RE: The Best Pokemon-EX?
DrunkSpinda said:
Darkrai is still a force to be reckoned, and will be until it rotates
^
warning: wall of text
I know I'll probably get a lot of flack for this, but I do honestly believe Darkrai-EX is the best of the lot right now. I'm not sure if it's because of all the Item recycling and free retreating if it exploits, or due to all that extra snipe damage that keeps building up or what, but either way, Darkrai is dangerous.
I know I posted in the topic just like this a while back, but Plasma Freeze is out now, so I'll have to make a re-assessment. Let's see...
(I'm not going to mention every EX, obviously - just the ones of note. You can expect me to skip over nonsense like Kyurem EX or Terrakion EX.)
~Mewtwo-EX: He used to be the king, the most important EX there was. Even with the advent of Darkrai, he was still extremely prominent, but now that Deoxys has come onto the scene he's become sorely outclassed. Mewtwo wars have been replaced by Deoxys wars, since Mewtwo needs a DCE and a PlusPower to RK, while Deoxys needs a Psychic and a Colress Machine. Both are somewhat tricky, but the latter is much easier, as DCE is not searchable outside of Computer Search.
~Tornadus-EX: This guy has been consistently good since his arrival, and Plasma Storm thrust him into the limelight, able to pull off a T1 90 with DCE, Virbank, and Laser. He's not only good at donking, but has a fairly strong early- and mid-game as well. His usefulness wanes in the late game, but he can score some quick kills.
~Darkrai-EX: The ability to get a T2 Night Spear is frightening. Darkrai can take advantage of Energy Switch and Dark Patch to power up from the discard, plus Dark Cloak makes his entire field mobile. It doesn't even need to worry about Garbodor, since after the early-game set-up, Night Spears and Catchers can take care of Garbodor handily. And don't forget that Laser and Dark Claw exploitation to seal a KO against Keldeo EX at the end of the opponent's turn. (Throw in a PlusPower and he can do the same thing to any 180 HP EX, too.) Klinklang may have the best edge against him, but even Landorus EX, the supposed good matchup against Darkrai, can't handle repeated assaults.
~Registeel-EX: I know most of the time this guy is regulated to certain PlasmaKlang variants, but he's actually quite splashable. I wouldn't call him a really good EX, but he can make life troublesome for certain decks with his Triple Laser. He's used in PlasmaKlang decks against the Eels matchup, which is otherwise favorable for Eels. (I've been there; I run Eels. You do NOT want to let that Registeel attack 3 times; you will lose.)
~Rayquaza-EX: Hey, he's my favorite, anyway. I think he's at, or near, the same level as Darkrai, primarily because he has the ability to one-shot
anything. His support network of Eels is what keeps him going, and the only way to really stop a Rayquaza rampage is to either pick off the Eels or stop them completely with Garbodor. Unfortunately, due to Rayquaza's sheer speed, that's very hard to pull off. Rayquaza-EX is also extremely difficult to OHKO, since his weakness is Dragon, which is extremely uncommon, and commonly requires another Rayquaza-EX or a Rayquaza DRV - or, for the adventurous, Hydreigon DRX (or Giratina EX, for further lulz).
~Ho-Oh-EX: Ho-Oh seems to come and go a lot. It's...weird. It's mostly used for Rebirth-Energy Switch shenanigans, so it's a great backrow supporter, but other than that it regulates most of the heavy damage to its frontline, whatever that might be. But it can drag out 3 Energy all at once and can play itself continually from your discard pile with lucky flips, so I guess that is something to consider. And, like Registeel, it is splashable, so it can pair up with a lot of things.
~Keldeo-EX: Keldeo has become the new Mewtwo of our time. The reason for this is because the new BCIF is (in my opinion) not Catcher, but
Switch, due to its use to counter Hypnotoxic Laser as well as Catcher itself, among a few other things. But mostly Laser. Rush In effectively gives you infinite Switch, and it finds its greatest usage in Darkrai (who gives it free retreat) and Eels (who can give it energy to retreat from the discard). In fact, it has gotten to the point where Keldeo is now a required staple in both of those decks. And then you have Blastoise/Keldeo, where you can use Keldeo to attack, and it just gets even better. Rush In is probably one of the best, if not the best, Abilities in format, and has remained as such whenever it was legal, ever since Fossil's Dragonite. And when he attacks, he helps to scare off...
