aroramage |
Welcome to our first Top 10 List of
2017! And with it, the dawn of a new era! The bright
light of the shining sun of a generation! Or the light
shining off the moon...of the
next...generation...something like that. To be honest,
it looks like this list has been a bit...divisive
between the rest of us. A lot of these cards got very
similar scores for whatever reason or another, but
despite fighting tooth-and-nail, only ten of them get
onto the list.
Sometimes this comes from scoring
on everyone's lists, and sometimes it comes from scoring
high on one person's list. In fact, Primarina-GX is
probably here because I take sole credit for putting it
so high up on my list. Is she worth the hype being sold,
or is she just going to flounder about in a pool of
water? Only time will tell, but let's see if I can't
convince you of her exceptional prowess.
First of all, she is a Pokemon-GX.
You might call this a rebranding of Pokemon-EX, but
instead of every Pokemon getting treated as a Basic to
start with, Pokemon-GX are actual evolutionary lines -
more like Pokemon Prime or the older Pokemon-ex (lower
case, yes). Very similar rules apply - when a Pokemon-GX
is KO'd, the opponent takes two Prizes. So what's the
main selling point? Well aside from HP scores matching
those of most Mega-EX, the biggest draw to the new
Pokemon-GX are the GX attacks, attacks so powerful you
can only use them once per game.
So what does Primarina-GX offer?
Well she's got the power of Bubble Beat, a 2-for-10 hit
that does 20 more damage for every Water Energy in play
on your field. That's a decent attack in its own right,
but right now it's a little bit slow outside of
combining with Gyarados-EX and other quick forms of
Energy acceleration. Still if the Water type is going to
get support in the future, you can bet they'll get an
accelerator of some kind to rapidly boost their power,
and given Steam Siege brought out Volcanion decks to the
top - a group of Fire cards, I might add - Primarina-GX
seems like she's got a strong future...in theory.
Her second attack isn't anything to
scoff at either. Roaring Seas is a 4-for-120 hit that
gives a free discard of any Energy off your opponent's
Active Pokemon. Dealing a powerful punch AND forcing the
opponent to use more resources to power them back up to
full again? YES PLEASE!! Never underestimate what
discarding a single Energy can do - that's a KO on DCE
or Rainbow Energy! But what may really convince you to
give her a try is her GX attack. Normally these GX moves
deal a lot of damage all at once or have a powerful
effect. Primarina-GX's Grand Echo GX is the latter form,
and it's effectively a Max Potion for everything you've
got - for only 2 Energy.
So now you've got a 250 HP Water
behemoth that can 1) hit hard with the right set-up, 2)
discard Energies your opponent has to keep them using
resources, and 3) have access to a move that can
completely refresh all your opponent's progress and give
you a decisive advantage. Which, might I add, currently
has access to Dive Ball and Archie's Ace-in-the-Hole to
support her more. What's not to like? Well, it depends
on a couple of factors. GX still have to evolve from
their predecessors, so unless Rare Candy rulings allow
you to skip a Stage and hit the GX Stage 2 (which it
should, all things considered), it might be a bit tough
to play Primarina-GX in the first place. On top of that,
Grand Echo GX can only help you so much, and we've been
in a format of heavy-duty 2HKOs for the most part - it
wouldn't be worth it to spend a turn recovering
everything if your opponent just sweeps you up anyway
the next. Roaring Seas may be powerful, but you've gotta
really make that discard count, and Bubble Beat...well,
I did say they need some acceleration.
Despite all these flaws, I still
think Primarina-GX is one of the best examples of a
powerful card in the new set, and I'm hoping that there
will be a major breakthrough on how to use her to the
fullest - as I do with every GX that makes it on this
list! Naturally she wouldn't be the only one!
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (despite a few
hiccups in the plan, Primarina-GX is a diamond in the
rough)
Expanded: 4.5/5 (and with all the
support surrounding them, I'm sure the GX will have
their own impact on the game)
Limited: 5/5 (personally, I'm a fan
of this new mechanic - it's like the best parts of EX
mixed with the limitations of evolutions! It's what
makes them relevant again!)
Arora Notealus: Primarina is also
admittedly my starter of choice in Generation 7. Just
gotta love that Oceanic Operatta move. Don't worry,
Tobias, I don't care that you're a guy Primarina - you
do you, man.
