Skip straight to the scores and summary for a
concise overview.
Please note that while I denote δ Delta Species
Pokémon by adding a δ to the end of their name, but
that said symbol is not actually part of their name
for gaming purposes to my understanding. For
example, a “Pokémon δ” can
Evolve from or into a non-Pokémon δ, so long
as no other rules are being broken. That is, I can
Evolve Dratini δ into a Dark Dragonair,
plain Dragonair, of the “Dragonair δ”.
I cannot, however, Evolve
a Dark Dragonair into a Dragonite δ or
a Dragonair δ into a Dark Dragonite.
Also, a card can have δ Delta Species Pokémon
and not be from EX Delta Species: it’s on the
ones from EX Holon Phantoms and thus likely on all
Pokémon δ from here on out.
Name:
Kingdra δ
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
10/110
Type:
Fire, Metal
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Seadra)
HP:
110
Weakness:
Lightning
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC
Poké-Power:
Dragon Curse
Once during your turn (before your attack), if
Kingdra is your Active Pokémon, you may put 2 damage
counters on 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon with δ on
its card. This power can’t be used if Kingdra is
affected by a Special Condition.
Attack#1:
(RC) Extra Flame [30+]
If
the Defending Pokémon is Pokémon-ex, this attack
does 30 damage plus 30
more damage.
Attack#2:
(RMCC) Heat Blast [80]
Name:
Seadra δ
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
52/110
Type:
Fire
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Horsea)
HP:
70
Weakness:
Lightning
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(CC) Searing Flame [10]
The Defending Pokémon is now
Burned.
Attack#2:
(RCC) Combustion [40]
Name:
Horsea δ
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
66/110
Type:
Fire
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
Lightning
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Ram [10]
Attack#2:
(RC) Steady Firebreathing
[20]
Attributes:
Kingdra is a Pokémon δ, in this case having
the bizarre change from Water to Fire (and Metal, in
this case). This type combination is good: the
advantage of Metal Energy reducing damage is
hard to ignore, and Fire Resistance is low while
Weakness to Fire is high.
As
a Stage 2, Kingdra Evolves from Seadra
which in turn Evolves
from Horsea. In this set, they are both
Pokémon δ and Fire Types. Neither card is
spectacular: Seadra only gets a cost break
for Combustion (and Searing Flame, while fair, means
they are still trying to price Burn the same as
Confusion, Paralysis, and Poison, when it needs to
be priced like Sleep). It isn’t really bad, just
not particularly good. The same for Horsea,
who overpays for its second
attack a little (it should be CC). However, the
only other Modified legal Horsea/Seadra
are Water and don’t really work with this Kingdra
(and aren’t that good regardless of the Type
difference).
Kingdra
has a great 110 HP: only 10 more is possible without
it being a Pokémon-ex. This isn’t enough to keep
its Lightning Weakness from being a problem, but it
is enough to force problem Lightning Pokémon like EX
Fire Red/Leaf Green Zapdos ex to at least
burn some Energy (or similar effects) to OHKO you.
Depressingly, there is no Resistance which, as
always, seems like a bit of a copout unless a card
is so powerful that a Resistance would basically
render the Resisted Type unplayable. The Retreat
Cost is CC, which is about average: not
mathematically, but in you can usually afford to,
but it will set you back a few turns.
Abilities:
Here’s where Kingdra really shines: it has a
Poké-Power, which only works while Active. That
Poké-Power, Dragon Curse, lets it place two damage
counters on an opposing Pokémon δ if Kingdra
is Active, once per turn. The wording indicates you
could use this Poké-Power again if another Pokémon
has it, so if you can afford to Retreat or us
another card to change out, you could make use of a
second Dragon Curse. Realistically, you’d be doing
good to set it up so that you had two Kingdra
doing this trick, but its feasible to use up to four
Dragon Curse in a turn (just not worth the effort).
Extra Flame is a nice opening move as 30 points of
damage for (RC) is okay on a Stage 2 Pokémon (it’d
be better on lower Stages), and is especially nice
since it hits for 60 against Pokémon-ex. Even with
a Double Rainbow Energy, that’d be 50, enough
to annoy a lot of Turn 2 lock decks (assuming you
can Evolve into
Kingdra). Not great, but far better than a lot
of other supporting attacks.
The main attack is Heat Blast for (RMCC). Well,
breaking it down you pay for (15 + 15 + 10 + 10 =
50) in terms of raw Energy, but you also have to
factor in this is a Stage 2 and the “big” attack
(worth another 10 to 20 points) and also the mixed
Energy cost (worth another 5 to 10 points), but that
still means you are at worst getting what you pay
for with respect to this attack.
Uses and
Combinations:
Right now, the only reason to use this is if Fire
Weakness and Pokémon δ are incredibly common in your
area. If that is the case, this thing is killer,
basically giving you two attacks (or turbo charging
your single one, same difference) a turn. For this
format, I don’t think that is the case. With the
coming format change in September, this card will
probably deserve to at least be looked at if not
guaranteed a place in many tournaments. With
Fluffy Berry and perhaps a few
Switch you should
be able to regularly gain an extra four damage
counters, and some turns as many as eight.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.75/5 – I know of no regularly played Pokémon δ.
That makes this just a big Fire Breather that is a
bit more annoying to Pokémon-ex… but still, it’s not
worth it. If you must, you can take the standard
“Bench full of Slowking” to make a solid deck
out of it, but don’t expect it to win a lot.
Modified:
3/5 – For now, it basically can be a solid deck.
Not something to win most tournaments though, unless
they are very small, local events and even there
it’s questionable. Come September, you will want to
consider this: at the very least, having a deck
built around this will be great for testing the
resilience of any Pokémon δ based decks you decide
to run.
Limited:
4/5 – Obviously, it hurts that this needs something
to provide Metal Energy to use its big attack, but
is Poké-Power and its opening attack should be easy
to utilize. Of course, if the opponent doesn’t have
a Pokémon-ex and/or any Pokémon δ,
its quite poor. So why
still a four out of five? Because even though
Horsea and Seadra aren’t so great for
constructed, I found them quite useful in the
Pre-Release I played in, both for my own use and in
other player’s decks.
Summary
I
don’t think this Pokémon’s time as come: like many
Pokémon δ, Kingdra seems to be geared for
either later sets or a later format. I don’t
recommend using it now, but if you can keep back 2-3
copies, it might be handy in a few months. I am not
scoring for the next format until we get our next
set. It’s an arbitrary decision on my part, but I
thought I’d let you know.
-Otaku
