Heatmor – Sword & Shield Fusion Strike 41/264
Date Reviewed:
January 11, 2022
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.00
Expanded: 2.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Now here’s a Pokemon that tries to be a TAG TEAM card, but it actually a baseline card instead.
Heatmor from Sword & Shield Fusion Strike didn’t get my attention until I looked at its second attack. But first, its first attack is Flame Cloak, which costs R for 20 damage and also attaches a fire energy from the discard pile to itself. I guess its first attack could lead into its second attack, which is Exciting Flame, which costs RRC for 90 damage. It also states that if this Pokémon has three extra energies attached to it (RRCCCC, so to speak), then you can also do 180 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon. The damage output against your opponent’s Active Pokemon is poor, though 180 damage on the Bench is huge; it is enough to OHKO a Benched Crobat-V (or the upcoming Lumineon-V from Japanese’s Star Birth expansion) after it has served its purpose and is a sitting bat/fish waiting to be KOed.
Heatmor’s second attack is why I jokingly say that its Exciting Flame attack could be found in TAG TEAM cards, because all of the TAG TEAM cards from the Sun & Moon era have an GX attack that requires extra energies to be attached in order to get additional effects. Except that Heatmor’s imaginary “TAG TEAM GX attack” can be used multiple times instead of once and is worth a single prize instead of three, though I doubt that it would last more than one turn due to its 110 HP. I also don’t recall seeing any Fire based acceleration in Regulation Mark “D” onwards, so I find it hard to get six energies on Heatmor. There is adequate Fire based acceleration in the Expanded format such as Welder or Emboar’s Inferno Fandango ability, and the ladder can easily accelerate six fire energies from your hand if you have that many.
I don’t think Heatmor is good enough to be considered general usage; I think it’s leaning towards TecH, being specifically used to KO certain targets on the Bench. This could’ve been good, if it weren’t for an upcoming Manaphy card (also from Star Birth) with the Wave Veil ability, which is the same as Bench Barrier, meaning all the investment of having six energies on Heatmor had led to waste.
Ratings:
Standard: 2/5
Expanded: 2/5
Heatmor did caught my eye due to its second attack, but Pokemon with Bench protection ruined any hope for Heatmor to succeed.
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