aroramage |
Welcome to another exciting week of
Sun & Moon reviews! Today we get to cover the one
Starter-GX that didn't make it into the Top 10,
Incineroar-GX. While we can agree that Decidueye-GX
deserves his spot, and we may have different opinions on
Primarina-GX, Incineroar-GX is pretty much an agreeable
skip in sorting out the Top 10, and we'll get to see
why.
To his credit, Hustling Strike is a
decent first attack. For 1 Energy, it may only deal 10
damage, but it does an extra 20 damage for every Fire
Pokemon on your Bench. Ideally you stack up to 4 Fire
Pokemon onto the Bench to hit 90 damage, though at that
point you might as well fill it out to 5 for 110 damage
(or 8 if you play Sky Field to boost it up to a
potential 170), thus allowing Incineroar-GX to cheaply
hit anything for a lot of damage...I say cheaply, but
realistically this means running enough Fire Pokemon to
flesh out your Bench without setting up potential
Lysandre targets for your opponent to get around. Not to
mention this is all to make the weakest attack
Incineroar-GX has good.
Tiger Swing isn't that impressive
though. For 3 Energy, you deal 80 damage and flip two
coins for an extra 50 damage per head. On average, you
should be dealing 130 damage, which is pretty nice, but
otherwise you're gonna be dealing either 180 damage,
which is amazing, or 80 damage, which is insulting, and
that sort of inconsistency isn't looked highly upon in
the competitive scene. Not to mention the damage
variation means that Incineroar-GX is likely to 2HKO
more than OHKO most anything in the game, though worst
case scenario means he's 3HKO-ing Basic Pokemon-EX or
GX.
And then we come to Burning Slam
GX, which is a powerful 3-for-200 blow that Burns the
opponent's Pokemon. For anyone not in the know on Burn,
it's a Status that is similar to Poison in that it deals
damage between turns, the only difference being that it
involves a coin flip. Prior to the Sun & Moon expansion,
Burns were dealt with by flipping a coin, and if you
landed Tails, the Burn would deal 20 damage. Now,
though, there's been a slight ruling update: now no
matter what, the Burn deals 20 damage FIRST, and THEN
the coin flip is made, with a heads curing the Pokemon
and tails keeping it Burned. The important thing to take
from that is this: Burning Slam GX is essentially a
3-for-220, where 20 damage is dealt between turns. This
is often enough going to KO something inbetween turns,
at least anything short of a Mega-EX and Stage 2
Pokemon-GX.
So what does this mean? Incineroar-GX
basically has only one really good attack, but it can
only be used once per game, locks out all your other GX
attacks, and applies a status effect that will most
likely KO the Pokemon it's afflicting - if it's not
already KO'd, thus rendering it a bit moot. Hustling
Strike requires investment in Bench space real estate,
and Tiger Swing will range wildly back and forth so that
it's not a consistent means of defeating Pokemon. So
while Decidueye-GX runs rampant shooting arrows at
everything, and Primarina-GX sings in the background to
heal off damage and discard Energies, Incineroar-GX is
left behind to try and figure out how to make things
work for himself without demanding so much from everyone
around him.
Maybe he'll get a Dark version of
himself?
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (at least he's got
250 HP to work with)
Expanded: 2/5 (and Fire's pretty
popular with Volcanion, so he's got that going for him)
Limited: 4/5 (but on his own, well,
he's really only good in a small pool)
Arora Notealus: This generation's
starters all have amazing evolutions, in my opinion -
they each bring a unique Typing to the main evolutions,
and their designs are all amazing! Decidueye, Incineroar,
and Primarina - probably some of the best starter
line-ups in a Pokemon game...for a long while? Or maybe
ever? Hmmmm...
