aroramage |
One of the most hyped cards to come
out of the Generations booster set and one that would
see a lot of play as a result, Jolteon-EX has become
infamous for blocking off the attacks from any Basic
Pokemon - which includes those pesky Pokemon-EX!
He has been rather influential
since his release, and while there's another Eeveelution
with a similar effect on their attack (Glaceon-EX),
Jolteon-EX is the one that has been relevant in more
formats. Not just because of its longevity, mind you,
but keep in mind that Night March and Volcanion decks
run a lot of Basic Pokemon too - meaning Jolteon-EX had
the potential to counteract those decks pretty easily.
That being said, Glaceon-EX does
have its own advantages against certain decks, and I
predict that given the upcoming GX cards she'll end up
seeing some play, but Jolteon-EX will still be very
relevant. After all, not all GX cards are Basics like
Snorlax GX! Expect to see more of these guys in the
future~
Rating
Standard: 3.5/5 (Jolteon-EX has a
long and promising future ahead of him)
Expanded: 3.5/5 (but like Glaceon-EX,
he's sure to see some rises and falls based on what's
popular)
Limited: 4.5/5 (Basics are dominant
forces, but who knows when Evolutions will get their own
boost? And no, BREAK Evos aren't the only ways)
Arora Notealus: Jolteon-EX will
definitely have his own role to play in the next couple
of years or so that he's in Standard. I'm sure this
won't be the last we see of him.
Next Time: Dark shadows rise once
again... in their own way.
|
Otaku |
After having Monday
off, we resume our countdown of the top 10 cards of
2016, as determined by averaging out the individual Top
10s of we CotD reviewers. So our number nine pick
is Jolteon-EX (Generations 28/83).
You know I just love doing countdowns like this, so even
when a set is mostly a nostalgia bomb filled with
reprints like Generations was, we went ahead and
did a top three countdown, Jolteon-EX was
our number one
pick.
Even though it topped neither aroramage’s nor my own
personal top picks list for Generations, this
last year has proven it deserved the title… and yes that
is a small spoiler as while the handful of new cards in
Generations proved better than I had expected,
none ranked higher than Jolteon-EX for this
countdown. I would normally avoid such things, but
I really do want to give Jolteon-EX it’s due
before I delve into why it has proven so good a
card.
This will very much
resemble my normal breakdown of a card, because
Jolteon-EX ended up being a textbook example of why
I review cards in such a manner. Jolteon-EX is a
Lightning Type and this is probably the third most
relevant reason for its success. The fact that
almost no specific anti-Lightning Type effects exist in
either Expanded or Standard play, and that Resistance is
confined to some of the BW-era Fighting Types is worth
mentioning in brief, as technically they are a small
part of what has helped Jolteon-EX to prosper.
More relevant but still something Jolteon-EX may
have managed without is the small bit of Lightning Type
specific support, the more robust bit of general
Lightning Type related support. The big thing,
though, is that exploiting Lightning Weakness has been,
is, and likely will remain huge; Yveltal-EX
and Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/101,
106/108) are just the two most well known of multiple
other Lightning Weak prominent Pokémon. Tied with
the next most important reason for this card’s success
is its status as a Basic Pokémon; any other Stage and it
wouldn’t be as handy to fit into decks, as fast onto the
field, or enjoying the many other advantages of its
Stage. The other most important reason (enough
that even I can break my usual review pattern) is the
second attack on Jolteon-EX; “Flash Ray” has a
reasonable (though not universally easy to meet) cost of
[LCC] to do a respectable 70 damage while placing a
magnificent protective effect on Jolteon-EX
itself; immunity to the damage done by the attacks of
Basic Pokémon during your opponent’s next turn.
That isn’t the entire metagame, but it does apply to
most of the best attackers.
Other relevant (but
not always in a good way) aspects of Jolteon-EX
are that it is a Pokémon-EX and all that entails; most
Jolteon are Stage 1 cards with less HP, but they
also aren’t worth two Prizes when KO’d, and have to deal
with detrimental effects that target Pokémon-EX or
beneficial ones that exclude them. Still, the
trade most definitely worked in this card’s favor since
- again - if Jolteon-EX had not been a Basic
Pokémon, it just wouldn’t have worked. The 160 HP
is 10 below the typical range of Basic Pokémon-EX, but
not crippling, still surviving many attacks. The
Fighting Weakness is somewhat mitigated by Flash Ray,
but when Jolteon-EX isn’t protected it is almost
certainly a OHKO for Fighting Type attackers.
Metal Resistance isn’t hugely important, but it is
appreciated as the Metal Type did have some successes
over the year. The free Retreat Cost is perfect
and while it wasn’t necessary for this card’s success,
it most definitely contributed. To a far lesser
degree, so too did the one other attack on Jolteon-EX,
“Swift” for [L]. 30 damage for a single Energy is good,
and while the effect of Swift prevented it from
exploiting Weakness (no small thing) it also meant the
card could chip away at other blockers because it
ignored Resistance and all other effects on the
opponent’s Active as well.
So while Jolteon-EX
hasn’t been everywhere, decks that could prep it quickly
enjoyed an attack-effect based tank, able to soak hits
easily while still dealing out a decent bit of damage.
Until the release of Pokémon Ranger, your typical
Night March deck didn’t have a good answer to Flash Ray
if the Jolteon-EX player didn’t have something on
the Bench, and even if they did the answer was simply to
use Lysandre or Escape Rope to force up an
unprotected target. Of course decks like Night
March with Vespiquen (XY: Ancient Origins
10/98) could rely on the latter and indeed, some of the
other Basic focused decks made sure to pack an optional
Evolution to help deal with Flash Ray. Jolteon-EX
was sometimes is teamed with other protected Pokémon in
their own deck, while other times they were just slipped
in for the combination of denying Basic attackers and
exploiting Lightning Weakness. With Yveltal-EX
and Shaymin-EX as major players still in both
formats, plus Volcanion-EX decks in Standard and
just about every Basic focused deck in Expanded,
Jolteon-EX remains and likely will continue to
remain an important card in both Expanded and Standard
play. On the off chance you can get enough
Generations boosters to run a Limited event,
Jolteon-EX seems promising for the format.
Most decks are going to have Evolved attackers, but the
caveat is that there are four Prizes and any Basics used
as fodder won’t be able to touch Jolteon-EX after
Flash Ray gets going. With just four Prizes, that
is enough to justify slipping Jolteon-EX into
almost any deck even if you have to add a few
Lightning Energy cards to do it… and maybe even
enough to risk running Jolteon-EX completely on
its own.
Ratings
Standard:
3.65/5
Expanded:
3.5/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Jolteon-EX lost a little since its release but
walling against Basic Pokémon while exploiting Lightning
Weakness means it remains strong. So why isn’t it
higher on our top 10? Too much competition;
Jolteon-EX earned six voting points so it actually
was part of a threeway tie that filled 11th through 9th
place. The qualifiers for 7th and 8th place each
only had seven voting points, while 6th place only had
eight; it isn’t until we hit 5th place that we’ll see a
significant jump in points. Jolteon-EX was my
personal 11th place pick, nearly having made my own
list, so even though that crowds out another card I
thought deserved to make the top 10, I am still happy to
see it here.
|
