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Our first card
after concluding our runners-up from 2016 is Garchomp-EX
(XY: Black Star Promos XY167). First the
usual reminder of the drawbacks that come with being a
Pokémon-EX: they always give up an extra Prize when KO’d
and card effects that punish a player for using them are
already in the card pool. The latter include cards
that reward your opponent because you’re using a
Pokémon-EX, or beneficial effects that exclude
Pokémon-EX you may wish to run. Exactly which such
cards are in Standard will vary over time, but based on
what sets contain them, they may even outlast Pokémon-EX
themselves if the new SM-era cards take Pokémon-EX into
consideration (as some spoilers indicate). Being a
Pokémon-EX often includes better stats or effects than
you would expect, but the only things guaranteed are a
minimum of a +20 HP bump over non-Pokémon-EX
counterparts and being a Basic or a Mega Evolution; the
latter is an advantage when it means something that
would normally be an Evolution gets to be a Basic, or at
least a less demanding Stage of Evolution. In this
case, Garchomp-EX is indeed a Basic Pokémon
instead of being a Stage 2 (a serious gain) and 40 or 50
more HP than the regular versions of Garchomp
currently available.
In this case, that
means 180 HP, the higher of the two typical scores for
Basic Pokémon-EX, and enough to usually survive one
attack. Garchomp-EX is a Dragon Type; not good
for exploiting Weakness (only BW-era Dragon Types are
Dragon Weak) but at least nothing is Dragon Resistant.
The Dragon Type has some good attackers, plus some good
Abilities, and many can be splashed into a variety of
decks thanks to Double Dragon Energy, the
highlight of the Dragon Type support. Garchomp-EX
is Fairy Weak, like (I believe) all post-BW-era Dragon
Types. This isn’t great right now as we have at
least two distinct Fairy Type decks doing well in
Standard. It lacks Resistance entirely, but that
is typical so we won’t hold it against Garchomp-EX.
The Retreat Cost of [CC] can be a pain in the long run,
but you have a decent chance of being able to afford it,
plus one of the pieces of Dragon Type support which I
glossed over is Hydreigon-EX; its Ability shaves
[CC] off of the Retreat Cost of Dragon Types so long as
a Stadium card is in play. Garchomp-EX has two
attacks, the first being “Shred” for [F], doing 30
damage that can’t be altered by effects on your
opponent’s Active. For [WFFC] it can use “Hyper
Beam” instead, doing 100 damage and giving you a coin
flip to discard an Energy from the opponent’s Active.
The main issue with Shred is that it probably doesn’t
hit hard enough to make ignoring effects matter; unless
you’re facing a pure wall that isn’t fighting back
and isn’t healing, that defensive Pokémon will
almost certainly have served its purpose by the time to
KO it. Hyper Beam has an ugly Energy cost even
with Double Dragon Energy to help out; the damage
output is something I’d call adequate if the costs were
all [C] and a coin flip to discard Energy is not
adequate compensation for being shorted so badly on
damage.
There actually is
another Garchomp-EX, XY: Black Star
Promos XY09. While this is still an XY-era
card, it is old enough to only be Expanded legal.
Besides the attacks, differences between this card and
today’s Garchomp-EX are that the older version
has 10 less HP and that’s it; they have the same Type,
Stage, Weakness, lack of Resistance, and Retreat Cost.
The first attack on XY: Black Star Promos XY09 is
“Dual Chop” for [FC], which has you flip two coins good
for 30 damage per “heads”. For [WFC] it could use
“Power Blast” instead to do 120 damage, but you have to
discard an Energy from itself as well. Dual Chomp
is overpriced, while Power Blast is adequate, but
without something else it isn’t enough to make me want
to run this card. It does a better job than XY:
Black Star Promos XY167… well maybe. Shred is
a better budget attack, but Power Blast is the better
“big” attack. What may help both cards is M
Garchomp-EX… which we will look at tomorrow.
Ratings
Standard:
2.25/5
Expanded:
2/5
Limited:
N/A
Summary:
Garchomp-EX isn’t a good card; it isn’t all bad
but its attacks only have synergy in that one is much
less expensive than the other. This is your only
option for Garchomp-EX in Standard play, and thus
your only way to get M Garchomp-EX onto the
field; even if M Garchomp-EX ends up being a
bust, that still gives this card a tiny bit of a boost
in the score department… which is why the Expanded score
is a bit lower. None of the official options for
the Limited Format allow you to use promos, so the “not
applicable” is its score there. Were it reprinted
in an actual set, it would likely be decent, barring set
specific stuff like a hypothetical high Fairy presence
or the like. Get this if you’re a collector, a
Garchomp fan, or just want to run M Garchomp-EX;
you can skip it otherwise.
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