Card – Vivid Voltage
Date Reviewed: December 7, 2020
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 1.75
Expanded: 1.88
Limited: 2.50
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
This review will be in all three of those Eeveelutions:
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Vivid Voltage brings in three more Eeveelutions: Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon. What they have in common is that they each have an ability that turns off abilities from certain types as long as it has a Memory Capsule Pokémon Tool Card. We’ve looked at Memory Capsule here and this item card does show promise due to being one of the methods of accessing older attacks from its previous evolution. How useful this card would be depends on the Pokémon in question: those three Eeveelutions would NEVER benefit accessing older attacks! The closest thing to a Eevee card that deals the most damage is the one from SM Ultra Prism, whose Palette of Friends cost CC and deals 10 damage for each different type of Pokémon in your Bench. The most you can do is 50 damage (or 80 damage with Sky Field and one of each TCG types). So, you should never have any of those Eeveelutions attack unless you have no other option.
Vaporeon’s Torrential Awakening turns off all abilities from Fire Pokémon. Jolteon’s Thunderous Awakening, turns off all abilities from Water Pokémon. Flareon’s Incandescent Awakening turns off all abilities from Grass Pokémon. While those abilities could be pretty game-changing SHOULD you encounter such types, they are also useless against most of other decks who aren’t using such types. It also isn’t a good idea to use three of those Eeveelutions at the same time because those abilities turn off each other. Assuming those Eeveelutions have Memory Capsule attached to it: Jolteon will shut down your Vaporeon’s ability lock, making Fire Pokémon use their abilities again. Vaporeon will shut down Flareon’s ability. Flareon won’t affect any of the Eeveelutions. So, you could run two of the three Eeveelutions without compromising the other, that being both Jolteon and Flareon. However, the real kicker is that none of the Eeveelutions can shut down some of the Pokémon whose abilities provide either draw power or consistency. Dedenne-GX, Crobat-V, two Jirachi cards, and even the banned Shaymin-EX aren’t affected by the Eeveelution trio.
I can’t seem to process how those three Eeveelutions would be viable in any format because they are so specialized, restricting, and even detrimental. Not to mention it faces competition from other Stage 1 Eeveelutions from various formats. Expanded brings in – but not limited to – two more trio that also consists of Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon. The trio from Ancient Origins had abilities that adds a type to Stage 1 in addition of its existing types. A Stage 1 Pokémon – assuming all three are in play – can also have Water, Lightning, and Fire type to exploit multiple weaknesses. Another trio from Cosmic Eclipse also contains Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon, whose abilities support GX counterparts of Eeveelutions. Vaporeon’s Vitality Cheer grants +60 to its Max HP; Jolteon’s Speed Cheer shaved off attack costs by C; and Flareon’s Power Cheer makes Stage 1 GX Eeveelutions deal 30 extra damage. They were released near the end of the SM-era, so helping those Eeveelutions out as their last hurrah is nice indeed! While you could have up to nine opportunities to get your Stage 1 Eeveelutions in play (4 Eevee, 4 Eevee-GX, and 1 Ditto (*)), those group of Eeveelutions might be able to be played.
Ratings: (collective)
- Standard: 1.5
- Expanded: 1.75
- Limited: 2
Out of the other Eeveelution trios that we cumulatively have, this seems to be the worst of the group. It tries to disrupt certain plays, but they didn’t do the job well. If they shut down abilities from your opponent’s Pokemon but not yours, then it might worth consideration. But that’s not the case here.
Otaku
Today we have three reviews for you, and this time, it isn’t due to an error on my part. We’ll be looking at Flareon (SW – Vivid Voltage 026/185), Jolteon (SW – Vivid Voltage 47/185), and Vaporeon (SW – Vivid Voltage 30/185). “Eeveelutions”, Eevee and the various Pokémon that evolve from it, are always related in the Pokémon TCG, but these three have a lot of overlap. Just not enough for me to be comfortable doing some kind of mega review that covers everything about all three at once. As such, we’ll highlight one at a time, starting with Flareon (SW – Vivid Voltage 026/185).
Flareon is a baseline Pokémon: worth only one Prize when KO’d, and possessing no specialty mechanics like being an Ultra Beast or Prism Star Pokémon. It is a Fire type, which is quite useful for exploiting the typical Weakness of Metal and Grass types, the former being quite relevant right now. There are some anti-Fire effects that can be a pain, and they’re some of the few type-specific counters that have seen relatively recent competitive success in Standard. As a Stage 1 Pokémon, Flareon ought to be relatively easy to run; not as nice as just a Basic, but far easier than a Stage 2. As a bonus, the Eeveelutions tend to be easier to run as a split evolution line, and mixing and matching them can make them greater than the sum of their parts.
Flareon has 110 HP. This is a low for a Stage 1, but not terrible. There is a small, small chance an Active Flareon can survive, such as against more technical fighters or an incomplete set up, but the vast majority of the time it is getting OHKO’d. At least this is enough it isn’t especially fragile on your Bench. It won’t matter on the Bench, the card’s [W] Weakness but while active a mere 60 damage can OHKO Flareon. No Resistance is typical, as is the Retreat Cost of [CC]. Even though the former is technically the worst Flareon could have, functionally neither is really an advantage nor disadvantage. I will note that Flareon isn’t a good fit for Air Balloon; while that would zero out its Retreat Cost, Flareon needs a different Tool.
