Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
#2 M Gardevoir
EX
When the new Fairy Type first appeared
in XY, it came with a lot of great
support: Xerneas
XY for Energy acceleration;
Aromatisse
XY for Energy manipulation; and Fairy
Garden for free Retreat. Both
Slurpuff (XY
for Status immunity and PHF for draw)
should probably get a mention here too,
though Fairy decks have never used them
much, if at all, due to space
considerations.
The one thing that Fairy lacked was a
proper heavy-hitter: the kind of Pokémon
that could dish out OHKOs to the format
powerhouses.
Yveltal EX and
Florges EX
came up a bit short,
forcing players to use some
off-Type EX Pokémon like M
Kangaskhan,
Yveltal, or
Mewtwo. M
Gardevoir is
the card that fixes that problem.
Yes, she’s a Mega, but she
does have a Spirit Link so evolving
doesn’t have to mean ending your turn.
Yes, the 210 HP is a bit short of the
Mega Maximum, but it’s still decent
enough for Gardy
to tank with Max Potions and
Aromatisse
against most decks. Yes, she’s weak to
Metal and will likely get destroyed by M
Aggron EX
and company, but every deck has an
autoloss,
right? The one big thing that M
Gardy does
bring to the table is her attack,
Brilliant Arrow: for a cost
of three energy,
it will do 30 times the amount of Fairy
Energy you have in play. That may not
sound too impressive, but bear in mind
that six Energy
means a KO on any Basic EX, while eight
is enough to bring down any Mega. With
Baby Xerneas
and Aromatisse,
you have the means to get the Energy you
need into play quickly, and make sure it
stays there.
Any Pokémon that has the capacity to
OHKO anything in the format, and the
support to make that happen, needs to be
respected. M Gardy
is going to take Fairy decks to the next
level.
Rating
Modified: 4.5 (prettyful
and powerful)
Expended: 4.25 (works here too, though
there is more competition)
Limited: 4.75 (unlikely you will pull
this and the EX, but if you do, you’ll
likely win)
|
aroramage |
Wait, another Mega on the list? And
at the #2 spot? Oh yeah, this is a first for us here at
Pojo, but we've got yet another Mega on the list in the
form of M Gardevoir-EX! And there's a very VERY good
reason for that too!
Let's start off with the main
reason we tend to put Megas on our Top 10 Lists: there
is a Spirit Link card for this gal. That's one of those
cards that allows you to skip over the "end your turn"
clause of Mega Evolving that was such a big detriment
for earlier Megas, so that makes her playable. All
things considered though, you could play her without the
Spirit Link card, and while people will look at you like
you're crazy, you can STILL get away with it.
And that's mainly because of
Brilliant Arrow. It's a 3-Energy attack that does around
30 damage for each Fairy Energy attached to your
Pokemon. Alright, 30 damage per Energy? Pretty big.
Attached to your Pokemon and not just M Gardevoir-EX?
INSANITY!! Restrict it to just Fairy Energy? Oh that's
not so bad...wait, doesn't Xerneas (XY) have an attack
to attach Fairy Energy straight from the deck? You get
the idea.
Think about it: assuming all of M
Gardevoir-EX's Energies are Fairy, she's already dealing
90 damage on her own! All you need is 3 more Energy in
play to OHKO most any Pokemon-EX; add 2 more to that,
and there's only one Pokemon you can't OHKO without a
slight boost! That's 8 Energy in play, and if you manage
your resources right, you'll hit that in no time!
M Gardevoir-EX is sure to be the
lead in the new Fairy deck, and combined with all the
Fairy support from XY on, she may prove tough to
handle!...well, unless M Aggron-EX comes out against
her.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (a super-strong
attack that can devastate with ease)
Expanded: 4/5 (same deal here)
Limited: 5/5 (of course you'll play
her if you get Gardevoir-EX, regardless of Spirit Link)
Arora Notealus: The Gardevoir line
has always been...interesting. She appears to be rather
feminine, but in Gen III in their initial release, they
could be male or female; it wasn't till Gen IV when
Gallade was introduced as a male-only evolution to
it...so...maybe M Gardevoir-EX is male?
Next Time: And the titan taking the
#1 spot on our list is...!!
|
Otaku |
Welcome to the second week of our Top 10 list for XY:
Primal Clash. In case someone is joining us late or
only cared about the top three, the Pojo Top 10 list is
compiled from individual Top 10s submitted by the CotD
crew members. We are trusted to set our own criteria
apart from no reprints being allowed. I was working on
a comprehensive system, ran out of time, and so out of
the 2-3 dozen cards that caught my eye I narrowed it
down to 10 that seemed like they either should be good,
popular or both. For better or worse, I feel like
popular cards need coverage because if its played
heavily its still a significant part of the metagame.
Rejoice, as we come to the runner up
for our Top 10 list and we have so much to cover that I
am not going to try and use aroramage’s “next time” hint
from yesterday to work in a Fairy Tail reference!
