aroramage |
Alright, if there was one Pokemon I
wouldn't have expected to be an EX, it would've been
Beedrill honestly. Even with the Mega Evo. And yet what
a world we live in!
If you're looking to get this card,
it's gonna be a little difficult at the moment - cause
he's not actually out yet! He's going to be released as
a Promo (we are talking about Promo-EXs at the moment)
in the upcoming Mega-Beedrill-EX Premium Collection -
which are basically just bundles that come with
exclusive promo cards like Beedrill-EX, along with
several booster packs and an oversized promo of the
featured card. It even comes with a snazzy pin and a
coin! But enough about that, we're here to talk about
the cards themselves!
And Beedrill-EX himself...isn't too
shabby, actually. Sure, he's got 160 HP - which you
might recall is the same amount of damage Aurorus-EX can
do with her attack - but he's got a couple perks that
can make you reconsider him as a threat or not. Double
Scrapper for instance is an interesting move that, for 1
Energy, will get rid of a couple of your opponent's
Tools. It's basically Tool Scrapper though, just
focusing on your opponent's Pokemon instead of giving
the option for your own, so it's...well, it's alright.
Tech choice though.
At least he's got Pin
Missile!......oh shoot he's got Pin Missile.
At 2 Energy, the attack flips 4
coins and does 40 damage for each heads. As usual with
these attacks, the potential to do 2-for-160 is amazing,
but you're more likely to hit 2-for-80 on average.
It's...well, it's the sort of attack you'd expect for
Beedrill, to be honest. Just something more impressive
like, I dunno, Twineedle? That'd be nice. Flip coins,
more damage, chance to Poison, just saying.
For now, Beedrill-EX is...okay.
There's not any major reason to run him over other
Pokemon-EX at the moment, but depending on how things
turn up in the meta, he might make an appearance to
counteract a powerful and widely-used Tool. Chances are
you're not running him for Pin Missile, to say the
least. So if you're a big Beedrill nerd, I'd say this is
something to hold onto and treasure...cause this is
probably the only Beedrill-EX we're getting for a long
while.
Rating
Standard: 1.5/5 (a cheap Tool
Scrapper and a flippy attack is alright)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (but compared to
what's around and about, it's a bit lacking)
Limited: N/A (FUTURE
PROMOOOOOOOOOOO)
Arora Notealus: I wonder if they'll
consider giving Butterfree a Mega Evolution...I mean, if
they'll give it to Beedrill, surely Butterfree could get
one! Then again, we haven't seen any new Mega Evolutions
in the entirety of the Gen VII trailers, but they're
already doing some crazy stuff anyway. I'm honestly
tempted to say that it'd be okay if there weren't any
new Mega Evolutions in the next generation...Generation
VIII on the other hand...
Next Time: Didn't I say it was a
Mega-Beedrill-EX Premium Collection?
|
Otaku |
Today is a bit unusual as we are looking at a card that
has not yet released outside of Japan, though it’s
close: Beedrill-EX (XY: Black Star Promos
XY157). Scheduled to officially release October
5th, which I believe means Beedrill-EX won’t be
legal until October 21st. Like the rest of this
week, this is a Pokémon-EX and that means
·
It gives up an extra Prize when KO’d
·
Has to deal with various effects punish you for using
Pokémon-EX
o
Being excluded from beneficial effects
o
Being targeted by negative
·
Being either a Basic Pokémon or Mega Evolution
·
Having better stats (at least a small HP bump)
·
Often (but not always) having better effects
As this is not a Mega Evolution (we’ll get to that)
Beedrill-EX is a Basic Pokémon instead of its usual
Stage 2 self. Definitely an advantage, as this
means it is faster (or faster with less effort) than
most other Beedrill cards we’ve seen. Just
an interesting tidbit; there is one other Beedrill
that released outside of Japan as a Basic Pokémon.
It is Beedrill {G}, a Pokémon SP affiliated with
Team Galactic. Pokémon SP were always either
Basics or Level Up cards.
Beedrill-EX
is a Grass Type; this means many Water Types and a chunk
of the Fighting Type will take double damage due to
Grass Weakness. There str no Grass Resistant
Pokémon except in Unlimited, and we aren’t worried about
that format. Explicit Grass support includes a few
nifty cards, like Forest of Giant Plants and
Revitalizer, but some lesser options that might
still prove useful. Implicit Grass support
includes cards that work elsewhere, but can work better
in a Grass focused deck either due to the presences of
basic Grass Energy, having room for explicit
Grass support, or both. Examples are Vespiquen
(XY: Ancient Origins, Vileplume (XY:
Ancient Origins 3/98), Virizion (XY:
Ancient Origins 12/98), Virizion-EX, and
Yanmega BREAK. The only anti-Grass card of
note is Parallel City, and it just drops damage
by 20. Beedrill-EX has 160 HP, 10 or 20 points
below the typical Basic Pokémon-EX. This marginal
difference will matter on occasion, as some decks will
either score a OHKO or score one more easily than
against the more typical HP scores. The Fire
Weakness might be the real concern, as Volcanion/Volcanion-EX
decks still seem to be a thing, and they go from having
a chance of scoring a OHKO for one Energy attached (and
several to discard) to having a strong chance.
