Miradion-ex – Scarlet & Violet
Date Reviewed: May 4, 2023
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 4
Expanded: 4
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Vince
Not only I am behind my reviews schedule, I had taken an extremely long hiatus…for over a year! Yes, it was that bad; I could not effectively manage my time on other activities on the side. However, in my mind, even if I was not able to play the Pokemon TCG (or any other TCGs in that matter) as often as I liked due to opportunity costs, at least I still have something fun to talk about. I was scrolling down past Pokemon COTDs to see if it would reignite my passion of what I enjoyed doing. Upon looking at the archives, I have missed at least over a year’s worth of expansions (ranging from SWSH Brillant Stars to Scarlet & Violet, and two rounds of top X cards lost to rotation and one round of top X cards of 2022). I hope I can play “catch-up” and cover as much as I can, but to not stress myself out, I will be looking at current cards from the current expansion, which happens to be the new generation of Pokemon. Generation IX already?! Time flies by so fast!
I got to start somewhere, so I have picked Miradion-ex. I suppose this generation’s mechanic has them rewind back to the ex-series in 2003, where EX Ruby and Sapphire introduced Pokemon that gives up multiple prizes as well as a rulebox tacked into it. Another mechanic from Scarlet & Violet is Terastal (must get used to spelling it right) Phenomenon, which so far, only protects the Pokemon from being damaged by either you or your opponent while Terastal Pokemon is on the Bench. Miradion-ex does not have that, but it is a very strong card in its own right! That is because it has the Tandem Unit ability, which lets you search your deck for up to two basic Lightning-type Pokemon and put them into your Bench.
With this ability, Miradion-ex is going to revolutionize Lightning based decks and has been a staple in these decks. There are almost no drawbacks to using that ability, and adding reinforcements helps the player a lot. It provides you extra Pokemon to replace in case your Active Pokemon is Knocked Out. You’re also thinning out two cards from your deck. And the ability also stacks with multiple Miradion-ex in play. In theory, you could be using your first Miradion-ex’s ability to fetch another Miradion-ex and another Basic Lightning-type Pokemon, and use the second Miradion-ex’s ability, and vise versa…until your Bench is full. The few drawbacks I can think of is, of course, having their abilities negated by Path to the Peak, and certain Lightning-type Pokemon that relies on coming-into-play abilities from your hand instead of your deck, so fetching something like Dedenne-GX via Tandem Unit will not enable you to activate Dedechange. But aside from Dedenne-GX, you got a plethora of options you can summon, be it Regieleki-V or past mechanics in Expanded such as EX, GX, TAG TEAM, and Prism Star (*).
As for the rest of this card, 220 HP is a decent amount for a Basic ex Pokemon, though I have seen higher HP counts such as 250, and evolution ex Pokemon has even higher HP scores as high as 340, yet they still give up two prizes when they are Knocked Out. Seems like Pokemon that gives up three prizes has been retired, as last seen on Pokemon VMAX. Photon Blaster costs LLC for 220 damage, with the clause saying that this Pokemon cannot attack on your next turn. Good thing it has a retreat cost of one. Fighting Weakness could be a concern, but especially more so when its nemesis (Koraidon-ex) is there to support Fighting types. I feel like Miradion-ex is there for the ability, but it can act as a secondary attacker. And because it is a Basic Lightning-type, it gets support from Regieleki VMAX, whose ability (Transistor) help Basic Lightning-types deal 30 extra damage to your opponent’s Pokemon, making Photon Blaster now deal 250 damage instead. Defiance Band and the reprinted Vitality Band can even help achieve certain thresholds of OHKOs and 2HKOs.
Overall, due to Miradion-ex’s capabilities, it can already function well in Standard as there’s deck lists featuring Miradion-ex and a handful of other Lightning-types supplementing it. It can also benefit from Lightning based support in Expanded, such as multiple uses of Electropower to increase the damage output even further; with all four instances of Electropower on the same turn, OHKOs will happen! Thunder Mountain (*) and Tapu Koko (*) help provide energy acceleration and reducing the cost of attacks. Photon Blaster would only cost LC, and Tapu Koko (*) plus manual attachment could help go from zero to attacking. I believe Prerelease Tournaments have returned, at least at my local area. If you happen to pull at least one from four packs, it would be a must run, though it would take a while to fuel up Photon Blaster unless you happened to also get the 3-2-2 Quaquaval line to help accelerate some energies via Energy Carnival.
Ratings:
Standard: 4/5
Expanded: 4/5
Limited: 4.5/5
One of the most anticipated cards of Scarlet & Violet, Miradion-ex has done well for itself in a similar manner to Zacian-V from Sword & Shield. Miradion will be everywhere for the next few years, until rotation eventually strikes. Tandem Unit is too good to pass up.
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