One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with my quarterly article about impactful cards for the next set.  I will give you a countdown of the 10 cards that I think will be the most impactful from Dragon’s Exalted.  I know that my list won’t be perfect, but this could be a decent look at some of the cards that you might see at Battle Roads.

Dragon’s Exalted is a decent set.  It does not have the consistency cards that we all want to replace some of the rotated cards, but it does have some cool Pokemon that will be in tier 1 and 2 decks, as well as rogue decks.  Let us look at those cards.

10. Garchomp

The countdown will lead off with a card that some people think will make up the bulk of a tier 1 or 2 deck, Garchomp.  This Garchomp has two attacks, one that does 60 for 1, and two that does 100 for two and a mill of two.  It also has some decent stats, 140 HP and a 1 retreat cost.  A lot of people are thinking of building a deck with this guy.  The deck would be with Garchomp and Altaria, who has an Ability that gives you the same as two plus powers each turn per Altaria (for Dragon Pokemon only).  One of the Gabite’s in this set has an Ability that let’s you search out a Dragon Type card, so people think that this deck can give you a good mix of damage and consistency.  If people actually make this deck and do well with it, there is no doubt that this will be a very impactful card.

So, why is it only #10 on my list?  Right now I don’t buy the deck being as good as people think it does.  There are still a lot of cards in the format that give advantages to the Big Basic Pokemon, and this deck not only runs 1 evolution line without disruption, it runs 2.  It can be hard to get all of these Evoltion lines out quickly enough to beat Pokemon like Mewtwo EX to the punch.  The Secret Rare Rayquaza can also OHKO Gible’s and Gabite’s for only one energy, so there are some problems out there for this deck.  It also does not give you that high of a damge output.  Assuming 2 Altaria’s, his first attack does 100 damage and his second does 140.  140, or even 160 does not OHKO most EXs.  And if you are relying on his second attack, you will be discarding some valuable cards, possibly even some Altarias and Sawablus that you need.

So, will this card be impactful?  I think it will be early on, do I think that it will carry on beyond that?  Probably not.  It is a card to look out for, but I do not know if it will be the most impactful card in the set.  But, since I am hating on this card, that probably means that it will become the next Luxray Gl Lv.X.

9. Rescue Scarf

So we lost Rescue Energy, and now it’s back, kind of.  Rescue Scarf is the same thing as Rescue Energy, except that it is Tool form and does not count for any energy.  Rescue Energy was a good card, so why shouldn’t Rescue Scarf be a good card as well?

Rescue Energy was a great card when combined with Broken Time Space to allow for quick evolutions.  We no longer have BTS, but the card still does have some uses in evolution decks.  It is probably the best tool card to use in evolution decks, the new Garbador comes in mind as being a good combination, Eelektrik also jumps into mind as a good combo.  Since most people play a pyramid style line to deal with Pokemon Catcher, Rescue Scarf will work well in this format.   I could see this card being a strong rogue choice in the coming format, though it may never be a staple unless we get a BTS reprint.

There are some bad things about Rescue Scarf.  One thing is that it is good at what it does, but it doesn’t do anything else.  Rescue Energy also provided energy, this card does not.  Rescue Scarf can also be taken off with Tool Scrapper and worked around with special conditions like burn and poison.  It also interferes with other tool cards like Eviolite and Exp. Share, even though you probably won’t be playing those two cards in an evolution deck.

I think that this card will be impactful.  It will not be a card that we see everywhere, but in Stage 2 decks it is a solid choice.

8. Garbador

Next on our list is Garbador, a card that can make a huge impact for this coming year and beyond.  Garbador is a card that reminds me a lot of Dialga G Lv.X.  That card could only take away Poke-Bodies, which only accounted for half of what he know today as Abilities.  If Garbador has a Tool Card attached to him, he can take away all Abilities in play, except his own of course.  This  is a card that may not take the format by storm, but should have a big impact in the long run.

