Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Heliolisk
(Flashfire)
Today we take a look at the debut card from a brand new
Pokémon: Heliolisk. As a
Stage 1 with pretty low HP, he will need to work hard to
make that debut have any impact.
This card does carry Heliolisk’s
‘signature’ attack – Parabolic Charge – but instead of
being a damage-plus-healing thing as it is in the video
game, it searches the deck for two Energy cards. The one
good thing is that it does not specify
Basic
Energy, which means you could use to it grab DCE,
Rainbow, or similar. Otherwise, it’s pretty much the
same thing as Professor’s Letter, which is an Item and
therefore many times more efficient than using an
attack. Speaking of attacks, if you wanted to do damage
with Heliolisk, you have
that old classic Quick Attack as your option. Yep, it’s
the same damage-plus-flip-for-more-damage thing that we
have seen on dozens of cards over the years.
Heliolisk’s is better than
most, but still not very good.
When you consider that even attacks which actually
accelerate
Energy, rather than just put it into your hand, are
barely worth using, then it’s clear that
Heliolisk doesn’t have a
whole lot to offer. Especially when
you realize that that’s the best thing about this card.
Rating
Modified: 1.75 (poor low HP Stage 1)
Limited: 1.75 (Dunno about
you, but my hand is usually full of Energy in this
format anyway)
|
aroramage |
Welcome back to another Pokemon review! Today's card
is an interesting Pokemon from Gen VI, Heliolisk, who
bears a striking resemblance to the Dilophosaurus that
attacks Wayne Knight's character in Jurassic Park.
Almost could've made him Electric/Poison by that logic
rather than Electric/Normal, but hey, interesting type
combinations are interesting.
Does the TCG's Heliolisk prove to be interesting as
well? Technically yes, but that depends what you use him
for and if that's worth a Stage 1. He comes along with
the BRILLIANT THUNDER Theme Deck for Flashfire as the
main headliner, so you've got a pretty good idea of
where he's gonna fall in terms of playability (or maybe
not; after all, Blastoise (BCR) was available as a non-holo
in the Ice Shock Theme Deck, and that's a pretty good
card).
Heliolisk has two attacks, one of which is a 3-Energy
Quick Attack that just does more damage if you flip
heads. Of course, that 60 damage becomes the magic 90
damage if you're lucky, but chances are Heliolisk isn't
going to end up as your main attacker. His other attack
is more interesting, Parabolic Charge.
Now Parabolic Charge in the games hits everyone near
the user and lets them recover half the HP. The TCG
decided that its version of Parabolic Charge didn't need
a silly HP-recovery Absorb/Mega Drain/Giga Drain kind of
attack (thank goodness) and instead took a different
route: adding 2 Energy to your hand. You can see that
Heliolisk was designed to get Energy first, then over
the course of a couple of turns get the rest of the
Energy to become super-powered.
But I think there's better uses for Parabolic Charge.
Think about it: it's another Professor's Letter for the
deck, and while it's not that great in terms of an
attack, gathering Energy could prove useful in a
Electric/Fire deck running Emboar or even splashing him
into a Water deck (no pun intended) running that
infamous Blastoise. Sure, it's probably not consistent
enough to win tourneys, but just imagine the look on an
opponent's face after you've supercharged your Rayquaza-EX
(DRX) with the Fire Energy you got using your Emboar and
Heliolisk to massacre a giant MCharizard-EX!
Again, super casual, but still there's not lost
potential here.
Rating
Modified: 2/5 (he's better support than attack)
Limited: 2.5/5 (potential attacker here, but still
he's better support)
Arora Notealus: don't mind him, he just loves dancing
around~
Next time: Wait, haven't I seen this guy before?
|
Otaku |
I have been writing CotDs again to draw attention to
this
fundraiser. The surgery is scheduled for the next day,
but if you would like to donate it still isn’t too late
and there still is some need.
Today we look at Heliolisk (XY: Flashfire
37/106); let us see if it will brighten our day.
Stats
Type:
As a Lightning-Type Pokémon, Heliolisk can tap
into their Type support… which to my knowledge currently
doesn’t exist. Even the “pseudo” Type-support is few
and far from worth playing. Fortunately the
Lightning-Type is still quite good right now, due to
striking Lightning Weakness being an important part of
the current metagame, thanks to Yveltal-EX and
Lugia-EX, among others.
