Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
#8 Dragonite EX
A classic Generation I Pokémon, with a classic
ex-era
Ability makes its way into our countdown today. Yep, the
quasi-Legendary Dragonite
gets an EX card, and it’s about time too! Old school
players will recognise that
Dragonite’s Bust In
Ability bears more than a passing resemblance to
Zapdos ex’s Legendary
Ascent. That card was
very good
back in the day, so Dragonite
has a lot to live up to.
Bust In is one of those ‘when you play this Pokémon from
your hand’ Abilities which we don’t see much of any more
– Jirachi EX is the only
other one in the format. It allows you to move as
many basic Energy as you like
on to Dragonite when he hits
the Field and then switch him to the active slot.
Obviously, this can be great: provided the Energy is
there, you get a fully powered up, undamaged EX to start
battering your opponent with. There are less obvious
benefits too, such as being able to get an unwanted
active Pokémon to the Bench and moving Energy from
damaged Pokémon before using Max Potion.
There are however, a couple of factors that make me
undecided on whether Dragonite
can make the most of his Ability and become a top level
card. First, there are the odd Energy requirements of
Grass and Lightning, forcing you to run two Types. More
important than that though is the slightly underpowered
attack, Jet Sonic, which only does 80 damage, or 120 if
you discard an Energy. It’s
almost as if Dragonite
rushes into battle in dramatic style, but just lacks the
killer KO punch that would really make him special. Both
Muscle Band and
Laser/Virbank would be
needed to get the job done on a 170 HP EX.
Nevertheless, I think this card is going to be played.
The most likely partner is Virizion
EX, which can use Emerald Slash to get Grass Energy on
the Field, and set up Dragonite
KOs with its 50 damage. The newly reprinted Super Scoop
Up and the virtually forgotten ACE SPEC Scoop
Up Cyclone might also have a
role to play in allowing Dragonite
to be re-used.
Rating
Modified: 3.5 (nice Ability, but can he back it up?)
Expanded: 3 (not sure I see a clear role for him here)
Limited: 4.5 (time to count out 39 Energy cards . .
. )
|
aroramage |
Welcome back to our Top 10 Furious Fists cards list!
Today's card is extremely interesting, and perhaps in
the right deck could bring about a major upset! So here
is the OG Dragon-type from Gen I, now styled as an EX,
Dragonite-EX!
So what is so interesting about Dragonite-EX that he's
ranked #8 on the list? Well, he's got an Ability and an
attack, and chances are you saw the Ability first: Bust
In. Bust In lets Dragonite-EX take advantage of all the
Energy you put out onto your field - by giving it to
Dragonite-EX the moment he comes in play! It's rare to
see a Pokemon come into play all decked out and ready to
rumble right off the bat, and Dragonite-EX has the great
potential to smash right through without hassle!
And of course no Pokemon-EX is complete without a nice
attack like Jet Sonic! For 3 Energy, you deal 80 damage
and get the option to discard 1 for an extra 40. So over
the course of two turns, Dragonite-EX gets the benefit
of dealing anywhere between 160-240 damage, a hefty
amount for sure! And that's before things like Muscle
Band and Hypno-Virbank combos! But there is a catch; as
with most Dragon-types in the TCG, Dragonite-EX has a
combination of Energies to work with, and Jet Sonic
costs 2 Grass and 1 Electric.
Well that's not so bad; Grass Energy can be gathered
with Virizion-EX's Emerald Slash attack easily, and the
1 Electric Energy can be covered with Rainbow Energy,
right? Technically, yes, but because of Bust In's
phrasing - that you can only reattach BASIC Energy with
it - you're going to have to put Rainbow Energy on
Dragonite-EX directly. Right at the moment, Electric
doesn't have the crazy acceleration it had back in
Eelektrik days, but I'd say Dragonite-EX has more
potential in a Virizion/Genesect deck more than anything
else.
On that note, I mentioned how Rainbow Energy wouldn't be
reattachable for Bust In, so I think I should point out
that the new Herbal Energy - which may see play in
VirGen decks - simply can't be attached to Dragonite-EX
at all, since it specifically designates that it can
only attach itself to Grass types, so don't try using it
to heal off damage on Dragonite-EX. Just a cautionary
warning, seeing as Herbal Energy does provide Grass
Energy.
Now when I first saw Dragonite-EX, I thought really
highly of it, but seeing the awkward Energy costs pulled
me back a bit. Looking back into it, Dragonite-EX does
have an interesting combo to pull with itself and Max
Potion; if your Active Dragonite-EX is hurting and about
to take a dive, you can play another from your hand,
reattach most of if not all of the Energies on the
Active One to it, Max Potion on the Active, and then
Switch/retreat with Float Stone/return the Active to
your hand with Super Scoop Up to bring out a fresh
Dragonite-EX raring to go! Not too shabby, huh?
