Malamar EX: Good or Nah?

DevinTheWelf

DevinTheWelf

A Mach Punch User
Member
I want to know everyone's opinion about the new Malamar EX from the tcg expansion Phantom Forces. If you haven't seen the card yet, here's the scan: https://pokebeach.com/scans/phantom-forces/58-malamar.jpg

So, here is a list of the pros and cons of this card, if anyone has anything to add to the list just say so.

Pros:
-It takes 3 heads to hit for 180 (the magical number that ko's almost everything)
-Can spam sleep, making it hard to stop the set up of energies onto Malamar EX
-2 retreat cost, not too high, especially when you think that you'll have as many energies on Malamar EX to begin with, so it won't be a hard task to retreat it
-2 energy attack cost (1 dark and 1 colorless) is cheap, meaning you can start your attack early if you want to
-You can use either Trick Coin or Victini (fliptini) to give yourself another shot at getting the correct flips
-Resists Psychic, which could be a common deck type (there's a lot of support for Psychic types in this new set, but it's too soon to tell if it'll be used enough to make a difference)

Cons:
-Weak to fighting which is very common right now
-Relies on luck to hit for high damage and stalling (sleep has a 50/50 chance, and so does every flip for the attack, and if you want to start to get around these factors you'll need to set up Trick Coin/Fliptini)
-Steel Shelter/Virizion EX take away Malamar EX's sleep stall ability, making it harder to set up Malamar EX safely



So, there it is. I'm currently making my own Malamar EX deck, so I want to know how you guys think it could do.
 
I don't think he is as bad as some people say he is but he isn't amazing. The only decks I see that would make Malamar the main attacker is Mega Manectric EX and Malamar EX deck or Blastoise/Malamar EX. Mega Manectric EX deck has the con of both Pokemon being weak to fighting. This could be fixed by putting in Mewtwo EX and Keldeo EX to hit Lucario EX and Landorus EX for weakness, respectively. Also, setting up Victini isn't hard at all and trick coin can be grabbed by Skyla.

Malamar EX could also be used as a "one of" to put your opponent to sleep, possibly slowing them down.

I can see this card making its way of making an appearance in some decks and maybe a deck by its own if the person is having a lucky day.
 
I'd like to point out that you can't use Trick Coin and Victini in the same turn, as Trick Coin specifically says "(You may only use effects that let you flip coins again, including effects from other cards, during your turn.)"

Overall I think Malamar is pretty meh. Ramping Energy onto Yveltal will accomplish the same thing, except you don't need coin flips. If the same amount of Energy are attached to both Pokemon when they attack, Yveltal will almost always do more than Malamar if you flip the most likely amount of heads. Malamar does seem decent in Fairy/Hydreigon decks - sleep is a pretty annoying condition in the right spots, and makes your opponent use resources if they flip tails.
 
Machamp The Champion said:
I'd like to point out that you can't use Trick Coin and Victini in the same turn, as Trick Coin specifically says "(You may only use effects that let you flip coins again, including effects from other cards, during your turn.)"

Overall I think Malamar is pretty meh. Ramping Energy onto Yveltal will accomplish the same thing, except you don't need coin flips. If the same amount of Energy are attached to both Pokemon when they attack, Yveltal will almost always do more than Malamar if you flip the most likely amount of heads. Malamar does seem decent in Fairy/Hydreigon decks - sleep is a pretty annoying condition in the right spots, and makes your opponent use resources if they flip tails.
Click to expand...

I edited by the Trick Coin ruling, thanks for pointing that out.

The Yveltal argument has come up a lot, and while I agree in a most cases that Yveltal is a better offensive attacker, Malamar EX doesn't rely on just attacking. The ability throws in a use for Malamar EX while it's on your bench, making it easier for you to ramp those energy onto the Malamar. I'd imagine Malamar EX could make a good pair with the Darkrai XY promo, where Darkrai can consistently deal 120 and heal 30 as long as Malamar EX is being fueled. Darkrai also has it's first attack to pick up the slack if no energy is available at the time.
 
I think it's good just for the ability. Putting something to sleep that easily can be huge, especially against the toad. It's attack is one of the better flippy attacks and you can always use Hydreigon/Aromatisse/Energy Switch to move the energy onto something else.

I really like Malamar.
 
To be honest sleep is a dismal condituion since there's a 50% chance it will be removed between turns. That's not terrible odds, but I don't find it work wasting my manual attachment just so I can put the opponent to sleep. While it's true that Hypnotoxic Laser, a commonly playee card can incude slee, you're really playing it for the poison, and the sleep is just an added bonus the 25% of the time that you manage it. I'm also not a fan opf flippy attacks. Whenever I've played a card like this sI've always been one heash shy of a knockout at a critical moment. I can see some people playing it for support in Dark variants that don't run Garbodoro, but you won't see me ever attacking with it.
 
The only decks I would play Malamar EX in are decks with either Aromatisse or Hydreigon. I think that its only use is to put the Defending Pokemon to sleep EVERY turn. You attach Energy to Malamar and then move it to wherever you need the Energy. I saw it work very well at league last night in an Aromatisse deck. He would attach to Malamar and then move the Energy to Yveltal to attack. Even if he wakes up or has a way to get out of it with a Switch, the idea is that you're making him use resources to do that. Even if only once in the game, it makes your opponent miss an attack, for a one card spot in the deck, I think it's worth it. Being one attack behind can make all the difference in a game.
 
Mora said:
The only decks I would play Malamar EX in are decks with either Aromatisse or Hydreigon. I think that its only use is to put the Defending Pokemon to sleep EVERY turn. You attach Energy to Malamar and then move it to wherever you need the Energy. I saw it work very well at league last night in an Aromatisse deck. He would attach to Malamar and then move the Energy to Yveltal to attack. Even if he wakes up or has a way to get out of it with a Switch, the idea is that you're making him use resources to do that. Even if only once in the game, it makes your opponent miss an attack, for a one card spot in the deck, I think it's worth it. Being one attack behind can make all the difference in a game.
Click to expand...

I actually did try this out on PTCGO for the last week and it isn't as good as it seems (with aromatisse), but sometimes it works.
Let's say I'm playing against Yveltal; I'm already OHKO'ing it with some electric EX (Zekrom in my case), so the sleep doesn't really come much into a factor. But if I can't OHKO, like I'm setting up a play with Landorus EX, it becomes very handy.
 
I think these are all decent points, however i feel like Malamar is a solid secondary option in an Yveltal deck. I dont know why people are debating either/or when to be perfectly honest, between the synergy of both legal hydreigon cards and the abundance of e-switch in yveltal decks, not to mention the effect of Y Cyclone, i feel as though Malamar makes a great secondary attacker and i think that hydreigon based Yveltal decks, due to this synergy might just become as much of, if not a better build than garbodor. You dont NEED to attack with hydreigon or malamar, but you have the option to do so with both and i think it gives you an excuse to use a card like Darkrai EX perhaps as a one of, whereas before malamar's release you would see multiple darkrai ex in most decks, and i think darkrai is very limited in the new format and i honestly feel like with malamar's ability being an automatic thing that maybe you could even cut baby yveltal to maybe a one of and run your deck that way. Yes, Seismitoad EX hurts hydreigon's effectiveness, as well as all stage 2's in general, but if you can manage to squeeze a thicker line in your deck that having the bonus abilities really pays off in the long run.
 
ive been running malamar ex with blastoise and it has been interesting. using victini can chang your reslt. it does a good job at slowing the game down. not the best but works well in many cases.
 
yes in the way that it can destroy anything under the right circumstances, no in the way that it'll win a lot of tournaments.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top