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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Shaymin EX  

- Legendary Treasures

Date Reviewed:
January 9, 2014

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 3.25
Limited: 2.75

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

Back to the main COTD Page

Combos With: See Below

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Shaymin EX (Legendary Treasures) 

I suppose Shaymin was another selection by Captain Obvious for the pink and pretty treatment. Unfortunately, whenever I see him in Sky Forme I think of how obnoxious and bratty he was in the Giratina movie and the artwork on this card seems to capture some of that. Can’t deny how cute the other forme is though.

The card itself is also a love/hate thing. The hate comes from the fact that Shaymin is a low HP EX and as such easy prey for two Prizes if you have to have him in the Active position. Of course, that isn’t so much of a problem now that Catcher has been neutered, though Genesect’s Red Signal is very much a thing in this format. Shaymin is also a bit of a waste in the early game: even though Synthesis can provide some acceleration for decks using Grass, the main attraction of the card, Revenge Blast, isn’t really good until much later on. 

And this is where we come to the ‘love’ part of the Shaymin experience. For just a couple of Energy, Revenge Blast is capable of OHKOs on anything once your opponent has taken five Prizes. Play this with N and you have a combination which can turn most late-game deficits on their heads, leaving you with a powerful sweeper and your opponent with almost no resources. 

Shaymin has never really been widely played since he was released in the first EX set, but he has cropped up from time to time in decks that can provide the Grass Energy (Celebi/Mewtwo, Darkrai/Hydriegon, and now Virizion/Genesect). He’s probably the ultimate ‘clutch’ card, but definitely isn’t for the faint-hearted. 

Rating 

Modified: 3.5 (whether you’re playing or facing this card, it can be a nervous experience)

Limited: 3 (acceleration is nice, but four Prizes means you won’t get the maximum out of Revenge Blast)


HEZ

Shaymin EX LTR

 

Modified: 

When the first version of this card was released there was some hype around it. "A Basic that can do 180 for just 2 Energy, it can KO a Mewtwo EX!" The only problem is, to get to this EX slaying number you need to be losing... badly. 180 only happens when your opponent has 1 prize remaining, 2 prizes remaining nets you a neither here nor there 150. That KOs Empoleon and Kyurem but it's not taking out any heavily used EX. The main problem though is the HP, 110 HP just isn't enough for an EX, arbitrarily assigned to this card because it's a physically small Legendary Pokemon. There's not much point in netting a nice revenge KO if your revenge attacker is going to get revenged KO'd itself, for 2 prizes no less! Another point stacked against Shaymin EX is that it needs a deck to go into, the only popular Grass deck right now is the Virizion EX / Genesect EX deck which has little use for another EX Pokemon.

It is a very powerful card and outperforms most other Pokemon cards ever printed. It's just the enormous power creep that has occurred in a small portion of the game that means it is outclassed by other Basic Pokemon with much higher HP than itself.

 

Limited: 

Legendary Treasures Limited is a crazy place, with its high EX pull rates there's a decent chance you'll see a Shaymin EX on either side of the table. But the same applies here as it does in Modified, that's an awfully low HP total for giving up half of your prizes. Which leads on to another problem for Shaymin EX in Limited, less prizes = less damage, maxing out at 120 damage. Considering the high number of Basic Pokemon in this set that have equal or higher HP to Shaymin EX and can do similar damage AND are not EX's (3 versions of Reshiram for example!) Shaymin EX has trouble competing here too.

 

Unlimited 150:

Until fairly recently, Shaymin EX was banned in U150. Since an update in the rules though ("Basic Pokemon with 150 HP or more are banned" instead of "Pokemon EX are banned") Shaymin EX, along with other "small" EXs like Mew EX are now legal in U150! Some were concerned that they would prove to be too powerful for the format and this rules change is as a trial period only, but it seems to be working well so far!

To continue the comparison from the Limited review, when a Pokemon such as Blue Flare Reshiram is legal and counts as an EX you can see how Shaymin EX is of a similar power level (and also wonder why this wasn't implemented in Modified rather than having 180 HP monstrosities running around!)

But, onto the actual review! It's early days for the small EXs in U150 so I can only speak from my personal experience using Shaymin EX in a Beedrill deck. As a starter it can work well if you have a good selection of Supporters to set up Pokemon with, you can then often get ahead of the Energy race as your opponent uses Call for Family or evolving attacks like Spiritomb's (Arceus) Darkness Grace. The 2 prizes lost will definitely be worth it against decks without much acceleration of their own and Shaymin can be brought back late game with Pokemon Retriever, Super Rod etc.

As a mid - late game attacker Shaymin EX does much better than in Modified. When playing for 8 prizes Revenge Blast maxes out at 210 base damage! The numbers required to hit below this are lower too, with most decks getting to around 140 HP and a general maximum of 160 HP. This means Shaymin EX can be hitting relevant numbers at the mid game rather than having to wait until you've almost lost.

 

Thankfully, it's Shaymin's fairly low HP stat that prevents it from breaking the format. It can be countered by popular cards such as Ditto (Fossil) or Clefable (Jungle) and walled to an extent by Mr.Mime (Jungle), although the Mime player risks being set up on with Synthesis.

Overall, Shaymin EX looks like a safe addition to the format, giving a type that was lacking in a solid "Big Basic" during the Black & White series a powerful new Pokemon.

Ratings.
Modified: 3
Limited: 2.5
Unlimited 150: 4


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