Otaku |
Our first two Metal-Types weren’t all that impressive,
but let us see if we can change that with one last
Metal-Type for this week: Registeel (XY:
Ancient Origins 51/98). For the last time this
week, I’ll point out all Fairy-Types and most (possibly
all) of the chunk of Water-Types that correspond to the
video game Ice-Type are Metal Weak, which is certainly
better than say Dragon-Types (only BW-era Dragon-Types
are Dragon Weak) but as very few of the applicable Types
are tearing up the competitive scene, well below where I
would like it to be. XY-era Lightning-Types are
usually Metal Resistant; not the worst but definitely
not the best, though fortunately Resistance is usually
an inconvenience and not a serious problem. No
card effects that explicitly state they do something
detrimental to Metal-Types, but there aren’t that many
that explicitly benefit them either. The
Metal-Type does have some really great bits of support,
but it is flexible to varying degrees; some merely being
strong attackers (and usually still pretty dependent
upon a source of [M] Energy) to cards like Jirachi-EX
that technically benefits from explicit Metal-Type
Pokémon support but is run purely for its Ability that
just doesn't care about Typing. Perhaps a good,
brief description of it all is that the Metal-Type is
“good enough”.
Unambiguous is that the Basic Stage is the best for a
Pokémon to be; while hypothetically speaking the
designers might be able to balance out the various
Stages, it is quite difficult and based on what they
have done, I don’t think they are all too concerned
about it. So Basic Pokémon need only a single slot
in your deck, can be put directly into play so long as
there is room for them and enjoys a natural synergy with
many effects; for example card search just works better
with them because one piece of search gets the “entire”
Pokémon, unlike with an Evolution that gets only one
part (one of the various Stages). If that wasn’t
enough, Basic Type Pokémon even have their own specific
bits of Stage based support. Without being
something like a Pokémon-EX, Basic Pokémon are currently
capped at 130 HP, and Registeel falls just 10
points shy of that at 120; this is enough to have a
decent chance of surviving a hit. That may not
sound like much but if a deck isn’t focused on something
more technical, when it has something resembling its
main attacker with something resembling its proper setup
few Pokémon can take the hit and when you have an
optimal set-up, only things like damage preventing
effects might save something. So yeah, 120 is good
for the effort it will cost an opponent to make the
OHKO, especially as they may sometimes fall short.
Fire Weakness is not happy, but it isn’t as bad as the
most dangerous ones to have at the moment. The
main Fire-Type attacker to worry about if Flareon
(BW: Plasma Freeze 12/116) and when it gets going
it scores a OHKO anyway. The Psychic Resistance is
unlikely to make a huge difference but it is
appreciated; with some luck it might place Registeel
into a position where it falls just outside of an
affordable OHKO. Just remember that the
Psychic-Type is one that seems to specialize in attacks
that push for a KO without actually doing damage; damage
counter placement, Special Conditions and even effects
simply KO without lowering HP! Finishing off this
section of the review, Registeel has a Retreat
Cost of [CCC]; slight upside that you can use Heavy
Ball to fetch Registeel from the deck, and as
one of the attacks requires it you may even have the
three Energy attached, but rarely will you want to
discard it or be capable of easily coming back from
burning that much Energy; pack some alternatives to
retreating at full price whether it lowers the cost,
changes your Active without retreating at all or allows
Registeel to at least attempt to tank while up
front.
For [MC] Registeel can use its “Iron Head”
attack, which has you flip until “tails” to hit the
opponent’s Active for 30 damage times the number of
“heads”. The upside of such attacks is that they
are always technically a threat so long as nothing is
preventing all possible damage, but this is one of the
many with no guaranteed damage: you have a 50% chance of
doing no damage whatsoever, with every other possible
outcome contained in the 50% of “other” results.
I think; been awhile since I worked with this and I
really don’t want to plug numbers into the various
formulae, let alone figure out how an effect like that
of Trick Coin might affect the odds. The
short version is that this is better than nothing and
might allow an incredibly fortunate KO, but it is
certainly not something to count upon. The second
attack is “Forbidden Iron Hammer”, a long but kind of
fun name for an attack that requires [MCC]. It
hits for 70 damage and if the opponent’s Active
is a Pokémon-EX you may discard an Energy card from it.
This is actually a solid attack, a little beyond
“adequate” but not something I want to label as “good”:
with a Muscle Band or Silver Bangle you
can 2HKO nearly all Basic Pokémon-EX (barring protective
or healing effects) and potentially frustrate the
opponent by discarding key Energy cards. In some
specific matchups that effect is amazing and offsets the
fact that you need help to get into the
aforementioned 2HKO range (or OHKO range for something
like a Jirachi-EX) and that often discarding the
Energy will be pointless (at the very least anytime you
score a KO!).
There is no other Registeel available in either
Standard or Expanded play. There is a Registeel-EX
which we looked at
here;
but I don’t recall seeing it used a lot lately even
though it is a Metal-Type Basic Pokémon-EX with 180 HP.
It has the typical Fire Weakness/Psychic Resistance and
while it has a maximum Retreat Cost of [CCCC], that is
pretty typical of big Metal-Types. Its “Triple
Laser” attack does 30 to three of your opponent’s
Pokémon (which can hit the Bench or the Active and the
Bench) while it its “Protect Charge” at one time was a
decent fallback option, requiring [MMCC] to hit for 80
while soaking 20 damage from attacks during your
opponent’s next turn (after Weakness and Resistance).
