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Today we’ll look at Pyroar BREAK (XY: Steam
Siege 24/114) on the last official day of the
2015-2016 Standard Format. In some of the more
recent reviews it has slipped my mind to specify whether
I was talking about the current XY-On Standard Format or
the new PRC-On version that goes into effect tomorrow
(September 1st). Some of that is because in those
reviews, it just didn’t matter: I am looking at
you,
Greedy Dice. The rest is just
absentmindedness on my part. Today it will
matter so I’ll specify; when I discuss Standard in
today’s article it will mean PRC-On unless I indicate
otherwise.
Pyroar BREAK
is the BREAK Evolution of a Stage 1, which means it
functions as a Stage 2 without access to Stage 2 support
like Rare Candy, Miltank (XY: Flashfire
83/106), etc. Still committing at least three
cards to getting Pyroar BREAK to the field, with
a three turn wait until it hits the field. You can
speed things up a bit by investing an extra card in a
Wally. Being a Fire Type Pyroar BREAK
hits nearly all Grass and Metal Type Pokémon for double
damage thanks to their almost universal Fire Weakness.
Nothing is naturally Fire Resistant, though a few cards
effects can fake it; these are also the only anti-Fire
effects of which I am aware in the current cardpool, but
as such effects aren’t particularly good (countering one
Type out of 11), I may have easily missed some.
The only one I would expect to see in competitive play
is Parallel City, and that just provides that
Resistance like -20 damage (to Grass and Water Types as
well), but is most likely being run for the effect of
its other half (which shrinks maximum Bench size to
three). What is a concern is that nearly all Fire
Types are Water Weak; so a deck that needs to counter
them may do so by incorporating a Water Type attacker
into the build. Fire Type support, as is often the
case, breaks down into three (sometimes overlapping)
categories: those which apply directly to Fire Type
Pokémon, those which apply to Fire Type Energy, and then
all the stuff that just works better in a deck focus on
Fire (Pokémon and/or Energy).
So for the cards that specifically apply to the Fire
Type, one of their best tricks is lost in the shift to
PRC-On: Blacksmith. Still an option in
Expanded, it is hard to turn down attaching two basic
Fire Energy from the discard pile, even at the cost
of your Supporter for the turn. Burning Energy
hasn’t prove too hot, but that may be changing. It
won’t benefit Pyroar BREAK directly as Burning
Energy only attaches itself to a Fire Type Pokémon
from your discard pile if that specific Fire Type
Pokémon discarded that specific Burning Energy
from itself as part of its attack, and Pyroar BREAK
doesn’t do that with its own attack. Volcanion-EX
is the final bit of major Fire Pokémon support specific
to the Type (possibly the last bit as well) but it
cannot help Pyroar BREAK; the impressive
Ability “Steam Up” can improve the damage done by Fire
Types by simply discarding an [R] Energy from hand,
but only for Basic Pokémon. There are many
cards that can work with basic Fire Energy, but only a
few are relevant; besides generic basic Energy support,
there are many specific to the Fire Type that either
aren’t particularly good, or which might be good but not
squeezed into the same deck as Pyroar BREAK. Scorched
Earth has seen some success as added draw for
Fire Energy using decks (also works with Fighting
Energy), while Volcanion (not
Volcanion-EX) can use its first attack to
attack one basic Fire Energy card from the
discard pile to two of your Benched Pokémon… which
bleeds into the next category of strong Fire Types that
just work better in Fire focused decks. Other
notables (which I won’t be detailing) include but aren’t
limited to Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire
12/106; XY: Black Star Promos XY121) Entei
(XY: Ancient Origins 14/98), Entei (XY:
Ancient Origins 15/98), and Flareon-EX.
Pyroar BREAK
has 160 HP; not the maximum we’ve seen on a Pokémon
BREAK, but the most we’ve seen on one which BREAK
Evolves from a Stage 1 and the maximum seen on
actual Stage 2 Pokémon. I think you’ll notice the
difference most with the decks that straddle between
hitting hard or relying upon effects; those that focus
on damage still will manage some or all of scoring
rapid, reliable, repeated OHKOs against this target
number, while those focused more on effects are just
happy it has less than the typical Basic Pokémon-EX and
much less than the typical Mega Evolution. The
last thing Pyroar BREAK supplies for itself is
its attack; [RRC] buys 180 damage to the opponent’s
Active courtesy of “Kaiser Tackle” but also does
50 to Pyroar BREAK itself. Even if it is at
full health, that sends it down to 110 HP, a probable
OHKO… but at the same time it is hitting hard enough to
OHKO almost all Basic Pokémon-EX and Evolutions (other
than Mega Evolutions) without any additional help.
