aroramage |
You know you've got an interesting
starter when it doesn't have the Ancient Trait the
others have and isn't graced with an EX card yet. That's
why Blaziken strikes me as the odd one out in this set,
though to be fair the last time we saw it was only in
Furious Fists. Still, all Blaziken shall have their day
as they say (or not), so let's take a look at why this
Blaziken is worth that second look!
So far, we've got something that
should turn heads immediately: both of these attacks are
only 2 or less Energy. That's a rare thing to see on ANY
Pokemon, and when you see it on a Stage 2, you know it's
to incentivize its usage. And who wouldn't want to use
Blaziken? Well, aside from that crazy-eyed look he seems
to be giving in this card's art. Seriously, replace
those eyes with spirals, and you basically have a wacky
Blaziken!
...anyway, Blaziken's first attack
is aptly named Spreading Flames, as it allows you to
quickly play Fire Energy from your discard pile onto
your Pokemon "in any way you like" - ahh! I love that
phrase! Using actions "in any way you like" is probably
the greatest incentive of all for any card! Granted,
this is your attack - but hey, 3 Fire Energy! Even
Blacksmith can't beat that! Just...probably not
Blaziken's best usage, seeing as he will have to face
off against the surge of Watery Primal Kyogre-EX decks
that are no doubt popping up, let alone Garbotoad
already out and about (though he'll probably last one or
two Quaking Punches).
As for Heat Blow, it's a cheaper,
weaker, and less versatile Burning Shot - or another way
to look at it is a cheaper, stronger Flamethrower! It
deals 100 damage, so it'll probably OHKO anything weak
to it (take THAT Genesect-EX!), but aside from that,
don't expect to go crazy with it. Even with Spreading
Flames fueling up Blaziken a good bit (which why would
you do that when you can fuel up a big Fire guy on the
Bench), it's only a good attack.
"I'm sorry, a good attack you
said?" Yes, and that's just the truth of Stage 2s. You
saw how Swampert only barely scraped by to climb into
our Top 10 list - that takes guts! Panache! A real good
ability, and a pretty good attack! And Blaziken...just
lacks the ability, honestly. If he had Omega Barrage,
that'd be scary-powerful, but if he had Omega Barrier,
it might...help? Or maybe he should get Alpha something,
even though I don't think any Fire/Fighting types are
graced with Ancient Traits that aren't Omega. Still,
some extra Ability of some kind could have helped him
out.
Maybe Blaziken-EX will be good? If
they make one.
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (Spreading Flames
is too slow on Blaziken but fantastic on anything else;
just don't think you should set up a Stage 2 to then set
up another attacker)
Expanded: 2/5 (you've got Entei-EX
for fire-charging, don't waste your time with Blaziken
unless you want to go with power...and even then, go
with the Furious Fists one)
Limited: 4/5 (could be a nice
late-game cleanhouse finisher...on anything not named
Primal Kyogre-EX, but hey, he can hit it for decent
damage!...kinda)
Arora Notealus: I'll never
understand what made GameFreak think to design a kung-fu
chicken. Maybe they saw Hot Shots! Part Deux's poster
where Charlie Sheen shoots a bug-eyed chicken and
thought to themselves, "...we can make that a Pokemon.
Just throw the flames in the background on the chicken."
BAM!! Flaming Chicken Archer Pokemon!...except without
the archer.
Next Time: An oldie but goodie?
Maybie...I mean maybe
|
Otaku |
Since I am typing this up immediately after yesterday’s
review, I am of course still down with a cold and am
struggling to bring my usual level of
mediocre-but-competent reviews to you. Speaking of
yesterday’s CotD,
take advantage of that link to go read mine since it
went up late because I wrote it late and submitted these
two on the same day and I’ll be referencing it a lot,
though if you really don’t want to, I’ll include enough
that you can skip it if you insist. We are nearing the
end of Fire Week for XY: Primal Clash which makes
sense; we are almost out of Fire-Types from this set and
this is the Thursday CotD. Today we go big with
Blaziken (XY: Primal Clash 28/160)… but would
we be better off just going home instead?
