Medicham ex
Strategists were asked to specifically discuss:
1. Espeon ex / Medicham ex combo
2. T2 version
Medicham ex, 4/19
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
- Start date
Strategists were asked to specifically discuss:
1. Espeon ex / Medicham ex combo
2. T2 version
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Okay the second COTD review.
Medicham ex
Medicham ex is a great card. His HP is good for a stage 1 and he only has 1 retreat cost. Medicham ex has no resistance and a weakness to psychic which hurts when up against Gengar, Espeon ex, and Banette ex.
Medicham ex's PokeBody is unbelivable. As long as Medicham ex is your active pokemon all pokemon excluding pokemon ex can't use Poke Powers.
That means that it shuts off Pidgeot, Magcargo, Metanite, Dragtrode, and lots of others.
Medicham's first attack for 2 colorless energies is Pure Power, put 3 damage counters on any of your opponents pokemon. What's awesome about that is you can spread the damage around or pile it up on one pokemon.
Medicham's second attack is Sky Kick for one fighting energy and two colorless, it does 60 damage and if the defending pokemon is resistent to fighting it does 40 more damage. So really it will only do 70 because you still have to minus the resistance. However if you play Magnetic Storm Medicham ex will do 100 damage to a fighting resistant pokemon flat out.
COMBOS
In today's Metagame there are two popular decks with Medicham ex, Espycham and T2 Medicham ex.
First I will take a look at Espycham. Espycham consists of Medicham ex, Espeon ex, and Umbreon ex. Medicham ex uses Pure Power on the bench and when the time is right you use Espeon ex to devolve a benched pokemon that is evolved that has damage on it. Umbreon ex is in there for a Gust of Wind. This deck is basically a Sniping/Disruption deck.
Next is the T2 version. This one is played with 4 Meditite, 4 Medicham ex, and 4 Jirachi (DX). This deck is basically a disruption deck. The goal of this deck is to get Medicham ex out as quick as possible and use Pure Power to get damage on your opponents pokemon. The deck uses Pokemon Reversal, Energy Removal 2, POW! Hand Extension, and Rocket's Admin. This deck is so annoying to play against.
Match Up's
Metanite: 9/10 Medicham ex shuts off d Metagross, d Dragonite, and Magcargo's PokePowers so the deck can not function.
Dragtrode: 10/10 Medicham ex does the same thing it does to Metanite except it's even worse against Dragtrode.
ZRE: 4/10 An interesting match up, however if ZRE gets going its going to be very hard to win.
BSL: 6/10 Pretty evenly matched. Medicham ex clearly has the advantage over Steelix ex and Lugia ex if Magnetic Storm is out. Don't forget to use Espeon ex to devolve their Blastoise ex if they used Rare Candy on it.
Queendom: 6/10 Medicham ex shuts down Pidgeot so Queendom has a hard time setting up. However watch out for Milotic because it will heal all of their pokemon and none of your ex's.
Rock-Lock: 8/10 Tyranitar and Ampharos are both weak to fighting and Pidgeot can not use Quick search.
Ludicargo: 8/10 Magcargo and Ludicolo can not use their PokePowers so it should be an easy win.
Liability: 3/10 With Weezing and Desert Ruins you're in trouble. However if you can Pure Power the Koffings before they can get out Weezing you might have a chance.
Overall Rating: 8/10 Medicham ex has the advantage over a lot of the popular decks right now and you can see why it has won 4 State Championships in 2006, it has the most wins in States with the exception to BSL with 12 wins. It's a very fun deck to play and when 3 to 4 sets get rotated out after Worlds it will become even more popular than it is right now. With Holon Phantoms coming out soon we will have to wait and see if the new cards will hurt Medicham ex or make him even stronger.
Okay the second COTD review.
Medicham ex
Medicham ex is a great card. His HP is good for a stage 1 and he only has 1 retreat cost. Medicham ex has no resistance and a weakness to psychic which hurts when up against Gengar, Espeon ex, and Banette ex.
Medicham ex's PokeBody is unbelivable. As long as Medicham ex is your active pokemon all pokemon excluding pokemon ex can't use Poke Powers.
That means that it shuts off Pidgeot, Magcargo, Metanite, Dragtrode, and lots of others.
Medicham's first attack for 2 colorless energies is Pure Power, put 3 damage counters on any of your opponents pokemon. What's awesome about that is you can spread the damage around or pile it up on one pokemon.
Medicham's second attack is Sky Kick for one fighting energy and two colorless, it does 60 damage and if the defending pokemon is resistent to fighting it does 40 more damage. So really it will only do 70 because you still have to minus the resistance. However if you play Magnetic Storm Medicham ex will do 100 damage to a fighting resistant pokemon flat out.
