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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	#10 Shaymin-EX Hello and welcome to a brand new week of reviews of a brand new set, right here on Pojo’s CotD. We are doing things a bit differently this time around: what’s going on is that we had a ‘Top 10’ poll, like we do for our cards of the year, and now we spend the next couple of weeks counting them down. This means that the early reviews will be on what we reckon to be the most important cards to come out of the new set. I must say, I found the results to be a little bit surprising. We kick off our countdown towards the inevitable (don’t pretend you don’t know what will be #1), with Shaymin-EX. Yes, you will be seeing a lot of these new –EX Pokémon over the next couple of weeks, there are six in the set, and they are all playable to some degree. As the name suggests, the new Pokémon-EX are similar to the old Pokémon-ex that were printed from Ruby & Sapphire in 2003 (the first set of the Nintendo era) right up until the release of Power Keepers in 2007. Basically the deal is this: you get enhanced, powerful versions of Pokémon, but with the drawback that they give up two Prizes when they are KO’d. So far the new EX seem to be restricted to Legendary Basic Pokémon only, and it will be interesting to see if that continues. One thing worth noting is that the ‘-EX’ tag is part of the Pokémon’s name, and that means you could play up to 4 Reshiram BW and up to 4 Reshiram-EX in the same deck if you wanted to. So . . . how about Shaymin-EX then? Well, he is noticeable right away for being the frailest of the –EX Pokémon with a mere 110 HP. There are non-EX Basics that can boast better than that, and it makes him an easy one-shot for two Prizes with either Reshiram or Zekrom, but if that is what happens, then you are using him wrong. Yes, if you promote him active to try and slug it out with big hitters in the early-mid game you will lose fairly quickly. However Shaymin was designed for a more subtle and tactical niche: he is your late-game comeback card/finisher. How does Shaymin deserve this role? Let’s take a look at his attacks and find out. The first, Synthesis, costs a single Grass Energy and enables you to search your deck for a Grass Energy and attach it to one of your Pokémon. The Energy acceleration if used on the first turn or so can be pretty useful (assuming you run enough Grass and have other Pokémon that can use it), but there’s no way I would want to open with Shaymin for this. Giving up an easy 2 Prizes to the opponent for the sake of getting an extra Grass Energy on the Field is not a good exchange. Probably the best way to view this attack is as some kind of consolation Prize for those games where you are forced into a Shaymin start. Really though, you want to use Shaymin-EX as late as possible in the game. This is because his second attack, Revenge Blast, only has a base damage of 30, but does 30 more for each Prize card your opponent has taken, all for the low cost of [G][C]. This means that if the opponent has taken five Prizes, Shaymin will be hitting for a massive 180 damage: enough to OHKO anything playable in the format except for the other Pokémon-EX with Eviolite attached. Even if they have only taken four Prizes, Shaymin can still swing for 150, which will take care of anything that isn’t an –EX. Yes, Shaymin is vulnerable to return KOs, and that is why he needs to be played carefully. You use him when resources have been exhausted, and your opponent is down to their last heavy hitter. In these circumstances, Shaymin-EX is an absolute game-winner, especially if you can also drop an N to put them on virtual top decks for the rest of the match and cut off any way they might have of recovering. Shaymin-EX’s Energy requirements are easily met with the new Prism Energy (for decks not running Grass) and he can be dropped and powered up in a single turn in any deck which has either some form of Energy acceleration, or simply runs Shaymin UL. He may be a horrible starter and, unlike the other Pokémon-EX, he will never be a main hitter in anything, but because he can be such a star in late-game situations, I expect to see quite a few players teching him into their decks for State Championships. Rating Modified: 3.25 (maybe not the most impressive of the EX, but definitely has a use) Limited: 3.75 (playing with 4 Prizes means he’ll only hit for a maximum of 120 . . . but in Limited that should be enough)
virusyosh	Welcome back, Pojo readers! We're finally beginning our Next Destinies reviews this week, and we're going to kick things off by what we believe are the 10 best cards in the new set. Today's Card of the Day is one of the new Pokemon-EX, and is thought to be quite playable in many different types of decks. Today's Card of the Day is Shaymin-EX. Shaymin-EX is a Basic Grass-type Pokemon-EX. Since Shaymin is a Pokemon-EX, if your opponent KOs it, they will take two Prizes instead of one; this is to offset the Pokemon-EX's disproportionate amount of power compared to a "normal" Pokemon. 