aroramage |
Well, this oughta be an easy day. I
briefly talked about Delphox with Delphox BREAK, but
today we're gonna expand on what Delphox can do on her
own!
She comes around with two attacks,
the first of which is Flickering Flames. It's a 1-for-40
hit, which is pretty good all things considered, and it
even adds on the effect of putting your opponent's
Pokemon to Sleep. While that's not really saying much,
it's nice to know that it's a somewhat decent attack on
its own, even if Sleep is but a temporary setback.
Then there's Psystorm, which is
what Delphox got noted for when its BREAK form was being
reviewed. For 3 Energy, Delphox can deal out 20 damage
for every Energy attached to Pokemon in play. Did you
catch that? That's EVERY Energy - yours, mine, ours, and
your neighbor's!...okay, maybe not his, he's on his own
with Seismitoad-EX, but you and your opponent for sure.
And that's the kind of attack that stacks up! Combined
with the BREAK Evolution, that's an extra 40 damage
almost guaranteed during your turn, never mind what your
opponent puts down during theirs.
So how come Delphox didn't quite
make the cut? Well, to put it simply, she's still a
Stage 2, and that alone means it's going to take time to
get her into play and powered up. Sure, once she's in -
and heck, if she's got a BREAK on top of her - she'll be
fine, probably even set up thanks to whatever your
opponent's been doing, but beyond that, she's going to
end up being a little behind. Not to mention if she KO's
an opposing Pokemon, you lose anywhere from 2-4 Energy,
depending on what it was, which means Psystorm loses
40-80 damage in one strike.
Course, you should be able to make
up for that easily enough, but unless Stage 2s become
competitive, she may only been an "every now and again"
kind of deck.
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (she's still got a
great attack though, just bogged down by her Stage 2
investments)
Expanded: 3/5 (that's including
Fennekin, maybe a Blaixen or two, and any evolution
cards you use to get to Stage 2 like Rare Candy)
Limited: 4/5 (but hey, if sh'es in
the right environment, you can certainly go nuts)
Arora Notealus: Delphox certainly
has a lot going for herself - more so than the other
Delphox that have been printed, so it's good to know
that this is the one that will be sticking around for a
while.
Next Time: And now for something
completely different - EX!!
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Otaku |
Today we look at Delphox (XY: Fates Collide
13/124). I gave it a quick runthrough when we
reviewed Delphox BREAK as our
ninth place pick
but now it is time to do it for real. This is a
Fire Type, so it can smack Grass and Metal Types for
double damage, doesn’t have to worry about Resistance,
does have to worry about a few anti-Fire effects (that
mostly just fake being Resistance), and lastly has some
good tricks like Blacksmith and (less Type
restrictive), Scorched Earth, but is somewhat
slim pickings compared to Fighting or Water. Delphox
is a Stage 2 which means it takes a good deal to get it
into play. Fennekin is required, and you can
either Evolve to Braixen, and finally to
Delphox itself; Rare Candy allows you to skip
Braixen and save a turn, and if you want to get
to Delphox BREAK ASAP you’ll need to Wally
two turns in a row or else on your second turn use the
Rare Candy into this Delphox and then
Wally into Delphox BREAK. Even without
BREAK Evolving, this is a good deal of effort and the
Stage 2 Pokémon which have proven successful have some
form of shortcut beyond the norm and/or their lower
Stages do something to prove worthwhile as well (even if
just making the whole line more efficient at setting
up). We’ll take a look at those later as the
related cards could make the difference.
Delphox
has 140 HP, the middle ground for Stage 2 HP scores.
My guesstimate is that this should be the high end of
moderate damage; 150+ is the realm of the major (or
whatever further descriptors you desire to use) attacks.
So those major damage decks are going to manage rapid,
reliable, and/or repeatable OHKOs against 140 HP
(upwards of all three), while moderate damage will
probably only manage one, maybe two. Water
Weakness will matter, especially as Seismitoad-EX
refuses to go away, Greninja BREAK has claimed
its place, and there are still nasty tricks like
attacking with Regice or Glaceon-EX that
can score a OHKO without additional boosts against
Delphox. No Resistance is typical and may have
mattered but probably not as decks trying to OHKO 170 HP
Pokémon-EX clear an effective 160 damage with room to
spare. Retreat Cost [CC] is functionally (but not
mathematically) average; low enough you can pay but high
enough you prefer not to so pack some options to deal
with it.
