Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Cobalion-EX
Seems like a long time since we saw
Terrakion, the first of the Musketeer Trio as an
EX, and while most people really wanted to see
Virizion get the treatment
next (we need a decent counter to
Blastoise and Keldeo,
dammit), it’s
Cobalion who appears in
Plasma Storm, all dressed up in EX finery.
With a huge (but not unexpected) 180 HP and Weakness to
a currently unpopular Type (Fire),
Cobalion-EX certainly looks pretty durable, and
even comes with a nice Psychic Resistance to make life
difficult for Mewtwo-EX. The
Retreat cost of two does give you the worst of both
worlds (no cheap Retreating and no Heavy Ball
searching), so it looks like any deck in which he
appears is going to need Switch.
When it comes to attacks, Cobalion-EX
neither excites nor disappoints. It’s a nice change to
see an EX with a single Energy attack, and for one Metal
Energy, you get Righteous Edge. This does
30 damage and will discard a
Special Energy from the Defending Pokémon. That’s really
good value for the investment and although it doesn’t
exactly threaten OHKOs, it will make the opponent think
twice about dropping a Double Colourless, Blend or Prism
Energy. Of course if they do, then
Cobalion can set them back a turn. At least it
gives you something to do while waiting to use Steel
Bullet . . .
Steel Bullet is a pretty good attack by any standards.
This has the benefit of going through any effects on the
Defending Pokémon which might modify damage, including
Weakness and Resistance to hit for 100 points of damage.
The downside is that it will never be able to abuse Type
advantage over (admittedly rarely played) Pokémon like
Water Type Kyurem,
Beartic, and
Articuno, but the plus side
is that it is unaffected by damage modifiers like
Eviolite or defensive
Abilities such as Sigilyph
DRX’s Safeguard or Bouffalant
DRX’s Bouffer. In other
words, Steel Bullet will
two-hit KO virtually anything in the format. The issue
with this attack is the cost. Two
Metal and one Colourless may seem reasonable, but
unlike other playable EX Pokémon with three or more
Energy attack costs (Darkrai,
Keldeo,
Rayquaza), Cobalion-EX
has no real way to accelerate Energy outside of the
various risky Ether combos. The
result? A Cobalion
deck is going to be significantly slower than most
others and will find it difficult to power up new
attackers to replace those that get KO’d.
The solution?
Play Cobalion-EX with the
Pokémon that was made to go with it.
Klingklang PLS made #9 on
our countdown precisely because of its Plasma Steel
Ability, which protects all Metal Pokémon from attacks
made by Pokémon-EX. As most decks rely almost
exclusively on EX attackers, this can make
Cobalion virtually
invulnerable, so its lack of speed doesn’t matter. Just
take your time attaching manually, then go and two-shot
all of your opponent’s
Pokémon with your invincible Musketeer. Of course, if
your opponent has prepared for the match up with techs
like Victini NVI 15 or is
running a non-EX deck like Empoleon
DEX, then it isn’t going to be as simple.
The fact is that Cobalion is
a decent but not amazing EX that is elevated to
competitive status by the available support. The
Cobalion/Klinklang
deck is quite strong right now, and I expect it to
remain that way until teching
against it becomes widespread. The card has its faults
(most of them to do with speed) but a little
invulnerability does wonders for it.
Rating
Modified: 3.5 (has all the right support to succeed, but
beware the player who has teched
for the match up)
Limited: 4.25 (huge Basic with a low cost attack. Only
reason I don’t rate it higher is because the
Heatmor in Plasma Storm is a
big threat)
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Jebulous Maryland Player |
Cobalion EX
Cobalion EX is a Basic Metal Pokemon with 180 HP. It is
weak to Fire, resistant to Psychic, and has a retreat
cost of 2. It gives up 2 Prizes when Knocked Out.
'Righteous Edge' costs 1 Metal energy and does 30
damage. It also discards a Special Energy attached to
the Defending Pokemon. This is a great way to get rid
of DCEs, Blends, and Plasma Energies. Especially with
the cheap cost, you can just hold it until you need to
use it, play it, then throw on an energy and attack.
'Steel Bullet' costs 2 Metal and 1 Colorless energy. It
does 100 damage and is not affected by Weakness,
Resistance, or any other effects. Not too shabby seeing
as how not much is weak to Metal and there are plenty of
effects out there (Eviolite and whatnot).
This was an obvious addition to the new Klingklang deck.
It has a lot of HP, a cheap attack, and an attack
that's not affected by anything. Depending on
Klinklangs success, you might be seeing more of this
guy. Though on it's own it's not that great.
Modified: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Combos With: ...
Questions, comments, concerns: jebulousthemighty@yahoo.com
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