COMBOS
In today's Metagame there are two popular decks with Medicham ex, Espycham and T2 Medicham ex.
First I will take a look at Espycham. Espycham consists of Medicham ex, Espeon ex, and Umbreon ex. Medicham ex uses Pure Power on the bench and when the time is right you use Espeon ex to devolve a benched pokemon that is evolved that has damage on it. Umbreon ex is in there for a Gust of Wind. This deck is basically a Sniping/Disruption deck.
Next is the T2 version. This one is played with 4 Meditite, 4 Medicham ex, and 4 Jirachi (DX). This deck is basically a disruption deck. The goal of this deck is to get Medicham ex out as quick as possible and use Pure Power to get damage on your opponents pokemon. The deck uses Pokemon Reversal, Energy Removal 2, POW! Hand Extension, and Rocket's Admin. This deck is so annoying to play against.
Match Up's
Metanite: 9/10 Medicham ex shuts off d Metagross, d Dragonite, and Magcargo's PokePowers so the deck can not function.
Dragtrode: 10/10 Medicham ex does the same thing it does to Metanite except it's even worse against Dragtrode.
ZRE: 4/10 An interesting match up, however if ZRE gets going its going to be very hard to win.
BSL: 6/10 Pretty evenly matched. Medicham ex clearly has the advantage over Steelix ex and Lugia ex if Magnetic Storm is out. Don't forget to use Espeon ex to devolve their Blastoise ex if they used Rare Candy on it.
Queendom: 6/10 Medicham ex shuts down Pidgeot so Queendom has a hard time setting up. However watch out for Milotic because it will heal all of their pokemon and none of your ex's.
Rock-Lock: 8/10 Tyranitar and Ampharos are both weak to fighting and Pidgeot can not use Quick search.
Ludicargo: 8/10 Magcargo and Ludicolo can not use their PokePowers so it should be an easy win.
Liability: 3/10 With Weezing and Desert Ruins you're in trouble. However if you can Pure Power the Koffings before they can get out Weezing you might have a chance.
Overall Rating: 8/10 Medicham ex has the advantage over a lot of the popular decks right now and you can see why it has won 4 State Championships in 2006, it has the most wins in States with the exception to BSL with 12 wins. It's a very fun deck to play and when 3 to 4 sets get rotated out after Worlds it will become even more popular than it is right now. With Holon Phantoms coming out soon we will have to wait and see if the new cards will hurt Medicham ex or make him even stronger.
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Medicham ex (ex emerald)
Evolves from:Meditite
HP:110
Weakness: P
Resistance:none
Retreat cost:C
In today's modified format you have the choise out of 3 Meditite.
I'd go with the one from EM because the ones from HL aren't that good.
For a stage 1 pokemon-ex 110 hp is quite average.
Weakness for P, psychic pokemon are commonly used in todays metagame, so you'll need to use psychic pokemon to counter other psychic pokemon, or use dark pokemon with resistance for P.
Or as in case of an espycham deck, use both; espeon ex and umbreon ex.
He has 1 C retreat cost, nothing to worry about.
combos
The famous Espycham and T2 medicham ex/Jirachi DX
In espycham, espeon ex and mostly umbreon ex too are used as sidekicks to help medicham ex.
Since medicham ex is weak to psychic pokemon, espeon ex can take out the ones with P weakness and umbreon ex can take out the ones with D weakness.
In these decks it's best to run 4 magnetic storms to break through fighting and psychic resistance, use at least four stadiums, to counter cursed stone and desert ruins which can hurt your deck really bad.
In a T2 deck Jirachi DX is used to find medicham ex as fast as possible >turn 2 (duh).This deck uses also all those annoying trainers like energy removal 2, pow! hand extension and rocket's admin to shuffle the cards you've just searched for back into your deck...
And if a jirachi or medicham ex has been killed, no problem, Holon farmer and pokemon retreivers are "the more the marrier" in this deck, and when your opponents pulled more pricecards then you, you can use pow! hand extension so...
Other trainers here are: Great ball, holon mentor, prof.elm's training method and maybe a power tree( you never know when you need those energies back)
Overall, a great card and certainly against decks that rely on pokepowers and decks that use jumpluff/shedinja to avoid you from taking prize cards, but with pure power and devo flash you can
Overall: 8/10
I think espycham will be played a lot more when the format changes after the worlds..
check it out!
Medicham ex (ex emerald)
Evolves from:Meditite
HP:110
Weakness: P
Resistance:none
Retreat cost:C
In today's modified format you have the choise out of 3 Meditite.
