Otaku |
All right, it is time to cover our 15th place finisher,
Z-
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!
Huh? Oh, seems we have a request from the
readership. While I hate interrupting a countdown,
I said there would be surprises, so we will be looking
at Salamence-EX (XY: Black Star Promos
XY170). We’ll begin with the usual reminder; being
a Pokémon-EX means giving up an extra Prize when KO’d,
detrimental card effects specific to you, beneficial
effects which exclude you, at least a small HP bump, and
being a Basic or Mega Evolution. Salamence-EX
enjoys being a Basic instead of a Stage 2 (faster and
fewer cards required). Its HP is hearty 180, the
higher of the two scores typical of Basic Pokémon-EX,
capable of often surviving a hit, and is indeed 20 (or
more) points higher than any contemporary regular
Salamence card. Being a Dragon Type allows it
access to the powerful Double Dragon Energy;
there are some other bits of support, but that is the
one that will most likely matter. There are some
anti-Dragon Type effects, but they aren’t worth using in
competitive play. Dragon Weakness is only found on
BW-era Dragon Types, which is not a good thing for
Salamence-EX as - to be blunt - the x2 Weakness
mechanic is horribly broken, so exploiting it is
usually part of a deck’s success. No Resistance to
worry about, at least. Another important factor
are other Dragon Types; if Double Dragon Energy
is already in the deck, then many other Dragon Types can
plausible be added, and with a few it is even quite
easy. Salamence-EX has Fairy Weakness, which may
be one of the worst to have right now; we’ve seen a
spike in high performing Fairy Type decks recently and
not all of them are focused on OHKO tactics. The
lack of Resistance is typical and likely would have only
been a small bonus if present, while a Retreat Cost of
[CC] is decent; more than you want to pay but low enough
you can if you must. If you can include
Hydreigon-EX, a single instance of its “Dragon Road”
Ability can zero it out.
Salamence-EX
has two attacks; the first is “Beastly Fang” for [RCC],
which does 10 damage plus another 50 for each Pokémon-EX
your opponent has in play. If your opponent
doesn’t have any Pokémon-EX in play, Beastly Fang is
pathetic, and if your opponent has one, it is still
subpar. Fortunately many (most?) decks are going
to have two more, and even at just two you get a good
110 damage for three Energy. Past this point, it
just keeps getting better until OHKO’s of pretty much
anything in the game become possible. There are
some decks where Beastly Fang won’t be worth it, but
most of the time Salamence-EX should force your
opponent to mind his or her Bench, or else be capable of
good damage. For [RWCC] Salamence-EX can
use “Dragon Strike” to do 130 damage, which would be
somewhat good except the attack’s effect text
states Salamence-EX (“this Pokémon”) cannot use
Dragon Strike during your next turn. You likely
won’t use this attack much (if ever), but thanks to
Double Dragon Energy if your opponent managed to
psych you out (maybe using their own Parallel City
to mass discard a Bench full of Pokémon-EX) you can
shift gears and still get off a decent enough attack.
Beastly Fang is very good (maybe great) and instead of
getting a totally useless Ability or attack alongside
it, it gets decent filler.
There are no other Salamence-EX cards for this
version to compete with; instead you might have to
choose between it and other Dragon Types like
Giratina-EX (XY: Ancient Origins 57/98,
93/98) and perhaps Hydreigon-EX. Why those
two? Both are fellow Dragon Type Basic Pokémon-EX,
both have useful Abilities, and both have good attacks
that can be fueled by whatever other Energy is in the
deck plus Double Dragon Energy. Fortunately
as these are all Basic Pokémon, so you likely can just
use a combination of them together. We’ve seen
several Darkrai-EX (XY: BREAKpoint 74/122,
118/122) decks that usually partner up with Giratina-EX
start including Salamence-EX. Volcanion-EX
decks have also been adding in Salamence-EX;
while it cannot benefit from “Steam Up” and they aren’t
adding in Double Dragon Energy, Beastly Fang
doesn’t require either here. Salamence-EX
probably isn’t good enough to change your deck to make
it compatible with Beastly Fang, but if your deck can
already afford the Energy cost, you probably should get
a copy or two of this card. Salamence-EX isn’t a
bad thing to have on hand for Expanded decks that could
incorporate it either, but I don’t think the combination
of card pool/metagame is quite as conducive. This
card isn’t legal for Limited play due to its nature, and
if it were reprinted in a set Beastly Fang would usually
be worthless, making it mediocre due to relying upon its
size and Dragon Strike.
Ratings
Standard:
3.75/5
Expanded:
3.5/5
Limited:
2.5/5
Summary:
Salamence-EX seems to be the “Surprise it’s
good!” promo from the end of 2016. While it was an
option for our Top 10 lists, it didn’t start doing
really well until said lists were done. If
Pokémon-GX don’t prove worthwhile (at least for a bit),
other non-Pokémon-EX fall out of the competitive scene,
or similar metagame shifts occur, then Salamence-EX
will only get stronger. You’ll note I said
nothing about M Salamence-EX in this review…
guess what we are looking at tomorrow?
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