Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Steelix
(Plasma Freeze)
This Steelix really should
win some kind of award for having the highest number of
Energy symbols that I’ve seen on a card for a long time
(I count 15!). Of course, that’s not really a good
thing, as it is going to mean some high attack and
retreat costs.
But let’s look at the good stuff first.
Steelix is a Stage 1 with a
very nice 150 HP. Not immune from OHKOs in a format with
Hypnotoxic Laser and
Deoxys-EX running rampant,
but still very good. It’s a Plasma Pokémon, so there is
great support available, and the Typing comes with some
useful features too: Metal Pokémon hit the popular
Kyurem PLF for Weakness, and
its own Fire Weakness won’t cause it too many problems
in the foreseeable future. The Psychic Resistance is a
lot better than the standard nothing too. As far as
stats are concerned, the only off-putting thing is the
Retreat cost of four, but that’s why we have Switch,
Float Stone, and Heavy Ball, I guess.
Now for the not-so-good stuff,
and undortunately that means
the attacks. Metal Defender costs one Metal,
two Colourless and gives an
underwhelming return of just 50 damage. It does also
have the effect of giving Steelix
no Weakness next turn, but as mentioned previously, that
isn’t even a legitimate concern at the moment. The
second attack, Heavy Impact, doesn’t even have the
luxury of an irrelevant effect: it is completely
vanilla. The good news is
that it does 100 damage:
enough to two-shot any EX under normal circumstances.
The bad news is that it costs an almost hilarious FIVE
Energy, making it all but unusable.
I guess you could use some Plasma support to make a fun
deck out of Steelix (Umbreon
PLF if wanted to tank with it;
Deoxys-EX for a more offensive version), but the
only reason to do this would be because you really want
a Steelix deck. When it
comes down to it, there are much better Pokémon to
support with those cards.
Rating
Modified: 2 (not up to snuff)
Limited: 3.5 (could be good here: tough to KO at any
rate, with a durable Basic)
|
Ness
Two-Time World Champion
Check out The Klaczynski Open. August 31, 2013 |
Steelix
High HP is all this metal Stage 1
has going for it. Its first attack protects it from an
already unpopular type, fire, while its second attack is
grossly overpriced. Five energy for 100? If you are
attaching five energy to a Pokémon, you better be KOing
whatever you are attacking. 100 HP only KOs the weakest
of basic Pokémon nowadays. By the time there's five
energy on a Steelix, whatever your opponent has will
easily survive 100 damage.
Modified: 1/5
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