Forretress-ex – Paldea Evolved
Date Reviewed: June 16, 2023
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 3.0
Expanded: 2.0
Limited: 3.0
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Forretress-ex (SV Paldea Evolevd 5/193) curls up the meta with an interesting strategy. A Stage 1 Grass type with 270 HP, Fire weakness, and a retreat cost of CCC, it has an ability and an attack. Its Exploding Energy ability states that you may search your deck for up to 5 Basic Grass Energy cards and attach them to any of your Pokemon in any way you like. However, it gets immediately KOed, giving your opponent two prizes. And Guard Press costs GG for 120 damage and takes 30 less damage from attacks.
Forretress-ex provides a quick burst of grass energies at a moderate price, and I think it is very well worth the price due to a few reasons:
-Some of your Pokemon with “C” or “G” attack costs will be ready to attack due to chiefly being able to go from zero to attacking in the same turn you KO your own Forretress.
-It makes coming-from-behind cards such as Roxanne and Defiance Band easier to activate.
-It makes Iono even more powerful by reducing your opponent’s hand size!
As long as your opponent isn’t down to two or less prizes remaining when you use this ability, the match still continues. It may be considered a bad thing if that’s all you can do. But if you have certain cards to follow up what just happened, then it could turn the tide of your situation. I remember reviewing Electrode-GX (and Electrode-ex) and other review members have mixed feelings about it. But I did somewhat praise it. Similar thing for today’s card, even though energy acceleration is restricted to just Grass energies. Not sure if there’s any current competitive Grass-based decks, but I can imagine that Forretress-ex might find some value in unusual ways.
Ratings:
Standard: 3/5
Expanded: 2/5 (Electrode-GX does a better job due to allowing any energy cards.)
Limited: 3/5
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