Otaku |
As we come back
from our break, we have only two reviews this week.
First up is Shaymin-EX (XY: Black Star Promos
XY148). As a Pokémon-EX, this card is worth an
extra Prize when KO’d, will be vulnerable to
anti-Pokémon-EX effects, and is excluded from certain
beneficial effects. The potential payoff is
improved stats and effects, but it does not always
happen. Shaymin-EX is a Basic, which is the best
stage as they require the least effort to get into play,
are the fastest, the rules and mechanics often favor
them, and if that wasn’t enough Basic Pokémon have some
great Type specific support like (but not limited to)
Fighting Fury Belt. Sure there are some
anti-Basic cards and they do matter to Shaymin-EX,
but overall the pros outweigh the cons. Shaymin-EX
is a Grass Type, which means it can hit many Water Types
and some Fighting Types for double damage, while nothing
is Resistant. The Grass Type has a few nifty
tricks but peeking ahead, about the only thing
potentially useful to Shaymin-EX is
Revitalizer. Shaymin-EX has 110 HP, which is
40 above the most recent “regular” versions of
Shaymin, XY: Black Star Promos XY115 and
before that, BW: Boundaries Crossed 10/149.
This isn’t even high enough to reliably survive a hit
outside of an opponent with bad set up or that isn’t
focused on damage in the first place. This is very
dangerous due to being worth two Prizes; Shaymin-EX
becomes a prime target. Fire Types enjoy double
damage, which mostly means scoring a OHKO with less
effort than would normally be required. Resistance
is absent entirely so we’ll move onto the Retreat Cost
of [CC], which is low enough you can probably pay but
high enough you really shouldn’t.
Shaymin-EX
has the Ability “Aroma of Gratitude”, which may be used
once per turn to heal 20 damage from each of your
Benched Pokémon. With the right combo this could
prove useful, but it does need a combo: most of the time
it is your Active getting hammered on and your
opponent will be going for OHKOs when possible.
You need something that can survive and a deck that can
get it to the Bench while maintaining pressure on the
opponent. You also would like a way to protect
Shaymin-EX as it is just a Lysandre away from
being forced Active for an easy KO. Its attack is
“Floral Gain” which requires [GCC] and does 60 damage
while healing 20 damage and removing all Special
Conditions from itself. This is about 30 points of
damage below where it could be useful for a much more
robust Pokémon, and it seems unlikely between the HP and
the Ability that this will survive being Active to
attack to have damage so you could heal it. Unless
of course you’re doing the damage yourself. Even
then, it just screams “filler attack”. Aroma of
Gratitude isn’t good but it is far better than the
attack.
Shaymin-EX
(BW: Next Destinies 5/99, 94/99; BW: Legendary
Treasures RC21/RC25) and Shaymin-EX (XY:
Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108) are to different
versions of Shaymin-EX also competing for deck
space. Both are Basic Pokémon-EX with 110 HP. BW:
Next Destinies 5/99 and its reprints are Grass Types
with Fire Weakness, Fighting Resistance, Retreat Cost
[C], and two attacks. The first attack is
“Synthesis” for [G] which allows you to search your deck
for a [G] Energy and attach it to one of your Pokémon.
Spending an Energy and to get another of that same
Energy only works if the whole shebang comes attached to
something likely to survive the process and
you’re building up another attack worth the delay.
At least it can attach to itself or another Pokémon.
For [GC] it can use “Revenge Blast” to do 30 damage plus
30 more for each Prize your opponent has taken. So
the attack can do 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, or 180 damage.
Past that, your opponent has taken enough Prizes to win.
Ignoring for a moment the rest of this Shaymin-EX,
this kind of attack takes a while to really get
impressive, but is decent after at least one Prize has
been taken. Now remember what Shaymin-EX is
like; it has to be a glass cannon or a weak opener, and
to hit hard enough you need to have three or less Prizes
remaining. At two or less, if you’re not attacking
for the win, your opponent probably takes Shaymin-EX
down in one and you lose. We reviewed this
Shaymin-EX
here
as part of our 10th place finisher for our Top 10 Picks
for BW: Next Destinies and
here
without me. Simply put I overrated it and so did
some of my fellow reviewers.
Shaymin-EX
(XY: Roaring Skies 77/108; 106/108) is a
Colorless Type with Lightning Weakness, Fighting
Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], an Ability, and an attack.
The Ability is “Set Up” which triggers when you Bench
Shaymin-EX from hand (not including pre-game setup,
somewhat ironically). Set Up (the Ability) allows
you to draw until you have six cards in hand. This
card speed up an already blisteringly fast format.
The attack is “Sky Return” which does 30 for [CC] and
bounces Shaymin-EX to your hand. Not
brilliant on its own but great when comboed with
Double Colorless Energy and using the Ability again.
We reviewed this card
here
and
here;
both times it was taking the number one spot on a Top 10
lists (for the set and for the year, respectively).
There is a reason this card is so pricey, with a single
copy running a good $60 to $80 USD: it is practically a
deck staple with many decks requiring two or three
copies for an optimal build.