~Landorus-EX: Similar to his brother Tornadus-EX (and his other brother Thundurus who I'm going to get to), Landorus has an incredibly strong early game, able to hit 2 targets for 30 damage on the first turn (he's the death of Tynamo and Klink, I swear). Unlike Tornadus-EX, however, his late game is considerably stronger, since he can power up enough and get the chance to hit for 150 damage, which (after piling up damage from Hammerhead or even Lasers) will score KOs on most anything. He's mostly regulated to Hammerhead roles, and the prevalence of Tornadus-EX (who resists him) has caused his use to diminish, but I do think he's considerably strong, since he can OHKO the fearsome Darkrai-EX and Thundurus-EX.
~Black Kyurem-EX (Plasma Storm): He's basically regulated to be stuck in Blastoise/Keldeo decks, but he's quite similar to Rayquaza in that he can OHKO anything,
even with Eviolite (which Rayquaza either may have to disarm or expend a 4th Energy), barring the rare Tornadus-EX + Aspertia + Eviolite/Cape. Sure he's only in one deck, but he's good. He's like staring into a nuke.
~Cobalion-EX: If not for Klinklang, I don't think Cobalion would be nearly as good as he is now. However, he (like Landorus) can hit for 30 damage with 1 Energy, and doubles as an Enhanced Hammer too - in fact, because of him, Special Energy has actually seen a decline in play. His second attack is just a flat 100, ignoring everything else, which is a guaranteed 2HKO on any EX, and a 1HKO on some dangerous non-EX threats like Bouffalant or Sigilyph. I don't think he's as astounding as some of the other EXs...but he's pretty darn good.
~Lugia-EX: Not as prevalent as some of the others, but he does require a mention because of Overflow. Lugia is commonly a late-game attacker, but Overflow actually ends the game a lot quicker, because due to Laser support (among other things like Deoxys or even Thundurus), Plasma Gale can KO most anything - even EXs after some weakening - taking 2 or even 3 prizes at once. Lugia KOing an EX is already half the game over, which is terrifying, so in theory, Lugia only needs to score 2 KOs on EXs and the game is done. Its big weaknesses are Garbodor and Colress Machine (the Machine doesn't stop Lugia; rather, he
needs the Machine), so do keep that in mind.
~Thundurus-EX: I am not quite sure what to say about Thundurus-EX right now, other than the obvious revelation that he recycles Plasma Energy after it's been used up by Lugia, or after a KO on Deoxys or whoever else is using it. Like his brother Tornadus-EX, his Retreat Cost is only 1, so after a few Raiden Knuckles he can get out of there pretty quick (I can actually see Thundurus/Lugia/Eels becoming a thing) and not waste too much time in the active spot. Unfortunately, he easily falls prey to his other brother, Landorus-EX, who brings him down to 10 HP after an unboosted Land's Judgment - and seriously, we have Lasers and PlusPowers to smack Thundurus, so I predict Landorus seeing an increase in play again. Trickier still is Raiden Knuckle is a mid-/late-game attack, unlike the other EXs with 30-for-1 attacks, which are all early-game. I get the feeling Thundurus-EX will become prize bait, but then again, after he drags some Plasma Energy back, it might not matter, since by then his friend Deoxys is ready to go again. Speaking of which...
~Deoxys-EX: I started this by mentioning Deoxys and I'm going to end with it too. Deoxys is compatible with Colress Machine and Raiden Knuckle (for Helix Force), powers up your entire field with a constant and stackable PlusPower (for Power Connect), and crazier still, Helix Force can do a
lot of damage for relatively little cost; it effectively scares Mewtwo off completely (since Deoxys' Helix Force w/Plasma does 180 damage), and can 2HKO most anything else - 90 damage to anything with 2 Energy (which is a lot of things), and 100 to giants like Cobalion (w/o Klinklang) and Darkrai - and even scarier still, it can OHKO the dreaded 5-Energy Keldeo EX (or 6+Eviolite). Oh, and it OHKOs opposing Deoxys (hence my comment about Mewtwo wars being replaced). I know a lot of people are really enthusiastic about this card, and they might be for good reason. But this could signal a change in the metagame, making people rely on lower-Energy decks. Either way, Deoxys is definitely going to leave his mark.
So if I had to compress it into, say, a top 5 ranking, it'd go like this:
1: Darkrai-EX
2: Keldeo-EX
3: Deoxys-EX
4: Rayquaza-EX
5: Tornadus-EX
Don't take my opinion as complete fact - just my assessment of the potential BLW-PLF metagame. I have tried to make it an accurate assessment, but that is up to you and the results of Battle Roads to decide.