Next Time: The GX are coming!
Spanning across the eons of space and mind!...wait that
doesn't sound right...
|
Otaku |
At last, it is time
to countdown the top 10 cards of Sun & Moon, as
determined by the aggregate efforts of aroramage, Zach,
and myself! As usual, each reviewer submitted his
own personal top 10 list, and the results were averaged
out to produce the list we are actually using.
Reprints were not permitted for the list; we
already know a card like Ultra Ball is good (and
actually pretty hard to top)!
Our 10th place
finisher is Primarina-GX (Sun & Moon
42/149). A new set means the metagame is going to
be even less stable than usual, so take what I write
with an even larger grain of salt than normal. We
will start with its status as a Pokémon-GX, because much
like with Pokémon-EX, it is too easily acknowledged
without actual understanding; the only things
mechanically guaranteed are giving up an extra Prize
when KO’d (just like a Pokémon-EX) and possession of a
GX attack. The former is important for properly
evaluating everything else on the card while the latter
is important because, as the shiny new gimmick, GX
attacks are also a new resource to be managed.
Whether they prove awesome, awful, or something in
between one must remember you still have to meet all
requirements (Energy or otherwise) to use your GX
attack, and that it is a one and done thing; the reason
we have a GX marker is because you cannot reset this
effect the way you can many other attack effects.
Also, if you copy a GX attack in any way (Ability,
attack, etc.) it still counts as using your GX attack
for the game (even if you copied the GX attack with a
non-GX attack). Everything else about being a
Pokémon-GX, so far, is suggested only by comparing what
we have to their regular and/or Pokémon-EX counterparts.
Seems like the HP boost is more substantial (at least
+50 versus the highest regular version). So far,
the only specific reference to Pokémon-GX I recall
seeing is one that prevents a potent attack from
affecting them.
The Water Type
still has access to the same support it had prior to
Sun & Moon, as well as the same counters; if there
was something explicitly for or against them in the new
set, I completely overlooked it. The Water Type
has done pretty well for itself; certain pieces of
support, be it restricted to [W] Pokémon, [W] Energy, or
both have been competitive in both formats, as well as
certain cards that can work with just about anything,
but naturally favor the Water Type. Some of their
best Pokémon are Expanded only, however, and much of
their best bits are in the form of stuff that can work
off Type like Keldeo-EX and Seismitoad-EX.
Effects that explicitly call out [W] Pokémon and/or
Energy aren’t so great, with the main exception being
Parallel City; causing a [W] Type Pokémon to do 20
less damage usually isn’t a big deal, but that same
damage reduction applies to [G] and [R] Types and the
other side of the card caps your Bench size at three.
As such, it is likely to be encountered. Fire
Types are almost all Water Weak, and so far all the new
ones have been as well. Water Weak Fighting Types
haven’t shown up yet in the SM releases, but that is
probably because we only have a single set, and they
were not overly numerous in either the BW- or XY-eras.
Water Resistance still appears to be an artifact of the
BW-era, where it shows up on a chunk of the Grass Type
but nowhere else.
Primarina-GX
is a Stage 2 Pokémon, so it takes extra space in your
deck when compared to most other Stages, and likewise
takes more time to hit the field. There are a few
shortcuts available, but of them (Archie’s Ace in the
Hole, Rare Candy, and Wally), I
believe only Rare Candy to be worthwhile, and I
would still include at least one (preferably two, maybe
even three) Brionne in case of Item lock or just
uncooperative draws. No matter how useful or
sturdy Primarina-GX may be, not only does being a
Stage 2 eat up more resources and take more time, but it
creates a potential Achilles’ heel: denying Evolutions
by taking out their smaller lower Stages is a tactic
that dates all the way back to the Base Set!
Your opponent has an incentive to do this because
Primarina-GX has an immense 250 HP, the same as
Wailord-EX (and still the most we’ve seen printed on
a card so far). OHKO’s against that much HP are
possible, but rarely something a deck can pull of
rapidly, repeatedly, and reliably. You even have a
solid chance of surviving the second hit. Besides
some of the best offensive focused decks, the big
exception to Primarina-GX surviving a hit is its
Grass Weakness, though with 250 HP it still has a decent
squeaking through and surviving a hit. With this
set giving us some potent Grass Types that already have
(still unproven but probable) decks, I would expect at
least a few match-ups where Primarina-GX isn’t
all that sturdy. Lack of Resistance is typical,
and but not crippling; more a missed opportunity than
anything else. The Retreat Cost of [CC] isn’t good
but neither is it bad; paying it over and over again
would be, though, so pack at least a few alternatives to
manually retreating (either at all or at full price).