Next Time: Time to look at some
small fry.
|
Otaku |
*cue intro*
That’s right, today
we look at the one fully Evolved Sun & Moon
starter Pokémon to not make the Top 10:
Incineroar-GX (Sun & Moon 27/149)! This
card did not even qualify as a runner-up from our
top 10 countdown, but we’ll get to the next in line for
those cards later this week. Does that mean this
is a bad card? Let’s take a look at it in detail
and try to figure this out! So as the name reminds
us, this is a Pokémon-GX and so it gives up an extra
Prize when KO’d; this is the same baggage that
Pokémon-EX face, but without having to deal with
mechanic specific counters (we don’t have
anti-Pokémon-GX effects) or being excluded from
beneficial effects yet. Based on
translations, we will be seeing such things eventually,
but for now the only effect that references Pokémon-GX
is the “Lunar Fall-GX” attack found on Lunala-GX,
and that is a good thing for Pokémon-GX because it
states that the attack’s effect (KO an opponent’s Basic)
doesn’t apply to them. Being a Pokémon-GX includes
an HP boost and having a GX-attack in addition to two
other attacks or an Ability plus an attack, all of which
we’ll detail later.
Incineroar-GX
is a Fire Type; in terms of Weakness and Resistance,
most Grass and nearly all Metal Type Pokémon are Fire
Weak while nothing is Fire Resistance (as we are not
dealing with the Unlimited Format). This is fairly
good; after all, we had not
one
but
two
Grass Type Pokémon-GX make our recent Sun & Moon
top 10 list. Of course, the actual metagame will
vary (neither did as well at the most recent Regional
Championship as I expected), but combined with some of
the Grass Types we already had, it is still a good
thing. The rest of what the Type brings is a mixed
blessing; the short version is that there is some very
good Fire Type support (even more in Expanded than
Standard), but not only does much of it work
better with other Fire Types, the most noteworthy in
Standard play - Volcanion-EX - is for Basic
Fire Pokémon, not Evolutions. As a Stage 2, not
only is Incineroar-GX unable to make use of such
a thing, but it has the baggage of needing extra
time and space to Evolve. There are also some
effects that specifically punish Fire Pokémon or Energy
usage, but the only thing particularly relevant is
Parallel City; one side of it caps a player’s Bench
size to three Pokémon while the other subtracts 20 from
the damage done by the attacks of Fire, Grass, and Water
Types. I’ll explain later, but odds are your
opponent will benefit more from shrinking and
restricting your Bench.
Incineroar-GX
does sport an impressive 250 HP to (somewhat) compensate
for being a Stage 2 and Pokémon-GX; nothing has a higher
printed HP score, and at least for now, it only has
shown up on a few other Stage 2 Pokémon-GX plus
Wailord-EX. This is enough to frequently
survive an attack, but there are plenty of exceptions,
especially among Water Types thanks to its Water
Weakness. You have some technical attackers that
suddenly do good damage, in addition to having awesome
attack effects and big hits that now secure a OHKO with
less effort (sometimes when they couldn’t have
otherwise). Vaporeon (XY: Ancient Origins
means any Stage 1 attacker might double as a
Water Type. The lack of Resistance is typical, and
I am starting to think it does matter a bit more on
these massive Pokémon-GX; -20 on top of 250 HP has a
better chance of buying an extra turn. The Retreat
Cost of [CCC] definitely matters; you’ll probably
want options to help a stranded Incineroar-GX
tank or get out of the Active slot without retreating at
full price, and probably both.
Incineroar-GX
sports two regular attacks in addition to its
once-per-game GX-attack. First up is “Hustling
Strike” which costs [R] and does 10+ damage, where the
“+” is 20 more damage for each of your Benched Fire Type
Pokémon. This means a base damage range from 10
(nothing on your Bench) to 110. Parallel City
knocks the maximum down to 70 by capping your Bench size
at three, while Sky Field allows you to have up
to eight Pokémon on your Bench, which means upwards of
170 damage if all are Fire Types. For a
single [R] Energy, this is good; even if you’re not
scoring OHKO’s, remember that you’ve got 250 HP, and
could Max Potion away the damage you do take
between uses of Hustling Blow. The second attack
is “Tiger Swing” for [RRC], which does 80+ damage.