110 HP is horrible for a new Pokemon-EX: Shaymin easily has the lowest amount and is most prone to being Knocked Out by many prominent threats including Reshiram, Zekrom, Reshiram-EX, Zekrom-EX, Mewtwo-EX, and Magnezone. Fire Weakness is also rather unfortunate, leaving Shaymin open to assaults from Reshiram, Reshiram-EX, Typhlosion Prime, and and Emboar; Fighting Resistance is nice against Terrakion and Donphan; and a single Retreat Cost means that Shaymin is easy to retreat, and because Shaymin is a Basic, the cost can be lowered even further with Skyarrow Bridge. Shaymin-EX has two attacks. Synthesis allows you to search your deck for a Grass Energy and attach it to one of your Pokemon for a single Grass Energy, shuffling afterward. Chances are this attack won't see a whole lot of play due to the inherent slowness of attack-based acceleration, and Shaymin has no time to accelerate with only 110 HP. It may be of some marginal use in Limited, although I still wouldn't bother unless you know that you can't attack for damage next turn or if you really, really need an Energy out of your deck. Revenge Blast is the reason Shaymin-EX is thought to see lots of play. It starts off at 30 damage for a Grass and a Colorless, but then adds 30 more damage for each Prize card your opponent has taken. Thus, in the late game, Shaymin will easily be able to fire off 150-180 damage with relative ease, making Shaymin a perfect finisher for many decks that take a long time to set up or that one simply need a reliable revenge attacker in the late game. One unfortunate characteristic of Revenge Blast is that it starts off pathetically weak, but if you save the move for the late game, you should be fine. Overall, Shaymin is an excellent tech as a come-from-hehind attacker, but take care to not play it too early, as it could also end up as an easy prize for your opponent. Modified: 3.75/5 I'm a big fan of Shaymin-EX; in fact, I think it's easily one of the best new Pokemon in Next Destinies. Due to Shaymin's very powerful Revenge Blast, decks will be able to rest easy knowing that there is a comeback option to hit in their favor. Unfortunately, not all is good for Shaymin: 110 HP, terrible Fire Weakness, and an almost-useless Synthesis attack means that Shaymin isn't as good as it probably could be. Overall, Shaymin has an awfully weak body with a very strong and potentially metagame-shifting attack, and this easily makes up for the card's other shortcomings. Limited: 3/5 Shaymin is still good in Limited, although its use is a lot more unpredictable, which could be problematic. 110 HP is still good in this format (although it's very low for a Pokemon-EX), and luckily the attacks are cheap and only require one Grass Energy. Synthesis is underwhelming as always, but Revenge Blast can be exceedingly powerful if you can use it when you're down multiple prizes. However, it is worth noting that Shaymin is weaker here by default, as it will be more difficult to have your opponent to take more prizes with regularity, and one EX KO is worth 2 Prizes. Overall, Shaymin-EX is an incredibly balanced and powerful attacker that will be sure to show up in Modified very, very soon. Combos With: N (If you can Revenge Blast after destroying your opponent's hand down to nothing, these two cards work very nicely together.
Conical	2/13/2012: Shaymin EX Yeah, I'm writing COTDs again. That's not important though; what's important is that we're reviewing the top 10 cards of the next set, Neo Discovery Next Destinies, notable for using the new-old EX mechanic, which is now capitalized because...I'm not sure. We'll be seeing a few of the new EX cards during the next two weeks. The number 10 card is Shaymin EX, which reminds me of Shaymin(Sky) Lv.X back from Platinum, mostly because both of them contain the word 'Revenge' in their abilities. The word 'revenge' is a handy keyword because you can reasonably assume that whatever effect follows will be some sort of comeback mechanic, which is the case here. Revenge Blast is a very dangerous attack late in the game, when it will probably one-shot everything except for other EXs. I left off Shaymin EX on my list because I was worried about its HP, which as you'll see(if you haven't already), is very low compared to the other EXs. Even compared to other unevolving basics, Reshiram and Zekrom both surpass Shaymin's HP, the genies have the same HP, and Shaymin has the two-prize rule to deal with. That said, at the end of a game, when the EX rule won't matter, Shaymin is one of the strongest cards. I'm just concerned that the card is too specialized to work any other time in the game. I should talk about Synthesis as well, because it has its uses. You might think that you could use Shaymin EX as a starter in a dedicated Grass deck, in addition as a late-game attacker. I disagree with this, if only because Virizion has pretty much the same general stats as Shaymin, and is not an EX. Even if you strictly wanted a card that could accelerate energy for Grass, I'd go with Celebi Prime, because it's also not an EX and its acceleration ability is a Power, and you could theoretically attack afterwards(which is less a problem with Skyarrow Bridge in this set). Modified:3/5 Limited: 4/5
