aroramage |
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
BOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Seriously, 2017, and I haven't said
ANYTHING!! Sorry about that, being in Canada with the
flu will apparently do that to ya. But we're all better,
we're back in the States, and WE'RE READY TO REVIEW THE
NEXT-
"There's been a change in the
line-up, we're reviewing Salamence."
...ALRIGHTY THEN, LET'S DO IT!
Promo cards are always interesting,
but apparently these two were requested by a reader. How
about that? Yesterday was Salamence-EX, which has a
really interesting attack, and then there's Dragon
Strike. Dragon Strike's just a 4-for-130 Dragon-Slamming
that holds off on being usable two turns in a row, which
is okay, but Beastly Fang is 3-for-10 that does 50 more
damage for each EX your opponent has. That's the real
breadwinner here, since even having one or two boosts
the power of the attack by a lot!
M Salamence-EX ups the ante on such
powerhouse attacks, bringing in Savage Wing. At
4-for-100, it's a decent attack, but it can also discard
Fire Energies to add on 40 more damage for each one. 2
Energy boosts the attack to KO-ing most Basic
Pokemon-EX, 2 more after that, and he can wipe out any
other Mega Evo! That's insane! It's powerful! It's...
...honestly a bit impractical.
Unfortunately M-Salamence EX doesn't have a Fire-typing
to benefit off of Burning Energy, which would make this
attack ridiculous. Sure, you could discard Double Dragon
Energy, which I think would actually count for 2 Fire
Energy given that it's basically Double Rainbow Energy
for Dragons, but then you're losing what's probably
powering up half of M-Salamence EX's attack. It wouldn't
be as savage as its name implies.
But since Shrine of Memories is
still around and about at the moment, it's probably the
best card to combine with M Salamence-EX so he can have
Salamence-EX's Beastly Fang attack! Options are always
great, and since they come together with the Spirit Link
card, he's not completely ineffectual. Who knows, maybe
he's got some promise?
...now if it wasn't so hard to
actually find the Premium Collection, I mean seriously,
WHY ARE SOME OF THESE LISTINGS AT $70?!
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (Savage Wing has a
lot of promise, but it's only so good)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (but with access to
the right stuff, M Salamence-EX can definitely power
things out)
Limited: N/A (and these are promos)
Arora Notealus: So the boss man was
telling me that said reader might have been hoping to
hear from me. Really, I'm flattered, I don't even know
who that reader could be, but I hope my review of these
two cards (yes, I'd be rating Salamence-EX higher than M
Salamence-EX) was at least satisfactory and a great
start to your new year in 2017! Speaking of which, HAPPY
NEW YEAR IT'S 2017!!
Next Time: We now return to your
regularly scheduled OH WOW THAT'S POWER
|
Otaku |
Note:
Yesterday
I gave Salamence-EX a rating for Limited Play,
even though it is not legal for any sanctioned Limited
Format event (at least of which I am aware). That
is because the rating was supposed to be “N/A” (but if
legal 2.5/5). My apologies for any confusion!
Time to finish what
we started. No, not the countdown (soon though),
but M Salamence-EX (XY: Black Star Promos
XY171). If you didn’t read yesterday’s CotD, the
short version is that Salamence-EX (XY: Black
Star Promos XY170) is a Dragon Type Basic Pokémon-EX
with 180 HP, Fairy Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost
[CC] and two attacks; for [RCC] it can use “Beastly
Fang” to do 10 damage plus 50 per Pokémon-EX your
opponent has in play, while for [RWCC] it can use
“Dragon Strike” for 130 HP but cannot use Dragon Strike
again on your next turn. Being a Dragon Type is
good specifically because of Double Dragon Energy
and some of the other Dragon Types that can be slipped
into a deck so long as it uses that fantastic Special
Energy card. Being a Basic is the best, and better
than other Salamence cards, which are normally a
Stage 2 and thus take more time and cards to hit the
field. 180 HP is the higher of the two typical Basic
Pokémon-EX scores, and 20 or more points higher than
regular contemporary Salamence cards. Fairy
Weakness is unfortunate as that Type gave a strong
showing recently (could be the new norm, could be a
transitional state), while lack of Resistance and
Retreat Cost [CC] are typical; any Resistance and a
lower Retreat Cost would be better (barring some very
specific match-ups), but this isn’t too bad.
Beastly Fang is beastly strong against most decks,
though it might fall short against a few decks; Dragon
Strike should only be used during those times, and when
one can afford the Energy cost. Being a Pokémon-EX
colors all of this; it’s worth giving up an extra Prize
when KO’d, dealing with Pokémon-EX counters, and being
unable to use certain beneficial effects given the rest
of the card.
With that, let us
dive into M Salamence-EX; differences between it
and Salamence-EX are that is a Mega Evolution,
has 230 HP, Retreat Cost [C], and a single attack
(“Savage Wing”). Being a Mega Evolution means
dealing with the Mega Evolution rule; thankfully
Salamence Spirit Link exists so one can basically
give up the line’s Tool slot to fake being a Stage 1.
It also grants access to help like Mega Turbo but
means dealing with counter like Faded Town.