No Ability for
Primarina-GX, so onto its three attacks. First
up is “Bubble Beat” for [CC]; the attack does 10 damage
plus 20 per [W] Energy attached to your in play Pokémon.
Second is “Roaring Seas” for [WWWC], which does 120
damage and discards an Energy from the opponent’s
Active. The third and final attack is this card’s GX
attack, “Grand Echo-GX”; for [CC] you may heal all
damage from all of your Pokémon. Bubble
Beat can either be a lead into Roaring Seas or a deck
focus in its own right; similar attacks on Darkrai-EX
(XY: BREAKpoint 74/122, 118/122), M Gardevoir-EX
(XY: Primal Clash 106/160, 156/160;
Generations RC31/RC32), and Xerneas BREAK
have lead to decks; Darkrai-EX, in particular, is
quite the force. Roaring Seas isn’t thrilling, as
for four Energy, I want my Stage 2 taking a Prize, not
setting up for a 2HKO. The Energy discard does
improve your odds of landing the second hit, but I find
it better for Energy discarding attacks to be
inexpensive, and big attacks to focus more on big
damage. Grand Echo-GX provides a level of healing
that normally requires a hefty cost… and it has one
here; while [CC] is quite affordable, this is your GX
attack. It could be used on significant disruption
or outright damage, but Primarina-GX focuses on
the often ineffective tactic of healing. With its
HP, you have good odds of barely surviving an attack and
so wiping away many damage counters, but
that only really helps if you include other cards to
make sure your opponent cannot just hit you that hard
again the next turn. The fact that it heals all
of your Pokémon in play sounds great as well, but once
again it isn’t that practical; how likely are you to
have a lot of damage spread out among several targets?
It happens, but not often.
As usual, let us
take a look at our options for lower Stages and
alternate Evolutions. Popplio can be SM:
Black Star Promos SM03 or Sun & Moon 39/149,
while Brionne is only available as Sun & Moon
40/149. There is also Primarina (Sun &
Moon 41/149), the regular counterpart to
Primarina-GX. All are Water Type Pokémon with
Grass Weakness, no Resistance, and no Ability.
Both Popplio are Basic Pokémon with Retreat Cost
[C]. SM: Black Star Promos SM03 has 60 HP and
for [W] can use “Sing” to afflict your opponent’s Active
with Sleep, while Sun & Moon 39/149 sports 70 HP
and can use “Pound” for [W] or “Water Gun” for [WC] to
do 10 and 20 damage, respectively. You really
should never attack with Popplio, in fact, you’ll
hopefully just Bench it and then Evolve ASAP. As
such, inflicting Sleep is better for your desperate
situation, and that +10 HP probably only matters then as
well; use whichever version you prefer. Brionne
is a Stage 1 with 90 HP and Retreat Cost [CC]. Its
two attacks are “Wave Splash”, costing [WC] and doing 30
damage, and “Disarming Voice”, costing [WWC] and doing
50 damage while Confusing the opponent’s Active.
Once again, filler, though not absolutely awful filler.
Primarina sports a solid 150 HP (for a Stage 2);
this is enough surviving one attack is a little more
likely than not, and means being a Pokémon-GX gave
Primarina-GX a sizable 100 HP bonus. For [WC]
Primarina can use Disarming Voice as well, this
time doing 30 damage but still confusing the opponent’s
Active. [WWC] pays for “Sparking Aura” which does 100
damage while healing 30 damage from itself. For
the third time, this is filler; not the kind that is so
flawed it is worthless, but unless we get some serious
GX counters, you can stick with Primarina-GX.
So how should you
use Primarina-GX? I have not seen any decks
featuring it yet, but that isn’t too unusual given that
the set is still quite new. I have heard of some,
though they are in speculative threads and again, to be
fair, that is true of most anticipated new
archetypes spawned by this Sun & Moon. The
first, and I believe less likely, of the two ideas is to
focus primarily, perhaps exclusively, on stalling with
this card’s immense HP. There was a successful
stall/mill deck built around Wailord-EX, and this
hypothetical deck takes inspiration from it.
