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Espeon
(Dark Explorers)
Since the spoilers for this card first appeared there
has been a lot of confusion on Pokémon message boards
about what this card does and doesn’t do.
Because of that, I’m not going to do the normal type of
review. It’s not necessary anyway as
Espeon is a card that has
one purpose in mind: to sit on the bench and protect
your Pokémon using its Solar Revelation Ability, which
states: ‘Prevent all effects of your opponent’s attacks,
except damage, done to each of your Pokémon that has any
Energy attached to it’.
What Espeon can do for your
Pokémon that have Energy attached . .
.
·
It prevents Status Conditions (Poison,
Paraysis etc) that are
inflicted by an attack (e.g.:
Lilligant EPO’s Bemusing Aroma)
·
It prevents damage counters being placed by an attack
(e.g.: Gengar Prime’s Cursed
Drop)
·
It prevents ‘locking’ effects on the Defending Pokémon
(e.g.: Cobalion NVI’s Iron
Breaker)
·
It prevents Energy discarding effects (e.g.:
Kyurem-EX’s Frozen Wings)
·
It prevents Switching effects (e.g.:
Bellsprout TM’s Inviting
Scent) as long as the targeted Pokémon on the Bench has
Energy attached
Perhaps even more important to remember are the things
that Espeon
does not do . . .
·
It does not prevent damage, and that includes bench
damage (e.g.: Raikou-EX’s
Volt Bolt)
·
It does not prevent attack costs from having to be paid
(e.g.: Magnezone Prime’s
Lost Burn)
·
It does not prevent effects which are on the player
rather than the Pokémon (e.g.:
Zebstrika NEX’s Disconnect)
·
It does not affect damage multipliers, such as coin
flips for increased damage, nor does it stop damage that
is dependent on some condition being met (such as
Weavile NEX’s Dark Penalty
which only does damage if the Defending Pokémon has a
Tool attached)
·
It has no effect whatsoever on your opponent’s Pokémon
·
It has no effect whatsoever on your own attacks
·
It has no effect whatsoever on effects that are the
result of Trainer cards, PokéBodies,
PokéPowers, or Abilities
People who have been playing for a while will remember
Unown G from Great
Encounters. Well, Espeon is
basically Unown G except
instead of being a Tool, it
is an Ability that works on your Pokémon as long as they
have an Energy attached.
So . . . after all that, is Espeon
actually any good? Well, that is entirely dependent on
how powerful things like Status Conditions and damage
counter placement are in the
metagame. If, for example,
Accelgor DEX or
Vanilluxe NVI decks became
hugely popular, then Espeon
would be teched everywhere
as a counter. If those things are not important (and
right now they are not), then there really isn’t much of
a reason to waste deckspace
on this card unless you know for sure that a lot of
people in your area will be playing
Lilligant EPO or something.
Espeon
is actually a very difficult card to rate. At the moment
I don’t see it being played at all, but it’s possible
that there will come a time when we will be very glad
that it is in the format.
Rating
Modified: 2.5 (I gave it the average score. Sometimes it
would get more, sometimes less)
Limited: 3 (there are a few Status Pokémon in the set,
and the attack is ok here)
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