This is because of “Incandescent Awakening”, Flareon’s Ability. It only works if this Flareon has a Memory Capsule Pokémon Tool attached to itself. With that condition met, all Grass Pokémon in play (for both players) are treated as if they no longer have Abilities. This won’t affect [G] Pokémon in the deck, in your hand, in your Prizes, or in your Lost Zone; only those that are on the Bench or Active. There might be some intricate combo where shutting off the Abilities of your own Grass types is valuable, but the main use for this is stopping the Abilities of your opponent’s Grass types. In a vacuum, it looks solid, but if there aren’t any worthwhile [G] Abilities to shut down, it becomes rather pointless. Flareon knows “Fire Mane”; [RRC] scores 100 damage. It’s overpriced and it doesn’t play nicely with off-type Energy; a massive missed opportunity for Stage 1 Pokémon in general, but especially Eeveelutions.
Right now, the only major examples of Grass Pokémon with massively important Abilities are Decidueye (SW – Darkness Ablaze 013/189; SW – Black Star Promos SWSH035) and Vileplume (XY – Ancient Origins 3/98). I could be mistaken about them both still be relevant right now, and I may have missed a few others, either because I underestimated them overall, or just the importance of their Abilities. The good news is that Flareon’s Incandescent Awakening stops them both. Your Pokémon-GX and Pokémon V won’t be stopped by Decidueye’s “Deep Forest Camo”, and your Item cards won’t be stopped by Vileplume’s “Irritating Pollen”. In the case of the latter, neither will your opponent’s Item cards. Not bad for something you could run a three-card combo (a single copy each of Eevee, Flareon, and Memory Capsule). In Expanded, you could even just add Flareon and Memory Capsule in a deck that can spare its Ditto {*}.
What concerns me is… there are alternatives. Proven alternatives. Volcaion (SM – Unbroken Bonds 25/214; SM – Black Star Promos SM179) is already not an uncommon sight in Fire type decks, as its first attack is quite valuable when you go second. However, it is its second attack that one-shots Decidueye, due the bird’s Fire Weakness. Yes, Volcanion also needs you to have four Fire Energy in play (only two need to be attached to it) in order to swing for 110 before Weakness, but that’s probable for most decks which would run it. Yes, Decidueye may employ Weakness Guard Energy to deal with that, but it is still a Basic versus a Stage 1, and if we’re allowing it Weakness Guard Energy, you could argue we should allow Volcanion access to Leon.
If Bronzong (SM – Team Up 101/181) is still seeing competitive success due to its “Heatproof” Ability, then finding an alternate attacker is still a better deal than just running Flareon. It isn’t easy to find a solid, non-Fire, non-GX, non-V attacker that can still run on Fire Energy, but there are a few candidates out there. Notice I didn’t restrict it to being a Basic; Flareon is a Stage 1 and Memory Capsule means it takes up an additional slot, so Basic or Stage 1 alternate attackers are both valid. Flareon really needs Jolteon and/or Vaporeon, or some other Eeveelution(s), to help it compensate. You can read my reviews of those other cards, but the short version is I don’t think they do… at least, not right now. As a trio, they do come far closer than Flareon would alone, and Flareon’s Standard Format score will reflect this.
Its Expanded Format score will not, because Expanded simply has better options. A Tool requiring Stage 1 means Flareon is competing pretty directly with Garbodor (BW – Dragons Exalted 54/124; BW – Plasma Freeze 119/116; BW – Legendary Treasures 68/113) and Garbodor (XY – BREAKpoint 57/122). Either Garbodor has the “Garbotoxin” Ability, and so long as a Tool is attached to that Garbodor, the Abilities of all Pokémon on the field, in the discard pile, and in the hand are ignored. If you need some of your own Abilities to work, this could be a problem, but even then, it’ll usually only be an issue for “always on” or “once per turn” effects you use over and over again throughout the game. Even with the other Eeveelutions, this leaves only a small niche for Flareon. Garbodor isn’t the only competition, either; Alolan Muk (Sun & Moon 58/149), Power Plant, and Silent Lab all offer their own double-sided, but partial Ability negation.
As for the Limited Format, this set contains four [G] Pokémon with Abilities: Beedrill (SW – Vivid Voltage 003/185) and Shiftry (SW – Vivid Voltage 12/185), Ninjask (SW – Vivid Voltage 14/185), and Orbeetle VMAX. These are all also Standard and Expanded legal, and may even become parts of the competitive metagame, though some have a better chance than others. So why didn’t I mention them all earlier? One part timing (Beedrill will mostly be used before Flareon can hit the field), and one part I did mention them; they’re Grass types with Abilities, but I don’t expect them to be major parts of the metagame. As for the actual Limited Format, I don’t think the Abilities are as good here, even if the rest of the Pokémon in question sometimes is better… so Flareon is nice, and working it into your deck (assuming you get it, Eevee, and Memory Capsule) is good, but probably not great.
Ratings
- Standard: 2/5
- Expanded: 2/5
- Limited: 3/5
Flareon has an interesting Ability, but the need for Memory Capsule hurts, while the option of running a split Eeveelution line definitely helps. Did I really need to take so much space to explain all that? Yes! This is a counter card, so if what it counters suddenly becomes appropriately significant, and there isn’t a better alternative, Flareon becomes hot stuff! It is just that, right now, there’s basically one Standard and one Expanded deck it counters, and each is better countered by something else. There’s also the chance that future Eeveelutions could offer more support to this line.
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