Possibly some Energy would be included for the
occasional Bubble Beat or (more likely) a Grand Echo-GX
for surprise healing. Wailord-EX decks actually
still have adherents or at least curious experimenters;
that includes in the Standard Format as Wailord-EX
did not rotate (only some of its admittedly important
support). I haven’t been overly impressed by it
yet, and the reason I label a Primarina-GX deck
aping its strategy is simple: what does Primarina-GX
have that Wailord-GX doesn’t? A
one-use-only healing attack that means you’ll have to
run Energy? The need to Evolve? The
inability to make use of Fighting Fury Belt?
Just seems like someone looking for a stall/mill deck
should stick with Wailord-EX.
Okay, so what about
idea number two? Employing similar tricks to other
decks that can hit harder the more of a specific Energy
is in play, one focuses on Bubble Beat. Instead of
Darkness or Fairy Type support, you can use Water Type
tricks. It takes longer for Primarina-GX to
hit the field, but these decks usually need time to set
up anyway, so you can toss up a worthwhile opener before
changing gears to Primarina-GX. I still
have concerns, though; as a Stage 2 Primarina-GX
takes as much deck space as M Gardevoir-EX (Gardevoir-EX,
M Gardevoir-EX, Gardevoir Spirit Link) and
takes a minimum of two turns to hit the field. It
needs three Energy to use its attack but can tap Mega
Turbo for Energy acceleration. A good thing to
note is that the M Gardevoir-EX in question is
perhaps the least successful of the three noteworthy
versions of this kind of attacker I mentioned earlier.
Xerneas BREAK is a pseudo-Stage 1 that can Evolve
from the Energy accelerating Xerneas (XY
96/146; XY: Black Star Promos XY05; XY: Steam
Siege 81/114). Darkrai-EX has Yveltal
(XY 78/146; XY: Black Star Promos XY06;
Generations RC16/RC32; XY: Steam Siege
65/114) for Energy acceleration, Yveltal (XY:
BREAKthrough 94/162) to disrupt opposing decks, or
can just take the lead itself with the right combo.
Without a few turns of setting up, Darkrai-EX
won’t hit very hard, but you can build your next
attacker while it is doing so, and Fighting Fury Belt
bumps it up to 210 HP. The big thing to understand
is that out of all of these, Primarina-GX has the
least going for it except its HP; M Gardevoir-EX
is used alongside the other M Gardevoir-EX
(XY: Steam Siege 79/114, 112/114) and/or
Xerneas BREAK but I don’t know of something similar
that can work so well alongside Primarina-GX, and
when compared to Darkrai-EX, you’ll have
something with more HP, but slower and with less room
for Energy (and cards in general).
Primarina-GX
isn’t a card I expect to use in Standard or Expanded
play, though I imagine it would be quite epic for
Limited. You’ll need Popplio and Brionne,
and the fickleness of assembling a Stage 2 is usually
worse here, but everything about the entire line is
better, including Primarina (Sun & Moon
41/149), which does make sense to include here, even if
it means you have more Stage 2 forms than Evolving Basic
and/or Stage 1 forms. The thing to watch out for
is the abundant amount of Grass Pokémon; those more
offensively inclined are one of the few things that can
quickly wipe out that 250 HP.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5
Expanded:
1.5/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
Primarina-GX does have some real positives, but
almost all have a negative canceling it out, with the
net result not being neutral. High HP but
Weakness to what will likely be heavily played Type
(Grass), at least while this set is still all fresh and
new. An attack that follows a proven formula, but
on a Stage that eats up some of the space needed to
support it, another attack that is using a strategy
meant for something less expensive, and a GX-attack that
might wipe out a massive amount of damage on your side
of the field, but probably just delays your opponent by
a single turn.
Primarina-GX
did not make my own top 10, as you’ve gathered by now.
We’ll see if it gets the last laugh if goes on to be
something big, especially if it is an idea I just got
done saying won’t work. Primarina-GX earned nine
voting points, which allowed it to tie with both our
eighth and ninth place finishers. Perhaps also
illuminating is that 11th place was one point away from
making it a four-way tie. On the other side of
things, there is a tie for sixth and seventh place, so
Primarina-GX was one point away from making that into a
three-way tie instead.
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