Seriously I was going to try and it was not only
painful, but took more words than I just used
referencing it. So our subject today is M Gardevoir-EX
(XY: Primal Clash 106/160, 156/160) and the most
obvious thing even from a blurry scan is that it is a
Fairy-Type. The Fairy-Type is still pretty new and in
terms of Type-Matching, it is still disappointing.
Nothing yet Resists it (a small bonus) but the only
cards weak to Fairy-Types are XY-era Dragon-Type
Pokémon. Looking ahead, this issue might be solved as
soon as our next set but for now, you’re not often
enjoying double damage. Actual Type support is strong
in the indirect department as you’ve got Fairy Garden
to provide a free Retreat Cost to anything with a source
of [Y] Energy attached, Xerneas (XY
96/146; XY Black Star Promos XY05) for Energy
acceleration from the deck (via an attack) and
Aromatisse with its tried and true Energy
transferring Ability. The direct Fairy-Type support is
less impressive: Wonder Energy provides a Special
Energy that protects against the effects of attacks but
only works for the actual Fairy-Type while Klefki
(XY: Furious Fists 73/111) makes Resistance for
Fairy-Types worth -40 damage instead of -20. These
cards aren’t bad but are vulnerable to counters for
better cards and kind of narrow on the benefits list.
Being a Mega Evolution is a drag; its
got the baggage of being a Stage 1 combined with a rule
(as opposed to something like an Ability that is easy to
switch off) that causes your turn to End when you Mega
Evolve one of your Pokémon in play into M Gardevoir-EX.
It also means you’re also a Pokémon-EX and while being
a Pokémon-EX usually means better HP, attacks and
sometimes a good-to-great Ability, none of that is
guaranteed while all the drawbacks (being worth an extra
Prize when KOed, being unable to use certain support
cards and being a target of certain counter cards) are.
Fortunately M Gardevoir-EX does get Gardevoir
Spirit Link to help it avoid that nasty turn ending
clause for Mega Evolving and as you can see from the
scan, its HP is 210; that is as low as we have seen on
Mega Evolutions, but still means it is bigger than
anything current other than other Mega Evolutions,
Wailord (BW: Dragons Exalted 26/124) and
Wailord-EX. If it is starting out uninjured, an
M Gardevoir-EX is hard to OHKO for most decks,
sometimes impossible. Being small for its kin is a
potential hazard though; simply put while it isn’t a
major concern there will be times (other than being hit
by Weakness) when something like Primal Groudon-EX
is going to survive the hit and M Gardevoir-EX is
going to come up shy. As for Weakness, M Gardevoir-EX
gets the typical Metal-Type Weakness for Fairy-Types.
The good news is that Metal-Types aren’t as popular and
potent as Fighting-Types, but XY: Phantom Forces
bolstered Metal-Type support and simply put, you’re
probably going to run into at least one Metal-Type deck
during any larger event. M Gardevoir-EX does get
to enjoy Resistance though; while being Darkness
Resistant isn’t a major boon, its actually a pretty good
Type to Resist; 20 points of damage difference can
really goof up a scaleable attack like Evil Ball, and
Yveltal-EX is the Darkness-Type right now.
The Retreat Cost of two finishes off the card’s
attributes; it is low enough that you can pay it if you
must without being a major setback but high enough that
its worth avoiding when you can (and with Fairy
Garden, you should be able to avoid it often
enough).
M Gardevoir-EX, like all Mega Evolutions we’ve seen so far, has just one attack:
it is called Brilliant Arrow and requires [FCC] to use.
This isn’t too bad a cost to meet and the reward is 30
damage per [Y] Energy you have in play. While you won’t
get the benefit of your opponent’s Energy like you would
with Mewtwo-EX and its X-Ball or Yveltal-EX
and its Evil Ball, you will be able to spread the burden
throughout your whole Bench, only risking three of those
Energy cards while delivering potentially massive blows…
damage big enough to OHKO anything lacking protective
effects or boosted HP. Of course, it takes nine [Y]
Energy in play (or eight plus some other source of the
last 10 damage) to take out Wailord-EX, while
seven or eight Energy will handle any other Mega
Evolutions (again, assuming no defensive buffs). All
Pokémon-EX need six [Y] or less in play, while most
everything else requires five or less. It takes some
effort and time to set up, but it seems quite plausible
to turn M Gardevoir-EX into a OHKO machine.
Of course you’ve got to Evolve from a
Gardevoir-EX first, so let’s take a look at our
only option there: a Basic Pokémon-EX Fairy-Type with
170 HP and the same Metal Weakness, Darkness Resistance
and Retreat Cost of [CC] as M Gardevoir-EX. The
elements that are the same serve Gardevoir-EX as
well as it does its Mega Evolution; being a Basic is
still best and 170 HP is usually going to survive a hit
(though its a much easier number to hit in than even
just a few sets ago). It sports two attacks with
staggered pricing for what its worth. For [Y] Life Leap
is good for 20 damage, plus however much damage said
attack does is healed from Gardevoir-EX. Given
how much we have come to expect from single Energy
attacks, this is a bit underwhelming; for something
probably being used just to Mega Evolve, its decent and
either prevents or reduces the effectiveness of using
weaker attackers to wear down Gardevoir-EX.