I love Garbador because it is versatile and can do something that nobody else can.  Abilities may not be the best thing about most Pokemon right now, but they are very important in most decks out there.  Imagine a Reshiboar deck without energy acceleration, an Eel deck without energy recovery, an Empoleon deck without its Draw Power, or a Hydreigon deck without the ability to move energies around;  those scenarios would be disasterous for those decks.  And one card that can do all fo that is Garbador.

But, all is not great when you talk about Garbador.  One bad thing is that he is a great target for your opponent’s 4 Pokemon Catchers.  He doesn’t have much on an attack and he has a high retreat cost.  Another is that not all decks can play Garbador, since takes away all Abilites except his own, there is a good chance that he might screw up your deck too.  He also needs a Pokemon Tool card attached to be useful.  This means that if you can’t find the tool card, or your opponent uses Tool Scrapper, Garbador can be next to useless.

This is not a card that solves all problems of all the decks out there, but I sitll like it.  I think it will be a very impactful card in the coming formats.  It may not see a ton of action, but in the decks that we do see it in, it will be very disruptive.  For being so unique and so versatile, I gotta put Garbador in my top 10 list, I have the feeling that some rogue deck builders are going to love this guy.  Just load up on Swtiches and hope for the best.

7.   Tool Scrapper

Finally we get a way to get rid of that stupid Eviolite.

In my opinion, Eviolite is the second best card around.  It allows EX Pokemon like Mewtwo EX to become unstoppable tanks.  I can’t tell you how many times I was stimied by an Eviolited EX.  Now there is finally a card that can balance out the power shift that Eviolite brought us.

Tool Scrapper let’s you discard 2 tool cards that your opponent has attached to his Pokemon.  That means that you can take down 2 Eviolites in one swoop.  It should allow you to pull out an unexpected KO on an EX Pokemon when you use it at the right time.  I can’t tell ya how I excited I am for this guy.  Even though it will be hard to fit in decks, it finally can give evolution decks a chance against the BBP.

It is not a perfect card, however.  There is nothing to stop your opponent from attaching an Eviolite back on a Pokemon that you just Tool Scrapped clean.  People usually run 3 Eviolites in a deck, so if you only take away 1 or 2 with Tool Scrapper, you may not have solver your problem.  You may end up needing to play 2-3 Tool Scrappers if you want the card to have any kind of consistent effect.  This will take up precious deck slots that can be used to make your deck more effective.

If you find room for this card, I would highly reccomend it, especially if you are playing an evolution deck.  I know that there has been no hype on this card, but I am putting it on this list because I think it has the chance to even the format for the evolution decks.  Most cards that have came out favor the BBP, but this is one that could start reversing the balance of power.  I am pumped for Tool Scrapper.

6.  Emolga

To me Emolga is one of the most interesting cards in Dragon’s Exalted.  I am not sure if he will be impactful because there have been Pokemon like Emolga that have been junk cards. But, some people say that because of the loss of a lot of basic search cards, now someone with the “Call for Family” attack can be playable.  Only time will tell, but so far I like Emolga.

It is hard for me not to like Emolga because he is so cute, but he does some good things on the playing surface.  He let’s you search for two basics and put them on your bench, this is almost essential to any evolution deck these days.  I could see this card going into every stage 2 deck that gets played, and unlike last year, this year some stage 2 decks will see some play.  Another cool thing about Emolga is the fighting resistance, this will not save him from Terrakion, but at least he won’t be easy for the fighting Pokemon (like most electric types are),

There are some bad thing about Emolga.  The first is that you will have to run at least 2-3 of it to make any consistent impact in your deck, and that takes up precious deck space.  The next is that Emolga is pretty useless later game, though you can play Pokemon Communication in your deck if you run 3-4 Emolga’s. Another thing is that Emolga is almost always a late game prize for your opponent with Pokemon Catcher.  Although stepping up 2 stage 2s may be worth losing a prize, it is still never a good thing to go down a prize.

I think Emolga will be fairly impactful.  No “Call for Family” attacker has worked so far, but maybe this format is right for him.  It seems like a card that you should at least test out in most of your decks.  And although BBP decks might be most successful, stage 2 decks will make a huge impact in the 2012-2013 format.

