Heatran – Ultra Prism – Pokemon COTD Review

Vince

Heatran (SM Ultra Prism 88/156) is a Basic Metal type with 130 HP, weak to Fire, resists Psychic, and a retreat cost of three. Guard Press does 30 for MC and reduces damage taken by 30 after applying Weakness and Resistance. Boiling Impact costs MMC for 130 damage, and requires this Pokémon to discard two Metal energies attached to it.

Though at first glance, it seems to be a beatstick of some sort that needs support in a similar manner to Reshiram from Black & White or Zekrom from Shining Legends. Fortunately, you got Magnezone from SM Ultra Prism whose Magnetic Circuit allows unlimited Metal Energy attachments, letting you attack with Boiling Impact right away. There’s Mt. Coronet to get back two Metal energies from your discard pile into your hand, making you break even from Boiling Impact’s drawback. Heatran can comfortably land 2HKOs in most circumstances and chiefly OHKOs ALL Fairy Pokemon and some Water types (who represent Ice types in the video games) weak to Metal, even those who are GX Pokemon!

Unfortunately for Heatran, Dusk Mane Necrozma GX actually does a better job despite giving up two prizes. One may think that Meteor Tempest would be a better attack than Boiling Impact, as 220 damage is almost a OHKO on most commonly played Pokemon, and backed with Beast Energy Prism Star or Choice Band, can OHKO any card in the game. Doing OHKOes rather than 2HKO actually doesn’t give your opponent much time to respond; Healing would be irrelevant at this point.

When facing against a Fairy deck, Heatran would be the way to go. But against anything else, they would stick to using Dusk Mane Necrozma GX. In Limited, Heatran is one of the Prerelease promos that one can pull. Also, the 2-2-2 Magnezone line is one of the Evolution packs that one might pull. When you put it together, then you will have a formidable deck to use in that format. Only skip it if you have a better basic beatstick………because Dusk Mane Necrozma GX happens to be in the same set as well.

Standard: 3/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 4.5/5

Notes: Heatran joins in the group of solid one-prize attackers that has good HP and has the capability to 2HKO the game (or OHKO them through Weakness). They would’ve been dominant, if it weren’t for EX/GX mechanic ruining their day. Still, it is a budget card that does a good job when you cannot get ahold some of the best cards.

Side review: There is an alternate type Heatran that does the same thing as this card, but it is a fire type weak to Water and it’s attack costs are RC and RRC respectively. Not only can it do the same with Heatran/Emboar BW, but as a Basic Fire type, it reaps the benefit from Volcanion-EX, whose Steam Up can increase the damage by 30 and is stackable dependent on how many Volcanion-EX you have. And those discarded energies can be recover with Blacksmith. Seems like the Fire type Heatran will have a lot going for it than today’s card.

Oh, and next week will be top 10 cards from Sun & Moon Forbidden Light! Time to get excited for new cards!

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PokeDeck
Central

Heatran (UP 88) burns its way back into the meta from the Ultra Prism expansion set.  This single prize Big Basic has 130 HP and two attacks.  Guard Press, for a Metal and a Colorless, does only thirty but reduces your opponent’s next attack by thirty.  Boiling Impact does 130 but mandates the discarding of two Energy cards post attack.

Obviously, getting the two Energy back is easy with Mt. Coronet and Magnezone, and that’s not bad for a single prize Pokemon to consistently stream over and over again.  I only played a couple of matches with this deck, and I went 1 W 1 L, with the win coming over a pretty weak Fairy deck.  Heatran’s not bad, but there are so many other Pokemon I’d rather spend my time on, especially since FLI is just a day away.

Rating

Standard: 2 out of 5

Conclusion

This is the time of the year when the meta gets thick – we have so many more cards available to us than we did back in September.  Cards like Heatran just aren’t going to be competitive against the top line GX’s that are about to dominate the game.