Shining Wind requires a steep [YYY] but delivers a good
100 points of damage with a beneficial effect;
Gardevoir-EX is treated as having no Weakness during
your opponent’s next turn. Unless I missed the
exception, all Fairy-Type Pokémon have Metal
Weakness so this provides a decent option to counter
that; not the best option but a decent one. Plus the
damage is enough to 2HKO anything that isn’t
protected/buffed, a Mega Evolution or Wailord-EX.
So Gardevoir-EX is a decent card in its own
right, creating a solid foundation for Mega Evolution.
There are really only two ways to run
M Gardevoir-EX effectively, and the one is
unverified and might actually turn out to be pretty bad.
The first is obvious; plug it into a Fairy Transfer
deck, allow the Xerneas mentioned earlier use
Geomancy to flood your field with Fairy-Type Energy
(even if you have to give up a Prize or two while doing
so) and then once you get to OHKO levels for Brilliant
Arrow, do just that. As long as M Gardevoir-EX
isn’t OHKOed, Fairy Transfer plus Max Potion
remains a viable, devastating defensive combo. A few
turns of this and you’ll probably have your win. Of
course you’re dependent upon Fairy Transfer to a large
degree; losing that Ability not only means you can’t
abuse Max Potion but if your [Y] Energy in play
is too concentrated at that point, your opponent might
win by focusing on whatever is housing said Energy
instead of M Gardevoir-EX itself. The other
option trades the risk of Abilities being shut down for
simply focusing on filling your field with [Y] Energy
via Xerneas and its Geomancy. M Gardevoir-EX
won’t be your only attacker either as you’ll likely have
a Bench full of other big, Basic Fairy-Type Pokémon
ready to follow it up. You might even still make use of
Max Potion; while you’ll have to power-up the
slow and steady way, it will still force your opponent
to go with OHKOs. Again, not really sure about that
second strategy, but I felt it worth mentioning; both
will benefit when Regirock XY Black Star Promo
(sorry, don’t know the actual number) that will release
with the XY: Roaring Skies 3 booster blister
pack. All that really matters about it is that it is a
110 HP Basic Pokémon with Ω Barrier Ancient Trait, which
unless we get a ruling that seems contrary to what we’ve
heard in the past, should allow said Regirock to
safely sit on your Bench with an Exp. Share and
soak up basic Fairy Energy cards as your other
Pokémon are KOed.
Ratings
Standard: 4.25/5 - Deck specific rating, of course. M Gardevoir-EX
needs a deck more or less built around it, but the
reward is a most impressive offense. I would have
scored it higher except 210 HP and even fantastic damage
output aren’t as rare as they used to be.
Expanded: 4/5 - It can be easy to forget, but there are some great
Metal-Type decks that come back in Expanded. Weakness
really is a major issue for M Gardevoir-EX; even
with off-Type attackers, there isn’t a good Fire-Type
(major Weakness of Metal-Types) that can be fueled by
mostly [Y] Energy. Fairy Transfer decks get Prism
Energy back, but that won’t work on M Gardevoir-EX.
There are counters that aren’t Fire-Types but still
work in this kind of deck, but they all have their own
drawbacks (like Weakness) to manage.
Limited: 5/5 - This rating assumes you pulled Gardevoir-EX (and
preferably Gardevoir Spirit Link). Gardevoir-EX
itself is better here; that tiny bit of healing is much
more useful and once you get [YYY] onto it, 100 damage
means its pretty reasonable for a +39 deck; you might
even be fortunate and get Shining Wind going before your
opponent with a Metal-Type attacker in deck can get one
into play and powered up. M Gardevoir-EX is then
reserved for a final, massive strike, ignored if you
haven’t gotten enough Energy in play for it to be worth
it or if you can’t spare the turn to Mega Evolve
and haven’t gotten Gardevoir Spirit Link
equipped.
Summary: M Gardevoir-EX received a lot of hype at first but then it
died down a bit as we saw more and more of the set. I’m
thinking that means most saw this card for what it is;
the new face of Fairy-Type decks that want a Mega
Evolution as their main (or at least “big”) attacker.
It requires some set-up and it is by no means
invincible, but it does what it does well in the current
card pool.
I had M Gardevoir-EX as my
number five pick but three of the four cards I
ranked above it have already been reviewed for our
master list, and those were all Trainers, two of which
were (more or less) general use Trainers. So in the
end, I’m fine with M Gardevoir-EX ranking so
high; at this point I am thinking it has earned it.
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