…
The sad part is that even in my impaired state, that is
up to par with my usual attempts at wordplay. Focusing
on the actual review subject again of course its a
Fire-Type and again, I’ve had no surprise revelations or
epiphany to re-evaluate the Type itself; most Grass- and
Metal-Type Pokémon are Fire Weak and see enough
successful competitive play that in terms of
Type-matching its a solid Type, and unless you go to the
extremes of Unlimited, Fire-Types never have to worry
about Resistance… though a few cards like Hariyama
(XY: Furious Fists 52/111) can fake Resistance
and serve as the rare (and usually not that great)
example of an anti-Type card. Mostly such things are
just worth mentioning and maybe familiarizing yourself
so you don’t get an embarrassing loss crashing into one
first round at a tournament and making the wrong plays
due to your total surprise. I… have some first hand
experience with similar things. The other mixed
blessing of being a Fire-Type remains that while they’ve
got decent Type match-ups and some solid direct (Blacksmith)
and indirect (Scorched Earth) support, we just
don’t currently have a standout Fire-Type deck. So
there’s a niche waiting to be filled, but if it were
easy to be filled something else would already be there.
Being a Stage 2 didn’t magically become easier since the
last time we looked at one either. Needing two more
cards of investment at at least one more turn of time
with Evolution acceleration (two more without) wouldn’t
be so bad if the designers could figure out a good way
to employ the lower Stages in the line but so far… nada.
Instead it all comes down to Blaziken to get
Torchic and Combusken/Rare Candy into
decks with the nigh impossible task of outperforming big
Basic Pokémon that can hit just as hard without the
extra time and cards. Blaziken sports 140 HP, a
decent amount that will usually allow it to survive a
hit, though the comfort zone is far smaller than even
until just recently as the last few sets have really
stepped things up with more OHKOs and pseudo-OHKOs,
either due to combos or Mega Evolutions really starting
to come into their own and plus recent Type support
offerings (namely those belonging to the Fighting-Type).
Water Weakness is a concern; on one hand there isn’t a
Water-Type version of Mewtwo-EX or Yveltal-EX
but on the other hand there are examples like
Seismitoad-EX plus a few others that are less about
raw power than technical prowess… or even that function
in support roles but are worthwhile attackers
(especially against Weakness). Blaziken has no
Resistance - a missed opportunity perhaps but the norm.
The single Energy Retreat Cost is easy to pay as you’ll
often have the Energy and be able to afford the loss,
and is a little less common (and thus I feel a little
more impressive) since this is a Stage 2.
Blaziken
has two attacks and they are actually quite low priced,
though if they don’t do something useful they could
still be too expensive. For [R] it can use Spreading
Flames to attach up to three [R] Energy (which currently
means just basic Fire Energy) to your Pokémon in
any way you would like. On a Basic, especially one that
could take a hit, this could be good but on a Stage 2,
it is just a decent option to have but not one you’ll be
likely to use; you’ll have to be setting up for
something seriously impressive to invest in and then
sacrifice a Stage 2 line for some Energy acceleration.
Even with 140 HP, you’ll need a little luck to use
Spreading Flames twice and since you had to attach an
Energy to the card itself, that is only a net gain of
five Energy (assuming you get the maximum number of
attachments). If Blaziken goes down in just one
hit, you’re only two Fire Energy ahead after all
of that. The second attack is a bit more
straightforward; Heat Blow requires [RC] and hits for
100, though you must discard an Energy attached to
itself for using the attack. 100 for two is a good
return though the damage you’re hitting isn’t enough to
generate a OHKO outside of Weakness (or stupidly complex
combos not worth the hassle). If you could
reliably stream Blaziken though, as you are only
giving up a single Prize and the more reasonable buffs
available puts anything lacking special protection in
2HKO (plus a few smaller things in OHKO), you might have
something.
Before we try to brianstorm combos or a deck, let’s look
at where Blaziken comes from; yesterday we
established that the main benefit of Torchic is
it can be oh-so-adorable or in the case of yesterday’s
specific version - XY: Primal Clash 26/160 -
impressive looking but not actually all that good. As
such whichever one you run is pretty inconsequential
save the Expanded only option of BW: Dark Explorers
14/108; just skip that one unless it is your only
option. So let us move onto Combusken. You have
one choice that is only good for the Expanded format -
BW: Dark Explorers 16/108 - and two good for
either Expanded or Standard - XY: Furious Fists
13/111 and XY: Primal Clash 27/160. All three
are Stage 1 Fire-Types with 80 HP, Water Weakness, no
Resistance, a Retreat Cost of [C], no Ability, no
Ancient Trait but with two attacks. BW: Dark
Explorers 16/108 sports Double Kick for [C], which
is grants two coin flips good for 20 points of damage
per “heads” to the opponent’s Active as well as
Flamethrower which costs [RRC] and does 70, plus
requires you discard an Energy attached to Combusken.
