aroramage |
Wow...alright, so this guy and the
guy before him...how do I even describe this...
Well Garchomp-EX isn't too terrific
an EX to start with. Shred isn't really worth it at
1-for-30, and Hyper Beam is...just overcosted at
4-for-100, even with the added on coin flip for
discarding Energy. But hey, in this era where Mega
Evolving EX aren't designed that great, usually the
Mega-EX they Evolve into is made better than ever,
right? Hahaha
WRONG
As much as I appreciate the
consistency in cost to M Garchomp-EX's signature Crimson
Edge attack, and as much as I like the fact that it's
4-for-180, I do have one teensy little problem with the
effect that basically says, "Hey you see how much damage
M Garchomp-EX has on himself? Yeah...double that."
Because that's effectively what you're doing - you add
10 damage for every damage counter on it, aka every 10
damage he's already taken, and you deal that damage
right to M Garchomp-EX.
This is about as recklessly
suicidal as M Heracross-EX's Big Bang Horn attack, and
at least that attack had the decency to let your
opponent damage M Heracross-EX first!
Sure, the attack won't lose any
damage value, so combined with the right cards it can
still KO some big Pokemon, but if you're not careful, M
Garchomp-EX will just as easily knock itself out with
its attack as much as claim your opponent's Pokemon. The
absolute raw power is tempting, but I don't think people
are going to be inclined on running something that, in a
format where 2HKOs are a standard to hit, this Pokemon
can deliver the second hit free of charge.
I mean at least take them out to
the discard pile first, man, geez.
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (I'm not optimistic
on M Garchomp-EX here)
Expanded: 2/5 (like he may have a
lot going for him in raw offensive power)
Limited: N/A (but in terms of
self-preservation? yeah, no)
Arora Notealus: Credit where
credit's due, at least, it's probably gonna show up as a
deck of its own just to see how crazy powerful it can
be. When you've got a potential sweeper on your hands
for almost nothing, it can be a bit intimidating. I
imagine running a lot of healing cards to mitigate the
recoil - and in Expanded probably running Protection
Cube on this guy - but I think at the end of the day
he's mainly going to be limited to just a few casual
reckless runner decks.
Next Time: Offering a little token
of appreciation!
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Otaku |
Yesterday
we looked at Garchomp-EX (XY: Black Star
Promos XY167); if you skipped it you might want to
go back and read it because today we will be covering
M Garchomp-EX (XY: Black Star Promos XY168).
Then again, I’ll briefly cover Garchomp-EX
anyway, so I guess it won’t matter too much.
The most obvious thing looking at this card is that it
is a Dragon Type. Only BW-era Dragon Types are
Dragon Weak, which is unfortunate for modern Dragon
Types because exploiting Weakness is usually is usually
a significant bonus for an attacker. The lack of
Dragon Resistance is a small benefit; appreciated, but
far less significant than exploiting Weakness (as a
comparison). The Dragon Type boasts some solid
support, plus the amazing Double Dragon Energy;
that Special Energy alone makes it one of the top Types.
It means that many Dragon Types that shouldn’t work well
due to requiring multiple Energy Types and often high
costs not only work well, but can work together in the
same deck. The most obvious thing from reading the
card’s name is that it is a Mega Evolution; if you don’t
use Garchomp Spirit Link on your Garchomp-EX
when you Evolve, your turn will end. Prior to
Spirit Link cards, Mega Evolutions struggled; it is
hard to gauge as there weren’t that many in the first
place, so perhaps having only one or two prove
competitive just meant the those first few were that
bad, but I still believe a lot (if not most) of it was
the Mega Evolution penalty. It was on top of the
drawbacks of being a Pokémon-EX as well; not only do
Mega Evolutions have to deal with Mega Evolution
counters, but also Pokémon-EX counters, beneficial
effects that specifically exclude Pokémon-EX, and giving
up an extra Prize when KO’d. Mega Evolutions do
enjoy some added pieces of support (namely Mega Turbo).
Pokémon-EX also tend to have better stats and effects
than their regular counterparts; at the very least M
Garchomp-EX gets to Evolve from the Basic
Garchomp-EX instead of a Stage 2 like the regular
Garchomp.
