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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

 Genesect  

- Legendary Treasures

Date Reviewed:
December 5, 2013

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 1.75
Limited:  3.75

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being the worst. 
3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.

Back to the main COTD Page

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Genesect (Legendary Treasures) 

Today’s card is not a reprint *shock*. 

One of a handful of new cards from the Legendary Treasures set, this Basic, non-EX Genesect has reasonable HP (though it’s still vulnerable to most stock attacks, especially if Hypnotoxic Laser is involved). The attacks are . . . not bad I guess, but not particularly good either. A single Grass Energy gets you 20 damage with Slash, and while that’s not great I would rather see a one Energy attack on a card like this than not. Gaia Blaster appears to be more threatening though: although the nominal cost is four Energy of any Colour (which gets you just 50 damage), you will really want to use Grass with this as the attack gains 20 for each one you have attached.  

So, with four Grass, you hit for 130 and in theory there isn’t a damage cap. However, the reality of the situation is that you will rarely want to commit those resources to a 110 HP Pokémon, especially as it still falls short of an unassisted OHKO on EX Pokémon and even most playable Stage 2s. Yes, you do have Virizion EX for Energy acceleration, but using it to power up this Pokémon instead of the more efficient, heavy-hitting EX version doesn’t seem like a terribly good idea. 

You could consider (very briefly) a role for this as a non-EX attacker in a Genesect deck. It’s able to hit Safeguard Pokémon like Sigilyph DRX and Suicune PLB and can force an opponent into a ‘seven Prize game’ if they chose to KO it. Honestly though, I would expect players to pick Bouffalant DRX or Tropius PLB over this card for those purposes. Even Genesect PLB seems to offer better value than this card does. 

Rating 

Modified: 1.75 (too needy to be a viable support attacker)

Limited: 3.5 (decent HP Basic with a cheap attack and high damage potential)


Otaku

Today we look at Genesect (BW: Legendary Treasures 16/113), a recent card easy to miss in the shadow of the previous set’s Genesect EX.  Genesect is a Grass-Type Pokémon; we finally have some successful support for the Energy Type (in the form of Virizion EX), but nothing worth running is specifically for Grass-Type Pokémon.  As fast as hitting Weakness and Resistance goes, Grass Resistance seems to be a thing of the past while Weakness is prominent on a few popular Pokémon.

 

Being a Basic Pokémon is still the best, a definite mark in the favor of today’s card; requires the least amount of resources (including time) to get into play plus  Basic Pokémon posses a natural synergy with various effects; search cards are more potent since it is “one and done”, recursion cards like Super Rod only need to use up one of its targeting allotment to recycle a Genesect (unlike a Stage 2 where you would have to burn up all three to truly add an entire copy).  The advantage isn’t as much as it used to be thanks to the new rules; going first no longer allows you to attack, giving a slight breather to Evolution decks, but it isn’t the proper balance we might get from, say, just not making “big” Basic Pokémon into overly fast, overly powerful attackers that even have the capacity to hit for damage first turn, let alone possessing a useful Ability so they can double as a potent Bench-sitter or a major attack so they can double as opener and heavy hitter.

 

Genesect has 110 HP, the third highest printed on Basic Pokémon that lack a gimmick e.g. are not Pokémon-EX.  It is still not enough to reliably avoid a OHKO, but your opponent usually require a slightly juiced up attack to score a OHKO, outside of Weakness or decks that already fall into the OHKO area.  For example, Darkrai EX just needs a Dark Claw, but at least it needs something beyond a straight up attack.  Speaking of Weakness, Fire Weakness hasn’t been a major issue, but as usual it still isn’t “safe”.  Recent reprints and rule changes, coupled with the success of Genesect EX and Virizion EX are spurring players on to try and rekindle past Fire decks or spark some new ones.

 

No Resistance is the worst Resistance, but it is also quite common so Genesect is not really at a disadvantage.  Even if it were present, it wouldn’t be likely to matter given how reducing damage by 20 isn’t that impressive in a format where most decks can deliver a solid 140 via combos (if not actual attacks).  The single Energy Retreat Cost, on the other hand, is quite good; you should be able to easily afford it in most decks and if you’re running anything that lowers Retreat Costs, you’ll drop it to zero.  Overall, the card has solid stats for a big, Basic Pokémon that can’t Evolve.

 

So what can it do?  The first attack is Slash, which requires (G) and hits for 20.  This hasn’t really been a “good” amount for years thanks to power creep.  Slash is certainly better than nothing, though that also assumes that the designers would have made the card exactly as it is now sans the attack, which seems unlikely.  Slash is fast but with the new first turn rules, very underpowered compared to what other decks can do for one to three Energy?  Why one to three? 

 

The second attack, Gaia Blaster, requires a hefty four Energy to use so any less and you’ve got to rely on Slash.  The base damage is only 50 unless the Energy used triggers the effect; while the actual Energy requirements are all Colorless, for each Grass Energy attached to Genesect the attack does an additional 20 points of damage.  Just two (of four) Energy being Grass puts Gaia Blaster into 2HKO range for most cards (and OHKO for those with Grass Weakness) and with four or more Grass Energy you hit 130+ damage.  The catch is that it’s a really steep investment in Energy, so trading Prizes is not a good idea.

 

Yes, there are some Energy accelerating options to consider, like he aforementioned Virizion EX, but it just isn’t enough.  This card really needs mass Energy acceleration, be it from the deck, hand, or discard… mass as in easily dropping four to seven (seven Energy yields 190 points of damage, enough to OHKO even non-Weak Pokémon-EX) in a single turn.  You certainly could still run this card to some success with Virizion EX, Energy Switch, and basically most of what you see in your typical VirGen deck, then enjoy some of the cards that Genesect EX can’t use, like Silver Bangle and Silver Mirror.  The thing is… why would you?  Yes Genesect EX also requires some additional, special consideration but the reward is a deck built around Basic Pokémon that still manages to OHKO anything that regularly sees play (thanks to G Booster) plus provides a replacement for the nerfed Pokémon Catcher (in the form of Red signal).

 

For Unlimited, things aren’t any better; you have more options but the competition is far steeper given the rules change merely made the most prominent First Turn Win deck, Sabledonk, a little less reliable (though it put the kibosh on any that absolutely required that first turn attack).  I don’t recall there being a good way to load up on more than a few Grass Energy in a single turn, even here, its just here you don’t have to burn an attack to do it.  As for Limited, the card is an excellent pick.  Unsurprisingly not strong enough to pull off a +39 build as you don’t hit OHKO range quickly enough, but even a no-Grass Gaia Blaster on a 110 HP Basic Pokémon is “okay”, so just about any deck can make use of it even if only as just that, and if the deck has room for even a few Grass Energy cards, definitely worth running.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 2/5

 

Modified: 1.75/5

 

Limited: 4/5

 

Summary

We have other options for a big, Basic Grass-Type attacker, and that includes Genesect (BW: Plasma Blast 10/101), which would be in direct competition for space due to sharing the same name.  That Genesect has 10 less HP but aides in setup; I don’t know if it is worth playing, but it seems more useful than too low damage on the inexpensive attack and no effective way to quickly build and rebuild the second attack.  Unless we get some more Grass Energy acceleration that compliments this card, I think this bug’s hopes have been squashed.


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