aroramage |
Clefairy...is a weird Pokemon.
Really, it's no different from its Base Set counterpart,
the only real difference is the change to become
Fairy-type...and all the associated Weaknesses and
Resistances thereof. But that's about it.
Clefairy has no damaging moves,
only two...interesting moves. Sing costs 1 Energy and
has a 50/50 shot at putting the opponent to sleep, as
well as having a 100% chance of putting me to sleep from
how BOOOOOOOOORIIIIIIIIIING it is. SNOOOOOOOOOORE!!
Meanwhile, Metronome, the arguably more interesting
attack, costs a whopping 3 Energy and copies an
opponent's attacks off their Active Pokemon. Certainly
there's a lot of potential in a card like that, but if
people weren't player M Gengar-EX from Phantom Forces
for his Phantom Gate attack, which had a much larger
range on it, why would you use Clefairy's Metronome to
do something like that...but worse?
And on a 40 HP Basic?
And for 3 Energy?
With no guarantee of a KO?
Against a format of Pokemon-EX and
Megas?
Yeah, no thanks, I'm out.
Rating
Standard: 1/5 (sure, there's a lot
of potential to troll the heck out of your opponent with
Metronome KOing their guy)
Expanded: 1/5 (but with no other
updates to her attacks or her abilities, Clefairy is
just extremely outdated)
Limited: 1.5/5 (the attack is way
too overcosted to be feasible on a Basic with such low
health)
Arora Notealus: It's not Clefairy's
fault she's not as useful anymore. She just gave herself
a slight makeover and ended up walking into the new
party, only to find everyone else has changed and she's
just remained the same...story of my life-I mean, what,
I didn't say anything.
Next Time: BREAKing better than the
bite!
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Otaku |
Today we look at
Clefairy (XY: Evolutions 63/108). Yes,
that is right: we are looking at not only another
Evolving Basic, but one from XY: Evolutions
again! As a Basic, this card is easy to sneak
into decks, and even to sneak into play thanks to
Ninja Boy. Being a Fairy Type isn’t a big deal
for exploiting Weakness (only XY-era Dragons need fear)
but nothing is Resistant and they’ve got some solid
support. 40 HP is the second-lowest a Pokémon can have;
nothing that is actually a Pokémon (as opposed to a
Trainer that acts like a Pokémon) has less. Not
gonna lie; this hurts. At least it makes the Metal
Weakness nearly irrelevant; attacks that do 10 damage
still miss the OHKO (unless boosted), and attacks that
do 40 or more already had the OHKO, so just attacks
doing 20 and 30 damage benefit. Darkness
Resistance isn’t likely to matter given the HP, but you
may be lucky and irritate something like Yveltal
(XY 78/146; XY: Black Star Promos XY06;
Generations RC16/RC32; XY: Steam Siege
65/114), which otherwise would just need Fighting
Fury Belt and a single [D] Energy to score a OHKO.
The Retreat Cost of [C] is usually easy to pay upfront
and in the long run, though it also seems typical of
Evolving Basics. The first attack on Clefairy
is “Sing” for [C]; you flip a coin and, if “heads”, the
opponent’s Active is now Asleep (“tails” does nothing).
Not the best stalling attack, but at least there is a
chance and it isn’t pricey. The second attack is
“Metronome” and it is a bit pricey at [CCC], but it
allows you to select one of the opponent’s attacks and
use it. Metronome can be a steal when copying an
attack that is more expensive, on a higher Stage of
Evolution, or both, but it can also be a dud if the
opponent lacks an attack worth copying.
We won’t be looking
at the other Clefairy today; some of them may be
tempting if you want to Evolve into Clefable as
they have more HP and still have an attack that isn’t
worthless for trying to survive until the next turn, but
I still might like having access to Metronome. Is
it that great an attack? On its own, no.
What makes it more useful is if your deck has room for
Ninja Boy and/or is likely to build up Energy
attachments on the Bench. Three Energy isn’t
inexpensive, but with cards like Max Elixir and
Double Colorless Energy, you will be able to
power up Clefairy in a single go some of the
time. If you have something with little injury,
you can even use Ninja Boy to completely surprise
your opponent. I’ve seen Clefairy pop up
from time to time, and while I wasn’t overly impressed,
I also wasn’t unimpressed. Consider it if your
deck fits the bill in Standard or Expanded play; we have
one of those oddball situations where it will work a bit
differently in Expanded, but the increased help comes
with increased counters so I expect it to mostly even
out. Definitely a nice option for Limited play; if
your opponent busts out something amazing, Clefairy
may be a glass cannon, but that is better than no cannon
at all. Unless your opponent has nothing worth
copying, but the idea of insurance is “just in case”.
Oh… and did I
mention as we get more Pokémon-GX, while it will still
use up your GX attack for the game, Metronome can indeed
copy these powerful attacks. Some are context
sensitive and thus kind of pointless, while others will
be fantastic bargains.
Ratings
Standard:
2.5/5
Expanded:
2.5/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
Clefairy (XY: Evolutions 63/108) is an
update to the original Clefairy (Base Set
5/102; Base Set 2 6/130). Other than
language revisions, the only difference is that the
original is a Colorless Type. I would have
preferred they buff it a bit more, but while power creep
has tried to leave it behind, the nature of the card
pool and metagame may make this version better. I
didn’t expect anything out of today’s Clefairy
when I first saw it, but now? It might make for
some interesting plays in the right decks. Try it
out, and even if it doesn’t show promise immediately,
keep an eye on it.
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