Lack of Resistance is the worst a card can have, but is
also quite common so its absence won’t ruin Beedrill-EX.
Its Retreat Cost is [C], which is low and easy to pay,
both up front and long term. Yet I really did
expect it to be free, so make of that what you will.
Beedrill-EX
has two attacks. The first is “Double Scrapper”
for [C], which allows you to discard up to two Pokémon
Tools attached to your opponent’s Pokémon. So it
is the Expanded only card Tool Scrapper, but as
an attack. The second attack is “Pin Missile” for
[GC], which has you flip four coins and does 40 damage
per “heads”. There are five possible damage
outcomes that break down as follows:
·
6.25% (1 in 16) yield zero damage.
·
25% (4 in 16) yield 40 damage
·
37.5% (6 in 16) yield 80 damage
·
25% (4 in 16) yield 120 damage
·
6.25% (1 in 16) yield 160 damage.
So minimum of zero (that’s bad), maximum of 160 (that’s
great), mean, median, and mode of 80 (that’s good).
The 68.75% of outcomes where two Energy yields at least
80 damage makes me think this is a good, solid attack.
Not a great attack because there is a risk of zero or
just 40 damage, but your chance of whiffing is balanced
against a chance of 160, while your chance of 40 is
balanced against a chance of 120. It also helps
that contrary to appearances, Pin Missile is not
the “main attack” for this card: it is actually Double
Scrapper!
In Standard right now, the only way to discard Pokémon
Tools is via attack: while this is historically the
norm, it is not however what we are used to in recent
years. With cards like Garbodor (XY:
BREAKpoint 57/122) and Pokémon Tools like
Fighting Fury Belt, a lot of players are missing
Startling Megaphone, Tool Scrapper, and
Xerosic, especially if they like to run Ability
reliant decks. So… why don’t players just adjust
to not having these cards? As mentioned, the game
doesn’t seem to want to allow us to do that. Decks
that rely on Abilities are crippled if
Garbodor hits the field, and just to add salt to the
wound that excludes the Abilities used early game
to aid in setting up. Even Garbodor decks
often run Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies
77/108, 106/108) because one tends to just use the
Shaymin-EX first, usually on your first or second
turn. Cards like Magnezone (XY:
BREAKthrough 54/162) aren’t original, using a proven
method of Energy acceleration except it doesn’t work too
well when any deck using Garbodor just grinds it
to a halt. Having room for a Stage 2, both high
and low Energy Basic attackers, and/or an alternate
means of Energy acceleration just aren’t happening, so
you cannot really Garbodor proof that deck, and
those in a similar state.
Enter Beedrill-EX; this is not the only option,
but the others I’ve seen are weaker, like Minccino
(XY: Fates Collide 86/124). In fact that
one has low enough HP it might not even be a bargain
versus a slightly small Pokémon-EX, and its attack only
discards one Pokémon Tool. Why is hitting two
Tools so important? If not in these Card of the
Days, elsewhere I have made it clear that I think
Tool Scrapper and Startling Megaphone are too
strong: Tools are like Items that are a little
restricted (you need a Pokémon with an open Tool slot,
so a regular Item that discards multiples is easy
advantage). However attacks are another matter;
you’re giving up a chance to try for a KO and that is
just not worth it to discard a single card. Plus
it would mean an opponent just had to set up two
Garbodor to have an unbreakable lock… well, one that
needs two attacks to break unless you keep playing down
more Tools. In fact, this is why Double Scrapper
seems underwhelming; you are giving up a lot by not
attacking, especially if it isn’t early game. I
would really prefer it discarded all Tools (even if the
attack needed to cost [CC]) or at least had you choose
two of your opponent’s Pokémon and then discard all
Tools attached to them (as some Pokémon may have
multiple Tools).
It is important to remember that this isn’t a fast
solution; unlike with using a Trainer to do the job,
this is happening right before your opponent’s turn so
Abilities may only wink on long enough for your opponent
to turn them off again. There is another use as
well; some Tools are just that dangerous in the long
term. Obviously Fighting Fury Belt can deny
you a KO which in turn not only forces you to expend
more resources taking it later, but allows your opponent
to keep using his or her own resources (the Pokémon in
question) that ought to have been KO’d. Exp. Share
and Float Stone are also pretty deadly when they
have enough time to be used (or used repeatedly); all
together you might get a good trade if you are hitting
at least two of these at once. Still for a Pokémon
based solution, it needed to be an attack: an Ability
would just be shut down by Garbotoxin anyway. Then
of course there is M Beedrill-EX; we’ll discuss
that one
tomorrow
but at a glance it looks like it has at least a chance
and hey, we are getting Beedrill Spirit Link
alongside these two. Odds are this will be good
enough in Standard, skipped over (except maybe for Mega
Evolving) in Expanded, and it isn’t legal for Limited at
all (though it will likely be good if it ever gets
re-released into a set).
