Hello folks. Loathe though I am to do so, I have a
choice: do the CotDs I suggested for this week
(today’s and tomorrow’s) without my normal text
spoiler and formatting… or don’t do them at all. I
have chosen the former.
Aggron LV.49
is a Stage 2 Metal Pokémon. It Evolves from
Lairon, which in turn Evolves from Aron,
so let’s start with these lower Stages. The most
recent versions are from the same set as Aggron
LV.49, Mysterious Treasures. Aron LV.15
has fairly average HP for a Basic that can Evolve
twice: 50. This means that most Pokémon can OHKO it
unless it is very early in the game or they too are
under Evolved. It has mediocre attack that for (MC)
does 30 damage, but also 10 damage to itself. This
damage should be blocked if you have at least one
copy of the Special Energy Metal Energy (as
opposed to the new Basic Energy version), but it
then it only becomes an adequate attack and is still
nothing special. The other two Modified Legal 50 HP
Aron have better attacks than this… but have
the classic Fire Weakness instead of a mere +10
damage. Given all the flaming monkeys and roosters
that really is significant. There are also a lot of
Fighting Pokémon kicking around. After all, Battle
Roads will look to counter what was seen at Worlds,
right? Well, smart players will do that but also
realize that there are going to be scads of
competent “bush league” players who don’t have the
money to run the top decks or travel to any
tournaments that aren’t at least close to “local”.
Never underestimate these kinds of players. I am
one of them. XD So far, I’ve never been to a
tournament that wasn’t in my home state, and my home
state is Iowa: not too big. The best bet for
players such as my self is to a) run an easy to
assemble established deck while attempting some
killer TecH… or counter such decks and hope to avoid
any nasty surprises. So I expect a lot of Fire, a
lot of Fighting, but also a good deal of Water and
Psychic. So that mere +10 against Fire is far
better than x2, and Resistance to Psychic,
especially at -20, seems like a pretty good reason
to choose Aron LV.15 over its better
attacking elders. The others have the classic -30
for Resistance, but it is to Grass which I expect to
see less of. To wrap up Aron Lv.15, note it
does have a Retreat Cost of two, which is high but
given its expensive retreating Evolutions, you
probably have a decent amount of switching cards in
deck.
Lairon LV.32
is the next Stage of the Evolution line, and while
it’s tempting to ignore it (we can Rare Candy
to skip it) that is a fatal error. Any game that
isn’t a blow out one way or another will probably
have a deciding moment. That moment will often be
early in set up or late in the game when you’re
throwing whatever you deck has left, and that is
when your choice of Stage 1 is vital. Unlike the
Aron, there is no real doubt that Lairon
LV.32 is the winner. It has great attacks: the
first gets precious Metal Energy from the
discard while removing 2 damage counters for just
(M) and the second is a nice, solid 50 without any
draw backs save costing (MMC). It has a solid 80 HP
(for a Stage 1 with an Evolution still available)
and none of the other versions surpass it. It has
+20 Weakness to Fire, but that is far better than
double Weakness against all but the weakest Fire
attacks. It has a solid Psychic -20 for Resistance,
though it also has a hefty Retreat Cost of three.
Again, you should already have worried about Retreat
Costs due to Aggron, so it isn’t a critical
draw back.
Now for the main attraction, Aggron: this
version has 130 HP which should stretch pretty far
with some Metal Energy (special Energy
version). Looking at the bottom stats, we see it
does have a very nasty Weakness: +40 for Fire. This
is still better than a double Weakness unless its
early game (anything hitting for 30 or less does
more than if the damage was doubled, but everything
else does the same or less). We still have -20 for
the Psychic Resistance. I had hoped they’d bump it
up a bit, but I am just happy to see Resistance at
all, let alone on all three Stages. The Retreat
Cost of 4 is huge and should greatly influence how
you run this deck, either with many cards to switch
out Actives as needed, or to lower the Retreat Cost,
or to make it easier to soak of the damage and shed
Special Conditions.
The real meat of the card, as usual, is the
attacks. There are two, and they aren’t too bad.
The first, Heap Up, does 40 for two of any Energy,
but if there is at least one Special Energy version
of Metal Energy in your discard pile, then it
does 70. Then it throws all the Energy back into
your deck. This seems pretty handy and a good way
to start the game. Once you get set up, the second
attack, Hard Metal, should be hard to keep up
against. It does 60 damage, which is only “fair”
for (MMMM), and actually substandard considering
this is a Stage 2. However, you have the option of
pumping this up to 100 damage if you do 40 damage to
yourself. If your opponent sends up small Pokémon
to stall, you can waste them no problem. Once you
get four copies of Metal Energy (Special
Energy version, of course), you can then just choose
to do a flat 100 a turn.
As a whole, this card is solid, but not really a
tournament winner. Bronzong LV.40, which we
will look at tomorrow, should have some solid
synergy with Aggron, as might the older
version of Aggron from EX Power Keepers. All
that really is needed is a good source of healing or
Energy acceleration. Sadly, I can’t seem to find
anything stand out except Vaporeon*, and that
is hard to re-use.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5 – Hardly a card for this format.
Modified:
3.5/5 – It is more than a straight forward beatstick
and seems close to having a “deck” for it. So close
it makes me wonder if we’ll see the “missing piece”
of a combo come in another set or two. Keep an eye
on it.
Limited:
3.8/5 – I am a little leery of the Fire Weakness for
this format, though if you can pull the full line,
it is a solid Stage 2 Pokémon and given the strength
of the Lairon in this format, it would be a
worthy deck focus. If you actually pull a Metal
Energy to trigger the first attacks bonus or
just reinforce Aggron, it does indeed become
much better.