At least it is doing damage and not placing damage
counters; unless your opponent uses a card effect to
change the a self-damaging attacker’s Weakness to its
own Type, doing damage is easier to block than damage
counters. Neither Kaiser Tackle nor the rest sells
me on using Pyroar BREAK, but so far it looks
good enough that it might actually be worth the effort.
To get to Pyroar BREAK we have to go first
through Litleo and then through a Pyroar.
I am seeing four options for Litleo - XY:
Flashfire 18/106, XY: Flashfire 18/106,
XY: Phantom Forces 11/119, and XY: Steam Siege
22/114 - and four for Pyroar - XY: Flashfire
20/106, XY: Black Star Promos XY26, XY:
Phantom Forces 12/119, and XY: Steam Siege
23/114. Maybe we ought to have reviewed this card
last week; until September 1st all of these are Standard
legal, but after that only Litleo (XY:
Steam Siege 22/114) and Pyroar (XY: Steam
Siege 22/114) fit that bill. All of these
cards are Fire Types with Water Weakness and no
Resistance, which means Pyroar BREAK is going to
be Water Weak with no Resistance as well. All
Litleo are Basic Pokémon without an Ability, while
all Pyroar are Stage 1 Pokémon with Retreat Cost
[CC]; that means Pyroar BREAK will have that
Retreat Cost as well. Looking at the Litleo
a little closer, XY: Flashfire 18/106 has 70 HP,
Retreat Cost [CC], and the attack “Combustion” for [RRC]
doing 60 damage; XY: Flashfire 19/106 has 60 HP,
Retreat Cost [CC], and can use “Fire Mane” for [RC] to
attack for 30 damage; XY: Phantom Forces 11/119
also has 60 HP and Retreat Cost [CC], but can attack
with “Roar” for [C] to force your opponent to change out
his or her Active, or for [RC] use “Live Coal” to do 20
damage; our last Litleo - XY: Steam Siege
22/114 - is the third with 60 HP but the first with
Retreat Cost [C], and can use “Lunge” to attack for
[RC], doing 30 damage (“heads”) or no damage at all
(“tails”) depending upon the mandatory coin toss.
When you have a choice, go with XY: Flashfire
18/106 or possibly XY: Steam Siege 22/114 for the
Retreat Cost.
Pyroar
(XY: Flashfire 20/106) has 110 HP, the Ability
“Intimidating Mane”, and the attack “Scorching Fang”.
The Ability keeps the attacks of Basic Pokémon from
damaging Pyroar, though effects still get
through, while the attack does 60 for [RCC] with the
option of discarding [R] from itself to do another 30
damage (or 90 total). Good Ability, mediocre
attack, though at least the discard is optional so you
may skip it when you don’t need it, and the
Energy cost keeps this version Double Colorless
Energy compliant. This Pyroar was
reviewed
here
as the third best card of its set and again
here
as the eighth best card of 2014; it might have actually
deserved those ranks back then (I reviewed it for the
2014 list and had it as my personal eighth place as
well), but it seems to have just become less and less
important as time went by, promising to punish the heavy
Basic usage but failing because either we could negate
the Ability or because enough decks could naturally get
around it (as they had attacking Evolutions). Pyroar
(XY: Black Star Promos XY26) has 100 HP (the
smallest of the Pyroar) and two attacks.
The first is “Crunch” for [RC], doing 30 damage and
giving you a coin flip to discard an Energy from the
opponent’s Active. For [RRCC] you can use “Royal
Fire” to deliver 120 damage but must discard two Energy
from “this Pokémon” (Pyroar itself). This
released at a time when Hypnotoxic Laser,
Silver Bangle, and Virbank City Gym were all
still Standard legal, which meant for a Double
Colorless Energy and Blacksmith you could go
for a fast 180-ish damage (give or take Weakness,
immunity to Special Conditions, etc.) and it saw no
successful play; neither attack is horrible but they are
at best mediocre, plus it hit not too long before
Seismitoad-EX.
