pokémon-EX that we usually see together, but
Manectric-EX may be worth it solo. They’ve
been a part of multiple decks, sometimes as the main
attacker while other times acting as a lead in for
something else. They provide Energy acceleration
from the discard pile via attack; sometimes this is bad
but usually it’s great! If they had stuck around,
they had good prospects of remaining a strong play for
Standard, and will remain one for Expanded. Like
all cards, some hypothetical future release could
totally ruin them, but what I would actually be on the
lookout for is some future attacker or Bench-sitter that
combos with them, elevating them into the spotlight once
again. I don’t expect it, but it’s happened
often enough I would be foolish to forget about these
two!
Manectric-EX
and M Manectric-EX together amassed 15 voting
points. They beat
yesterday’s
Fiery Torch by 4 voting points, a reasonably
comfy margin. I actually expected the two
(especially when combined) to clock in much higher; my
own list put them as #12 and while I’m already
nitpicking my own choices, I do think they were robbed
at least a little. I am glad they didn’t make it
super high either though; there were a lot of general
(and a few deck specific) cards that have proven to be
an even more jarring loss.
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