Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Mega Venusaur EX
Today we look at our first TCG example of Pokémon’s new
mechanic: Mega Evolution. In the games, these work well
as they are mostly terrific designs (not
Manectric) and turn
previously poor Pokémon like Mawile
and Kangaskhan into total
powerhouses of destruction as well as giving us cool new
versions of already good stuff such as
Gengar and
Lucario.
The mechanic’s transition into the world of the TCG is a
little bit more awkward, however. Mega Evolution
succeeds in giving us access to even more powerful
incarnations of EX Pokémon (just look at the ridiculous
HP!), but it also comes with some severe downsides. Mega
Evolution is still an Evolution, and that means it can’t
be accomplished on the first turn, or on a Pokémon that
wasn’t in play at the start of a turn. More seriously,
just the act of playing a Mega Evolution brings your
turn to a juddering halt. Obviously, the worst part of
that is having to end your
turn without attacking or using Tropical Beach, but the
effect is more far reaching. Suppose you are holding a
Mega and a Juniper in your hand: you can’t evolve and
then play Juniper, so you are forced to choose between
not using a Supporter that turn or
discarding the Mega. That’s unfortunate to say the
least.
So if these things are going to be playable, they will
need to be astonishingly good, and apart from the
massively inflated HP, Venusaur
can’t really cut it on that score. I mean, Crisis Vine
is a pretty good attack: 120 damage
and Poison
and
Paralysis has the potential to shut down and dispose of
most other Pokémon very quickly. The Energy cost is
steep, as you would expect, at 3 Grass and one
Colourless Energy. Combine that with the ends-your-turn
rule, and Venusaur becomes a
very slow and cumbersome Pokémon: let’s not forget that
with damage boosters like Muscle Band,
Deoxys EX and
Hypnotoxic Laser in the
format, even a 230 HP monster like this can be taken out
in a couple of hits, while Crisis Vine is a whole lot
less effective if the opponent is running
Virizion EX to stop the
Status effects.
I’m sure that there will eventually be top tier Mega
Pokémon decks, but we are going to have to wait a while
for them. Mega Venusaur is
kind of impressive with its huge numbers, but seems to
fall some way short of being practical.
Rating
Modified: 2.5 (big, but not that scary)
Limited: 4.5 (but you’re not really going to pull this
and the EX
in six packs are you?)
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HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150 |
M Venusaur EX.
Standard.
Following on from yesterday’s Venusaur EX is only
makes sense to look at its Mega Evolution today. What
we’re looking at is essentially a 230 HP Stage 1! The
turn ending Mega Evolution mechanic helps balance this
slightly but it does mean that Mega Pokémon naturally
will want to go into tank decks as opposed to more
aggressive ones that won’t want to lose a turn not
attacking. Luckily for M Venusaur EX this is exactly
what its designed to do. 120 and Poison is enough to KO
most non-EX Pokémon and the Paralysis means that it
almost guarantees a KO on any other Pokémon it hits
outside of Keldeo EX’s Rush In or an Escape Rope/Switch.
Unfortunately Mega Evolution doesn’t work like LV.X so
it doesn’t get access to its previous Stage’s healing
attack so you will need to provide it with outside
support like Damage Swap Reuniclus or the newly released
Super Potion. There’s also the option of running Celebi
EX so it can use its Basic’s attack, but this means
running Celebi EX which just begs to give away 2 prizes.
It could do with some Energy support such as Virizion EX
to power that 4 Energy attack, but you will have to
think, would I rather be using Virizion EX to support M
Venusaur EX or just stick with the tried and tested
Genesect EX? There’s even Articuno EX with a similar
attack but much easier to get into play.
Unlimited 150.
In U150 M Venusaur EX is a totally different
Pokémon. There’s no legal Basic Venusaur EX for it to
evolve from so it has to evolve from a Stage 2,
essentially making it a Stage 3 Pokémon in this format!
This doesn’t mean it’s worse off here though, in fact,
it’s probably better. The format is much friendlier to
Evolutions with support like Broken Time-Space and
Spiritomb (Arceus) so it’s not actually that hard to get
out. The turn it makes you skip is easier to negate too
using the Stadium Holon Circle which prevents all
attacks until a Pokémon does attack or the old favourite
Mr.Mime (Jungle) providing a solid wall for M Venusaur
EX to hide behind during its set up turn.
Most of the time its attack will be overkill, 130 damage
KOs a decent percentage of played Pokémon but as more
and more Megas get released into the format Paralyse
locking them for a 2 hit KO will become more relevant.
As for things that can 1 hit KO this behemoth, they’re
few and far between! Even a Fire type would have to do
120, so old, reliable Reshiram can handle it. For other
decks there’s Clefable (Jungle) that can Metronome
Crisis Vine for just one Energy to Paralyse lock it for
a 2 hit KO.
It gets some good support from other Venusaurs in its
evolution line. Both the Base Set version and the ex
from Fire Red Leaf Green can move Energy around freely
so you can abuse cards like Max Potion and Pokémon Nurse
by moving all the Energy off it, healing it, then
putting the Energy back on. Supreme Victors Venusaur
protects all Grass Pokémon from Special Conditions which
further aids the Mega’s tanking potential.
Overall, Venusaur was decent Pokémon to build around
with plenty of different effects to utilise but never
much raw power. The Mega fixes this problem in a
Venusaur deck by providing one of the bulkiest Pokémon
ever printed with an attack that is both heavy hitting
and disruptive.
Ratings.
Standard: 3.5
Unlimited 150: 4
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