This time, the “+” is two coin flips, where each “heads”
adds 50 damage and each “tails” changes nothing.
That means one in four possible outcomes yields 80
damage, one in four yields 180, and the remaining two
out of four yields 130; 130 mean damage is again enough
for 2HKO’s, with the flips being neither too risky or
profitable. The third and final attack is “Burning
Slam-GX”, which also costs [RRC]. This attack does
200 damage and Burns the opponent’s Active;
thanks to the new Burn rules, that means you’ll net an
effective 220 damage, enough to OHKO most
Pokémon. Maybe more if the afflicted Pokémon fails
his or her Burn check (now making it removes Burn) and
doesn’t otherwise shake the Special Condition.
This isn’t a brilliant GX-attack, but I think it is a
good one. Putting it all together, it seems like
Hustling Strike would have to be the deck focus, but
the other two are decent fallback options, even
factoring in the flips or one-time usage.
So how about the
rest of the line? We already have three
Litten to consider: SM: Black Star Promos
SM02, Sun & Moon 24/149, and SM: Black Star
Promos SM08. We only have Sun & Moon
25/149 for Torracat, while for regular
Incineroar, it is just Sun & Moon 26/149. All
members of this line (including Incineroar-GX)
are Fire Type Pokémon with Water Weakness, no
Resistance, and lacking an Ability. All Litten
are Basic Pokémon with Retreat Cost [C]. SM: Black
Star Promos SM02 has 60 HP and the attack
“Combustion” for [RC], doing 30 damage. Sun & Moon
24/149 70 HP, the attack “Bite” for [R] doing 10 damage
plus the attack “Flare” for [RC] doing 20. SM: Black
Star Promos SM08 is back to having 60 HP, but also
with two attacks: “Collect” costs [C] and lets you draw
a card while “Scratch” costs [RC] and does 20 damage.
None of these are great; and even taking their best
features (70 HP, Collect, and Combustion) would still
give us a filler Basic just meant to act as a stepping
stone for Evolutions, but with what we have available
I’d go with the +10 HP of Sun & Moon 24/149. Torracat
(Sun & Moon 25/149) is a Stage 1 with 90 HP,
Retreat Cost [CC] and two attacks: “Fury Swipes” needs
[R] and has you flip three coins, each good for 20
damage per “heads”, while [RRC] pays for “Flamethrower”
and 90 damage, but you also must discard an attached
Energy card from Torracat itself. No other
options for this Stage yet, except Rare Candy. Incineroar-GX
can attack for a single Energy, so I would definitely
include Rare Candy, but Item lock means I
definitely would also include Torracat.
Incineroar
(Sun & Moon 26/149) is a Stage 2 with 160 HP,
which means today’s actual subject received a +90 HP
bonus for being a Pokémon-GX. 160 is still somewhat
solid, with a decent chance of surviving a hit. It
has the same chunky Retreat Cost of [CCC] as well.
For [RC] it can use “Fire Fang” for 30 damage and Burn,
which is solid; two Energy for about 50 damage.
For [RRC] this Incineroar may use “Darkest
Lariat” instead; you flip two coins and do 100 damage
per “heads”. This is mediocre, as again the odds
are one-in-four for both minimum and maximum base
damage, or two in four for the middle amount of damage.
The big difference is the spread; minimum damage is
zero, while the maximum is 200. The mean,
median, and mode all end up being the same 100 points of
damage; a decent return for 100 damage, but while
hitting 200 damage is higher than on Tiger Swing, it
just isn’t worth one in four outcomes being no damage.
Unless we get some real strong anti-Pokémon-GX in the
future and (for whatever reason), we can’t counter it in
a better way, I won’t be using this Incineroar at
all, even as a one-of with today’s Incineroar-GX.