M Garchomp-EX
has 210 HP, the lower of the three typical Basic
Pokémon-EX scores, but still 70 to 80 HP more than a
regular Garchomp; at this size it will usually
survive an attack. Fairy Weakness is not a good
thing to have right now; if M Garchomp-EX is
lucky then the fact that I keep running into decks built
around M Gardevoir-EX (XY: Steam Siege
79/114, 112/114), Xerneas (XY: BREAKthrough
107/162), and/or Xerneas BREAK. In
particular, M Gardevoir-EX could not score a OHKO
against M Garchomp-EX without a complicated combo
except due to Weakness. Lack of Resistance
is typical; -20 Resistance against a single match-up is
a nice little bonus, but that means lacking it is almost
a non-issue. The free Retreat Cost is great; it
doesn’t get any better! M Garchomp-EX has a
single attack, like all Mega Evolutions; “Crimson Edge”
costs [WFFC] and does 180 damage, but also does 10
damage to the Pokémon using it (usually M Garchomp-EX)
for each damage counter already on itself. As Mega
Evolutions are in part popular for being one of the few
Stages that usually survives a hit (sometimes two),
self-damage that hits harder the more damage is already
present is a serious drawback. It isn’t a
complete deal breaker, but I think it comes close.
Now for an attack that not only costs four Energy, but
with three of those Energy requirements being Type
specific and one of the Type specific
requirements being a different Type than the other two…
180 damage seems about right. So either the
self-damage makes the attack overpriced, or it ends up
being about fair.
Okay, now for the recap from yesterday. There are
two cards named Garchomp-EX: XY: Black Star
Promos XY09 and XY: Black Star Promos XY167,
with the former being Expanded-only while the latter may
be used in either Expanded or Standard play. Both
are Dragon Types like M Garchomp-EX with Fairy
Weakness and no Resistance, but also have Retreat Cost
[CC] which is irritating in light of the free Retreat
Cost on M Garchomp-EX; there are plenty of ways
to bypass or reduce the cost of retreating, but for M
Garchomp-EX it will be redundant. Still better
for M Garchomp-EX to have a free Retreat Cost
than not, of course. XY: Black Star Promos XY09
has 170 HP, the lower of the two typical amounts for
Basic Pokémon-EX but still enough to often survive an
attack. Speaking of attack, this card has two
attacks: “Dual Chop” and “Power Blast”. Dual Chop
requires [FC] and has you flip two coins, good for 30
damage per “heads”. Power Blast requires [WFC] and
does 120 damage, but also requires you discard an Energy
attached to Garchomp-EX itself. XY: Black
Star Promos XY167 has 180 HP, the higher of the two
typical scores for Basic Pokémon-EX; 10 more HP is nice,
but not a major improvement in terms of survival (good
thing 170 was already enough to be viable). Its
first attack is “Shred” for [F] doing 30 damage and
ignoring effects on the opponent’s Active that would
change the amount of damage done, while for [WFFC] it
can use “Hyper Beam” to do 100 damage plus flip a coin;
if “heads” the attack discards an Energy from the
opponent’s Active. The stats for these cards are
okay, but the attacks aren’t great. Besides having
a less expensive attack that can lead into a larger one,
they lack synergy with each other. These won’t
cripple M Garchomp-EX, but neither will be be
much help.
So what would help M Garchomp-EX? Honestly
I’m not sure much can; the big issue is that it has too
high of a chance of KOing itself when using Crimson
Edge. Can it be done? Absolutely! Clawitzer
(XY: Steam Siege 34/114) springs to mind; two of
them could allow you to attach a Double Dragon Energy,
a Rainbow Energy (replace with Blend Energy
WLFM in Expanded), and then your manual Energy
attachment for the turn can provide the last of the
needed Energy. You could even include some healing
options in either Trainer or Bench-sitting Pokémon form
to deal with the self damage I just inflicted and/or to
try and avoid a self-KO the next turn. The issue?
With Abilities and Special Energy I’ve just added more
“moving pieces” to assemble and for your opponent
to negate. Many Basic Pokémon-EX will use
Fighting Fury Belt to bump their HP scores up high
enough that Crimson Edge will whiff on the OHKO, and
Mega Evolutions are already out of range. You
could include cards to compensate for this, but that is
more moving pieces. In the end you get something
that should it work, might work better for another
Pokémon. So I can’t recommend it for Standard or
Expanded play, but I’ll score it the same for both
because (as usual) I am guessing the increased card pool
for Expanded helps M Garchomp-EX as much as it
hurts. M Garchomp-EX isn’t even legal for
Limited as it is a promo, but should it ever be
reprinted I would only include it on the hopes you could
build it up on your Bench and save it to take your last
KO or two.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5
Expanded:
1.75/5
Limited:
N/A
Summary:
The self damage from “Crimson Edge” isn’t an automatic
dealbreaker, nor is the Energy cost, but together
they are just too much. You can’t afford to flush
away damage with tricks like Max Potion, and even
with 210 HP, once M Garchomp-EX has 110 (or more)
damage on itself, its own Crimson Edge will finish it
off… and it’s worth two Prizes when KO’d! If you
can figure out a cost effective way to heal between
attacks as well as quickly power-up, not only will you
get to laugh at my blindness for not seeing it, but
you’ll probably have a new archetype, as that 180 per
turn is quite good.
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