Dragonite-EX is going to see play, that much I'm sure
about. Probably in 2s, maybe more if he becomes a
predominant heavy-hitter, which combined with Virizion-EX's
Verdant Wind (which negates Special Conditions on
Pokemon with Grass Energy attached) could very well be
the case. He may look like a lot, he may not look so
tough, but if you're not careful, Dragonite-EX will Bust
In and take control of a match!
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (VirGen decks just got a Dragon to throw
around, and that can be potentially devastating!)
Expanded: 4/5 (with a Fairy Weakness, I'd say he's a
viable check to Rayquaza-EX decks, giving VirGen a
strong strike against it and forcing Rayquaza-EX to use
up 3 Energy to take it out as opposed to 2 - and
sometimes 1 Energy can mean the difference between a win
and a loss!)
Limited: 3/5 (better off as a +39 deck here, there's
just not enough support for him in this one set alone to
make him outmatch Lucario-EX)
Arora Notealus: I like how all the Dragonite-EX art has
him "busting out" of the card, like he's actually
busting into play! Not to mention it reminds me of Iris'
Dragonite from the anime, with its tough-as-nails
attitude - a nice touch!
Next Time: Behold, the glory of our arena!
|
Otaku |
Welcome readers as we continue with our latest Top 10
list: the Top 10 Promising Picks of
XY: Furious Fists!
Of course, that’s just the name I am using; I don’t
think we have an “official” one for it. The reviewers
compiled their own separate lists, and Pojo crunched the
numbers to determine the site list. As these cards
aren’t technically legal for competitive play under
NXD-On Modified (the current Standard Format), I’ll be
using this list as the official transition point and
scores will be for Standard (BCR-On), Expanded (BW-On)
and Limited.
The seventh most promising pick of XY: Furious Fists
is Dragonite-EX (XY: Furious Fists 74/111,
108/111). It is a Dragon-Type, allowing it to tap the
remaining Dragon-Type support - Altaria (BW:
Dragons Exalted 84/124; BW Promos BW48;
BW: Boundaries Crossed 152/149) to boost its damage
output. It was just on the PTCGO, but I’ve actually
already encountered a deck doing just that! In terms of
Weakness it can hit older Dragon-Types nice and hard,
but nothing else (all the Dragon-Types for the XY-sets
are Fairy Weak). Being a Basic Type is still the best,
though Evolutions have a little bit of support exclusive
to them and of course, Pyroar (BW: Flashfire
20/106) can be a major issue for a deck unprepared to
face it. Being a Pokémon-EX is technically only a
drawback; Dragonite-EX will give up an extra
Prize when KOed, can’t use certain pieces of support and
faces certain counter cards just for being a Pokémon-EX.
There are benefits, but they aren’t hardwired into the
game (and are absent on some Pokémon-EX); this is why
Dragonite-EX isn’t an Evolution and likely why it
has the HP, Ability and attack printed on it.
The HP is obviously good; 180 isn’t immune to OHKOs, but
its usually something a deck struggles to take down in
one shot, either needing a lot of resources, a near
perfect set-up, to strike Weakness, or some combination
of the above. No Basic Pokémon-EX has more and (since
we are dealing with BCR-On) the only cards with more
printed maximum HP are Mega Evolutions (though some
others can top that with the right card effects). Fairy
Weakness is not good, though its not one of the top ones
to be concerned about. So far only Fairy-Type decks
have significant Fairy-Type attackers, with Xerneas
(XY 96/146; Blackstar Promo XY05) and
Xerneas-EX that hit hard enough without outside help
to really matter. The lack of Resistance is
disappointing; Resistance is only good for -20 points of
damage (which pales in comparison to damage doubling
Weakness). In the TCG Dragonite are Dragon/Flying
hybrids so they are Immune to Ground-Type attacks, take
half damage from Fighting, Bug, Fire and Water-Types,
and only a quarter damage from Grass-Types! TCG Grass
or Fire Resistance would have caused no mismatches, and
Fighting would only have been incorrect for the TCG
Fighting-Types are are video game Rock-Types (Rock-Type
attacks actually score double damage against video game
Dragonite).
Dragonite-EX
has a Retreat Cost of [CCC]; you don’t want to pay this
and will need to pack some alternative options, though
with the need to quickly change out attackers, shake
Special Conditions, etc. you probably would have needed
to do that anyway. In Expanded, this does make
Dragonite-EX a legal Heavy Ball target. The
Ability is the main reason to run this card, so let us
look at the attack first both because it will need its
own paragraph, while this one is still running a bit
short. For [GGL] Dragonite-EX can attack with
Jet Sonic (Don’t give Sega ideas!); this is good for 80
points of damage, with an additional 40 if you discard
an Energy attached to Dragonite-EX. Normally
three for 80 would be just a bit weak, and three plus a
discard for 120 solid, but all three are specific Energy
requirements, and its split between two basic Energy
Types. Throw in the Pokémon-EX angle, and its
definitely underwhelming.