So today’s
Shaymin-EX means one less space for the XY:
Roaring Skies version. Even if you haven’t
maxed out our Set Up Pokémon, having yet another 110 HP
Pokémon-EX is a serious drawback and Shaymin-EX (XY:
Black Star Promos XY148) is no where near good
enough to compensate. In fact even without the
other two Shaymin-EX, it would probably be binder
fodder. Skip it unless you have a deck that can
move damage counters around or perhaps places damage
counters on your own Benched Pokémon (self inflicted
Bench damage can be blocked by multiple cards).
This also assumes that other healing effects aren’t
enough and I seriously struggle to think of where they
would be insufficient. It isn’t legal for Limited
play, where it just barely could have been decent,
otherwise.
Ratings
Standard:
1.25/5
Expanded:
1.25/5
Limited:
N/A
Summary:
Another forgettable promo, the best thing about
Shaymin-EX (XY: Black Star Promos XY148) is
the adorable artwork. Unless you’re a scammer,
then it might be tricking people into overpaying because
they don’t realize it isn’t Shaymin-EX (XY:
Roaring Skies 77/108, 160/108). Don’t be that
person!
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Zach Carmichael |
This will be my first post as a
content writer for Pojo, and I am ecstatic to see what
lies ahead! Today’s card is Shaymin-EX. Released
only in the Generations Elite Trainer Box, at one
point it was highly sought after and going for quite a
bit online, however, it seems the green hedgehog has
dropped in price considerably as the World Championships
have drawn to a close and the new Primal Clash-on format
having begun. In short, Shaymin-EX is quite
useful in the Expanded Format thanks to its immediate
healing effects to counter certain deck archetypes, but
in Standard the card is lackluster, at least for the
time being.
First, I should note that the
Pokémon’s “Floral Gain” attack is irrelevant. Often
times, even the most playable Pokémon – such as Hoopa-EX
for its “Scoundrel Ring” Ability – have attacks that
will never be used. This card is no exception. Healing
20 damage and removing all Special Conditions might seem
decent, but the relatively high attack cost and meager
60 damage is disappointing, especially given that it has
low HP and gives up two Prize Cards. What makes the card
somewhat playable is its “Aroma of Gratitude” Ability,
which allows you to heal 20 damage from each of your
Benched Basic Pokémon once per turn. Ignore the fact
that its name is Shaymin-EX or the Grass typing –
let’s instead focus solely on the Ability. Immediately
the type of deck that I can find this useful in is one
that heals to deny KOs. Perhaps the biggest deck
archetype that does this well is “Water Box.” Focusing
on Water-type attackers like Seismitoad-EX and
Regice, its goal is to provide constant disruption
and denial through such powerful strategies as Item lock
and preventing damage from Pokémon-EX and Evolutions
alike. More specifically, the deck often plays 4
Rough Seas to constantly heal damage, while
Manaphy-EX lets you retreat freely between your
attackers, forcing your opponent to use Lysandre
the following turn if they don’t want the damage to be
offset through healing.
Where does Shaymin-EX fit
into this? Prior to the recent rotation, Trevenant
was a huge threat to most players due to its powerful
“Forest’s Curse” Ability, which prevents your opponent
from playing Item cards. Moreover, Trevenant BREAK’s
“Silent Fear” attack places 3 damage counters on all of
your opponent’s Pokémon. Many players at this past World
Championships opted to include Shaymin-EX as a
one-of simply to negate this effect. While being locked
from playing Item cards may seem scary, it isn’t quite
as bad when your opponent is barely putting damage on
your board. The “Water Box” deck really benefits from
Shaymin-EX, as its Ability can combine with Rough
Seas to heal a whopping 50 damage a turn from all of
your Benched Basics, essentially making the Trevenant
match-up virtually an auto-win. This combo can also be
deadly against Greninja BREAK decks, as reducing
damage from the constant barrage of “Giant Water
Shuriken” Abilities can make this match-up highly
favorable as well.
While all of this might sound
great, keep in mind that Standard is a different
scenario entirely. With it now being Primal Clash-on, we
lose a lot of cards that I mentioned above. Trevenant
decks are no longer viable. Seismitoad-EX is
gone. (Finally!) The only useful situation I can see
Shaymin-EX being used in is against Greninja
BREAK, but that deck seems to be inherently weaker
now, too, due to the rise of Vespiquen and
Garbodor variants. Lastly, let’s not forget that
“Aroma of Grace” is indeed an Ability, so it can easily
be shut off not just by Garbodor, but also Hex
Maniac, a card that now standard in most competitive
decks. For these reasons, I don’t see Shaymin-EX
being played in Standard unless some type of damage
spread deck becomes widely used.
Ratings
Standard: 1.5/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: N/A
Summary: Shaymin-EX
is a niche card that is only as good as what is being
played at your local tournaments. While “Aroma of Grace”
is certainly useful in a format filled with Trevenant
and other decks that rely on damage spread, it
doesn’t exactly have a place in today’s metagame.
Collectors will probably jump on this card – it is the
first Grass-type Shaymin-EX since Legendary
Treasures after all – but I can’t recommend
the purchase if you are a competitive player who
primarily attends Standard events.
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