aroramage |
And finally here we have M Venusaur-EX.
...I'm just gonna get right to it,
honestly. Bloom Buster is okay, being 4-for-130 as an
attack and with a 50/50 shot of dealing 30 damage to
each of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. Without the
coin flip, this attack might have been worth it, but
considering that M Venusaur-EX lacks that Spirit Link
(which you've got the XY version to thank for, no doubt)
and that the extra damage is 50/50, you're not gonna
want to run this guy as much.
In an ideal setting, I'd be running
the Generations Venusaur-EX with the XY M Venusaur-EX,
to be honest. I mean, we've got Forest of Broken Plants
to accelerate the Evolution factor already, so all
that's needed is that Spirit Link which we won't get
because that would be even more ridiculous. Even if M
Venusaur-EX (GEN) didn't have the coin flip, I don't
think it would see much play strictly because of the
lack of Spirit Link, and if there was, it promotes the
XY version far more.
As far as Mega-EX go, he's stuck
with the remains of the Flashfire M Charizard-EX's in
terms of usability: you're gonna need a Qwilfish (FLF)
to make him work.
...and nobody plays Qwilfish
anymore.
Rating
Standard: 1.5/5 (compared to the XY
Mega and its GEN base form, M Venusaur-EX is extremely
underwhelming)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (at least Crisis
Vine could Paralyze AND Poison)
Limited: 4/5 (even if it does cost
4 Energy...)
Arora Notealus: One day these Kanto
starters will get their time in the competitive
spotlight...I mean Blastoise gets it enough, yeah, but I
guess I mean for Charizard and Venusaur as well XP
Weekend Thought: What are your
thoughts on this week's cards? You enjoy taking a look
at some of the interesting bits from BREAKpoint and
Generations? Or maybe you're already looking ahead
towards Fates Collide, which is coming out in just under
a month? Still needs some of those cards to be revealed,
but it looks like it'll be interesting, yeah?
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Otaku |
We finish the week
with M Venusaur-EX (Generations 2/83). I
am crunched for time so this is a good time to
experiment with a slightly revised approach. I am
just going to run through Venusaur-EX (XY
1/146, 141/146), Venusaur-EX (Generations
1/83), M Venusaur-EX (XY 2/146), and M
Venusaur-EX (Generations 2/83) all at once,
kind of like how I cover other Stages of Evolution,
alternate Evolutions, etc. All are Grass Type
Pokémon-EX with Fire Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat
Cost [CCCC], no Ancient Trait and no Ability.
Being a Grass Type includes some useful support like
Ariados, Forest of Giant Plants,
Revitalizer and Vileplume (XY: Ancient
Origins 3/98), though there are definitely better
supported Types. There are some Grass Type
counters but about the only one of note - Bouffalant
(XY: Primal Clash 119/160) which we reviewed here
- is still seldom played. Nothing is Grass
Resistant unless we worry about Unlimited and we aren’t.
Grass Weakness isn’t everywhere but is seen on many
Water Types like Keldeo-EX and some Fighting
Types like Primal Groudon-EX. Fire Weakness
could be bad because Entei (XY: Ancient
Origins 15/98), Flareon-EX and Flareon
(BW: Plasma Freeze 12/116) have kept fire from
flickering out, but there are definitely worse Types to
have a Weakness to at the moment. The Retreat Cost
of [CCCC] is as bad as it gets; make sure you’ve got
something to help with getting these Pokémon out of the
Active slot, or to tank while there, or both.
Being a Pokémon-EX means giving up an extra Prize when
KOed, inability to access certain beneficial effects,
and being the target of certain detrimental ones.
It also means that instead of being say a Stage 2 and
BREAK Evolution this is a Basic and a Mega Evolution.
Both Venusaur-EX
are Basics with 180 HP. Being a Basic is the best
and the HP is the higher of the two typical scores for
Basic Pokémon-EX. It is enough to often take a
hit. Both M Venusaur-EX are Mega Evolutions
with 230 HP. Being a Mega Evolution usually
entitles a Pokémon to better attributes and effects than
usual, but comes with a crippling rule that ends your
turn when you Mega Evolve. The successful Mega
Evolutions have almost always gotten around this.
The best M Venusaur-EX can do is try to hit the
field on a turn when you would not be attacking anyway,
such as using Forest of Giant Plants to Evolve on
the very first turn of the game (which is not always an
option), and that is still only good for a single copy.
230 HP at is only 10 shy of the maximum we’ve seen
printed on Mega Evolutions and 20 shy of the maximum
we’ve seen printed on any Pokémon card legal for actual
play. It still can be OHKOed because anything can
but it is tricky outside of Weakness. The lack of
a Spirit Link is going to be a problem but so far
these cards are looking pretty good.
Then we get to the
attacks: both Venusaur-EX have two attacks and
both M Venusaur-EX have one. Each
Venusaur-EX has an attack that costs [GCC] and an
attack that costs [GGCC]. The good news is that
means easy Energy acceleration like Double Colorless
Energy is an option, but the bad news is that still
makes these slow; without an additional method of Energy
acceleration you won’t be able to power up and attack
with a Venusaur-EX in a single turn. The
actual attacks aren’t that good either. The
smaller attack for Venusaur-EX (XY 1/146,
141/146) “Poison Powder”, which does 60 damage and
Poisons the opponent’s Active. This is a poor
damage-to-Energy ratio for a competitive Basic
Pokémon-EX even with the Poison helping out. Plus
thanks to Ariados and (in Expanded) Hypnotoxic
Laser, the Poison just isn’t that big of a bonus.