I risked my review
going up late so that I could at least try a couple of
games with Incineroar-GX; unfortunately, I had
nowhere near enough time to carefully test over a couple
dozen matches. I’m not sure if I got even a
half-dozen games in, and that is a pathetic
sampling size; the evidence I am about to present is
thus anecdotal, save where it pertains to my experience
in trying to build a deck around this card. Both
approaches I tried, I cannot claim as my own. I
wasn’t using someone else’s lists, but in hindsight,
perhaps I ought to have because things went terribly.
It is possible that most of my problems came from bad
luck (I was constantly struggling to draw what I needed
when I needed it) or from bad matchups (so few matches
and at least one was against a Water Type deck).
All attempts were in the Standard Format. First I
tried the Sky Field/Hustling Strike focused deck.
The huge issue is finding enough room for everything you
need for the strategy (Max Potion, Sky Field,
Fire Types for your Bench), and everything you need for
the deck to run well (draw and search cards, maybe a few
less general Supporters and Items). Professor
Sycamore and Ultra Ball are your best friends
and worst enemies, as they can get you what you need but
so often force you to toss something else you’ll need
soon (sometimes later that same turn!). Shifting
focus away from Sky Field to a more general “big
Fire” kind of build, things didn’t go much better.
I suspect this was because I foolishly still tried to
rely too much on Hustling Strike (even with four Fire
Types on your Bench, it’s a decent attack) and Max
Potion, making it too difficult to use the other
attacks as I ought to have been. Plus, I totally
did have multiple misplays while learning the deck, but
that isn’t an uncommon thing for me with proven decks I
know.
Here is what nearly
seemed to work, because odds are almost even that
Incineroar-GX is never going to cut it or I just
didn’t build and run it anywhere close to optimally.
When you can pull off the Sky Field trick,
Hustling Strike can be very threatening, but you
have to remember that many Pokémon right now are Mega
Evolutions, Evolved Pokémon-GX, or the usual 170 to 180
HP Basic Pokémon-EX bulked up to 210-220 HP thanks to
Fighting Fury Belt. Throw in the demands of
filling your Bench the first time and then refilling
it after Sky Field gets discarded, and even if
you want to go this route, it shouldn’t be your only
focus. Maybe just one or two Sky Field, so
you can pounce on the opportunity should it present
itself? I tried Scorched Earth as an
alternate Stadium, but I think that requires more Energy
(or cards that add Energy from discard to hand) than I
had room for, so it didn’t work out too great either.
Max Potion also underperformed; your 250 HP will
usually take two hits to drop, often enough three…
but even with Puzzle of Time, I would run out
of Max Potion pretty quick. One may be
Prized. You’ll probably have to toss another with
Professor Sycamore or Ultra Ball unless
you go a full-on alternate Trainer engine.
Volcanion
(XY: Black Star Promos XY145; XY: Steam Siege
25/114) is a pretty obvious inclusion; it is a big,
Basic Pokémon that is not a Pokémon-EX or
Pokémon-GX. For [R], it can do a little damage
while attaching a [R] Energy to up to two of your
Benched Pokémon; this makes some of the bigger attacks a
lot more affordable. At the same time, once you
have Incineroar-GX up and running, now your
opponent can Lysandre it up front and try for a
OHKO if you haven’t finished your Max Potion
regimen. While it helped with reusing discarded
Fire Energy itself, that wasn’t enough to make use
of the larger attacks on Incineroar, at least as
often as I wanted: none of my deck builds had room for
the additional Fire Energy and Energy supporting
Trainers of a Volcanion-EX deck. My initial
Husting Strike focused attempt only ran seven or eight
Fire Energy… when you’re attacking for just one
most of the time, that seemed like it ought to be
enough, and has been in other decks, but not here.
I experimented with a few other Basic Fire Types, but
they just didn’t add anything worthwhile besides a few
extra bodies if I had room via Sky Field for
them. I didn’t use any Basic Pokémon-EX because
they interfered too much with the tanking strategy; if
my opponents were already trying to exploit a Benched
Volcanion, how much more a Benched Charizard-EX
or Emboar-EX that might still fall into OHKO
range. After all, I couldn’t afford to run
Fighting Fury Belt as it wouldn’t help Incineroar-GX.