Delphox
has two attacks. For [R] it can use “Flickering
Flames” for 40 damage, plus it leaves the opponent’s
Active Asleep. This is a good return for a single
Energy, but due to the investment to reach this point it
should be a fallback play; you can’t afford to rely on
inexpensive hits because you have to invest so much to
get there, but if it is all you have at least you do
some damage while the opponent has a chance of being
unable to attack the next turn. Meanwhile for
[CCC] Delphox can use Psystorm to hit your
opponent’s Active for 20 damage times the amount of
Energy attached to Pokémon in play. That is all
the Energy attached to all the Pokémon, both
yours and your opponent’s. Unless you’re copying
the attack with something that can attack for less, this
means it does a minimum of 60 damage. The maximum
requires more time to calculate than I can spare right
now and is pretty useless because I’d be cashing in on
Weakness, some obscure combos, and trying to figure out
how to maximize Energy in play for both sides.
This is not as good as it may sound at first.
Remember Gallade (BW: Plasma Storm
61/135)? I do because the PTCGO stuck it in an
online exclusive Theme Deck, but otherwise I probably
wouldn’t; it has Psystorm and only for [CC] so that a
single Double Colorless Energy can cover the
cost, and despite having several things seemingly going
for it, it didn’t manage a deck that could build
Psystorm up to OHKOs levels well enough for a
competitive deck.
Still, we are discussing Delphox so we should
cover related cards. We’ll start with versions of
Fennekin: XY: Kalos Starter Set 8/39 (also
available as XY: Black Star Promos XY02 and
McDonald’s 2014 3/12), XY 24/146, XY:
BREAKthrough 25/162, XY: Fates Collide
10/124, and XY: Fates Collide 11/124. They
all have a lot in common as each is a Basic, Fire Type
Pokémon with Water Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost
[C], no Ancient Trait, and no Ability. XY: Kalos
Starter Set 8/39 has 60 HP and two attacks:
“Scratch” for [R] to do 10 damage and “Live Coal” for
[RC] to do 20. XY 24/146 has 10 less HP (so just
50) and “Will-O-Wisp” is its only attack, doing 20 for
[R]. XY: BREAKthrough 25/162 also has just 50 HP
a single attack (Firebreathing), which does 10 damage
and has you flip a coin for [RC]; “heads” means +30
damage (40 total). XY: Fates Collide 10/124 goes
back up to 60 HP. It also reuses Will-O-Wisp,
still needing [R] but only doing 10, while it can use
“Tail Whip” for [CC] to flip a coin; “heads” means the
Defending Pokémon can’t attack during your opponent’s
next turn, “tails” does nothing. Last possibility
is XY: Fates Collide 11/124 and it still has only
50 HP. For [C] it can use “Invite Out” which
requires a coin flip; “heads” means you can select one
of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon and switch it with
your opponent’s Active while “tails” means the attack
does nothing. All are just placeholders waiting to
Evolve, but XY: Fates Collide 10/124 gives both
the slightly higher HP and an attack that can maybe buy
you time.
I am telling you upfront that Rare Candy is
probably the way to go, but Item lock means even those
decks ought to have a copy or two of Braixen.
We have XY: Kalos Starter Set 9/39, XY
25/146, XY: BREAKthrough 26/162, and XY: Fates
Collide 12/124. These four are Stage 1 Fire
Type Pokémon with 80 HP, Water Weakness, no Resistance,
Retreat Cost [C], no Ancient Trait, and no Ability.
Firebreathing returns on XY: Kalos Starter Set
9/39, still requiring [RC] and a coin flip but doing 20
on “tails” and 40 on “heads”. It also has “Flame
Tail” for [RCC] to do 60. XY 25/146 can use
“Clairvoyant Eye” to look at the top three cards of your
deck and rearrange them as you wish for only [C], or for
[RC] it can use “Fire Tail Slap” to do 40 damage with
the added cost of discarding a [R] Energy from itself.