“Jungle Hammer”, the second attack, has the same
problem as it only does 90 damage and heals 30 damage
from Venusaur-EX. For four Energy I need a
lot more than 90 damage even with a bit of healing added
in; after all healing 30 isn’t much and healing as a
part of attacks has rarely been worth it in the history
of the game. Venusaur-EX (Generations
1/83) manages to have a worse smaller attack as its
“Frog Hop” only does 40 damage with a coin flip to try
and do an extra 40. For three Energy it needed to
do 80 just to be underwhelming, so a 40/80 split is just
bad. Its second attack is Poison Impact and it
does a bit better. While I pointed out Poison
isn’t thrilling, it also at least still better than
nothing and this attack also inflicts Sleep at the same
time. With some luck (both in terms of coin flips
and what your opponent has in hand) you can leave your
opponent stuck for the follow-up attack to score a 2HKO.
Still this is not worth the effort. Good thing we
were hoping to use Forest of Giant Plants to
immediately Mega Evolve.
At least it will be
good if either M Venusaur-EX bring something
worthwhile. M Venusaur-EX (XY 2/146)
needs [GGGC] to use its “Crisis Vine” attack, which does
120 damage and not only Poisons the opponent’s Active
but also Paralyzes it. The damage plus effects are
decent for the Energy, at least in abstract. A lot
of people think the guaranteed Paralysis is amazing but
that would only be true if it were easier to get this
card into play and to power up the attack.
Even if there was a Spirit Link for this card,
[GGGC] is a steep cost. If a “Venusaur Spirit
Link” was available you’d still need Forest of
Giant Plants and the capacity to accelerate three
Energy to Venusaur-EX/M Venusaur-EX to
bust Crisis Vine out in a single turn. It doesn’t
hit hard enough to score a reliable OHKO against most
other Pokémon-EX. It also doesn’t create a very
good lock; Paralysis is mostly a problem right now
because it is not a central part of many deck
strategies. Most decks do have an option or two to
deal with it and a good portion have a great counter
like Keldeo-EX with a Float Stone or
Virizion-EX and its “Verdant Wind” Ability. If
an attack is meant to lock it usually needs to be a lot
more affordable. After all when you do OHKO
something smaller, like say a Vespiquen (XY:
Ancient Origins 10/98), you break your own lock.
Separately all these elements can be great but together?
Not so much. Now reality is there is not a
Spirit Link so this is definitely not worth
running. If you want more detail on Venusaur-EX
(XY 1/146, 141/146), Venusaur-EX (Generations
1/83), and/or M Venusaur-EX (XY 2/146)
each has its
own
respective
CotD.
So at last we come
to the real star, today’s M Venusaur-EX (Generations
2/83). Its attack is “Bloom Buster”. This
time it has the [GGCC] cost that, while not great, at
least means a Double Colorless Energy and double
Mega Turbo can ready it in one… and as you’ll
have a turn where you can’t attack anyway due to Mega
Evolving, you can manually attach an Energy the turn
before, then use a single Mega Turbo and a
Double Colorless Energy the next turn. The
attack you get is decent. 130 damage to the opponent’s
Active and a coin flip to hit everything on your
opponent’s Bench for 30. I like this better than
Crisis Vine because a player can help it out a bit more
easily. Muscle Band means 150 damage or Trick
Coin means a better chance at scoring the Bench
damage. Ariados or Hypnotoxic Laser
(depending on the format) can supply more Poison damage
and you might even risk a split Stadium line so that
(after having Evolved most of the Grass Types you’ll
need to Evolve) you drop good ol’ Virbank City Gym.
Victini (BW: Noble Victories 14/101,
98/101; BW: Black Star Promo BW32; BW:
Legendary Treasures 23/113) can let you use your
Pokémon Tool on something other than Trick Coin
in Expanded. The Bench damage can help with the
attack’s damage as well; getting back to 130 with
Muscle Band boosting it to 150, a previous Bench hit
would then get the magic 180 that OHKOs most things
below Mega Evolution level. The thing is, even if
this card had a Spirit Link, I don’t believe this
would be enough. After all, Bench damage is
somewhat easy to block right now.
So in the end, I
don’t recommend any of these for Standard or Expanded
play. Whatever you do to make them work, you can
get more out of it with a different main attacker.
For Limited, Generations is hard to come by.
Maybe I just totally missed it but I didn’t know of any
Pre-Release events or similar Organized Play being done
by Nintendo/TPC itself. If someone locally set up
an official tournament with product or you and some
friends just decide to have some fun with a quick
tournament using stuff you bought, today’s M Venusaur-EX
is a solid pull. It will be very difficult to pull
both it and a Venusaur-EX and even with both in
your deck you’ll need some luck to get them out and
powered up, but it should be pretty amazing when you do.
Also the Energy costs are reasonably friendly towards
running a deck with 2+ Energy Types, as is usually the
case in Limited play.
Ratings
Standard:
1.65/5
Expanded:
1.65/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
M Venusaur-EX is a bit disappointing to end the
week, but I do like this better than the original.
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