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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Machamp

EX Legend Maker

 

Date Reviewed: 02.28.06

Ratings & Reviews Summary
Unlimited: 1.5
Modified: 3.5
Limited: 3.75

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  5 is the highest rating.


Jermy101
2005 World
Champion
Machamp

Machamp's more powerful the more Reacts are attached to him, so hope none are prized. Up to 140 damage is pretty good. Lots of people use special energy these days, so Derail can discard em.

Unlimited - Most Stage 2s are unusable in unlimited. This is one of them. 1/5

Modified - Can combo with Electrode ex to get back Reacts, or Delcatty/Huntail and 4 Energy Charge, but overall I think there are better choices than Machamp. 3/5

Limited - Nice solid damage for a low cost, and nice HP. 4/5
 

Otaku

Skip straight to the scores and summary for a concise overview.

 

Name: Machamp

Set: EX Legend Maker

Card#: 9/92

Rarity: Holographic-Rare

Type: Fighting

Stage: 2 (Evolves from Machoke)

HP: 120

Weakness: Psychic

Resistance: None

Retreat: CC

Attack#1: (FC) Derail [40]

Discard a Special Energy card, if any, attached to the Defending Pokémon.

Attack#2: (FCC) Swift Blow [60+]

Does 60 damage plus 20 damage for each React Energy card attached to Machamp.

Name: Machoke

Set: EX Legend Maker

Card#: 39/92

Rarity: Uncommon

Type: Fighting

Stage: 1 (Evolves from Machop)

HP: 80

Weakness: Psychic

Resistance: None

Retreat: C

Poké-Body: Paranoid

As long as Machoke is Confused, Machoke’s attacks do 50 more damage to the Defending Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance).

Attack#1: (F) Split Kick

Does 20 damage to each Defending Pokémon.

Attack#2: (CCC) Magnum Punch [40]

Name: Machop

Set: EX Legend Maker

Card#: 57/92

Rarity: Common

Type: Fighting

Stage: Basic

HP: 50

Weakness: Psychic

Resistance: None

Retreat: (C)

Attack: (F) Mach Punch [10]

Does 10 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.  (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)

 

Attributes: Let us begin by examining the new lower Stages available to the Machamp line: a good foundation and all that.

 

The new Machop has the same Attributes as all previous versions, save 10 more HP than the puniest from Neo Destiny.  As for attacks, Machop have never been brilliant attackers (save Giovanni’s Machop).  This one does a total of 20 damage for just one (F) Energy, though 10 of it is too the Bench.  Bench damage can be nice, but it just isn’t enough to matter for constructed play.  I’d stick with EX Hidden Legends for Modified and Base Set for Unlimited.

 

The new Machoke is somewhat interesting.  It matches the best attributes to be seen on Machoke, though for such a “burly” Pokémon I find the HP a hair low.  The Retreat is nice and manageable at one, though.  Moving onto its abilities, we see a Poké-Body, Paranoid.  It is reminiscent of Frenzy, the Pokémon Power of Dark Primeape: both increase damage done by the subject Pokémon when it attacks.  Paranoid increase the damage by an outstanding 50 points, compared to 30 from Frenzy.  Another improvement here is that Machoke does not increase the damage it does to itself, just to the Defending Pokémon.  Only way for that to be bad is if there’s a combo for it to hit the Bench.  Even if you somehow attack yourself, Machoke won’t do more damage to itself.  The actual attacks are less interesting, but good.  Ultimately, though, you’re going to get more out of the Machoke from EX Hidden Legends.

 

Now that we have those covered, let us examine the actual Machamp.  Being a Fighting-Type is okay.  It is the most heavily Resisted Type, but also the most common Weakness.  Additionally, there are some decent options to bypass Resistance for Fighting Types.  120 HP is as good as it gets for a non-Pokémon-ex, though it will need it with Psychic Weakness.  Psychic Types aren’t being seen everywhere (at least the last time I checked), but they are out there and at least a few prominent decks have them. Still, that’s just how it is in Pokémon.  What is annoying is the lack of Resistance.  Not a whole lot of things Fighting-Types Resist in the video games, but there are a few.  The Retreat Cost is a respectable two: it’s not low enough to ignore it, but it’s not so high that you’ll need a lot of forethought to pay it.

