Meloetta – Fusion Strike
Date Reviewed:
December 10, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 3.00
Expanded: 3.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Me-lo-et-ta!
Me-lo-et-ta!
Vous attaquez? Vous attaquez?
Laissez-le à Mew VMAX! Laissez-le à Mew VMAX!
Pan-pan-pan! Pan-pan-pan!
-To the tune of Frère Jacques, with apologies to those who can actually speak French.
So… yeah, we’re looking at Meloetta (SW – Fusion Strike 124/264). It is a Fusion Strike Pokémon, letting it tap their support. Other than that, Meloetta is a baseline Pokémon: no Rule Boxes or giving up extra Prizes. As a Basic Pokémon, Meloetta is the easiest Stage to run. Meloetta is also a Psychic type; useful for exploiting Weakness (hello, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX) but also nice because it means Meloetta is a legal target for Fog Crystal. 90 HP means you can also fetch Meloetta with a Level Ball, but also means an Meloetta is a fairly easy OHKO… even while on your Bench (hello again, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX).
Meloetta has [D] Weakness; this would matter more if Meloetta had a higher HP score, but will still matter during those times when a weak (50 to 80) damage attack suddenly becomes a OHKO. Similarly, any Resistance is a welcome site, but Meloetta’s [F] Resistance provides only a small bonus; an effect 120 HP against OHKO’s by [F] types is still within OHKO range of medium and large attacks. Meloetta has a Retreat Cost of [C]; low enough to be easy to pay, as long as you’re not strapped for Energy already. Still better than the typical Retreat Cost of [CC].
Meloetta knows a single attack. Priced at [PC], “Melodious Echo” does 70 damage per Fusion Strike Energy attached to any and all of your Pokémon. We cannot easily recycle Fusion Strike Energy, but if you can get all four of your copies into play, Melodious Echo will do 280 damage. That means none left in your deck, in your Prizes, or in your discard pile so… not impossible, but not easy. Even with three of the four Fusion Strike Energy, Melodious Echo can do 210, enough to OHKO smaller Basic Pokémon V. Just two let’s the attack do 140: not great, but not bad. The attack does disappoint if you have one or zero Fusion Strike Energy in play, doing just 70 or zero damage.
Thanks to Fusion Strike support, a good attack becomes a great attack. Power Tablet can offset a missing Fusion Strike Energy. More accurately, two copies fall just 10 damage shy of adding the same amount of damage as another Fusion Strike Energy. Going purely by printed HP scores and damage done, four Fusion Strike Energy and four copies of Power Tablet can take out anything in a single shot. In fact, just two Power Tablets and four Fusion Strike Energy will suffice. Still, Meloetta is an easy OHKO herself but needs two Energy to attack. Elesa’s Sparkle can help with this, but it also means Meloetta sporting one of those Energy and thus risking its immediate loss after one attack.
Enter Mew VMAX. Mew VMAX gets only a tiny discount using its “Cross Fusion Strike” attack to copy Melodious Echo, but it means you could have all Fusion Strike Energy hidden on your Bench, or at least, attached to something much larger than Meloetta. Which is exactly how we’re seeing Meloetta used; a single copy is sometimes included in Mew VMAX/Genesect V decks. At least, in Standard. In Expanded, I haven’t seen anything using it but it would potentially benefit from Dimension Valley, Special Charge, and VS Seeker: use Melodious Echo for just [P], recycle lost Fusion Strike Energy, even reuse a TecH Elesa’s Sparkle. Meloetta earns a respectable three-out-of-five in Standard; Meloetta may only be a one-of in a specific deck, but provides the deck a valuable service. I’m also awarding Meloetta the same score in Expanded, but I am being very generous… or optimistic. You can decide which.
Ratings
- Standard: 3/5
- Expanded: 3/5
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