“Flamethrower” is the only attack on XY:
BREAKthrough 26/162, doing 70 damage for [RCC]
discarding an Energy attached to Braixen itself.
XY: Fates Collide 12/124 rounds things out with
“Destructive Flames” for [R] and “Crackling Ribbon” for
[CC]. The former does 20 and has you flip a coin;
if “heads” you also discard an Energy attached to the
opponent’s Active, while the latter does a flat 30
damage. Again none are brilliant but I’d favor
XY 25/146 as Clairvoyant Eye can improve your next
few draws while XY: Fates Collide 12/124 as with
luck you can not only discard an Energy, but it will be
one that your opponent really needed. In either
case though the attack is a desperation play.
Fennekin
and Braixen aren’t doing Delphox any
favors, but they are pretty typical stepping stones for
reaching a Stage 2. How about the other Delphox?
We have two others to consider, XY: Kalos Starter Set
10/39 and XY 26/146 which both have the same
attributes as today’s Delphox. XY: Kalos
Starter Set 10/39 brings back Will-O-Wisp but for
[RC] and doing 30 damage, while for [RCCC] its “Fire
Blast” does 120 damage but requires you discard an
Energy attached to Delphox itself. Other
reviews covered it here
here
and seemed to have gotten it right; it isn’t a good card
though it isn’t absolutely horrible. XY 26/146
has the Ability “Mystical Fire” which allows you to draw
until you have six cards in hand once per turn before
you attack. It stacks, so if you have multiple
Pokémon in play, each with Mystical Fire, as long as you
haven’t attacked you can use each. Not much point
if you can’t get your hand down to at least five cards,
but nice insurance against N and a well made deck
should be getting at least two to three extra cards
drawn per card even with just a single copy of said
Delphox in play. For [CCC] it can attack via
“Blaze Ball”, which does 50 damage plus 20 per [R]
Energy attached to itself. This is like the
“Secret Sword” attack on Keldeo-EX; it isn’t as
useful simply because the game favors a Basic Pokémon-EX
more than a Stage 2, but it also isn’t useless. If
you can quickly attach [RRR], such as with a manual
Energy attachment and a single Blacksmith, Blaze
Ball does 110 damage, 2HKO range. If you can load
it up, it can OHKO anything. In practice, this
will likely outdo Psystorm unless the opponent has a
very Energy heavy field, though with the significant
drawback of leaving a massive amount of Energy on your
very vulnerable attacker. XY 26/146 is probably
the Delphox to use.
There is one more card to consider of course: Delphox
BREAK. I am already a bit less optimistic for
it than with our recent review, but it means 180 HP (10
more than Delphox-EX) plus the Ability “Flare
Witch”. Flare Witch allows you to search your deck
for a [R] Energy once per turn to attach to one of your
Pokémon. No added costs or conditions, and the way
it is worded, multiple instances of Flare Witch can be
used during the same turn (yes, there are some Abilities
or at least Ability predecessors that are once per turn
even with multiples in play). This helps any of
these Delphox but it will take multiple copies
and multiple turns for it to flood your side of the
field with Energy. I like it better with XY
26/146, but a single copy of today’s Delphox (XY:
Fates Collide 13/124) because you probably won’t
need four copies of the other, and one Delphox
with Psystorm should be enough to punish the decks that
are Energy heavy and thus providing a good return for
the attack. Should you use such a deck in Expanded
or Standard? If you really feel like it, but as
stated I’m less impressed by it than I was just two
weeks ago to the day. Perhaps there is some rogue
deck that uses a different form of Energy acceleration
which I ought to be considering. For now though
just enjoy this Delphox in Limited, as if I
understand the contents of the Evolution Packs, you
should be getting a solid Fennekin and Braixen
count.
Ratings
Standard:
2.85/5
Expanded:
2.5/5
Limited:
4.5/5
Summary:
Delphox should be great for Limited play but it
seems like a niche attacker for a Delphox BREAK
deck that may not actually click. I don’t know
what the future will hold for this card, but even should
the other Delphox options rotate from Standard, I
doubt enough of the competition from other decks will
join them to improve this card’s odds. Delphox
didn’t make my personal Top 10 or Top 15 but it only
missed making the Pojo Top 10 by one place and three
voting points.
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