Otaku	Welcome to something new this week. Not only are we covering the latest set, BW: Next Destinies, now that it is officially tournament legal and have had some time to study it, but we are going with a new approach. Two and a half months ago we pooled our knowledge to weigh in on the Top 10 Pokémon Cards of 2011, so now we are going to be forward thinking and weigh in on what our collective picks for the Top 10 Promising Picks of BW: Next Destinies! So number 10 on our list is… Shaymin EX! Stats Shaymin EX is a Pokémon EX. You should know the drill about it being worth two Prizes from both the original Pokémon ex that came out years ago and/or from Pokémon LEGEND cards. If not, as stated Shaymin EX (like all Pokémon EX) is worth two Prizes, and if there is an effect like Space Virus, the Poké-Power of Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND that says to add one Prize to what should be taken, then Shaymin EX would be worth three Prizes! Granted, that isn’t going to happen against the majority of decks so the most important thing to remember is that many stats and effects that would be “too powerful” for a “plain” Basic Pokémon will be balanced by the extra Prize. Being a Basic Pokémon is of course great, especially in this format: they get more support than either Stage 1 or Stage 2 Pokémon and enjoy their normal benefits of requiring less deck space and being both faster and easier to put into play than other Stages of Pokémon. Being a Grass Type hasn’t been much cause for celebration, so unless Shaymin EX itself is the “missing piece” for Grass decks, it won’t be much help. If it is, then Grass actually does have some nice support that’s been itching to be used. Shaymin EX has 110 HP. This is the least out of the Pokémon EX we have received outside of Japan. For a non-Pokémon EX basic Pokémon this would be great, but for a Pokémon EX it is poor; both when compared to the other Pokémon EX (which are all 60 or 70 points higher) and to what it means in terms of play. 110 HP isn’t an easy OHKO, but it within reason; unlike most Pokémon EX, Shaymin EX is still within OHKO. Fire Weakness is to be expected, Shaymin EX will be vulnerable to OHKOs or severe damage even from most supporting Pokémon, and Reshiram doesn’t have to work hard at all for the OHKO. Shaymin EX does surprise by having Fighting Resistance, which can help give at least one reasonably likely, favorable match-up. Its single Energy Retreat Cost is also great: easy to pay and you can now use Skywarrow Bridge to drop it to a free Retreat Cost, if that Stadium suits the rest of the deck. Effects Shaymin EX, like all of the Pokémon EX we got this set, possesses two attacks. The first is Synthesis, for (G) it allows you to search your deck for a (G) Energy card and attach it to one of your Pokémon. Right now only basic Grass Energy provide (G) while in the deck, but if that ever changes at least the hypothetical new card would be an option. As far as usefulness, this is far better than nothing, but since it requires a (G) Energy to use, that means you only come out ahead if Shaymin EX can get the attack off twice. If it were an Ability, didn’t require Energy as an attack, or grabbed and attached more than one (G) Energy at a time it would have been pretty nice. Still, at least it really is better than nothing. The second attack is Revenge Blast for (GC). This attack does 30 points of damage plus another 30 points for each Prize card your opponent has drawn. I’ll need to get a ruling about how cards that add extra Prizes (or common penalties) affect this, but for now I am assuming you don’t get to count more than five (in a normal match if your opponent took six, you would have already lost!). Since this is a Pokémon EX, even 60 for (GC) isn’t too good, but once your opponent has taken at least two Prizes (so at least 90 damage), this can become a nice back-up attacker. Well, sort of: it doesn’t have much HP, so you’ll probably need to use a combo to set up for it. If your opponent is on there last Prize, you’d do 180 for (GC)! Usage This card makes me wish Shaymin Lv.X was still legal (though I’d need to play it with a “regular” Shaymin to work), since the main reason I don’t see this becoming an interesting, come-from-behind deck is that Shaymin EX is a bit too small. Even if you successfully drop it, power it up, and go for a KO a lot of Pokémon will be able to hit you hard right back! Still with Eviolite you might be able to survive long enough to slowly pull ahead in Prizes and win. Probably support would be Twins, Black Belt, Electrode (HS: Triumphant 91/102) “Prime”, and N. It’d require hard work, but if you also have a Vileplume (HS: Undaunted 24/90) on the Bench as well, you might be able to force your opponent to take two or three Prizes (they’d probably take one willingly anyway if their deck is aggressive), maybe mess up their hand with N, and start having an Eviolite reinforced Shaymin EX dishing out 90+ points of damage starting second turn. Less fanciful is using this as a surprise finisher/Mewtwo EX counter in decks that can power it up in a single turn, or allow it to survive the extra turn it’d need to be in play to power-up manually. If your opponent looks unlikely to score a revenge KO, then like I said after at least three Prizes it hits fairly hard. If your opponent has taken four Prizes, it will be able to OHKO most Pokémon, save for Pokémon EX and a handful of specific combos. If your opponent does take five, then now for (GC) you can club something upside the head for 180 points of base damage. You can also be on your last Prize, so in the right decks it really does make for a solid finisher. 