On the Pokémon Tool
front, I did give Heavy Boots a try; if the rest
of the deck wouldn’t constantly whiff, that +20 HP would
have come in handy. The rest of the deck did
frequently fail, however, which meant most of the time I
had no Incineroar-GX to make use of the Item, or
no Energy for it to attack with, or no Max Potion
to heal after hanging on a turn. I tried out
Weakness Policy but, as expected, running one meant
it couldn’t reliably show up when I needed it… not even
as discard fodder! If it would clutter my hand, it
would show up, so most of the time I slapped it on a
Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108,
106/108), which I used to augment my draw most of the
time, even if it meant a lower damage output for
Hustling Strike until my opponent gave me an excuse to
discard it (Parallel City) or forced it up for an
easy OHKO. I am thinking now that Exp. Share
and/or Float Stone would have served me better,
but I didn’t have a tremendous amount of room for Tools
as is; I think I could only fit in three total.
Something that may help Incineroar-GX are
some future cards, revealed in Japan. There is an
upcoming Fire Type Oricorio; it is a 90 HP Basic
that (sadly) is still Water Weak, but its first
attack costs [R] and - if it was translated accurately -
allows you to search your deck for and Bench three
Fire Type Pokémon. Still a bit slow (you can’t
attack if you go first), but it might improve
reliability. The other upcoming release is
Choice Band, currently a promo in Japan. While
attached, that Pokémon does and extra 30 damage to
Pokémon-EX or Pokémon-GX. Unlike Silver Bangle
(which granted +30 against Pokémon-EX), there are no
attachment restrictions. This means Incineroar-GX
itself can more easily reach (or reach at all) certain
key HP scores with its three attacks. Expect to
see Choice Band in a lot of decks.
So for Standard
play, I recommend cautious testing for Incineroar-GX.
On paper, I like its stats and attack, but in practice,
I couldn’t make it work; so many cool combos, but too
little deck space for making a reliable deck build, let
alone adding in all those TecHs and tricks. I
didn’t try it for Expanded play; Blacksmith and
Battle Compressor could really help Tiger Swing
and Burning Slam-GX in setting up all quick and
reliable. You’ve also got Muscle Band for
extra damage, and either Trick Coin or Victini
(BW: Noble Victories 14/101, 98/101; BW: Black
Star Promos BW32; BW: Legendary Treasures
23/113) to reflip for Tiger Swing. You also have
more competition, not just for Fire decks but in
general. This includes some crazy fast decks, some
crazy hard hitting decks, and some crazy lock decks, all
of which will mess with this cat. It is a great
pull for Limited play, assuming you get the full line
and can run a deck built around mostly Fire Energy.
Don’t rely on Hustling Strike, as there is a lot
of Water Types in Sun & Moon, so even if you do
pull enough Growlithe (Sun & Moon 21/149),
Litten, and Torkoal (23/149) to reliably
fill your Bench, include some variety. As
an added bonus, regular Incineroar can help out a
lot more here.
Ratings
Standard:
2.25/5
Expanded:
2.25/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Summary
Perhaps it is just
my love of cats that blinded me, or my inner-Timmy,
Johnny, and pyromaniac all joining together to override
my not-so-inner Spike’s blunt warnings about how a Stage
2 attacker is too slow, especially one that isn’t all
about self-contained brute force. Every trick
Incineroar-GX does, something else seems to do
better, though not all the same tricks at the same time.
I’ve got some small hope left for the future of this
card, though.
If you think I was
all keyed up earlier in my review, it gets worse: both
times while “grading” these cards, to work out my
personal top 10 list for the set, I awarded
Incineroar-GX a “B-”. Converting the above
numerical score to those letter grades is a “D+”.
So yeah, this was supposed to be one of the highlights
of this week.
|
