Celebi VMAX – Chilling Reign
Date Reviewed: August 6, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.00
Expanded: 2.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
As foretold… Celebi VMAX (SM – Chilling Reign 008/198, 199/198)! Celebi VMAX is a Grass type, so you can fetch it from your deck with either Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX’s first attack, or the effect of Turffield Stadium. Celebi VMAX has 310 HP. While this is only 10 above the minimum for Pokémon VMAX, it still isn’t an easy OHKO. Doable, but not easy for most decks. The obvious exception stems from Fire decks, thanks to Celebi VMAX’s [R] Weakness. They just need 160 base damage to do the deed. Celebi VMAX has no Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of [C]. The former is the worst, but also the norm, so it isn’t actually bad. The latter isn’t as good as a free Retreat Cost, but is still helpful.
Celebi VMAX has one Ability and knows one attack. “Curative Forest” lets you heal 20 damage from each of your [G] Pokémon. This is once per turn per instance of the Ability; if you have multiple Celebi VMAX, each may use its Curative Forest once, even if that means a total of two, three, or four Curative Forests going off during the same turn. For [GC], Celebi VMAX can use the attack “Max Plant” to do 130 damage to your opponent’s Active, plus you get to search your deck for two Pokémon. While Max Plant has good damage for the Energy, and can fetch any two Pokémon cards, I don’t think that is a good enough reason to run Celebi VMAX…
…but Curative Forest may have merit. 20 isn’t a lot of healing, and while it only works for Grass types, used turn after turn it can add up. Especially with multiple Celebi VMAX, and/or some of the other healing options in the game. We’ve seen an Abilities similar to Curative Forest work on past cards, because they’re backing up some high HP Pokémon, and that is where I’d expect Celebi VMAX to work. Butterfree VMAX, Dhelmise VMAX, Flapple VMAX, Orbeetle VMAX, Rillaboom VMAX, Venusaur VMAX, are worth worth at least a quick glance to see what they might accomplish backed by Celebi VMAX. Not that we should forget about Pokémon-GX either, for the month or so they have left in Standard. Same deal for Expanded as for Standard; look for big, big Grass Pokémon where a Bench full of healing can make a world of difference… but remember there are many more alternatives and counters in Expanded.
One last thing. You’ll notice I haven’t directly mentioned Celebi VMAX being a Pokémon VMAX. If Celebi VMAX was a Basic, even as a TAG TEAM Pokémon, it would be much, much better. Being a VMAX isn’t bad, though; the HP is much appreciated, but remember it comes at the cost of giving up three Prizes when KO’d instead of just one or two. They’re about as cumbersome as Stage 1 Pokémon in terms of cards and time invested. Also be careful of support that excludes Pokémon VMAX, or counters specific to them, them with Pokémon-GX, or Rule Box Pokémon as a whole. It isn’t all bad, as Pokémon VMAX have their own support as well… but I’ve seen more anti-V/VMAX cards prove themselves than support for them.
Ratings
- Standard: 2/5
- Expanded: 2/5
Vince
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