5.   Mew EX

The next card on our countdown is a versatile card that has a lot of upside and a lot of downside.  Mew EX is kind of like Mew Prime, except it can use the attack of any Pokemon in play instead of the Lost Zone.  Using Mew EX you can use the same energies and the same attacks as your deck normally does, except you can hit pokemon like Gothitelle and Mewtwo EX for weakness.

The upside of this card is that you don’t really have to change your deck at all just add Mew Prime.  And you then can add another attacker to your deck, this means a 5th Garchomp if you so desire.  It also means that you can use Mew EX and get rid of the weakness that Garchomp has.  Since Mew can also use your opponent’s attacks, it can be a very versatile card.  It never will be a card that can always get you out of trouble, but if your deck is in trouble, Mew EX can possibly come in and copy the attacks of your opponent’s Tornadus, or something similar to that.  It is a very versatile card that can fit into almost any deck and can help you when you are in trouble.

The downside of this card is pretty obvious.  It is an EX, but it only gives you 120 HP.  So that means cards like Reshiram BW can knock out Mew for two prizes.  It also is weak to Mewtwo EX and Gothitelle, so that means that those Pokemon will pretty much always be able to OHKO you.  So even if Mew is very versatile, it will give your opponent two prizes if you don’t use it right.

Weighing the good against the bad gives you a confusing outcome.  On onehand he is the most versatile Pokemon in history, on the other he is a huge liability.  I think that Mew EX can be very impactful, but you must use him right.  If he can be used to do a specific purpose, he will be very good in your deck.  If not he could be the reason that you lose.

4.       Hydreigon

Some people say that Klingklang will continue to be a good deck, while others say that Dark is now a better type and Hydreigon will take over for Klingklang.  We do not know exactly if Hydreigon will be a tier 1 deck, but right now we can safely say that it will be a good deck.  It can do some of the stuff that Klingklang did, and some of the stuff that the Darkrai EX decks did.  Whether the hyped Hydreigon deck is more like Klingklang or it is more like Darkrai/Tornadus is a conversation for another day, but we do know that the deck does work.

I think that Hydreigon will be an impactful card because it can pick up where Klingklang left off, and it can make use of another popular card, Darkrai EX.  A lot of good players are waiting for this card to come out because it is a card that everyone can be familiar with very easily.  There should not be much of a learning curve with this deck, it should be a deck that everyone will know how to play and how to tech it against the format.

It is a stage 2, which brings with it the stigma of being slow.  There also is no Junk Arm in the format to maximize Dark Patch.  The new Blend Energy also puts fighting and water energy away from dark energy, which means that it will be hard for this deck to maximize the use of Groudon EX and Kyogre EX like Klingklang did.  But, even though there are some things against this card it is set to become an integral part of a deck that is sure to be at least Tier 2.  So watch out for this Hydreigon early in the season.

3.       Blend Energy

The next incarnation of Rainbow Energy is here, and it is without damage counters, but it is split up into two separate cards.

Rainbow Energy has not always been a popular card, but this format demands versatile energy cards like Blend energy.  There are some mono-type decks out there like Eel decks, Emboar decks, and Terrakion fighting decks; but the rest of the decks are all about versatility when it comes to types.  Since we have Pokemon that have HP that is so large, we are going to be able to take advantage of weakness in order to keep getting our OHKOs.  And if we have versatility in types, we need energy that is versatile.  The success of Klingklang at U.S. Nationals will not go away, it is a harbinger of things to come.  The  best decks are going to have weakness over some of the other best decks, and so they will use Blend Energy.

In my preliminary testing, I have found that Blend Energy is useful in about half of the decks out there.  Not to mention that the playing of Dragon type Pokemon will almost demand the play of Blend Energy.  It can be frustrating when you are trying to make decks with types that are on different Blend Energy cards, but we will need to make our decks based on Blend Energy.  And once we get all of our format straightened out, than we can start to build decks that maximize our use of Blend Energy.