Stage:
Heliolisk is a Stage 1 Pokémon; as expected, this
is worse than being a Basic as it makes Heliolisk
slower and requires twice the resources, but is at least
technically better than being a Stage 2 as you require
one less card and are a turn fast (or just as fast if a
player used Rare Candy to Evolve directly from
Basic to Stage 2). The format is shifting to where
Stage 1 Pokémon are becoming more important, though
unfortunately it is due to the risky introduction of an
anti-Basic Pokémon (and also Stage 1) card, Pyroar
(XY: Flashfire 20/106). Still, Stage 1 Pokémon
often seem to get “shortchanged” as Stage 2 Pokémon
often are given access to better Stats and Effects in
general, as opposed to Stats and Effects appropriate to
the card in question; some things are only balanced on a
Stage 2, of course.
Hit Points:
90 HP on a Stage 1 Pokémon is not good, but it may not
be bad, depending on the card’s role. Until Level
Ball rotates out (which is almost certain to happen
given that it is in the oldest set of the current
format), 90 HP is sometimes better than 100, maybe even
110 or 120 due to the improved search option. Even with
Level Ball, it pretty much consigns the Pokémon
in question to being a Bench-sitter or a glass-cannon,
depending on what it actually does; few competitive
decks, competently built and played, will fail to
deliver 90 points of damage reliably and effectively
once their set-up is completely, and many can do so with
incomplete or rapid set-ups; even if you could somehow
get Heliolisk into play on your first turn and
when going first, your opponent would have decent odds
of OHKOing (or effectively OHKOing) it.
Weakness:
Fighting-Type Weakness has often been dangerous in the
history of the game, and the last few years to the
present have been no exception; Fighting-Type Pokémon
(especially that see competitive play) possess
inexpensive attacks that have good damage-to-Energy
ratios, possess a useful effect and/or are reliable;
sometimes all three! Some Fighting-Types are even
Lightning Resistant. To make matters worse, the next
set is XY: Furious Fists; while the exact
contents are unknown, if translations of the Japanese
set are any indication (and usually they are) then this
set will do for Fighting-Types what the previous did for
Fire-Types; several new, useful Pokémon coupled with
good Trainer support, and something that didn’t happen
last set, more support in the form of a new Special
Energy! In short, Fighting Weakness was already one of
if not the worst… and soon it will be even more
dangerous!
Resistance:
While unlikely to often matter, Heliolisk does
enjoy Metal-Type Resistance. As mentioned in my (late)
Walrein (XY: Flashfire 23/106) review, the
Metal-Type currently lacks any successful competitive
deck built around it, so most of the time you will only
encounter Metal-Type Pokémon in an otherwise
non-Metal-Type deck, making this easier to work around.
Still, any Resistance is better than no Resistance, and
it is a small bonus I am glad the card enjoys.
Retreat Cost:
A single Energy Retreat Cost is good; the current format
makes it quite likely a deck will either run a means of
lowering Retreat Costs or bypassing manually retreating,
or OHKOs and 2HKOs leaving little reason for a Pokémon
to retreat, making it less impressive than it otherwise
might have been.
Effects
Attack #1:
Parabolic Charge requires (C) and allows you to search
your deck for up to two Energy cards and then add them
to your hand. This is a slight improvement over the
Item Professor’s Letter, which can only fetch
basic Energy cards while Parabolic Charge can also
fetch Special Energy cards: you could snag two Double
Colorless Energy with the latter, for example.
Still, it is important to consider the difference in
cost; running Heliolisk and Helioptile,
attaching an Energy card, and attacking, which
significantly diminish the net return as you are
investing far more than a simple Item card.
Attack #2:
Quick Attack is a familiar sight; this go round it
requires (LCC) and does 60 points of damage, plus an
additional 30 should you get “heads” on the mandatory
coin flip. While it is good that the attack is
Double Colorless Energy compatible, the damage is
too low. A Pokémon’s “big” attack, unless there is
something else more important that gets the card played,
needs to have a great effect or at least score a 2HKO
reliably and/or easily, and Quick Attack fits none of
these. Lowering the Energy requirement would still
leave us with a weak attack so the real answer would be
that the damage simply needed to be greater; 90+30
sounds about right, as elaborate combos would give an
unreliable OHKO against Pokémon-EX (other than Mega
Evolutions).
