Pojo's Pokemon Card Reviews, news, tips, strategies and more!


Pick Up Our New 20th Anniversary Pokemon Book for your Collection!

Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles


Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play


Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel


GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual


Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar


Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List


Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
-
Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us


Magic
Yu-Gi-Oh!
DBZ
Pokemon
Yu Yu Hakusho
NeoPets
HeroClix
Harry Potter
Anime
Vs. System
Megaman



Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Top 10 New Pokemon Cards of 2016

#3 - Name
- Max Elixir - XY BREAKpoint

Date Reviewed:
Dec. 28, 2016

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 4.25
Expanded: 4.00
Limited: 5.00

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

You know, I'm kinda surprised I didn't look more at Max Elixir. Really, it's not that surprising that it's high up on the list, and heck maybe it could've taken the #2 spot if I remembered it was a thing. 

Truth be told, Max Elixir is the greatest non-specific Energy accelerator in the game today. It searches out the top 6 cards of your deck and brings out a basic Energy from your deck straight to a Benched Pokemon, no questions asked. It's an Item card, and while that does make it susceptible to various Pokemon Abilities, it also means it's not restricted to being used once per turn. And since it's not trying for any specific Energy, you can run it in any build. 

The problem that comes with Max Elixir that I find is whether or not it's worth the deck space. Even though it searches a decent amount of cards, there is a chance it will fail, and that's not a great thing to have. Most decks would prefer to either draw into their Energy or put it into the discard pile to accelerate out of there later. There's also a few decks that focus more on Special Energy rather than basic, and it can be damaging to find a Special Energy in those six cards and be forced to shuffle it back into the deck. 

If it's worth it, you should probably run it. If it's not, don't worry about it. It'll be here. 

IT'LL ALWAYS BE HERE. 

Rating 

Standard: 4/5 (great Energy acceleration for any deck lacking it) 

Expanded: 4/5 (and very useful overall!) 

Limited: 5/5 (definitely a must-run for slower decks) 

Arora Notealus: It's interesting that they took the Item that gives you back your PP for your moves in the game and made it a chancy Energy accelerator. Then again, if it just whisked out an Energy straight to a Pokemon, everyone would play it at max copies and it'd be the best card ever printed. But such is how it is.

Next Time: You'd be surprised, we managed to BREAK a new one!


Otaku

Note: Yes my reviews for Monday and Tuesday went up very late.  They should be up now, or shortly after you read this. 

Max Elixir (XY: BREAKpoint 102/122)is our third place finisher.  This is an Item that looks at the top six cards of your deck; if you find any basic Energy there you may select one and attach it to one of your Benched, Basic Pokémon.  If you have no such targets to receive the Energy, you cannot use Max Elixir.  Even with the targeting restrictions and the need to promote a Pokémon prepped by Max Elixir, this card has proven amazing and has been a huge factor in multiple decks this format.  From now on, attacks that cost [XX], where “[X]” is a non [C] Energy requirement, are still easily accessible in the right deck, and in some even attacks that cost up to three Energy.  If you read our original review for this card, you know I blew it.  It managed to make our top 10 for XY: BREAKpoint as the number seven pick, but it was a few places shy of making my personal top 10 list for the set.  That is because I was so fixated on running decks with special Energy that I lowballed how many decks could make room for sufficient basic Energy to make Max Elixir worth the space.  I was very wrong. 

This card doesn’t belong in every deck, but several decks have made it work, even while running fewer basic Energy cards than I expected.  This card isn’t a must run for Standard or Expanded play, but it is definitely one of those cards you eliminate from your deck, as opposed to looking for reasons to include it.  Now quite often you will have a reason; while more decks than I expected have made it work, we are still talking a good deal of space for both the Item itself and the basic Energy cards.  It becomes especially vicious in the decks that operate with attackers like Darkrai-EX (XY: BREAKpoint 74/122, 118/122) or Xerneas BREAK.  I think it might be a bit more potent in Standard play, but only because there are less Item lock tactics, alternate Energy acceleration methods, and competition for general deck space.  It is still a great card for Expanded play, and a must run if you pull it at a Limited Format event.  At least so long as your deck will have a Bench. 

Ratings 

Standard: 4.5/5 

Expanded: 4/5 

Limited: 5/5 

Summary: Yes I am scoring this card almost the same as I scored Garbodor (XY: BREAKpoint 57/122).  It is a bit harder to count how many top decks are making use of Max Elixir; unless you have a full deck list it isn’t likely you’ll see Max Elixir listed in the deck name or quick description.  The speed boost provided by Max Elixir, even if it isn’t always reliable, somehow made our fast paced game even faster, and it might owe its influence to said Garbodor.  Afterall if Abilities were safer to rely upon then that would include several that accelerate Energy.

Max Elixir took in 17 voting points, only one ahead of fourth place Garbodor and seven below tomorrow’s second place finisher.  Just over half (nine points) came from me because I had Max Elixir as my second place pick.  Third place still seems like a good fit.


Zach Carmichael
Had this at #3 on his list. 


CopyrightŠ 1998-2016 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.
Pokémon card reviews - Pokemon Set Reviews