Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Vaporeon
(Plasma Freeze)
Welcome back to the conclusion of our week in which we
take a look at some of the Team Plasma
Eeveelutions in Plasma
Freeze. Today we are reviewing
Vaporeon, which always struck me as being the
strangest of them all . . . a kind of weird
dog/fish/cat/mermaid thing which nevertheless seems to
be quite popular as a Pokémon.
Vaporeon
is a Water Type Stage 1, all ready to benefit from that
lovely Team Plasma support. Whether he can make the most
of it or not is another issue. The 110 HP is fairly
solid, so for practical purposes, not hard to do in one
attack for most decks. Grass Weakness is virtually
irrelevant right now (Genesect-EX
pending), so for the moment the Typing is good. The
retreat cost of two isn’t, however.
Refreshing Rain is Vaporeon’s
first attack. It’s as cheap as you
like (one Energy of any Colour), doesn’t do any
damage, but does heal 30 from each of your Pokémon. So
it’s kind of like Potion for everyone. This seems like a
good thing, especially with those 30 snipes from
Darkrai-EX,
Landorus-EX, and
Kyurem PLF being so popular,
but really it’s not worth a Stage 1 and an attack in
Modified. Compared to anything else you can do, it
doesn’t really advance your position much, but as a low
cost attack to use early game . . . you could do a lot
worse.
The second attack is called Gold Breaker, and that name
should be familiar to you, because it is the same as the
one that has made Bouffalant
DRX a decently playable card.
Vaporeon’s version is slightly cheaper (one
Water and a Colourless Energy), but it also does
less damage: 30 plus another 50 if the Defending Pokémon
is an EX. This is unfortunate, because the total damage
against an EX is just 80, which falls short of a two-hit
KO on most of them. Of course you can always increase
the damage output with Deoxys
support or Hypnotoxic Laser,
but why should you when there are cards that don’t need
that to happen (like the Afrobull)?
In Modified, Vaporeon is not
one of the better Eeveelutions.
His attacks are much less effective than they would need
to be. Even a fun deck that focused on the Evolution
Pokémon has better options to run that this.
Rating
Modified: 1.75 (attacks seem ok, but really don’t do
much)
Limited: 2.75 (Refreshing Rain can be good, but Gold
Breaker is useless most games)
|
Otaku |
Hello readers!
I am still gearing up for a move… which may come
as a surprise if I only mentioned it in one of the many
articles I was unable to finish in a timely manner.
As such, it
will be an “abridged” review lacking most of the
structure I prefer, though this may come as a relief as
I will actually not feel the need to explain every
little detail.
Today we look at
Vaporeon (BW: Plasma Freeze 20/116), part of
the new Team Plasma flavored Eeveelutions.
While it is the largest of them, that mostly
means you can’t use
Level Ball
to snag it; 110 HP is okay for a Basic Pokémon but not
much else in the current format.
When not getting hit by its Weakness, plenty of
decks will still score OHKOs (or effective OHKOs) though
your odds of survival are of course a little better.
The Grass Weakness is currently fairly safe,
though that probably won’t hold true after the next set
when we get
Genesect EX and
Virizion EX.
The rest of the stats are “meh”, so let us just move
onto what
Vaporeon [Plasma] can do.
Its first attack requires just (C) but it is a
purely healing based attack.
This rarely work out well, as you need to heal
more damage than your opponent is regularly dealing out
over a turn, and often in a specific manner to ensure
you come out ahead.
Giving up an attack usually isn’t worth it, and
healing 30 from each of your Pokémon is no exception.
The second attack is Gold Breaker, and is an
inferior version to that of
Bouffalant (BW:
Dragons Exalted 110/124).
You pay (WC) for 40 (80 against Pokémon-EX),
which sounds good… until you remember it is no a Stage 1
Pokémon.
Now, if you are already running other Eeveelutions, this
Pokémon is still worth considering.
Colress
Machine/Plasma
Energy plus a
Water Energy
or Blend Energy
WLFM allow for a freshly Evolved, formerly no Energy
Eevee to a
ready to Gold Breaker
Vaporeon
[Plasma]… though even that might be too steep for some
Eeveelution decks.
It is a solid pull for Limited, though.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
1.8/5
Limited:
3.25/5
Again, I am moving and I am still very short on funds,
so feel free to look in on my
eBay auctions from time to time.
I’ve had a variety of hobbies and interest over
the years… well, variety in that most were related to
animation, comic books, video games, etc.
Just remember that Pojo.com is in no way
responsible for any transactions.
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