Miscellaneous
Internal Synergy:
Parabolic Charge has some synergy with the second
attack, as especially with a Double Colorless Energy
it would make powering up the next turn a breeze… but
the HP is so low that it is unlikely to survive and thus
you would probably be better off dedicating the
resources you invested in getting out Heliolisk,
a Stage 1, onto getting the Energy more directly (even
if only through additional draw power). Being a Stage 1
really hurts this card, as if it were a Basic Pokémon,
while still a bit underpowered, it would also be a bit
more practical.
Related Cards:
As of right now, the only connected card is the Basic
Pokémon from which Heliolisk Evolves,
Helioptile, and the only option is XY: Flashfire
36/106. It is a Lightning-Type with 60 HP (still easy
to OHKO, even on the first turn of the player going
second), Fighting Weakness, Metal Resistance, and a
single Energy Retreat cost. Its two attacks are Pound,
requiring (L) and doing a flat 10 points of damage and
Destructive Beam, requiring (LC) and doing no damage,
but requiring a successful coin flip to discard an
Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon. Both attacks
are either under powered or overpriced… and given the
circumstances the former is more likely. In short its
another filler Basic Pokémon from which to Evolve.
Usage
Modified:
There is very little reason to run Helioptile
here; mainly you have to be a fan of the Pokémon or very
desperate for a Lightning-Type to work into your deck
and with a very shallow card pool. Still, I suppose if
someone is truly desperate for a Yveltal-EX
counter, it is a lot easier to get a hold of than
Raichu (XY 43/106); while its official Rarity
is “Rare”, its available in the “Brilliant Thunder”
Theme Deck, both as the usual standard “Rare” and as a
Theme Deck exclusive Holo-Rare. Thus a full four copies
requires merely purchasing two of such theme deck, and
the 2-2 line that might be more likely (if being run as
a poor and desperate man’s Raichu alternative)
requires but a copy of the Theme Deck.
Limited:
Searching out even two basic Energy cards with an attack
can be advantageous here, and while the HP and damage
output still aren’t amazing, they are effectively
“better”. Being easy to splash is huge here, and as you
have decent odds of having a turn to use Parabolic
Charge to get the Lightning Energy needed for
Quick Attack, it's even easier than it looks at first
glance. The Resistance will almost never come in
useful, but the Weakness is a lot better as XY:
Flashfire contains only five Fighting-Type Pokémon,
a Common-Uncommon-Rare Stage 2 line and a Common-Rare
Stage 1. If you get “Heads” on Quick Attack, you should
OHKO anything Lightning Weak that isn’t somehow
protected.
Theme Deck:
As the PTCGO gives players the options to play with
Theme Decks only, I feel it worth mentioning. As the
PTCGO includes Theme Decks that don’t exist in the
physical TCG but that is where my firsthand experience
comes from, your mileage may vary if you are sticking to
real, physical Theme Decks. This Theme Deck isn’t very
good, as the PTCGO gives everyone a PTCGO-Only
Fighting-Type Theme Deck that is arguably one of the
best choices, and like most real world Theme Decks
“Brilliant Thunder” is too unfocused to be reliable. Heliolisk
is one of the better attackers in the deck, but that is
saying very little.
Ratings
Modified:
1.75/5 - Potentially useful as a budget Stage 1
Lightning-Type attacker, but both at that and at getting
Energy it is fragile and inefficient.
Limited:
4.9/5 - Quite the surprise here; unless you’re running a
deck like a +39 build or fail to get even a single
Helioptile, you should be running this!
Theme Deck:
3/5 - I often find myself wishing Heliolisk was
something else, but its still a solid card in what often
felt like fairly bad Theme Deck.
Summary:
Heliolisk is an easy to get card due to being in
a Theme Deck, and if you’re an extreme budget player it
might be a functional place holder for Raichu,
but not something to intentionally build a deck around.
There may also be some obscure combo due to the first
attack being able to target Special Energy, but nothing
really comes to me. In Limited play, this card should
be quite amazing, so at least it isn’t totally useless.
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