Otaku |
Going up way late
because I had a full Wednesday, was slow to recover,
and I’m stupid enough to read and respond to Youtube
comments as I watch videos, today we look back to
Exeggcute (BW: Plasma Freeze 2/116; BW:
Plasma Blast 102/101) for Throwback Thursday.
This card is somewhat recent, as the two printings being
a little over and a little under four years old.
It hasn’t been two full years yet since both expansions
containing it rotated from Standard play. You can
see our original review
here.
So, why look at it now? Exeggcute still sees
some competitive use in the Expanded Format, and a
lot in the Legacy Format, that’s why. I’m also
going to cover things a little out of order, because
Exeggcute is all about one of its effects, to
the point that most of my usual points about Stages,
Types, etc. won’t matter.
The relevant effect
is its Ability, “Propagation”; rather surprised they
didn’t call it “Prop-egg-ation” or something like that.
This Ability allows only works while this Exeggcute
is in your discard pile, and before you attack; you may
add this Pokémon to your hand. You’ll notice it
clearly says Propagation works only once per
turn, however, the effect resets each time it
goes back to your hand and then back to the discard
pile; effectively it is limitless.
Propagation is an easy way to functionally reduce or
even eliminate generic discard costs from your hand… but
if that is the case, shouldn’t it be a staple?
Some decks have other cards they need to discard,
but with additional help like Battle Compressor,
that doesn’t seem like reason enough to skip out on
cards like Ultra Ball being a bit easier to play.
So now, let us look at the rest of the card. Exeggcute
has a single attack called “Seed Bomb” for [GC], which
does 20 damage; overpriced or underpowered, either way,
you shouldn’t worry about using it, which makes the
cards Grass-Typing almost irrelevant. The rest of
what makes it irrelevant is we don’t currently have a
worthwhile Exeggcutor to use (no need to cash in
on Forest of Giant Plants, then) and Propagation
means you shouldn’t need Revitalizer. Being
a Basic is normally, the best, but here?
Here you wish Exeggcute was any other Stage so
that there is no risk you’re stuck using it as your
opening Active. If that happens, you have to use
another effect to bounce it into your hand or wait for
your opponent to KO it.
Speaking of being
KO’d, this card has the minimum printed HP score
for actual Pokémon cards: 30! Not only does it
require an opponent to have a horrid setup to
survive, but this is low enough that Exeggcute is
often an easy bonus Prize for spread/snipe effects
and an Active Exeggcute can be OHKO’d through
Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym,
even on the first turn of the game! Credit where
credit is due, it also means you can search it out with
Level Ball. It also means the Fire Weakness
only just matters; an attack that does 10 damage still
whiffs on the OHKO, an attack that does 30+ damage
already scores a OHKO, but 20 damage is a typical amount
for single Energy attacks, so something like
Volcanion (XY: Black Star Promos XY145;
XY: Steam Siege 25/114) is capable of scoring a OHKO
with its “Power Heater” attack and no buffs.
Water Resistance is a surprise, and a welcome one, but
again, the HP will make sure it rarely matters as
attacks which do 50+ damage punch right through.
The Retreat Cost of [C] is normally a very good deal,
but here feels like an added punishment; if you’re stuck
with Exeggcute in play and upfront, you’ll have
to commit additional resources to get it out of the way.
Putting it all
together, now we know why Exeggcute isn’t a
staple; while it is useful for meeting discard
requirements from hand (and sometimes even the deck or
field), you can be stuck opening with it. Exeggcutor
also has to worry about effects like those of Target
Whistle and Karen; being forced into play or
shuffled back into the deck defeat the point of
Propagation. Decks that do need to
constantly discard Pokémon from the hand or the field
do still at least consider it in Expanded play.
Where Exeggcute really shines, however, is in the
Legacy Format. Not because of other Exeggcute
or Exeggcutor; a few have hinted at being good
but none have delivered, at least recently.