The HP is just 10 shy of the maximum, while the Retreat
Cost is [C] less and just one over the minimum (perfect)
free Retreat Cost. Savage Wing costs [RWCC], the
same as Dragon Strike”, and does 100 damage with an
optional discard effect. If you wish, you may
discard as many basic [R] Energy cards (attached to M
Salamence) to do an additional 40 damage for each
Energy discarded. Not sure if there are any
oddball ways to make basic Energy cards other than
Fire Energy count as [R] in Standard or Expanded
play, but it has happened before with older releases so
just keep that in mind in case it pops up somewhere.
If you don’t discard any Energy, this is underpowered;
Dragon Strike did the right amount of damage for its
four Energy cost, just nerfed a little due to the attack
restriction clause, so cutting 30 damage to avoid that
problem is not a good trade. The restrictions on
what can be discarded mean that on paper, Savage Wing
will always be underpowered; mixed type four Energy cost
and no discard for 100, with a discard of one basic
Fire Energy to do 140, two to do 180, etc.
However,
in practice this could be just right; notice how we just
hit or exceeded some key OHKO numbers, and would
continue to do so with sufficient Energy to discard.
Unlike Salamence-EX, M Salamence-EX fits
into fewer decks naturally. Yes, Salamence-EX
needed a deck to already have [R] Energy (plus
some acceleration) or Double Dragon Energy (still
preferably with some additional, compatible Energy
acceleration); M Salamence-EX needs more.
You could use (as an example) Mega Turbo to help
attach basic Fire Energy cards from the discard
pile, but you can only run four of that card and even
including options to recycle it, we just aren’t looking
at an efficient combo to hit those vital OHKO amounts. Reshiram
(XY: Roaring Skies 63/108) just might be
an option though; if you can promote it, then Bench it
each turn, you would get one bonus attachment via its “Turboblaze”
Ability, which allows you to attach a basic Fire
Energy card from hand to one of your Dragon Type
Pokémon. This is a “once per turn” effect, though
if you can get multiple different copies of Reshiram
in your Active position, it is once per turn for each.
So if you can stream Switch or similar cards and
have Fire Energy in hand at the right time, you
could do 180 damage turn after turn. Not thrilling
for all that effort, but on top of regular Salamence-EX
it might be tempting.
In addition to or
instead of Reshiram you might consider
Volcanion (XY: Black Star Promos XY145;
XY: Steam Siege 25/114); you’ll have a solid, single
Energy attacker to open that can prep multiple
Salamence-EX/M Salamence-EX at once.
Yes that means taking some time early game, and I think
I’d prefer to just use Volcanion-EX with
Salamence-EX and (again) skip the Mega Evolution,
but it is an option. Otherwise all I can think of
is using various Evolution cards for Energy
acceleration, none of which I believe have proven worth
the effort and most (if not all) of which are Expanded
only. As you can tell, I’m don’t expect much out
of M Salamence-EX… but as a reader suggestion
maybe it plays a role and I’m missing the forest for the
trees. If you’re buying first hand product, you’re
going to be getting M Salamence-EX alongside
regular Salamence-EX anyway, so feel free to
experiment in either Standard or Expanded play.
Who knows, maybe the Mega Evolution will prove more
worthwhile than the Basic in Expanded (Salamence-EX
is doing fairly well in Standard right now)?
M Salamence-EX
is not legal for Limited play due to being
released only as a promo, but if it were re-released as
part of a set it would likely be a solid pull. I
stated that Salamence-EX wasn’t so great here
because your opponent would usually lack Pokémon-EX,
forcing you to slowly build to Dragon Strike and then
attack every other turn. Using Salamence-EX
completely solo was thus a risky proposition as that
meant three of your turns before it could do 10 damage
(unless that bonus kicked in) and one more before it hit
130. If your Energy didn’t behave, you might even
miss out on the needed Fire Energy or Water
Energy! M Salamence-EX has it a bit better;
still not something to build a +39 deck around (where
Salamence-EX is your only Basic Pokémon and you try
to cruise to a win on its raw power), but backing
up a more typical Limited deck you can hopefully build
Salamence-EX on your Bench and then Mega Evolve,
at which point even the 100-per-turn shots from Savage
Wing should prove good… or 140 per turn if you keep
getting more Fire Energy to attach a spare each
turn. The periodic larger hit could prevent your
opponent from really countering, as the 230 HP should
help weather most larger hits. Well, it would
if it were legal for Limited play.
Ratings
Standard:
3/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
N/A (if legal, 3.5/5)
Summary:
Fairly average scores, with the Standard and Expanded
bolstered because Salamence-EX is supposed to be
so useful; M Salamence-EX appeals to my inner
Timmy as a big, hard hitting Dragon Type and to my inner
Johnny because it takes some creativity to hit those big
numbers, but my not-so-inner Spike is warning me
that it’s too much effort for the payoff and even if I
want to be creative, there are some other Pokémon with
which I could experiment. Actually, I allowed
myself to do just that with a few decks recently; the
stench of failure still hangs heavily in the air, so I’m
in no hurry to try again.
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