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Ahhh yes, Virizion-EX, half of the
VirGen archetype, and half the reason the deck was so
powerful for so long. I mean, what's left to say after
two years and two different sets of reviews, one of
which was a nationals review and the other for when it
was ranked the best card in the set?
I actually reviewed this card about
this same time last year after the US Nationals, where
VirGen managed to make a showing in some of the Top 8s.
And all things considered, it's a pretty powerful deck -
with Virizion-EX providing acceleration through Emerald
Slash and protecting anything with Grass Energy on your
field with Verdant Wind, and of course Genesect-EX
dealing the heavy offense. Ever since the two were
released together in Plasma Blast, they have been a
formidable challenge.
Of course, their popularity rose
and fell depending on the meta. With teched-in
Charizard-EXs roaming around, they needed to be careful
- any deck could deal 120 damage straight to Genesect-EX,
and with cards like Garbodor to nullify Verdant Wind,
the loss could be devastating. Still, Furious Fists
brought with it not only a lot of Fighting support but
it also grabbed a nifty new Grass Special Energy with
Herbal Energy, which could be attached to Genesect-EX to
heal off 30 damage while also providing fodder for G
Booster!
Still, Genesect-EX would be nothing
without Virizion-EX protecting him from HTLBank damage,
but Virizion-EX doesn't have to necessarily support
Genesect-EX. There was also the Exeggutor builds that
could Blockade Supporters, which would be nice to have
if they don't lose out on getting KO'd via Poison.
That's where Virizion-EX comes in to save the day!
That's about where Virizion-EX's
support ends though. If decks aren't running Grass
Energy, they've got few options to run with like Rainbow
Energy and Double Dragon Energy, and while both are
great utility cards, neither is worth running a whole 'nother
EX that's sitting on the Bench being useless most of the
time. So while Virizion-EX was seen in a lot of decks,
it was mostly because they ran on Grass Energy.
And as we all know, Virizion-EX
does Grass decks proud.
Rating
Standard: 3.5/5 (of course, with
power creep in Megas and the inclusion of Muscle Band,
Virizion-EX's Status counter isn't as big as it used to
be; still, negating status is pretty useful!)
Expanded: 3.5/5 (at least she'll be
able to mess up those HTLBanks still - VirGen will live
on here)
Limited: 4.5/5 (I suppose if you're
not running Grass Energy, don't use Virizion-EX, but if
you're using Virizion-EX, run Grass Energy)
Arora Notealus: You know, if you
asked me in the early days of Pokemon if Grass decks
would ever be so powerful, I'd probably say something
like, "Eh, maybe. Doesn't look like it though." To think
that there's an archetype centered around a strategy
that ultimately OHKOs anything in its path! I think that
in and of itself is pretty awesome. But maybe that's
just me being nostalgic~
Weekend Thought: So what cards from
Ancient Origins are you thinking are good? Which ones do
you think are overhyped, and what about the ones that
you feel are underrated? What do you hope will make the
Top 10 List this time?
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