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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Lugia BREAK  - Fates Collide
Date Reviewed:  July 11, 2016

Ratings & Reviews Summary
Standard: 3.38/5   Expanded: 3.35/5    Limited: 3.88/5

Back to the main COTD Page

 


aroramage

WHO WANTS A WEEK PACKED TO THE BRIM WITH CARDS DO YOU I DO LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO 

Lugia BREAK was briefly mentioned in our review on Lugia, which took our #6 spot in the Top 10 countdown! So this is really more of a recap then. Lugia BREAK only has so much to work with anyway. 

The main things to take away are that Lugia BREAK gives any regular non-EX Lugia 150 HP and the FLASH OF DESTRUCTION!! At 4-for-150, it's an exceptional attack that, for the cost of 2 Energy to discard, is pretty solid. Throw in Energy acceleration of any sort thanks to Lugia BREAK's Colorless costs, and you're all set for constant smacking around! 

The only Basic Lugia available...well, period, is the Lugia in this set. Fortunately, it's a powerful version, and the extra 30 HP combined with Pressure makes Lugia BREAK pretty good. Just don't get reliant on Flash of Destruction if you're lacking in the Energy accelerating department. 

Rating 

Standard: 3/5 (pretty solid overall, and he's got a good base form to work with)

Expanded: 3/5 (definitely gonna need the support otherwise) 

Limited: 4/5 (solid work otherwise though) 

Arora Notealus: Similarly to Carbink BREAK, Lugia BREAK is a powerful single BREAK Evolution thanks to the fact that his base form doesn't evolve...hm...I wonder what would happen if we had evolving BREAK Evolutions? Like a Squirtle BREAK, or a Graveler BREAK...I've been playing too much Pokemon GO. 

Next Time: GO CHECK OUT THE DOUBLE TWOFER WE'VE GOT OF...the same Pokemon?


Otaku

Lugia BREAK (XY: Fates Collide 79/124) is a Colorless Type, which means it will neither encounter Weakness nor Resistance unless we go to Unlimited and we aren’t touching that format.  I don’t recall any effects that can alter Weakness or Resistance to Colorless that are Standard or Expanded legal either.  Colorless support includes Altaria (XY: Roaring Skies 74/108; XY: Black Star Promos XY46) cancels out their Weakness, Aspertia City Gym gives them a +20 HP bump, while Winona provides triple Colorless Pokémon search.  The Type is typically designed to be used off Type though, which means non-explicit support doesn’t really exist as (for example) a good attacker that happens to be Colorless works as well on Type as off unless you use some of the Colorless specific support I just mentioned.  Colorless counters exist but only in the form of attacks that just aren’t good enough. 

Being the BREAK Evolution of a Basic is like being a Stage 1 without access to effects that specifically benefit or punish Stage 1 Pokémon.  I could not find any examples of the latter, for the record.  150 is enough to survive a hit; not all the time, but often enough.  The only other thing present on this card is the attack “Flash of Destruction”, which requires [CCCC] to do 150 damage, but also that you discard two cards from Lugia BREAK.  This isn’t amazing, but it is good as a Muscle Band brings 170 HP Basic Pokémon-EX into OHKO range, and even without buffs everything lacking additional protection is a 2HKO, even a Wailord-EX with a Fighting Fury Belt.  Four Energy isn’t easy, but as it is pure Colorless it isn’t hard either since most Energy acceleration can help. 

Lugia BREAK has to BREAK Evolve from a Lugia and our options are XY: Fates Collide 78/124 and XY: Black Star Promos XY156.  If you aren’t familiar with the promo it doesn’t officially release for three days in North America, so it’ll be a few weeks before it is tournament legal anyway.  Still we may as well discuss it.  Both Lugia are Basic Colorless Pokémon with 120 HP, Lightning Weakness, Fighting Resistance, and Retreat Cost [CC].  XY: Fates Collide 78/124 has the Ability “High Pressure” which reduces the damage it takes from attacks by your opponent’s Pokémon are reduced by 20 while it is Active.  For [CCC] this Lugia can use “Intensifying Burn” for 60 damage, which becomes 120 (60 + 60) if used to attack a Pokémon-EX.  We reviewed it here as the sixth best card out of XY: Fates Collide.  XY: Black Star Promos XY156 sports two attacks, “Gust” for [CC] and “Aeroblast” for [CCCC].  Gust does 30 damage (no effect text) while Aeroblast does 80 with two coin flips; “tails” change nothing while each “head” adds 20 damage.  This is almost the definition of mediocre; nothing is incredibly bad, but clearly isn’t good.  In fact what makes it questionable as an example of mediocre is that the attacks might not even qualify as “adequate”.  So XY: Fates Collide 78/124 it is! 

Of course, that won’t matter for the effective “bottom stats” of Lugia BREAK; it uses whatever its underlying Lugia provides and both provided the same thing.  Lightning Weakness is not the worst to have right now, as I would still be more concerned with Fighting Weakness, probably Darkness Weakness, and maybe Psychic Weakness right now.  Since nothing is Colorless Weak that means there are six other Weaknesses that aren’t as bad, plus the ideal, the lack of Weakness.  Any Resistance is welcome, and a non-Pokémon-EX with 150 HP is likely to fall into the range where Fighting Resistance can matter.  Even more so as our chosen Lugia adds in an Ability to soak another 20 damage.  Intensifying Burn needs a Double Colorless Energy, a successful Max Elixir, and a way to become Active (or similarly complex/lucky combo) to go from zero to “attacking” in one turn, which is the only real knock against it, especially when added to Lugia BREAK.  Lugia BREAK will then have a choice between doing 60 (120 to Pokémon-EX) with Intensifying Burn or for one more Energy (plus the discard) using Flash of Destruction for that massive 150. 

In Standard and Expanded you can use a couple different tricks to turn that 150 into OHKO potential, as I already stated.  Now a lot of those work better with other cards but the beauty of Lugia BREAK is that it is easy to splash into most decks.  The main hangup will be low Energy decks or those focusing heavily on Type specific Energy, so that for Lugia BREAK they will effectively be lower Energy.  Oh, and general deck space concerns.  So just the two things that apply to most cards right now.  You could make it your main attacker if you wanted though, but it can be real nice as a surprise “power-up” for a deck already using Lugia (XY: Fates Collide 78/124) as a secondary or co-attacker.  With its 120 HP usually acting like 140 thanks to High Pressure it has a good chance of surviving while Active and attacking, and a single additional Energy to unleash 150 is a solid deal.  For Limited play you of course need Lugia.  Said Lugia is a must run unless you pull something like a Zygarde-EX and decide to risk running it solo.  So if you manage both Lugia and Lugia BREAK, enjoy having such a strong attacker that can work with everything else! 

Ratings 

Standard: 3.7/5 

Expanded: 3.7/5 

Limited: 3.7/5 

Summary: Lugia BREAK probably won’t be showing up everywhere, but like its set-mate Lugia it can show up almost anywhere.  It isn’t a brilliant BREAK Evolution on its own (just reasonably good), which is why I tempered my scores for it.  Since it starts with something great, adding more HP and a slightly bigger attack work well. 

Lugia BREAK placed would have finished in 20th place had we done a Top 20 cards for XY: Fates Collide instead of a Top 10.  It managed six voting points, one less than Chaos Tower and three more than Genesect-EX (XY: Fates Collide 64/124, 120/124), which we reviewed here and here.  I had Lugia BREAK as my 10th place pick and like Genesect-EX I wish I had rated it higher.  Well, really I wish I had listened and made Lugia and Lugia BREAK a two-in-one review, even Lugia is often run without Lugia BREAK.


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