I'd go with the one from EM because the ones from HL aren't that good.
For a stage 1 pokemon-ex 110 hp is quite average.
Weakness for P, psychic pokemon are commonly used in todays metagame, so you'll need to use psychic pokemon to counter other psychic pokemon, or use dark pokemon with resistance for P.
Or as in case of an espycham deck, use both; espeon ex and umbreon ex.
He has 1 C retreat cost, nothing to worry about.
combos
The famous Espycham and T2 medicham ex/Jirachi DX
In espycham, espeon ex and mostly umbreon ex too are used as sidekicks to help medicham ex.
Since medicham ex is weak to psychic pokemon, espeon ex can take out the ones with P weakness and umbreon ex can take out the ones with D weakness.
In these decks it's best to run 4 magnetic storms to break through fighting and psychic resistance, use at least four stadiums, to counter cursed stone and desert ruins which can hurt your deck really bad.
In a T2 deck Jirachi DX is used to find medicham ex as fast as possible >turn 2 (duh).This deck uses also all those annoying trainers like energy removal 2, pow! hand extension and rocket's admin to shuffle the cards you've just searched for back into your deck...
And if a jirachi or medicham ex has been killed, no problem, Holon farmer and pokemon retreivers are "the more the marrier" in this deck, and when your opponents pulled more pricecards then you, you can use pow! hand extension so...
Other trainers here are: Great ball, holon mentor, prof.elm's training method and maybe a power tree( you never know when you need those energies back)
Overall, a great card and certainly against decks that rely on pokepowers and decks that use jumpluff/shedinja to avoid you from taking prize cards, but with pure power and devo flash you can
Overall: 8/10
I think espycham will be played a lot more when the format changes after the worlds..
check it out!
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Hey guys! Today's review is the infamous Medicham ex from EX: Emerald!
The Card:
Now the card is very solid with a nice 110 hp. It's Pokebody is called Wise Aura and shuts off all Pokepowers on yours and your opponent's field, not including EX. That's really good, since it stops your opponent's Pidgeot, Magcargo, Dark Dragonite, and many more. His first attack is called Pure Power and allows you, for 2 Colorless energy, to put 3 damage counters on your opponent's Pokemon in any way you like. The second attack is really cool. It's called Sky Kick and does 60 damage for 3 energies, a Fighting energy, and 2 Colorless energies. But the effect is even better, because if your opponent has a Fighting Resistant Pokemon Sky Kick does +40 damage.
The retreat cost for Medicham ex is average, being 1, for a Stage 1 Pokemon! Medicham ex has a Weakness to Psychic, and does not have Resistance.
Decks and Strategies: Espycham and T2 Medicham -
First I'll talk about Espycham. This deck consists of Medicham ex, Espeon ex, Umbreon ex, and of course Jirachi from Deoxys. This deck's strategy is to use DX: Jirachi to set up, then use Medicham's ability to shut off all pokepowers that are not EX's on yours and your opponent's side of the field. Espeon ex uses it's ability to de-evolve Pokemon when the time is right to hopefully get a prize. Umbreon ex is used a tech for it's "Gust" ability.
The next deck is called T2 Medicham ex. This deck is used with a 4-4 line of Meditite and Medicham ex, and 4 Jirachi's from Deoxys. The strategy is to use Jirachi's Wishing Star ability, and Swoop! Teleporter to get out Meditite and Medicham ex as soon as possible and use Pure Power and Sky Kick, along with Energy Removal 2, to get your opponent confused and wondering what he or she should do. Since by T2 you can hit anything for 30, and then blast their defending Pokemon for 60 or more, by Turn 3, you can have the game won very quickly.
Advantages:
There are many advantages to Medicham ex. It has a good HP of 110 hp. He has an incredible Pokebody that allows it to shut off all of yours and yours and your opponents Pokepowers! That takes care of the dreaded Pidgeot and Magcargo, and many of the others like Dark Dragonite and Dark Dragonair. It's first attack, Pure Power, allows you to put 3 damage counters on the opponent's pokemon in any way you like, which can finish off a near-to-death Pokemon. The second attack allows you to do 60 damage for only 3 energies, and does 40 more damage if the Defending Pokemon has Resistance against Fighting. It also has a great Retreat Cost, 1 energy.
Disadvantages:
Medicham ex is one of those cards that has very few flaws. The only problem I see with it is that it has a Psychic Weakness, which finds it as easy prey to Espeon ex and Gengar LM. It also shuts off your own Pokepowers which means you can't use your Jirachi DX, but it's not that bad, since you wouldn't normally.