So solid stats but a nerfed attack; the Ability will
make or break this card. Bust In can only be used when
you play Dragonite-EX to the Bench from hand (and
of course not during set-up). If you use Bust
In, you may move any number of basic Energy cards from
your Pokémon (that is a plural Pokémon) to Dragonite-EX…
and if you do then you have to promote Dragonite-EX
as your new Active (Benching the former Active unless
for some reason this would KO it). This is an improved
version of the Ability seen on a few different cards and
its actually fairly potent. Less so in a OHKO focused
format, but if you don’t OHKO Dragonite-EX, you
can expect your opponent to play another one (and their
deck will be built to try and ensure they always have
another one) to change out and hit you with a fresh one.
Not affecting Special Energy probably helps to balance
out the card and isn’t as bad as it might sound; while
moving Rainbow Energy around is a good way to get
around the damage counter it places, basic Energy cards
are the ones with Item support like Professor’s
Letter and Energy Retrieval. Still it is a
drawback, though you can always just manually attach a
Rainbow Energy. Bit annoying for Expanded that
you can’t make good use of either Blend Energy
(Grass and Lighting are on opposite cards), but you can
still use Prism Energy.
So the attack cost/damage output of Jet Sonic become a
lot more manageable with Bust In, and the Retreat Cost
is also easier to handle. Virizion-EX is a
likely partner; Poison is a pretty common component to
OHKOs that can take down a 180 HP Pokémon and as
Dragonite-EX needs to sources of it attached to
attack anyway, its a no-brainer to protect it via
Verdant Wind. Emerald Slash can be a decent early game
attack as well; obviously not on your first turn but if
you get at least two hits off, you can pull ahead on
Energy attachments and if you time it right, you don’t
even need that many as you can use Bust In to move those
two Energy to a Dragonite-EX. Bust-In means you
also can Emerald Slash to something other than
Dragonite-EX but still ultimately power up
Dragonite-EX.
As long as you’re avoiding giving up Prizes and your
opponent isn’t running something that also requires
OHKOs to take down or able to hide behind Intimidating
Mane or Safeguard, you have decent odds of pulling
ahead. Still it is probably better to augment the combo
further. Super Scoop Up was reprinted in XY:
Furious Fists, so while it requires a coin flip to
use, its pretty potent when you bounce an injured
whatever back to hand after having moved its Energy to
your next attacker. A guaranteed version of this trick
is Scoop Up Cyclone, but that will cost you your
Ace Spec slot. If you aren’t worried about using Boost
In more than once per Dragonite-EX, Max Potion
can heal off the damage and hey, if you aren’t
discarding to boost the damage of Jet Sonic (or had
enough of a build up in Energy) you’ll have a chance to
manually power-up whatever you just healed.
Boosting damage is probably a good idea, however;
general options like Muscle Band and
Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym are
definitely worth running, but as mentioned before I was
caught off guard when I slammed into one of these decks
running Altaria. It still takes quite the set-up
to get into OHKO range of Pokémon-EX, but the format
isn’t just Pokémon-EX now, and even in that case if your
opponent can’t take down Altaria while also
striking Dragonite-EX… you’re probably better off
since an attack at -20 points of damage usually beats no
such attack at all. You’ll need an Evolution or an
attacker that bypasses effects on the Defending Pokémon
to deal with Intimidating Mane and Safeguard, and you’ll
need to work extra hard if Abilities are shut down.
Nothing Expanded adds in other than Prism Energy
and Heavy Ball strike me as improving
Dragonite-EX, though if the older decks bring some
of the older Dragon-Types back to the fore, it may be
beneficial as they are easier OHKOs for Dragonite-EX
(except that things like Rayquaza-EX are prone to
OHKOing targets).
In Limited, you can try to work it into a regular deck
or go with the +39 route; the latter is a bit risky even
though you’re probably scoring OHKOs as the build time
leaves you open to being overwhelmed before then. In
all three cases, remember that anything that can meet
the [GGL] Energy cost without being overly reliant on
Special Energy wants to run Dragonite-EX if it
can make room and doesn’t shut down Abilities. A TecH
copy can be quite the nasty surprise!
Ratings
Standard:
3.75/5 - This is a card you have adequate reason to
attempt to build a competitive deck around, but the
strategy is overall fairly luck dependent as a good KO
can mess up the Energy flow. It also earns a small
bonus as a few decks can include it as TecH, instead of
being the main attacker.
Expanded:
3.75/5 - It gains Heavy Ball and for better or
worse, likely a few more Dragon Weak Dragon-Types to
clash with… but that happen to be used for OHKO decks.
In the end, I am thinking things will even out for it.
Limited:
4.75/5 - Only skip it if you truly can’t accommodate the
Energy, or are running a different big Basic Pokémon in
a +39 (one Basic Pokémon and 39 other cards) build.
Summary:
It is hard not to let nostalgia blind me to the hurdles
this card faces, but at the same time the tactic of
shifting Energy onto a spare copy of the attacker, even
if the attacker is a little underwhelming, has proven
competitive before. I think it should at least be one
of those lower level competitive decks, and could be
quite high up, with coin flips in either case making it
a bit volatile and prone to over- or underperforming.
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