aroramage |
Ahh yes, Mega Blastoise, once again
getting the...wait, I already did this yesterday. Ah
well, it's pretty much the same as before, just gotta
figure out which one between XY and Generations that
you'd wanna run.
So to start, XY's got one attack in
Hydro Bombard, a 3-for-120 strike that can hit 2
Bench-sitters for an additional 30 damage apiece.
Basically, it's a straight upgrade from Blastoise-EX
(GEN)'s Hydro Press, which only dealt 100 damage, hit 1
Bench-sitter for 20 damage, and costed 4 Energy.
Basically, if you paired up XY's Mega with GEN's EX,
you'd get a solid upgrade. Not necessarily a monstrous
powerhouse, but it'd be decently powerful. Just be wary
that those 3 Energies are all Water Energy, so no quick
charging to that attack.
That being said, let's actually
take a look at Generations' M Blastoise-EX! Once again,
the developers felt the need to boost the cost of his
attacks up like with his previous evolution, but maybe
for that extra Energy, it'll be worth more in the long
run. And for 4 Energy, we get Dread Launcher, which
deals a whopping 180 damage!! That's more than most
other Megas can hit at the moment, and that's really
saying something about him! There is a slight catch
though; with that power comes the risk of a coin flip
that could cost you 2 Energy if you land tails.
So is 180 damage worth it, given
that it costs 4 Energy, might end up with you losing 2
Energy and not being able to use it again right away,
and is on a slow Mega Evo with no Spirit Link?
Well...that's really the caveat to playing with either
copy of M Blastoise-EX, that last bit. Without a Spirit
Link, they're too slow to be properly competitive with
all the other Mega EXs. So with that last bit out of the
way, is it worth it? Probably!
Let's face it, every Pokemon-EX
that's not a Mega will get CRUSHED by this card barring
Wailord-EX, and at the end of the day, it's a 50/50
chance to not be able to use it again right away. On the
other hand, it's also a 50/50 chance to USE IT AGAIN
RIGHT AWAY!! So yeah, it's a very risky maneuver, but
compared to a safe shooting 120 and 2-30s that can 2HKO
most anything and otherwise set up for the next shot of
whoever comes next?
...actually that one does sound
better huh?
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (mostly what hurts is
the lack of a Spirit Link card)
Expanded: 2/5 (seriously...just
give them Spirit Links)
Limited: 4.5/5 (or are you just
waiting for the XY sets to rotate out?!)
Arora Notealus: I wonder what would
happen if they had combined the Mega mechanic with their
BREAK mechanic? Like, still have Mega-EX and all the
rules that apply, but also let them choose from the
attacks beneath their Pokemon as well? That way Mega-EX
can have Abilities the way BREAK Evolutions do without
worrying about not being able to attack. Then again,
that would have probably made them too powerful...
Next Time: A living legend descends
upon the masses.
|
Otaku |
As promised it is time to cover M Blastoise-EX (Generations
18/83) in more detail. Nothing has changed since
yesterday. The Water-Type still hits nearly all
Fire-Types and some Fighting-Types for double damage due
to Weakness, but the amount of decks where that will
matter is low right now. Water-Type has some great
support cards and unlike yesterday, if Blastoise-EX
is worth using it might behoove it to cash in on
Archie’s Ace in the Hole. As a Mega Evolution
without a Spirit Link card, something I
had hoped Generations might address, Archie’s
Ace in the Hole is the only way to avoid losing
approximately a turn and a half; one turn for the normal
prerequisites of Evolving in general and your turn
ending as a result of normal Mega Evolution. 220 HP is
the low end of the typical Mega Evolution score; still
enough that most of the time M Blastoise-EX can
take a hit, sometimes even two or three against decks
that have incomplete setups or aren’t focused on raw
damage in the first place. As usual though,
nothing is safe from OHKOs. Grass Weakness will be
a bit worse here than on Blastoise-EX in the
sense that here it will matter just a bit more often due
to the increased HP; attacks that would otherwise have
just failed to score a OHKO or perhaps even missed it by
a solid margin will instead do the deed. Lack of
Resistance is typical and I won’t dock the card any
points for it, high HP scores like those of Mega
Evolutions are a bit more likely to make it matter.
The Retreat Cost of [CCC] is too high to bother paying,
at least at full price, unless you’re a bit desperate.
Try to include an alternative to retreating, either at
all or at full Price.
Like all Mega Evolutions without an Ancient Trait, all
M Blastoise-EX has is one attack. In this
case it is “Dread Launcher” for [WWCC], buying 180
damage and a coin flip. The attack does the same
damage either way with the coin flip just determining
whether or not you’ll have to discard two [WW] attached
to M Blastoise-EX itself (“tails” is the discard,
of course). 180 damage is not as impressive as it was
prior to Mega Evolutions. There are several things
this will not OHKO, however when we look at what they
are we see
·
Pokémon protected in some manner (including HP buffs)
·
Virizion-EX
(170 HP + Resistance)
·
Chesnaught BREAK
(190 HP)
·
Team Aqua’s Kyogre-EX
(190 HP)
·
Team Magma’s Groudon-EX
(190 HP)
·
Wailord
(BW: Dragons Exalted 26/124) (200 HP)
·
Mega Evolutions which are not Water Weak
·
Wailord-EX
(250 HP)
More of those have or currently see competitive play
than I prefer, but give problems to almost every similar
attacker (like Safeguard Pokémon). Virizion-EX
is the only real exception that stands out and it is
only legal for Expanded play. As such, this is
still enough to at least consider trying in a deck, and
as such we’ll review Blastoise-EX and the other
M Blastoise-EX for any potential help they may
provide; otherwise one would just use Archie’s Ace in
the Hole.
