Today we come to #8 pick for our Top 10
cards of 2012,
Tornadus EX (BW: Dark Explorers
90/108, 108/108).
You can read the original review
of the card here, where we collectively
ranked it as the fourth best card of
BW: Dark Explorers.
As I did not get a review
submitted at that time, this will be a
full review of the card as it stands
(floats?) today.
Stats
Tornadus EX
is a Pokémon-EX; this means it enjoys
all the usual benefits of being a Basic
Pokémon, namely minimum space
requirements per copy run and being the
fastest Stage to field.
This also means it is worth two
Prizes when KOed, and as it made this
list that tells you it has to be pretty
great overall to overcome that.
Being a Colorless-Type means it doesn’t
have to worry about Weakness or
Resistance, and now it also allows it to
tap
Aspertia City Gym for an extra 20
HP.
170 HP is 10 away from the
maximum for Pokémon-EX, and just 30 away
from the maximum (and seldom seen or
played) 200 HP for Pokémon.
This is high enough to survive a
hit from all but the strongest attacks,
which will usually require a combination
to get off.
Decks that can’t reliably average
85 points of damage per turn may find it
takes two or three attacks to take
Tornadus EX down.
Weakness will speed things up
considerably; Lightning Weakness used to
be one of, if not the worst to have but
now it is a little more manageable.
Still, when you encounter that
older style Lightning-Type deck with a
good Lightning-Type attacker, or
something new I am simply unaware of, a
90 point shot will become a OHKO.
90 points of damage is actually
pretty common for decks, and of course
smaller hits that would have barely
meant anything will now become threats
if you can’t get rid of them quickly.
Tornadus EX
enjoys Fighting Resistance, which is not
only quite valuable, but just nice given
how many Pokémon have no Resistance at
all.
Fighting-Type Pokémon do not like
a 170 HP Pokémon that can also soak 20
points of damage from attacks.
Fighting-Types that can OHKO
Tornadus EX are not competitively
played, and the most commonly seen need
help to score a 2HKO.
The final Stat is the Retreat
cost which is just a single Energy; this
is low enough to be easy to pay, plus
you can zero it out completely with
Skyarrow Bridge.
Effects
Tornadus EX
has two attacks.
The first is Blow Through, which
requires (CC) and delivers 30+ points of
damage; the “plus” is an extra 30 points
of damage if there is a Stadium in play.
This is a fairly painless trigger
for extra damage as a single Stadium
will work for all your copies of
Tornadus EX once you have it in
play.
There aren’t a lot of effects
that can discard a Stadium other than
another Stadium, and since your
opponent’s Stadium will still trigger
the clause that isn’t a huge drawback.
60 points of damage is enough to
OHKO lower HP Pokémon that see play and
even the base 30 points for (CC) is
still enough to be a concern.
Power Blast is a fairly reliable, solid
attack that requires (CCC) and hits for
100 points of damage.
The only drawback to the attack
is it requires you flip a coin and if
the result is “tails”, you must discard
an Energy attached to
Tornadus EX.
Even without fancy combos, this
should allow solid blows that threatens
to 2HKO anything in the game… at least
before effects and combos your opponent
may be running.
Both attacks have just Colorless Energy
requirements, being a two-three split
allows most Energy acceleration to ready
the first attack in a single turn and
sometimes the second, and sometimes
you’ll even be able to ready Power Blast
first turn as well.
Usage
Tornadus EX
has one rival for being the most
splashable attacker in the format.
That rival is the infamous
Mewtwo EX (BW: Next Destinies
54/99, 98/99), and being compared to it
is favorable indeed.
Mewtwo EX has the capacity to hit
harder overall, and with the same
investments hits almost as hard almost
as quickly.
If not apparent, consider that
high praise for
Tornadus EX to be compared to
Mewtwo EX.
Simply put,
Tornadus EX is seldom, if ever, a
bad play.
Any deck can still use it as an
“okay” beatstick with absolutely zero
support for it (other than what would be
found in the average deck).
Simple additions like a Stadium
and almost all forms of Energy
acceleration (including
Double Colorless Energy) propel it
from “okay” to “great”, and especially
if a deck needs to compensate for
Fighting Weakness elsewhere, it becomes
an invaluable addition.
Thanks to
Aspertia City Gym and other good
Colorless Pokémon,
Tornadus EX has another deck to
headline in.
It has been used well in other
decks, sometimes as one of the main
attackers, and with decks centered on
Aspertia City Gym it usually is
“the” main attacker.
For Unlimited play,
Tornadus EX might have some use.
Did we ever get a ruling for
using older copies of
Computer Search in Unlimited (and
whether or not the Ace Spec rule applies
to older copies)?
Assuming First Turn Win (or Lock)
decks are still dominant,
Tornadus EX can headline a more
traditional Donk deck.
For a more sustained assault, its
Colorless Energy requirements and still
great Stats and attacks will make the
most of several classical Special Energy
cards.
In Limited, this is a must play.
You may want to risk the infamous
“Pokémon-EX + 39 Energy” build or make
something a little more fleshed out, but
either way this card will be amazing
here.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3.5/5
Modified:
4.5/5
Limited:
5/5
Summary
Much was expected of
Tornadus EX, and while it delivered
on some of it, its Weakness really held
it back at first.
With
Fighting-Type decks becoming better
seemingly each set and Lightning-Type
decks on the decline,
Tornadus EX started strong and
finished strong, with a respectable
“middle” run.
For both my Top 10 of 2012 list and my
Top 10 of BW: Dark Explorers, I
had
Tornadus EX in the third place spot.