Pyroar
(XY: Phantom Forces 12/119) is has 110 HP,
Ability, and attack like the original. Its Ability
is “Flare Command” which requires you discard a [R]
Energy from itself to force your choice of the
opponent’s Benched Pokémon into the Active slot once per
turn, before you attack. At a cost of [RRRC] its
“Inferno Rush” attack does 110 damage to the opponent’s
Active but does 30 damage to Pyroar itself.
That means yet another good Ability paired with a bad
attack, and while there was some initial hype this
Pyroar didn’t have as much of an initial impact.
Finding room for a Stage 1 line and being able to spare
a [R] Energy for the Ability ended up being too tricky,
even if you tried using it to backup XY: Flashfire
20/106 (so that Litleo would already be in the
deck). It did get a review
here
at least, where it probably was a bit overrated.
The newest Pyroar is XY: Steam Siege
23/114, which has the highest HP at 120, and has two
attacks. The first is “Flame Charge” for [RC],
which does 60 damage plus searches your deck for an [R]
Energy to attach to Pyroar itself. For
[RRC] it can instead attack with “Incinerate” to do 90
damage, but before that you get to discard all Pokémon
Tools attached to your opponent’s Active. These
attacks may be adequate; the damage and effects aren’t
bad for the Energy going into them, but neither are they
bargains. Pyroar has to survive the turn in the
Active slot if it uses Flame Charge plausible but not
easy with 120 HP - and with so few options for discard
Pokémon Tools the secondary effect might just make the
attack worth it. However it may not; some are
mostly important on Actives (Fighting Fury Belt)
while others are for the Bench (Exp. Share).
So… which do you use with Pyroar BREAK?
Well you’ll have no choice in the new Standard, as only
Litleo (XY: Steam Siege 22/114) and
Pyroar (XY: Steam Siege 23/114) will be
legal. As I’ve basically said though, the attacks
on that Pyroar coupled with the attacks on
Pyroar BREAK might just be enough to prove worth it,
at least in a deck built around Fire Types. No
sense rushing, so I’m thinking Volcanion can do
its usual opening act with its first attack while also
serving as a decent backup main attacker with its
second. Max Elixir can still work on Litleo,
so it might be worth the hassle, while Exp. Share
might be nice Tool choice since we are entering a format
where it is hard to discard. XY-On Standard would
have allowed you to use Pyroar BREAK to enhance
Pyroar (XY: Flashfire 20/106), and you
could use Protection Cube to deal with the self
damage. Probably just would have kept it in hand
until right before you’ll actually attack with Kaiser
Tackle, as plenty of decks will would have had
Xerosic or Startling Megaphone, plus you
might want the option of an alternate Pokémon Tool as
well. Such a deck could also include Pyroar
(XY: Phantom Forces 12/119) as a single, maybe a
double; just use it for its Ability and only BREAK
Evolve from it if necessary… though it can also use
Protection Cube. Don’t forget Blacksmith
to fuel Energy attachments as well. This is
basically what you can do for Expanded play as well,
just remember there are added concerns like Tool
Scrapper and other older cards to potentially combo
with or be countered by. For Limited, run it if
you get the line, but don’t hold your breath on pulling
it when it can do some good. Also you’ll need your
Energy to be about half basic Fire Energy if you
do, and thus much of your deck Fire or capable of using
the Energy.
Ratings
Standard:
3.25/5
Expanded:
3.25/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Pyroar BREAK has some chops, but it might not be
enough. It loses a lot of good options from which
to BREAK Evolve as the format rotates, and said options
face stiffer competition in Expanded. Still it may
do enough to be a functional deck in this new era,
especially if Type-matching goes its way.
Likewise, if say Water Types surge forth, it’s probably
going to be lucky to see casual play. Not a
guaranteed winner, not a hopeless loser, I think it’s
just a little above average, which is a higher opinion
of Pyroar BREAK than when I started with the
card. Mostly because Pyroar (XY: Steam
Siege 23/114) may not be as bad as I thought.
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