Registeel – Crimson Invasion – Pokemon COTD

Otaku

Registeel (SM: Black Star Promos SM75; SM: Crimson Invasion 68/111) begins our week. Registeel is a Basic, so minimum deck space, minimum time to hit the field, it can be your opening Active, etc. Being a [M] Type matters mostly because [Y] Pokémon – like Gardevoir-GX – are [M] Weak; many [L] Pokémon are [M] Resistant, but this just doesn’t matter as much. Otherwise, there aren’t a lot of [M] Pokémon specific effects with which to combo in Standard; Expanded offers some, plus a few [M] Energy specific effects and a solid pool of [M] Type beatsticks and Bench-sitters. 130 HP is about the point where a OHKO becomes no more likely (maybe even a hair less likely) than a 2HKO, which is fairly good for a Basic Pokémon only worth one Prize. The HP also keeps the [R] Weakness from being quite as painful and may make the [P] Resistance meaningful. The Retreat Cost of [CCC] isn’t easy to pay but does make Registeel Heavy Ball compliant.

Registeel has two attacks, the first of which is “Turbo Arm”. For [M], Turbo Arm allows Registeel to do 20 damage while attaching a basic Energy from the discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon (assuming you have both). It isn’t a huge amount of Energy acceleration, and the Type-specific Energy cost keeps it from being easily splashed, but the Energy from the discard pile can be any Type so long as it is a Basic Energy card, so it is more flexible than it may appear. The second attack is “Iron Hand” for [MMC] and it does 90 damage; the text states that if you have a Regice on your Bench, Iron Hand will also heal 30 damage from Registeel itself. 90-for-three is usually adequate, a little better with Turbo Arm to lead into it but a little worse since it requires two of the three Energy provide [M]. Due to the HP, the healing has a small chance of helping out Registeel, but not too much, and that is assuming you already had a reason to run Regice alongside Registeel.

Controlling myself, I’m not going to detail all the other Regi- cards because they don’t seem to be worth the effort of combing. Instead, the way Registeel has already seen successful usage is as the opening attacker for a new generation of [M] Type decks, partially because smacking Gardevoir-GX for double damage is currently very, very rewarding.  Of course, Registeel itself score a OHKO against Gardevoir-GX, but it will need a Choice Band or Professor Kukui. Usually, it will lead into other Pokémon like Celesteela-GX, Cobalion (XY: Steam Siege 74/114), Karatna-GX, and Genesect-EX (XY: Fates Collide 64/124, 120/124). It can also feed basic Energy cards to Pokémon of other Types; Silvally-GX was one of the big examples of that, but not the only one. All of this is for the Standard Format, however; so far, no one has done anything with it in the Expanded Format and done well at a major event; at the time this is being written, the San Jose, CA Regional Championship is still the most recent example. I do expect it to show up, at least eventually; the [M] Type has too much it can do here.

This is a fantastic pull for the Limited Format; it will mean running a deck that is all or mostly [M] Energy compliant, and it isn’t something you’d run solo, but this should be a great opening attacker and plain good general attacker here.  Registeel actually made one of the individual top 10 lists we use to calculate the site’s official top 10, specifically taking seventh place on that list to earn four voting points.  Unfortunately, that means it only would have been our 15th place pick had the countdown started there or higher… unfortunate because I really wish I had included Registeel on my own list.  Unless some of my picks end up being late bloomers, even if Registeel usage drops off after this point it has already outperformed too many of my picks.  Ouch.

Ratings

• Standard: 3.5/5
• Expanded: 3.25/5
• Limited: 4/5

Vince

Good for hitting a key weakness at the moment, a good one for 30 strike that recovers energy, and a fun second attack to use when combined with other Pokemon.

• Standard: 3.5/5
• Expanded: 3.5/5
• Limited: 4/5

Combos with: Dhelmise for Steelworker Ability to boost damage output.