Blastoise-EX
(XY 29/146, 142/146; XY: Black Star Promos
XY30) and Blastoise-EX (Generations 17/83)
have a lot in common. Both are Water Type Basic
Pokémon-EX with 180 HP, Grass Weakness, no Resistance,
Retreat Cost [CCC], no Ancient Trait, no Ability and two
attacks. Blastoise-EX (XY 29/146,
142/146; XY: Black Star Promos XY30) can use
“Rapid Spin” for [CC] to hit for 30 damage while forcing
both players to change out their respective Active
Pokémon. For [WWW] it can use “Splash Bomb” for 120
damage and a coin flip; “tails” means 30 points of self
damage. We looked at it
here
when it was new, or rather some of the other reviewers
did as I thought I had quit the game at the time (...I
got the PTCGO working on my computer, hence my return
not much later). Looks like baby_mario and HEZ got
it about right. Yesterday’s
Blastoise-EX (Generations 17/83) sports
“Hyper Whirlpool” for [WCC] which hits for 60 damage and
gives you a coin flip to try and discard an Energy from
the opponent’s Active. The second attack, “Hydro
Press”, costs [WWCC] and does 100 damage to the
opponent’s Active plus 20 damage to one of your
opponent’s Benched Pokémon (your choice which).
Like I said in its review, these are useful effects but
either need to hit harder or cost less Energy. Not
that I want another aggressive opener that can double as
a main attacker, but Blastoise-EX (Generations
17/83) just doesn’t do enough for what it costs.
M Blastoise-EX
(XY 30/146) has the same everything as today’s
version except for its attack and non-gameplay-relevant
bits (like its collector number). For [WWW] “Hydro
Bombard” does 120 plus 30 to of your opponent’s Benched
Pokémon. While not horrible, whether thinking
about it when it was first released or considering it
now, it really is outclassed by what works. Bench
damage can be a great thing and over two turns you’d be
able to hit up to four different Benched Pokémon for 30
damage (or two for 60 or one for 60 and two for 30) if
enough are present while taking a highly probable 2HKO
against the opponent’s Active, but that wasn’t enough to
justify giving up a turn back then and still isn’t
enough now (or to warrant using Archie’s Ace in the
Hole on it instead). This isn’t too likely to
help today’s version as part of a tag team but only
because of how difficult it is to get into play; since
Dread Launcher falls short of OHKOing the biggest stuff,
something up front doing some Bench damage while still
hammering on the Active would have been welcome.
Doesn’t seem to be any real competition, either.
So is there a use in either Expanded or Standard play
for M Blastoise-EX (Generations 18/83)?
Probably not but it is a lot closer than yesterday’s
subject. Even in Standard you could just build a
Water based beatdown deck using Archie’s Ace in the
Hole to put M Blastoise-EX into play. Double
Colorless Energy, Mega Elixir and/or Mega
Turbo can call help it power up. While you
cannot slap Fighting Fury Belt on it to boost HP
and damage (you can attach it, but it won’t do anything)
you still have Muscle Band if you want to worry
about a few edge cases or one of several other useful
Pokémon Tools instead. If you are really worried
about discarding Energy (sometimes it is to your
benefit, but usually not) go with Trick Coin so
you can reflip the first tails. I am thinking
Bursting Balloon is the best option, even if
discards itself. It will still fend off Pokémon
Tool F cards and anything that attacks and damages M
Blastoise-EX will have six damage counters placed on
it. This can OHKO small Night March attackers
without burning an attack or drop other Mega Evolutions
into OHKO range of Dread Launcher. I suppose if
you want to buff its own HP and protect against
Confusion, you would almost have a legitimate use for
Heavy Boots. Palkia-EX (XY: BREAKpoint
31/122) could help with Energy acceleration and function
as an alternate attacker, but it might be better to just
use some of the non-Pokémon based options. Regice
can use pretty much everything I recommended for M
Blastoise-EX but is a Basic and not a Pokémon-EX;
not only can it avoid certain protective effects but it
brings its own built into its “Resistance Blizzard”
attack.
I wouldn’t expect to win anymore more than a very, very
small and laidback tournament with this M Blastoise-EX
and even then it will require a lot of luck to avoid
almost guaranteed auto-losses, but if you insist you
might manage a functional deck for Standard play.
Same goes for Expanded except there is more competition
here without a lot more assistance, so it scores a bit
lower. I have seen nothing about Generations
Limited format events. I am not able to attend any
so I have not looked too hard but given how this set is
being released, seems like they just are not happening.
Still on the unlikely chance you and your friends get
together to do it on your own or maybe just as a local
OP kind of thing, I’ll tell you that M Blastoise-EX
is reasonably strong. The catch as always is you
need to not only pull it but Blastoise-EX as
well. If you do manage it go ahead and include it
on the off chance you’ll have the opportunity and the
need to Mega Evolve.
Ratings
Standard:
2/5
Expanded:
1.8/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
M Blastoise-EX isn’t quite a OHKO machine but
Dread Launcher is a solid attack and you could try to
get it into play via Archie’s Ace in the Hole.
The effort you would put into doing so is probably
better used on something else, but this is nowhere near
as far behind M Gyarados-EX as I would have
expected.
|