What makes Exeggcute better in the Legacy Format
mostly boils down to a few added opportunities plus
some older archetypes performing much better here. Junk
Arm is a staple; this Item has you discard two cards
from hand but then allows you to add an Item (other than
Junk Arm) to your hand. The Legacy Format
lacks VS Seeker, but has less Item hate
than the Expanded or Standard Formats; plenty of potent
Items love being recycled, and most decks run as many
copies of Junk Arm as they can; three of four is
typical unless that player owns fewer copies than that.
Next, we have Empoleon (BW: Dark Explorers
29/108; BW: Plasma Freeze 117/116) and Weavile
(BW: Plasma Freeze 66/116). That’s right,
the powers-that-be must have wanted us to notice
these combos because a version of all three Pokémon (Empoleon,
Exeggcute, and Weavile) are all in the
same set!
Empoleon
and Weavile are not deck mates. Empoleon,
however, does have its own successful deck in the Legacy
Format and occasionally had one back when this card was
Standard legal, as well. I don’t recall if it has
had any serious success while in the Expanded Format,
though. Exeggcute allows you to repeatedly use
the “Diving Draw” Ability on Empoleon; said
Ability requires a discard from hand to activate and
then has you draw two cards. I’m not sure when it
rose to prominence in the Legacy Format, but there was
recently a bonus weekend challenge requiring you score
KO’s with an Evolution, and many folks reminded me how
good this deck could be. Almost always, it was
partnered with Dusknoir (BW: Boundaries
Crossed 63/149; BW: Plasma Blast 104/101).
The “Diving Draw” attack on Empoleon only costs
[W] to do 10 damage times the number of Pokémon in play
(for both players), making it difficult to score OHKO’s
against opposing Pokémon-EX and even some larger
non-Pokémon-EX, and often you end up in overkill
territory. Dusknoir provides its “Sinister Hand”
Ability so you can move that damage around, taking out
smaller targets on the Bench and avoiding waste,
so that 2HKO’s can sometimes produce a pseudo-OHKO.
With Weavile, there is even less to explain; it
is a Darkness-Type Stage 1 that for [DC] can use its
“Vilify” attack to do 30 damage per Pokémon you discard
from your hand. It too had some success in
Standard before it rotated, but in the Legacy Format, it
has been the best deck in the format at times.
Just spam four Exeggcute, a spare copy of a
Pokémon or two, maybe include Silver Bangle, and
you’re able to OHKO anything in the card pool.
If Exeggcute
were reprinted, it probably would see at least a little
competitive play, but I don’t think too much; in short,
it would be more like the Expanded Format than the
Legacy Format. You should never forget about it in
the Expanded Format, but you should probably only use it
when you’ve got a lot of discards in your deck,
especially when manipulating hand-size is also a
concern. A slightly dated example are some of the
decks built around Blastoise (BW: Boundaries
Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma Storm 137/135;
BW: Plasma Blast 16/101), especially those also
using Archie’s Ace in the Hole; don’t want to get
stuck with Archie’s Ace in the Hole, Superior
Energy Retrieval or Ultra Ball, and
insufficient discard fodder in hand. You cannot
afford to run it in everything in the Legacy Format, but
I often wish I could; I miss it in the many decks where
I just can’t make room. Oh, and if you’re able to play
in a Limited event with older cards, this isn’t as
exciting as you might think; while there are some cards
(even at sensible rarities) that benefit from discard
fodder, you’ve got to have both them and Exeggcute
in hand at the same time. Even with both Ultra
Ball and Professor Juniper in BW: Plasma
Blast, odds aren’t great you’d need the discard
fodder more than once. You might want to run an
Exeggutor, though.
Ratings
Standard:
N/A
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
1.75/5
Legacy:
3.5/5
Conclusion
Exeggcutor
reminds me once of about the differences between Pokémon
and most of the other TCG’s I’ve played. In those
games, Exeggcutor would be a powerful card,
banned or restricted in usage or else a staple.
Here? We tend to have the draw power, hand-size,
and/or recycling effects to keep discard costs from
being a big problem, so only certain decks find it
worthwhile. Still, always something to keep in
mind.
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