Review
too long? Skip straight to the scores and summary.
Name:
Walrein ex
Set:
EX Power Keepers
Card#:
99/108
Rarity:
Pokémon-ex
Pokémon-ex Rule:
When Pokémon-ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2
Prize cards.
Type:
Water
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Sealeo)
HP:
150
Weakness:
Lightning
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CCC
Poké-Power:
Chilling Breath
Once
during your turn, when you play Walrein ex from your hand to
evolve 1 of your Pokémon, you may use this Poké-Power. Your
opponent can’t play any Trainer cards from his or her hand
during your opponent’s next turn.
Attack:
(WWC) Wreck [70+]
If
there is any Stadium card in play, this attack does 70
damage plus 20 more damage. Discard that Stadium card.
Name:
Sealo
Set:
EX Power Keepers
Card#:
37/108
Rarity:
Uncommon
Type:
Water
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Spheal)
HP:
70
Weakness:
Lightning
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack:
(WC) Ice Beam [20]
Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now
Paralyzed.
Name:
Spheal
Set:
EX Power Keepers
Card#:
65/108
Rarity:
Common
Type:
Water
Stage:
Basic
HP:
40
Weakness:
Lightning
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Defense Curl
Flip a
coin. If heads, prevent all damage done to Spheal during your
opponent’s next turn.
Attack#2:
(WC) Aurora Beam [20]
Attributes:
Walrein ex is a Stage 2 Pokémon-ex, which means it has to
be pretty great to offset both the difficulty of getting it into
play and the fact that it’s worth two Prizes when KO’d. Until
the State Championships are over, I am leery of commenting on
its Type and Weakness, but I will say that Water Pokémon have
done well in the past and Lightning Weakness could be a
concern. I apologize if this seems like a cop out, but
realistically, the State Championships are often the time that
begins to really identify the metagame until Nationals, so it’s
a hair premature to comment. No Weakness seems wrong to me, I
mean this is a Pokémon-ex, but TPC seems to almost be trying to
eliminate it and as such it’s the norm to lack any sort of
Resistance, so I won’t hold it against Walrein ex.
Walrein ex
has an impressive 150 HP. The best any current Stage 2
Pokémon-ex has is 160, so second best is still great, allowing
Walrein ex to soak at least one big hit, sometimes even
two. The Retreat Cost that goes with this big HP score is a big
three. This is high enough you should make sure your deck has
more cards to switch out your Active than normal: for the Energy
it takes to retreat Walrein ex, it can attack.
Alternatively, you could try to find some Pokémon-ex friendly
healing cards (unlikely) or just suck it up expect to sometimes
go down swinging when you’d rather not.
As
mentioned in my first paragraph, Walrein ex is a Stage 2
Pokémon, so we should comment on what to evolve it from. The
Sealeo from this set is alright: its attack is more or less
fair and it’s got solid stats. The EX Legend Maker has a meh
Poké-Power, so I’d go with this one. The new Spheal is
puny and the attacks aren’t so hot, so go with the solid EX
Legend Maker version.
Abilities:
Walrein ex has two abilities, a Poké-Power and an
Attack. The Poké-Power is potent but short lived: when you play
this from hand to evolve something, you get a one turn block on
your opponent playing Trainers. Especially early game, this can
practically force an opponent to skip their turn. Sure, they
can still attach Energy, use Poké-Bodies and Poké-Powers,
Evolve, and attack, but without Trainers to keep things running
smoothly, the value of any of those actions would be lowered,
possibly reduced to uselessness. However, it is just for a
single turn unless you can build the deck to Evolve rapidly and
repeatedly.
The
attack, Wreck hits for an okay 70 points of damage, or 90 if
there is a Stadium in play (which you then must discard). In
terms of Energy you pay for 40 points of damage so 70 is a nice
bonus there, and the effect is handy and likely worth the effort
of feeding it more Stadiums.
Uses
and
Combinations:
Needless to say, this card needs to be the focus of its own
deck. Simply put, you should attempt to set up a Walrein ex
quickly and repeatedly. If you can keep them “Trainer-less” for
even two or three turns in a row with a fully powered Walrein
ex active and discarding Stadiums from play for extra
damage, you should be able to generate a huge lead to carry you
through to the win. Alternatively, you could try mixing this
with a different attacking Pokémon since it doesn’t say that
Walrein ex has to be Active for the Poké-Power, but given
that it is a Stage 2 line, it seems rather difficult to fit a
lot of other Pokémon in.
Sadly,
I don’t know this card well enough to really give a good deck
idea, so I’ll just make a point: choose Stadiums with an
immediate benefit. Power Tree and Power Plant
would be good choices, as would Giant Stump if you’ve got
a decent re-usable Pokémon searcher: discard a Walrein ex
and recycle it with Holon Farmer then search it out and
Evolve a waiting Sealeo for continued Trainer denial. If
you have a Pokémon δ on the bench a lot, Holon Ruin could
be a good choice too. And of course, feel free to discard
whatever your opponent throws into play.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5 – Too much work and we have better options.
Modified:
3.5/5 – I think someone will come up with a workable deck for
it, but it will either have reliability issues or just be so
complex most players won’t want to run it.
Limited:
4/5 – Here it is just nice as a big, big Pokémon, since most
turns no one has a Trainer to play anyway, or a Stadium to
discard (though there are quite a few Stadiums in this set).
Summary
Walrein ex
is an interesting card that has some promise, but I don’t expect
it to become the next “must play” deck. If you’re reading this
and no one has made a winning deck with it, give it a whirl: I
think it makes a decent “one-trick-pony” kind of deck that would
be good for one upset victory.
-Otaku