Ratings
Standard:
3.35/5
Expanded:
2/5
Limited:
N/A
Summary:
Beedrill-EX is probably going to be the
Tool discard Pokémon, at least for the foreseeable
future. Why? Unless we get a surprise promo
or reveal, XY: Evolutions is known. Yes the
Rattata in it has an Ability to discard a Tool
from your opponent’s Active when you play it from hand,
that is still blocked by Garbotoxin. If M
Beedrill-EX proves useful, then it will be the
decent back up attacker in the deck as well. If a
deck is Ability heavy, it’s probably going to need
Beedrill-EX, while others will want to consider it
for those edge cases.
|
Zach Carmichael |
Only one more day until the
weekend, folks! Today’s Card of the Day continues the
trend of looking at Pokémon from the XY Black Star
Promos. While it won’t be officially released until next
week, Beedrill-EX is an interesting card that
could potentially help fill the void that is lack of
Tool removal in the current Standard format. It also has
a Mega Evolution, but we’ll wait until tomorrow to cover
it.
The obvious reason players would
consider playing a copy of Beedrill-EX in their
decks is for its first attack, Double Scrapper. For a
single Colorless Energy, it can discard up to 2
Tool cards attached to your opponent’s Pokémon. In a
format that is currently being dominated by Ability lock
thanks to Garbodor’s “Garbotoxin,” Beedrill-EX
could certainly see play. The Energy requirement is
notable because it makes the Pokémon splashable in any
kind of deck. The second attack isn’t too relevant in my
opinion, mainly because there aren’t really any
competitive decks that use Grass Energy besides M
Sceptile-EX, not to mention that coin flips
generally are not worth it.
So what kinds of decks would
especially benefit from playing Beedrill-EX? The
first one that comes to mind is Greninja BREAK.
The Water Pokémon’s “Giant Water Shuriken” Ability makes
it very tough to beat, but unfortunately Garbodor
quickly shuts that off, effectively spelling the end for
the army of frogs. Some of the main decks that run the
heap of trash include Darkrai-EX/Giratina-EX and
M Mewtwo-EX (Y) – without Ability lock these
decks actually have poor matchups to Greninja BREAK.
By running a single Beedrill-EX, you could
significantly improve your chances of doing well against
these decks. Though Greninja variants often max
out Dive Ball counts, they also normally run 2-3
Ultra Ball to provide further search, so the
yellow bee could certainly find its way into the deck.
They key to using Beedrill-EX is to know when and
when not to use Double Scrapper. Most Garbodor
decks run 5-6 Tool cards, so you will want to wait until
you know your opponent can’t attach another Tool to
Garbodor. At that point, Greninja BREAK can
suddenly step in and do loads of damage.
Another deck that could benefit is
Volcanion-EX. The Pokémon’s “Steam Up” Ability
quickly stacks to add damage boosts to the deck’s
Fire-type Pokémon, enabling you to quickly chain OHKO’s
for only a few Fire Energy. However, without the Ability
the deck becomes significantly weaker and no longer can
keep up the Prize exchange. That’s where Beedrill-EX
comes in. Again, you have to time Double Scrapper
perfectly, but it can make all the difference against
Garbodor. Few decks can compete with Volcanion-EX
once its Ability is up and rolling, so perhaps this will
give the deck new life in the coming weeks ahead.
In Expanded, I don’t really see a
place for Beedrill-EX. There are two cards that
already do a fine job in removing Tools: Startling
Megaphone and Tool Scrapper. The latter is
basically Double Scrapper in the form of an Item and is
especially popular in Expanded because it can also
remove Tools attached to your Pokémon, providing
a counter to cards like Head Ringer and
Jamming Net. Having to attack to remove a couple
Tools versus just playing an Item makes Beedrill-EX
irrelevant in this format.
Ratings
Standard: 3/5
Expanded: 1/5
Limited: N/A
Summary: Players have been
desperately seeking a proper form of Tool removal in the
Standard format. Perhaps Beedrill-EX will finally
fill that void, as its Double Scrapper attack does just
that and is splashable in any deck. A well-timed
placement of the little bee could be just enough to stop
Garbodor, but having to waste an attack to just
discard Tools makes the card very situational.
Unfortunately, Expanded has no place for the card as
long as more viable options like Tool Scrapper
exist. All in all, Beedrill-EX might just become
a staple in Standard, but we will have to watch how the
metagame changes with the upcoming Evolutions set
to know for sure.
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