Roxie – Cosmic Eclipse Pokemon Review

Vince

Roxie is another character from Black 2 & White 2 that didn’t contribute much to the game other than being a roadblock for trainers to get the Gym Badge from her. She specializes Poison types and I am aware that there are some cards which references her. So her playability is split into two parts: general usage and how well it combos with other cards.

So onto general usage, she is a Supporter card which makes you discard up to 2 Pokemon that isn’t a Pokémon-EX or Pokemon-GX, and you get to draw 3 cards for each Pokémon discarded this way. A straight draw of six cards is a good effect, though you should enjoy her while it lasts because Professor’s Research brings back the effect of other notable Professor cards such as Professor Oak, Juniper, and Sycamore. The discard cost can sometimes be iffy; depending on what Pokémon you discard, you may or may not get them back. In some situations, it might be beneficial to discard certain Pokémon for additional effects.

Which brings me to address Koffing and Weezing. They both have an ability called Blow-Away Bomb. When you discard those Pokémon with the effect of Roxie, you put one damage counter on each of your opponent’s Pokemon after resolving the effect of Roxie. Discarding 2 of any combination of Koffing and Weezing means you get to put 2 damage counters on each of your opponent’s Pokemon. If you get to use her multiple times and have enough Pokémon recover items, then those little damage start to add up eventually.

This is a pretty nice combo to make Roxie viable and has seen some success in tournaments. One last thing I would add for Expanded is that Propagation Exeggcute makes Roxie have NO drawbacks as it brings itself back from the discard pile onto your hand (well, unless abilities are offline)!

Ratings:

• Standard: 3.5/5
• Expanded: 4.5/5
• Limited: 4.5/5

Otaku

Welcome to a triple review day.  We – or at least I – wanted us to cover Roxie (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 205/236) to do so properly, one basically needs to half-review Koffing (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 76/236, 234/236) and Weezing (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 77/236).  Not only does it seem like a waste to not just fully review those two cards by that point, but even the partial reviews threaten to bog down the main Roxie review… so we’re just giving each card its due with its own review.  If it helps, think of Roxie as the “main” review, and the other two as supplemental.

As you would assume, Roxie is a Trainer-Supporter; to compete, she’ll need an effect worth that coveted once-per-turn Supporter usage.  Roxie says to discard up to two Pokémon from your hand – excluding Pokémon-EX/GX – and then draw three cards for each you discarded.  This is one of those times when “up to” does not include zero.  Roxie only nets you one card of advantage if you discard one, or three cards if you discard two, but you are digging up to six cards deep in your deck, adding all of those drawn to hand, and you’re not having to shuffle away or discard your entire hand.  The specific nature of the one or two card draw really hurts, though; if you whiff on Pokémon that you can (or would want) to discard, Roxie is dead in your hand.

There’s a bit more to Roxie, however.  Both Koffing (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 76/236, 234/236) and Weezing (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 77/236) have the Ability “Blow-Away Bomb”, which specifically states it can only be triggered when that Pokémon is discarded through Roxie’s effect.  Your reward is that Blow-Away Bomb places a damage counter on all of your opponent’s Pokémon.  Any other method of discarding won’t work, though you can opt to discard two Pokémon with Blow-Away Bomb with a single use of Roxie and then both instances of the Ability will trigger.

This combo means Roxie isn’t just a source of good draw power, but of spreading damage counters, and without using an attack.  This seems useful to damage spread decks in general, and for turning certain stall/control decks into damage spread.  Having to discard Pokémon is a cost, but it can also feed into other combos.  If a deck is already running something like Giratina (SM – Lost Thunder 97/124; SM – Black Star Promos SM151), you can still get it into the discard pile with Roxie.  Since you have to discard Pokémon, Roxie may be a good fit for decks with attacks that hit harder based on Pokémon in your discard pile, like Night March.  I haven’t seen any instances of Roxie (with or without Koffing and Weezing) in Night March…

…but we do have some well-performing Persian Box decks.  This toolbox-style deck utilizes Persian-GX and Pidgeotto (SM – Team Up 123/181).  Though Persian-GX is also here for its Ability, its “Vengenace” attack; [CCC] lets it swing for 10 damage plus 20 per Pokémon in your discard pile.  This instance of Vengeance caps the damage bonus from its effect at 180, but upwards of 190 for a Triple Acceleration Energy is still really good.  The deck is also packing Pidgeotto (SM – Team Up 123/181), and its “Air Mail” Ability should help with having the proper discard fodder for Roxie.  The lists I’m seeing feature Mimikyu (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 97/236), another card we’ll need to look at soon; its “Shadow Box” Ability shuts off the Abilities of Pokémon-GX with damage counters on them.

Roxie’s Garchomp & Giratina is what really caught me off guard, though.  Using Roxie and Weezing to set up for Garchomp & Giratina-GX’s “Calamitous Slash” attack is the source of the surprise; the attack costs [PFC] to use and does 160 damage, plus another 80 if the Pokémon being attacked already has at least one damage counter on it.  Its enjoyed some success in Standard, but just this past weekend, Hunter Butler used it to win the Expanded Format Regional Championship held in Dallas, TX!  Yeah, the cutthroat Expanded Format, and at a tournament from an area known to be competitive, with 756 players in the Masters Division!  Thanks to Tapu Koko {*}, Double Dragon Energy, some switching cards (less than I expected), and the crazy draw/search power of Expanded, this deck had explosive openings.

Roxie is a great pull for the Limited Format, even if you can’t run her with Koffing or Weezing.  Generally speaking, in Limited Format play any draw power and any Supporter is greatly appreciated; you should have a decent amount of “filler” Pokémon you can spare.  If you do have Koffing and/or Weezing, even better!  Roxie’s future isn’t looking great, either.  Sword & Shield will bring Professor’s Research and Pokémon with higher average HP scores, as well as new record HP scores found on Pokémon V-Max.

Ratings

• Standard: 3/5
• Expanded: 4/5
• Limited: 4/5

Roxie’s strength and weakness (note the lowercase “w”) is how reliant she is on other cards to really deliver.  That’s why, even though she offers seemingly solid draw power, she isn’t found in most decks.  I’m also not just talking about using her to access Blow-Away Bomb, either; the entire combo is amazing in the right deck, but it isn’t like those decks have been making Top 8 since Roxie’s release.  I almost scored her lower for these reasons, but I do consider combos when scoring single cards, so we’ll enjoy Roxie’s performance while we can.