Victini Prism Star – Dragon Majesty Pokemon Review

aroramage

Is it ironic to anyone else how no Victini card has led to constant victories? I’m just saying.

Victini <Prism> is a Basic Fire Pokemon, 70 HP, with a Water Weakness, no Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of 1. His only attack is Infinity, which costs 2 Energy and does 20 damage for every basic Energy in the discard pile, then you shuffle all those Energy cards back into your deck.

…I mean, there’s not much to say about Victini <Prism>. It’s a good surprise for your opponent, it refuels your deck so a lot of Fire Pokemon can get their attacks and effects off, and it’s got the potential to steal games. All of that packaged on a one-of card that still needs you to accelerate 2 Fire Energy onto it in order to really take your opponent by surprise and ultimately fulfill its destiny in reaching Infinity.

If you’ve got a Fire deck, feel free to try out Victini <Prism> if you’d like, but don’t let it be the main focus of the deck.

Rating

Standard: 2.5/5 (there’s potential here, but it’s in an explosive finisher)

Expanded: 2.5/5 (you need to fuel it up very quickly while also keeping a lot of Energy in the discard pile)

Limited: 3.5/5 (that way you can KO things more efficiently)

Arora Notealus: Victini <Prism>. He’s got spunk.

Next Time: Throwing it back to the old age of cats and stuff…why am I writing stuff like this so late

Vince

Today, we’re looking at Victini Prism Star (Dragon Majesty 7/70). It is a Basic Fire type with 90 HP, weak to water, and a retreat cost of one. It’s only attack, Infinity, costs RR and does 20 damage for each basic energy in your discard pile. Then, you put those energies from the discard pile onto your deck. This attack is extremely familiar because Feraligatr’s (Dragon Majesty 24/70) Riptide does the same thing, albeit only water energy.

In order for the attack to consistently work, you have to have a method to get rid of energies from your hand, ideally on the same turn before you attack. Again, Feraligatr’s Downpour ability lets you discard energies from your hand, working on only water energy. You’ll have to make room for at least 2 Fire energy for the attack cost. Considering that it is a Prism Star Card which won’t show up to do its thing frequently, Counter Energy might be a good choice. Sure, you have to be behind on prizes, but it guarantees to provide both RR and WW on both Infinity and Riptide.

Besides working with Feraligatr decks being a fire tech to counter grass and Metal Pokémon, it can also be used in Volcanion-EX decks in Expanded. Discard 4 Fire energies for 120 additional damage via Steam Up; Infinity does 80 damage based on 4 Fire energies in discard pile; equip a Choice Band to it, and it’ll reach 230 damage. You can easily rinse and repeat with Lady Supporter card, as it fetches four basic energies from your deck into your hand, enough to use all 4 Steam Ups and dealing 230 damage.

Overall, being a Prism Star that limits you to one card of the same name in your deck, being potentially played at all in at least two different decks is enough to let it see play. Again, no Prerelease in Limited for this expansion so N/A makes sense.

• Standard: 3/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: N/A

21times
PokeDeck
Central

Victini Prism Star (DRM 7) flips into the meta from the Dragon Majesty expansion set.  I tried this out early on with Turtonator DRM… but I found it somewhat underwhelming.

• It’s about the worst card possible to start
• You have to wait until the mid to late game to use it
• It’s a two attachment attack
• It’s only going to be used once
• It’s totally counter synergystic with Blaziken

If there were a Vikavolt SUM for Fire energy, it’d be perfect, but I generally found that I seldom used this card, and the fact that it’s a late game card means that there are going to be a lot of games where it’s a complete non factor.  And at 70 HP, if you’re not using it to finish off an opponent, it’s pretty easy for your opponent to take his or her last prize by KO’ing Victini.

Rating

Standard: 2 out of 5

Conclusion

It can pack a wallop, but after that it’s probably going to go off the board, and even if it doesn’t, you have to find another attacker next turn … or a way to get a whole bunch of Fire energy cards back in your discard pile really quickly.

Otaku

Victini [Prism Star] (Dragon Majesty 7/70) is a Basic, [R] Type Pokémon with 90 HP, [W] Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], and a single attack called “Infinity”. For [RR], Infinity does 20 damage per basic Energy card in your discard pile, then shuffles all those cards back into your deck. Even with a Choice Band, it would take eight total basic Energy cards in your discard pile to score a OHKO against most opposing Basic Pokémon-GX… as well as nearly all Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokémon. That isn’t great, but it isn’t bad, either. If you’re wondering how I can say that when I was in favor of Feraligatr (Dragon Majesty 24/70), whom we looked at exactly two weeks ago.

Let’s compare and contrast the two. Victini [Prism Star] is better in that it is a Basic Pokémon with a Retreat Cost of [C]; Feraligatr is a Stage 2 with a Retreat Cost of [CCC]. Victini [Prism Star] is a Type more likely to strike Weakness given the current metagame, though not by a huge amount. Its own Weakness is less likely to be struck than the [G] Weakness of Feraligatr. Infinity does 20 damage per basic Energy in your discard pile, while Feraligatr’s “Riptide” only counts [W] Energy (which is only supplied in the discard by basic Water Energy cards). In Feraligatr’s favor is its 160 HP, giving it a decent chance of surviving a hit. Its [W] Typing may not be great for hitting Weakness right now but it comes with access to Aqua Patch. Feraligatr’s “Downpour” Ability makes it much, much easier to get those basic Water Energy cards into your discard pile as well. Most important of all is that Victini [Prism Star] is capped at one copy per deck and it sends itself to the Lost Zone if it would hit the discard pile.

I think Victini [Prism Star] has a place in the metagame… but it is still a bit hazy. Thankfully, it can use Counter Energy, so if a deck runs a lot of basic Energy cards plus Counter Energy, it has a decent trick to quickly pay for the attack. Quickly getting basic Energy cards into the discard pile is another matter, however. You won’t have to worry about doing it repeatedly, either, because Victini [Prism Star] almost certainly survive after attacking. It might be worth including in [R] Energy focused decks, as an emergency mass recycling of said deck’s Energy. This might be easier in Expanded, however, where you can use Blacksmith to easily pay for Infinity in a single move and where Battle Compressor and Volcanion-EX make it more likely you’ll have basic Fire Energy cards in the discard pile.  Just remember not to attack with it if you wanted those Energy cards to stay in the discard pile.

For Standard, I’m mostly leaning towards trying to work it and a Counter Energy or two into a Feraligatr deck… or I would be if I had more of the relevant cards. I keep forgetting I still need to trade for Counter Energy! Playing in a Limited Format tournament is awkward with Dragon Majesty, perhaps not even possible for a sanctioned event, but if you can manage it, it could be a great finisher. Just remember, most basic Energy cards are only hitting the discard pile when your Pokémon are KO’d.  So Victini [Prism Star] ends up being a niche card, but it fills that niche adequately.  I am now tempted to try out one of those Typhlosion (XY – BREAKthrough 20/162) decks one more time in Expanded…

Ratings

• Standard: 3/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: 3/5