XY: Furious Fists 13/111 has Slash for [CC] to
hit for 30 or Midair Strike for [RCC] which is good for
50 plus another 20 on a coin flip. XY: Primal Clash
27/160 has Quick Attack at a cost of [R] and hitting for
20 (plus another 20 on a “heads”) or Spiral Kick for
[RC], which does a flat 30. None of these are great,
because you really want to be setting up for Blaziken
or else need something that is a good spare
opener/closer; none of these cards suit such purposes.
Still if you get stuck with a Combusken Active
and might as well attack, I favor XY: Primal Clash
27/160; its Quick Attack is a decent deal and while
Spiral Attack is badly overpriced, its only two Energy
instead of the three required by the “big” attacks on
its peers. You really could use any of them, though…
and of course, as many Rare Candy as you dare in
light of Item lock.
Alright, so what about other Blaziken? In
Expanded you can use BW: Dark Explorers 17/108
and for Standard you have XY: Furious Fists
14/111. They have the same attributes as today’s
Blaziken except their Retreat Cost is one more (so
[CC]) and both also have two attacks. BW: Dark
Explorers 17/108 can use Blaze Kick for [RC] to
score at least 40 points of damage with a coin flip
determining if it hits for another 30 (so 70 total) on
“heads” or Burns the Defending Pokémon (on “tails”).
Its Flamethrower attack requires [RRC] plus forces you
to discard an Energy attached to Blaziken but
deals 130 damage. With some buffs that aren’t too
complicated, Blaze Kick can hit 2HKO range and
Flamethrower OHKO, at least against Pokémon-EX with 180
or less HP and no protection (Silver Bangle,
Hypnotoxic Laser, Virbank City Gym). XY:
Furious Fists 14/111 has the simple but potentially
effective Clutch attack for [CC], which deals 50 damage
while preventing the opponent’s Active from manually
retreating (though workarounds abound). For [RRCC] and
a two Energy discard cost it can use Burning Shot to
deliver 150 damage against one of your opponent’s
Pokémon (if the target is on the Bench, don’t apply
Weakness or Resistance). Steeper Energy costs but this
one needs fewer buffs to score a OHKO. Both are decent
options to have but never proved successful on their
own, so I don’t think they’ll help today’s version see
play or crowd it out of the field.
So what can you do with Blaziken? All three can
tap Blacksmith for some amazing Energy
acceleration; sure there are Pokémon that can speed it
up even more but especially with Battle Compressor
and VS Seeker, Blacksmith is usually more
reasonable, even at the cost of a draw card for the
turn. Unlike the other two, XY: Primal Clash
28/160 can use its “big” attack with just Blacksmith
alone; your other manual Energy attachment can go
somewhere else. The others hit hard enough that you had
reason to try to build into a OHKO combo but that might
have been the problem; being combos they were more
complex and thus less reliable and ate up more deck
space. I could still running a single copy of XY:
Furious Fists 14/111 for when you can make good use
of the snipe. In the end there are likely too many
problems for this to have a serious chance. A 2HKO
strategy falls apart against most Fairy Transfer builds,
as they will soak one shot then heal it away with Max
Potion. I danced around it a bit earlier, but
Empoleon (BW: Dark Explorers 29/108; BW:
Plasma Freeze 117/116) has seen renewed usage thanks
to Archie’s Ace in the Hole. It is mostly there
for the draw power but can still be great for taking
down smaller or Water Weak Pokémon. Now… Blaziken
doesn’t have that great of prospects for competitive
play aren’t great to begin with but for both casual, fun
play or the hope of sneaking a win by going rogue are
both doused if you have a lot of Water in the
environment.
Ratings
Standard:
2.5/5
Expanded:
2.5/5 - I don’t believe it really gains or loses
anything here; the one extra Blaziken option
isn’t bad but it isn’t overly good and I’m not noticing
anything else really pertinent. Then again, I’m also
still coping with that cold.
Limited:
4/5 - You know the drill; obviously skip it if you have
a good +39 deck prospect instead, but otherwise whether
you are running a little or a lot of Basic Fire
Energy you should be able to get a lot out of
Blaziken. It would score higher but it is still a
Stage 2, plus you really might lack the room for even
the few Fire Energy you’d need just to enable
Heat Blow.
Summary:
Blaziken actually looks fairy solid, but its
lower Stages let it down and as I’ve said before, we are
in a time where so many good and great cards have
accumulated to form the metagame: if many of them can’t
compete those that are merely “adequate” don’t have much
hope. I like it for a fun deck, though I’m not sure how
much fun it would actually be if you end up slamming
into a lot of Water.
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