Those aren’t as impressive now but might have some niche
use. The real competition comes from other big,
Basic, Metal-Type attackers like Cobalion (BW:
Noble Victories 84/101, 100/101; BW: Legendary
Treasures 91/113), Cobalion-EX, Dialga-EX
(XY: Phantom Forces 62/119, 122/119) and
Heatran (XY: Phantom Forces 63/119) and/or
its kin Regice (XY: Ancient Origins 24/98)
and Regirock (XY: Ancient Origins 40/98).
Once you get to Standard only, you lose most of
the other Basic Metal-Type attackers, including the only
other one that discards Energy, Cobalion-EX,
which I think gives it a bit more of a use.
So what about Regirock and Regice since I
brought them up? Well they follow a similar
design: all three are Basic Pokémon with 120 HP, no
Resistance, no Ancient Trait, no Ability but two
attacks. The attacks even have similar patterns:
[XC] for the first and [XCC] for the second, where “X”
matches the Type of the Regi in question.
The smaller attack also seems to be the filler/opening
attack while the larger is the “main”. Just adjust
for Type, appropriate Weakness (Registeel is the
only one that scored a Resistance) and correct damage
and effects for the attacks. The [MCC] of
Forbidden Iron Hammer actually isn’t too terrible to pay
as the [CC] part of the cost opens up a lot of Energy
acceleration. If Regice hadn’t proved
useful due to its “Resistance Blizzard” blocking damage
and effects from Pokémon-EX while hitting for 70 damage,
there might be room in more decks for the other two.
As is, there still might be some room, namely
where one needs a mostly splashable Metal-Type attacker.
Though not formidable enough to function as the lone
Basic Pokémon in a +39 build, its Energy requirements
and usefulness against opposing Pokémon-EX make this a
great pull for Limited play. In fact if you didn’t
pull a big, Basic worth building a +39 deck around, then
whatever else you are running should make room for
Registeel and some Metal Energy cards. 120
lasts longer here and the damage for the attacks means
more; you won’t often get the Energy discard but when
you do it may be a lifesaver. It too is found in
the “Iron Tide” Theme Deck, but as there aren’t a lot of
Theme Decks that include Pokémon-EX, it performs a
little worse than in regular Limited play. In
fact, I don’t know if there are any on the PTCGO.
With few or no Pokémon-EX to counter, it is just a nice,
big Basic with slightly overpriced attacks, but still
serviceable.
Ratings
Standard:
3.25/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
4.8/5
Theme:
3.75/5
Summary:
Useful in Limited and a nice option for constructed play
as well, even if it isn’t spectacular, Registeel
(XY: Ancient Origins 51/98) has one filler attack
but the second just needs some not overly strenuous
Energy acceleration for solid damage and effect, at
least when facing off against Pokémon-EX. It
shouldn’t replace any of the other attackers mentioned
earlier, but it may supplement them as a one- or two-of
inclusion.
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Emma Starr |
Today, we take
a look at the Iron Giant himself, Registeel. With 120
HP, he’s right where most non-EX basics tend to be,
shares the common Fire weakness that many Steels have,
and has the hulking Retreat Cost of 3 (but he’s a golem,
what were you expecting?) Do his attacks give him any
use with those average statistics so far?
His first
attack, Iron Head, costs 1 Steel and a Colorless.
Feeling lucky? Since with this attack, you do 30 damage
for each heads you can flip until you get tails. A fun
attack, but most people won’t like it due to the amount
of luck this requires. It can be aided with Trick Coin,
but most people probably won’t bother, due to their
usually being better cards to put in your deck than
Trick Coin, unless you don’t mind having a little fun.
It makes a decent attack until you can afford the second
one, at least.
For just one
Colorless more (so, DCE will work here), it can use the
FORBIDDEN Iron Hammer, which does 70, and discards an
Energy from an EX opponent. So, now you can punish Lugia
EX, Yveltal EX or the old Mewtwo EX for being the
massive energy hoarders they are. Aside from them,
however, unless your opponent runs very few energies
(which is actually pretty common today), his brother
Regice will give your opponent many more headaches,
preventing their EXs from even attacking! Not only that,
it even does the same damage as this attack, but
obviously Regice will only (mostly) be played in Water
decks, with Regice being a contender to be in Steel
Decks. Why do I only say a contender? Well, Dialga EX
(PHF 62) has an attack with this same cost, and though
with 10 less damage, it lets you completely stop EXs
from attacking. Do this on consecutive turns, and you’ve
got a solid EX wall to shut down all of your opponent’s
EXs with. Registeel just merely annoys them in
comparison, and let’s not forget that Dialga EX has 60
more HP as well, but with the same troublesome Fire
weakness. Dialga also has a 150 damage attack to finish
off any EX that was previously weakened, too. Registeel
has its advantages too, mainly for discarding (special)
energies, and only giving up one prize, so although it
may have its inferiorities, it may still be worth
playing 1 or 2 in a Steel deck just to annoy your
opponent.
Standard: 2/5
Expanded: 2/5
(There are a few more support Pokemon, but really, we’ve
only started to get really good Steel Pokemon in the
newer sets. Only Jirachi EX is an exception in my
opinion, but as Otaku has stated before, he’s pretty
splashable in any deck.)
Limited: 2/5
(The only other Steel Pokemon in this set are the two
Metagross’s that were both covered the last two days (of
which I didn’t get a review out for…sorry!), and they’re
both Stage 2s, so you make the decision. Seems like
maybe half of a dual-type deck at best to me
personally…)
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