 

Abilities: This Machamp has two attacks.  Derail is quite well named: it is inexpensive enough to use quite early, and does a solid 40 damage (30 with a Double Rainbow Energy).  More importantly, the effect of the attack lets you discard a Special Energy card (if there is one) attached to the Defending Pokémon.  With the new Holon Energy dependant effects (like this card itself has), as well as so many Metal Pokémon thanks to EX Delta Species, and of course good Special Energy cards like Double Rainbow Energy, Rainbow Energy, and Scramble Energy, you should have plenty of important targets.

 

The second attack, Swift Blow, is pretty nice.  Base 60 damage is always useful (any non-Pokémon-ex Fighting Weak guy is OHKO’d), and it has an effect allows you to easily hit for 80-100, and with a focused deck, upwards of 140 points of damage.

 

Both attacks are bargains: as stated, the first attack can be paid entirely with a Double Rainbow Energy.  The second can do 140 with just five Energy cards if four of them are React Energy.  You only need to provide for one actual colored requirement (Fighting), and Swift Blow can be utilized with just three Energy.  Finally, even stripping away the effects, you do okay damage with these attacks.

 

Uses and

Combinations: I can see three main uses for this card in Modified:

 

1)       As the focus of its own deck, trying to counter the Special Energy rich Meta while abusing React Energy yourself.

2)       TecHing in a copy into an EX Hidden Legends focused anti-Pokémon-ex deck.

3)       A real hardcore anti-metagame deck running both Machamp in even amounts, able to exploit Pokémon-ex or Special Energy use/abuse.

 

Keep in mind, no matter which path you choose, I recommend adding one of the other legal Machamp just to round out the deck.

 

For option one, use the cards that are good for manipulating React Energy, like EX Legend Maker Delcatty and Huntail.  Option two you should be able to find solid builds from past CotDs and other articles, I believe, so I will skip to Option 3.  It would be a little odd, seeing as how EX Hidden Legends Machamp won’t get any benefit from React Energy and it will be harder to try and use, say Holon FF and some Basic Fire Energy cards to cover your Weakness since you already need so many other Special Energy cards for the deck.  If that made little sense, let me explain that I use some Fire Energy and Holon FF to cover EX Hidden Legends Machamp’s Weakness in one of my decks.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 2/5-As usual, you could use it with Neo Genesis Slowking and have an okay deck.  Winning a serious competitive tournament is doubtful, but a remote possibility.

 

Modified: 3.5/5-This score is a bit low, as we have been encouraged to keep things simple (e.g. stop having so many decimal points).  That being said, I can see a fun counter-deck using it, and I could even be underestimating it.  In my learned Pokémon-opinion, it won’t quite have enough to push into the “top decks” level, but anyone unwary will find themselves getting slapped around by it if they use a lot of Special Energy.  After all, when Scramble Energy gets discarded, it kinda hurts that miraculous comeback.

 

Limited: 3.5/5-Mainly because it and its lower Stages are just solid Pokémon.  If you do pull a few React Energy of your own, then it becomes a 4/5, for its damage potential increases greatly.

 

Summary

A good card that counters some current trends, to keep them from totally dominating.  The new Machamp has some synergy with the older (but still Modified-legal) version, though it clashes just a bit too much with how I seem them being effectively run to form a truly outstanding “anti-meta” deck.

 


William
Hung
Reviews are ratings are for Modified only.

Machamp: 4/5 This could be the best card from Legend Maker, because both attacks are really good, and really energy-efficient. I don't think it's broken, but it is going to be one of the top decks heading into State Championships, so definitely give it a shot.

 


Raichu88
Machamp the four armed powerd fighting Pokemon

Unlimited: Weak to psychic and a stage 2 isn’t always that useful in unlimited.

Rating : 1/5

Modified: This is the place for it’s use. It’s HP are fair for a stage 2 and the attacks are

Reasonable. And there a little combo by that I mean the Delcatty/Huntail combo. Huntail to get the React energy out and Delcatty to move to Machamp. I know that William Hung made a really nice deck for Machamp along with Electrode ex to get back React. But I think that the other combo could be considerable or even take a look at it.

(No offence to your deck William). Anyways I think this card has potential.

Rating : 3.5/5

Limited: Yes take it it’s HP is nice and both attacks are to.

Rating : 3/5
 


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