I think Blend Energy will be very impactful in the next format, the three spot might be a little bit high, but we will see this card being played in about half of the decks out there.  Because Blend Energy makes these decks work, it deserves a high score in the impact department.

2.       Siglyph

Sigy is a surprise to make it this far up the list.  There has been 0 hype about this card, yet it is poised to make a huge impact on this format.  It may infact be our savior from the tyranny of Mewtwo EX.

Siglyph is great because of its Ability.  No Pokemon EX can attack Siglyph, unless Garbador DRX is out.  Sigy is also a psychic Pokemon, so he can hit Mewtwo EX for weakness without being able to be hit back.  Sure we still do have Pokemon Catcher in the format to get around the Siglyph wall, but now Mewtwo EX can be hit for weakness without the threat of a revenge KO by another Mewtwo.  Sigy’s attack will not always OHKO Mewtwo EX, but it will whenever your opponent is trying to load up energies on him to tank.  Siglyph is also a good wall against other EX Pokemon, but his main goal will be to stop Mewtwo EX.

If Siglyph is successful, he can possibly erase Mewtwo EX from the format.  If Siglyph becomes a staple at Battle Roads, we may just see people stop playing Mewtwo.  Right now Mewtwo is a great Pokemon to add to any deck, but if we can keep seeing Sigy on the other side of the table, we might just stop playing this tech.

No Siglyph is not a perfect card.  He can only go in decks that can spare room for either psychic or Blend Energies, and those that run DCE or some form of energy acceleration.  He also will take a long time to chip away at the HP of Pokemon like Terrakion EX, and that will give the opponent an extra turn or two to find a Pokemon Catcher.

1.         Rayquaza EX

I have never been less sure of a #1 spot.  I could put something like Siglyph, Hydreigon, or Blend Energy; those are cards that are good and have a bright future in front of them.  But, all of those cards have a ceiling.  Rayquaza EX has no ceiling.  It can be a dominant card in the format.  Hydreigon will not be the next Garchomp C Lv. X, but Rayquaza EX has a chance at it.

This card is a main attacker, and can do as much damage as you need to do.  Even though the main attack requires a discard, it uses the energy types that have good energy acceleration and recovery.  You can either built Rayquaza around the Eelektrik engine with lightning energies, or you can use fire energies and Emboar BW.  Both builds will have a lot of good support to utilize, so there is really not a bad choice there.

But the future of this card is not certain.  I do not know for sure that this card will be tier 1, I can’t even promise tier 2.  Although it is a lot of damage from a basic, it is still not a slam dunk contender for the bigger tournaments next year.  Perhaps the discard will haunt this card and Garchomp will be able to hit it for weakness, but it does have the upside.

I do not know for sure that this card will be the most impactful card of the set, but the potential to revolutionize the game is there.  If you are a NFL draft nerd like me, I think we can equate him to Robert Griffin III.  He has the potential to dominate the game like nobody ever has, yet we all know that if he doesn’t become a great player he will become a huge failure.  I am going out on a limb and putting it all on Rayquaza here, I hope he realizes his huge potential.

Conclusion

Here is a quick run down of the best of the rest. 

11.  Terrakion– Really good card in the next format.  Will fit in well.  But it didn’t make the list because its too similar to other cards that we have to really make a difference.

12.  Registeel EX– Great spreader and okay tank.  Will be good card, but we have yet to see if it can bring back the spread, so far the spread is still dead.

Honorable mention: Bouffallant, Altaria, and Giant Cape.

While this may not be a great set, it is full of some really good cards. We will continue to see some of these cards throughout the year and into next. The set may not be par, but it has some good treasurers for us to use while we are making our decks.

So long and Thanks for all the fish!

Category: 10 Impactful Cards | Tags: Blend Energy, Emolga DRX, Garbador DRX, Garchomp DRX, Hydriegon DRX, Mew EX, Rayquaza EX, Rescue Scarf, Siglyph DRX, Tool Scrapper