Analysis:
Medicham does well in many match-ups and is very fast. It shuts off both yours and your opponent's Pokepowers, which is very helpful. The main problem with it is it's Psychic Weakness, so it will get hammered by Gengar LM and Espeon ex, and other strong Psychic Pokemon like Metagross DX. You can fix this by using Kingdra from Team Rocket Returns. Kingdra allows your active Pokemon to not have a Weakness, which makes Medicham very hard to kill. It's attacks are nice, but not great. Sky Kick is very useful because when you would normally subtract 30 damage from your attack, Sky Kick allows you to add 40 damage, actually doing 70 damage instead of 60.
The sad part to his Pokebody, Wise Aura, is that it shuts off your own Pokepowers as well. This makes sure that you can not use your Jirachi from DX. You should not worry about that though, since most people don't use them, except as a wall, during the middle of the game when you have your Medicham ready.
Overall:
After an Analysis and listings of it's Advantages and Disadvantages I give it a 8/10.
Hope you've enjoyed another Card of the Day. See you next time!
Hey guys! Today's review is the infamous Medicham ex from EX: Emerald!
The Card:
Now the card is very solid with a nice 110 hp. It's Pokebody is called Wise Aura and shuts off all Pokepowers on yours and your opponent's field, not including EX. That's really good, since it stops your opponent's Pidgeot, Magcargo, Dark Dragonite, and many more. His first attack is called Pure Power and allows you, for 2 Colorless energy, to put 3 damage counters on your opponent's Pokemon in any way you like. The second attack is really cool. It's called Sky Kick and does 60 damage for 3 energies, a Fighting energy, and 2 Colorless energies. But the effect is even better, because if your opponent has a Fighting Resistant Pokemon Sky Kick does +40 damage.
The retreat cost for Medicham ex is average, being 1, for a Stage 1 Pokemon! Medicham ex has a Weakness to Psychic, and does not have Resistance.
Decks and Strategies: Espycham and T2 Medicham -
First I'll talk about Espycham. This deck consists of Medicham ex, Espeon ex, Umbreon ex, and of course Jirachi from Deoxys. This deck's strategy is to use DX: Jirachi to set up, then use Medicham's ability to shut off all pokepowers that are not EX's on yours and your opponent's side of the field. Espeon ex uses it's ability to de-evolve Pokemon when the time is right to hopefully get a prize. Umbreon ex is used a tech for it's "Gust" ability.
The next deck is called T2 Medicham ex. This deck is used with a 4-4 line of Meditite and Medicham ex, and 4 Jirachi's from Deoxys. The strategy is to use Jirachi's Wishing Star ability, and Swoop! Teleporter to get out Meditite and Medicham ex as soon as possible and use Pure Power and Sky Kick, along with Energy Removal 2, to get your opponent confused and wondering what he or she should do. Since by T2 you can hit anything for 30, and then blast their defending Pokemon for 60 or more, by Turn 3, you can have the game won very quickly.
Advantages:
There are many advantages to Medicham ex. It has a good HP of 110 hp. He has an incredible Pokebody that allows it to shut off all of yours and yours and your opponents Pokepowers! That takes care of the dreaded Pidgeot and Magcargo, and many of the others like Dark Dragonite and Dark Dragonair. It's first attack, Pure Power, allows you to put 3 damage counters on the opponent's pokemon in any way you like, which can finish off a near-to-death Pokemon. The second attack allows you to do 60 damage for only 3 energies, and does 40 more damage if the Defending Pokemon has Resistance against Fighting. It also has a great Retreat Cost, 1 energy.
Disadvantages:
Medicham ex is one of those cards that has very few flaws. The only problem I see with it is that it has a Psychic Weakness, which finds it as easy prey to Espeon ex and Gengar LM. It also shuts off your own Pokepowers which means you can't use your Jirachi DX, but it's not that bad, since you wouldn't normally.
Analysis:
Medicham does well in many match-ups and is very fast. It shuts off both yours and your opponent's Pokepowers, which is very helpful. The main problem with it is it's Psychic Weakness, so it will get hammered by Gengar LM and Espeon ex, and other strong Psychic Pokemon like Metagross DX. You can fix this by using Kingdra from Team Rocket Returns. Kingdra allows your active Pokemon to not have a Weakness, which makes Medicham very hard to kill. It's attacks are nice, but not great. Sky Kick is very useful because when you would normally subtract 30 damage from your attack, Sky Kick allows you to add 40 damage, actually doing 70 damage instead of 60.
The sad part to his Pokebody, Wise Aura, is that it shuts off your own Pokepowers as well. This makes sure that you can not use your Jirachi from DX. You should not worry about that though, since most people don't use them, except as a wall, during the middle of the game when you have your Medicham ready.