180 points of damage takes out all but a few specific combos. Some of those combos (basic Pokémon EX with Eviolite) might be common, but even then that isn’t all the time. It should be decent bait, now that I think about it: the longer your opponent ignores Shaymin EX to pick off, say Basic Pokémon you want to Evolve, the stronger Revenge Blast will become. Your opponent almost has to take out Shaymin EX for his/her own good. Whether or not that is worth two Prizes, I don’t know. So what about Unlimited? Obviously First Turn Win decks, or those that go for a specific kind of “lock” won’t use it. Everything else might consider it, but probably won’t either. Focus Band is a huge help for Shaymin EX, since hitting twice for big damage means it should pay for itself. Of course the mixed blessing is sometimes it won’t be hitting something all that big (so something less extreme would work) and sometimes those Prizes will be denied by your opponent’s own Focus Band or the “Baby Rule”. In Limited play, skip it. Its lower HP will last longer and hitting for even 60 with Revenge Blast will be useful, but your max damage from Revenge Blast is 120. Again, impressive for Limited but not enough to OHKO an opponent’s Pokémon EX or Stage 2. The big deal breaker is that the two Prizes your opponent takes would be half the total starting Prizes for Limited. This prevents it from being a good opener; unless your opponent can’t do any damage for about 10 turns, two Prizes is not worth the level of Energy acceleration you could get. Ratings Unlimited: 2/5 Modified: 3.5/5 Limited: 1/5 Summary Shaymin EX was actually my Number 9 card, but my Number 10 didn’t make the group list. I won’t say what it was since that would spoil the list a little, but I think I should have put Shaymin EX at Number 10: it really looks like it will have an uphill battle. It needs acceleration or protection to “whack” something without being obvious, and being obvious will likely get it taken out before it can take out even one Pokémon, let alone two. Please check out my eBay sales by clicking here. It’s me whittling away at about two decades worth of attempted collecting, spanning action figures, comic books, TCGs, and video games. Exactly what is up is a bit random. Pojo.com is in no way responsible for any transactions; Pojo is merely doing me a favor by letting me link at the end of my reviews.
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	#10: Shaymin EX (Next Destines)   Hello and welcome back to Pojo's Card of the Day! This weeks's theme is a countdown of the most promising cards in Next Destinies, starting with Shaymin EX. This card wasn't on my personal list, but that doesn't mean I don't like it.   Shaymin EX is a Grass type non-evolving Basic with 110 HP, Fire Weakness, Fighting Resistance, a retreat cost of 1 and 2 attacks. Shaymin EX also has a special rule saying that your opponent draws 2 Prizes if it gets Knocked Out, as well as the usuaul rule that marks a card as being different if it has a different name (so you can have 4 Shaymin as well as 4 Shaymin EX, but why you would want to is beyond me).   So, considering the penalty of losing a Shaymin, the stats are actually a little on the low side. You could happily open with Shaymin but you would lose the two Prizes very quickly, especially against Fire Poke'mon. The Resistance helps as does the cheap retreat cost but this little guy isn't built for punishment.   Now Shaymin lacks an Ability, so it falls to the attacks to carry the day. Synthesis has been printed on a variety of Grass Poke'mon and has always resulted in searching your deck for 1 or more energy, usually of the [g] variety. This versions costs [g] to use and searches your deck for one [g] energy which you then attach to one of your Poke'mon (not necessarily Shaymin but there isn't much need for [g] energy elsewhere). This is a decent starting attack, but the current trend is toward burning resources for damage right from the word go, so I don't think Shaymin will revolutionise the format with Synthesis.   Revenge Blast is the second attack, which is much more impressive. The cost is [g][c] and the damage starts at 30, but increases by 30 for each Prize card your opponent has taken. At the 4 Prize mark you are dealing 150 damage for 2 energy which is when Shaymin really gets rolling and can obliterate almost anything it comes up against. Less damage than that isn't enough to destroy the threats you are likely to come up against, so Shaymin EX is a break-glass-in-case-of-emerging type card that you would only play in the end stages of a game when it is clear your opponent won't be able to hit back for the win.   I honestly don't know why Poke'mon decided to make the new cards Poke'mon EX instead of Poke'mon ex when the same extra Prize rule applies to both, but I do know that if your deck gets decent mileage out of Twins, you have room for Shaymin EX and Prism Energy in your deck to complete your insurance policy. Especially if you also like N for complete Prize denial madness!   Modified: 3.5 (Shaymin is a last-chance, come-from-behind brute that will make your opponent cry. Unless they can take Shaymin out, which will will them the game when they take 2 Prizes)   Limited: 2 (with a lower Prize count and precious little in the way of decent Grass Poke'mon in Next Destinies, Shaymin doesn't have the dance partners to be a good choice in a Prerelease deck despite being a great card to pull)   Combos with: Prism Energy, Twins, N