Magnezone – Space-Time Smackdown
Date Reviewed: February 15, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The second best Pokémon of Space-Time Smackdown is Magnezone (A2 053)! It’s a (L) Type, Stage 2 Pokémon that evolves from Magneton, which in turn evolves from Magnemite. It has 140 HP, (F) Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Thunder Blast”. For (L)(C)(C), Thunder Blast lets Magnezone do 110 damage to the opposing Active, but Magnezone to discard a (L) Energy from itself. Magnezone is only available as a ♦♦♦ rare.
We need to cover the lower Stages you’ll use to reach Magnezone. Normally I save this for the end, but this is one of those situations where the lower Stages are why the rest of the card works. We’ll start with Magnemite (A1 097, Promo-A 024) and Magnemite (A2 051). They’re both (L) Type Basic Pokémon with 60 HP, (F) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and one attack. The former can use “Lightning Ball” for (L) to do 20 damage. The latter can use “Ram” for (C) to do 10.
Magneton (A1 098) and Magneton (A2 052) also have a lot of overlap, but the differences are more pronounced. Both are (L) Type Stage 1 Pokémon with 80 HP and (F) Weakness. The older Magneton has a Retreat Cost of (C)(C), the Ability “Volt Charge”, and can use “Spinning Attack”. Volt Charge lets Magneton attach a (L) Energy to itself once during your turn, from your Energy Zone. Spinning Attack costs (L)(C)(C)(C) and does 60 damage. The new Magneton has a Retreat Cost of (C) and knows the attack “Lightning Ball”. For (L)(L), Lightning Ball does 50 damage.
Use Magneton (A1 098)! Its Ability is the key to Magnezone’s success! This allows the entire Stage 2 line to work in off Type decks. Not just mixed Type, off Type. Your Energy Zone will be set to never spit out (L) Energy, allowing it to focus on whatever Type(s) you do need. Even one use of Volt Charge will allow Magnezone to attack once. Unless, of course, Magneton gets KO’d before evolving or your opponent uses an Energy discarding attack on it.
The new Magneton does decent damage for the Energy it requires to attack, and has the superior Retreat Cost but those don’t matter. As for the Magnemite, those also don’t matter… much. If you’re worried about attacking with Magnemite (A1 097, Promo-A 024), you’ll need to be “running” (L) Energy in your Energy Zone, while Magnemite (A2 051) can use anything. Since we’re talking about attacking for 20 damage or 10 damage, it rarely matters. I guess the older Magnemite can OHKO a Manaphy (A2 50, 162) if you can also play a Giovanni that turn. Yay?
Now we’ll return to Magnezone. So yeah, being a Stage 2 is still time consuming and resource intensive but this time, the Stage 1 is contributing mightily to the Stage 2. The (L) Typing is handy for exploiting Weakness1, but lacks any Type-specific support or counters. Exploiting (L) Weakness only lets Magnezone to 130 damage, which is enough to get a few metagame relevant OHKOs Magnezone would otherwise have missed. Some simple combos expand the range – and increase the amount of useful OHKOs – a little more.
When it comes to defense, Magnezone has 140 HP, a solid enough amount for a Stage 2. Magnemite and Magneton aren’t as well off, and all of them still have to mind the (F) Weakness. Lucario (A2 092, 170) makes this more complicated; besides the usual suspects like Giovanni, you have to be wary of up to +40 damage (from Lucario’s Ability) on top of the usual +20 from being (F) Weak. The Retreat Cost of (C)(C) is decent; Leaf can zero it out, and for reasons we’re about to address, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to manually retreat once.
If you’re wondering how Thunder Blast is worth all this, you should watch Transformers: Cybertron are right to ask. I certainly didn’t “get” it at first. As stated earlier, Magneton allows Magnezone to run completely off-top. As long as you have enough other sufficient threats, it also means you can completely rely on Magneton’s Volt Charge to build up (L)(L)(L) for Magnezone. It will take four total turns, minimum: one turn of being a Magnemite, three turns of being a Magneton and using Volt Charge, evolve in Magnezone the same turn as the third Volt Charge.
Remember, though each time you use Thunder Blast, you’ll have to discard a (L) Energy. If you can spare some Energy of another Type, you either don’t have to spend as long using Volt Charge, or you do but you’ll be able to attack more than once with Thunder Blast. If you decide to use Thunder Blast as a one-and-done, and Magnezone survives, you’ll have just enough Energy to retreat at full price. Which… isn’t bad, but is it really enough to earn second place in this countdown?
Then we remember this is the secondary strategy of the decks running it. Magnezone is part of Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202) variant, and it’s one of the top decks at the moment. There’s Skarmory (A2 111; Promo-A 039) deck that is just it and Magnezone… or those two plus Mew ex (A1a 032, 077, 083, 086). Hitmonchan (A1 155), Hitmonlee (A1 154), and Marshadow (A1a 047, 074) have found success backed by Magnezone. Maybe I wasn’t wrong assigning Lucario (A2 092, 170) 10th place…
Rating: 4/5
There are even some Palkia ex (A2 049, 182, 204, 206) decks running Magnezone! I guess living up to the saying “If you can’t beat them, join them!” All of this from a non-ex Stage 2 (L) Pokémon, without its own Ability, without a Supporter specific to it, a few Pokémon including it, or for the (L) Type. While making use of an Ability on its Stage 1! I don’t know how long this will last, but I wanted to celebrate it while it is happening. I’m also being a wee bit generous with the score. Without Magneton’s Ability, this Magnezone would be a three-out-of-five at best.
1As a reminder, every Type except Dragon has at least one (L) Weak Pokémon, and most of those Types will have something that moves into OHKO range thanks to its Weakness. Even if it sometimes also requires a Giovanni.
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