aroramage |
Hey, it's our new Pokedex! Nah,
just kidding, it's just Rotom, but hey, I think it's
neat that they're gonna let a Pokemon take over the
encyclopedia. But in the meantime, what's a Rotom to do?
Well, there's always Energy
Extract, which for 1 Energy can grab another Energy from
the deck and put it on Rotom. That's nice in concept,
but would a 70 HP Basic really have the ability to stick
around long enough to then use a more powerful attack
after doing nothing? Probably not, so it's a good thing
his next attack requires 2 of any Energy rather than
specific Energy.
And what does it do? Plasmagic ends
up transferring 2 damage counters on each of your
Pokemon all onto your opponent's Active Pokemon. That
can be potentially devastating, but it's also very rare
that your opponent would spread out all that damage
across your Pokemon in order for you to deal 120 damage
back to him...or is it?
One of the biggest decks right now
is Trevenant BREAK, who can spread out 3 damage counters
to each of your Pokemon through his Silent Fear attack.
And with 160 HP, it's not like Plasmagic is going to KO
Trevenant BREAK after one of those - but that's the
thing, right? In a way, not only is Plasmagic dealing a
lot of damage, but it's also "healing" off a lot as
well! It's a great way to counteract Trevenant BREAK or
things like Alakazam-EX.
But does that mean Rotom should be
run in every deck? Probably not, given he's really a
major counter to only two decks, so keep an eye on the
prevalence of such decks and be sure to tech him in as
needed, but otherwise keep him to the side.
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (against one
particular deck type of sorts, Rotom does major work)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (but outside of
that? not much going for him)
Limited: 2.5/5 (and he's only so
good in Limited honestly, but I can imagine Plasmagic
working more neutrally here)
Arora Notealus: So yeah, Rotom.
He's our new Pokedex! Does that mean it's an
Electric/Steel type?
Weekend Thought: What're your
thoughts on the cards this week? See potential in them?
Or maybe they're just kinda neat at best? Who knows, but
we'll see you next week!
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Otaku |
Rotom
(XY: Fates Collide 24/124) is our Friday review.
It is a Lightning Type; Weakness and Resistance won’t
matter because peaking ahead, this card doesn’t actually
do damage. Lightning Type support isn’t minimal,
but it is close with nothing really standing out (at
least right now). Specific Lightning Type counters
are almost non-existent; all I could find was M
Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 61/108) which
has an Ancient Trait that reduces the damage it takes
from Lightning Types by 20… as well as the damage from
Grass, Fire, and Water Types. Being a Basic is
still the best (shocking truth!) as nothing has changed
from yesterday. 70 HP is usually a OHKO; unless your
opponent has a bad setup or has an attacker focused on
effect and not damage. At this level, the
important thing is most attacks that hit both Active and
Bench will need two or three shots from the Bench damage
to score the KO. Fighting Types simply have that
much easier a time of scoring a OHKO while Rotom
is Active; even attacks not focused on damage are likely
to manage a OHKO thanks to Strong Energy in
addition to more common tricks like Muscle Band.
Metal Resistance might make a small difference in
surviving attacks from Metal Types, but probably not.
The single Energy Retreat Cost is easy to pay and
recover from having paid.
Rotom
has two attacks. The first is “Energy Extract” for
[L], which allows you to search your deck for a basic
Energy card and attach it to Rotom itself.
For [CC] it can use “Plasmagic” to move two damage
counters from each of your Pokémon to your opponent’s
Active. Energy Extra is weak since it specifically
requires [L] and because Rotom is so unlikely to
survive; it must attach to whatever is using the
attack, so you can’t use it to help set up something
else. I mean even if you add in a card like
Energy Switch, Rotom is most likely not
surviving the turn. Plasmagic might have some
potential, but you’ll need a way to ensure you have a
lot of damage on something and then a way of moving it
around. Probably a little more than that, but
we’ll save that for a little bit later. The other
option is to use it to counter something that places
damage counters on/does damage to each of your Pokémon.
The other Rotom you can pick from are BW:
Plasma Storm 49/135 and XY: Ancient Origins
29/98. Both are Basic, Lightning Type Pokémon with
Fighting Weakness, Retreat Cost [C], and two attacks. BW:
Plasma Storm 49/135 is a Team Plasma Pokémon with 60
HP and no Resistance. For [C] it can use “Electribonus”
to discard a [L] Energy card from hand. Then you
get to draw three cards if you do. Weak but not
without merit. For [LC] it can use “Poltergeist”
to force your opponent to reveal his or her hand, then
the attack does 20 damage times the number of Trainer
cards in his or her hand. We reviewed it
here,
or rather Baby Mario did; he was a bit generous at the
time and even with Item lock to leave your opponent with
a hand full of Items (one kind of Trainer), it fares
worse now. XY: Ancient Origins 29/98 has 70 HP
and Metal Resistance. Its first attack is “Electro
Ball” for [L], doing 20 damage, while the second attack
is “Electric Mischief” which has you flip three coins
and for each “heads” you choose a random card from your
opponent’s hand; your opponent reveals that card then
shuffles it back into his or her deck. We didn’t
review this one and that is because it just isn’t worth
it.
So is today’s Rotom any better? Maybe.
If you’re really worried about hard-to-block spread,
like that of Trevenant (XY 55/146) then
this is a pretty simple inclusion. Even in Night
March, it shouldn’t be too much for Rotom to pop
up front and move a bunch of the damage counters back
onto Trevenant (which will likely be Trevenant
BREAK Evolved from said Trevenant).
Probably not scoring a KO, but your opponent will have
to do something about Rotom or else you’ll
basically reverse the spread. There are other
cards to deal with such things, but while stuff like
Bronzong (XY: Fates Collide 61/124) blocks
both damage and effects of attacks by your opponent’s
Pokémon to your Bench, it also is a Stage 1 line (plus
is an Ability which may get shut down). Rotom
and (most of) the stuff being hit just needs to survive,
and it can toss back damage or damage counter placement
even from Abilities. You also could make use of
the various damage counter moving effects, but I’m
skeptical of this ever proving a viable deck. A
fun deck, perhaps, but the effort needed to set up such
things, something to soak a hit up front, and then
Rotom seems like too much. You might include
Rotom in your Limited deck, if you think you can
retreat often enough to build up damage counters for
Rotom to move.
Ratings
Standard:
2/5
Expanded:
2/5
Limited:
2/5
Summary:
Rotom might be worth it as a niche counter for
damage/damage counter spread, particularly in decks like
Night March, but I’m not sure if that is really enough
as a lot of what it seems to counter can survive
Plasmagic, and Rotom has to have good timing to
optimise the reversal.
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