Overall:
After an Analysis and listings of it's Advantages and Disadvantages I give it a 8/10.
Hope you've enjoyed another Card of the Day. See you next time!
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Medicham ex
110 HP
Evolves from meditite
Weaknesssy
Ressistance:N/A
Retreat cost:1
Poke-body:wise aura
As long as medicham ex is your active pokemon, each pokemon(excluding pokemon ex) can't use any pokepowers.
1st attack:
2 colorless
Pure Power
Put 3 damage counters to any of your op. pokemon in any way u like.
2nd attack:
1 fight 2 colorless
Sky Kick
if the defending pokemon has (F) resistance this attack does 60 damage +40 damage.
Okay, let's start this with a bit of stats:
Retreat cost is nice. You shouldn't have problems retreating it so I would give it….8/10
HP is also nice. It could be 100, just to get hit by ruins, but 110 is a nice bonus….7/10
Weakness is strange………I mean, it's half psychic. But since it's also fighting and weak to ghost, it's OK. But weakness itself is a problem in current format. Ditto (Mr. Mime), Mew ex, Espeon ex and other psychics can simply KO it so easily.
Poke-body is really disruptive since most decks use poke-powers to function. It doesn't stop exs though.
Pure Power is nice to snipe at opponent’s bench and do multiple KOs wisely.
Sky Kick can be comboed with magnetic storm/crystal shard since you can do 100 to fighting resist pokemon.
Combos:
Well, since Medicham is strong because of it’s poke-body and attacks which are both disruptive, you just have to get it in play as soon as possible, stopping powers and sniping opponents bench. But, you can’t use pidgeot and magcargo, cause Wise aura stops it, you must use pure line of medicham. But that would cause multiple mulllingans and would fill opponent’s hand with cards even before start playing. So you need to add Jirachi (deoxys) to get the cards you need-you must get Medicham out by turn 2 to stop opponent, so swoop teleporter could change the jirachi into meditate and then Wally’s training would evolve it in medicham. And, since medicham’s power only works when it’s active, Jirachi can get you the swoop/wally you need. When you have medicham out, use Energy removal/rocket admin/pow hand extension, to put opponent into strong lock. (to know more about the deck, check out pokegym)
Then, the other version….The other version also uses a 2-2-1 line of stage 1 pokemon ex, to help the deck and disrupt opponent. The 2 TecH pokemon are Espeon ex and umbreon ex. Those 2 eons can either Devolve opponent’s pokemon, or get the effect of pokemon reversal without a flip.
Both decks are T2 and they use almost the same tactic, but the EspyCham is probably the better choice.
Also, if you want even more locking, use Houndoom (UF) to stop opponent from playing trainers, instead of eeveelutions. That causes some serious havoc.
Well, the Medicham deserves these ratings:
Modified:8.4/10-Can stop popular power decks like LudiCargo or DragTrode.
Unlimited: 3/10- It doesnt stop pokemon-powers >.<
Sealed: 9/10- It has 110 HP and could do some 1 hit Kos with sky kick.
Hope you liked it <>.<>
Medicham ex
110 HP
Evolves from meditite
Weakness
syRessistance:N/A
Retreat cost:1
Poke-body:wise aura
As long as medicham ex is your active pokemon, each pokemon(excluding pokemon ex) can't use any pokepowers.
1st attack:
2 colorless
Pure Power
Put 3 damage counters to any of your op. pokemon in any way u like.
2nd attack:
1 fight 2 colorless
Sky Kick
if the defending pokemon has (F) resistance this attack does 60 damage +40 damage.
Okay, let's start this with a bit of stats:
Retreat cost is nice. You shouldn't have problems retreating it so I would give it….8/10
HP is also nice. It could be 100, just to get hit by ruins, but 110 is a nice bonus….7/10
Weakness is strange………I mean, it's half psychic. But since it's also fighting and weak to ghost, it's OK. But weakness itself is a problem in current format. Ditto (Mr. Mime), Mew ex, Espeon ex and other psychics can simply KO it so easily.
Poke-body is really disruptive since most decks use poke-powers to function. It doesn't stop exs though.
Pure Power is nice to snipe at opponent’s bench and do multiple KOs wisely.
Sky Kick can be comboed with magnetic storm/crystal shard since you can do 100 to fighting resist pokemon.
Combos:
Well, since Medicham is strong because of it’s poke-body and attacks which are both disruptive, you just have to get it in play as soon as possible, stopping powers and sniping opponents bench. But, you can’t use pidgeot and magcargo, cause Wise aura stops it, you must use pure line of medicham. But that would cause multiple mulllingans and would fill opponent’s hand with cards even before start playing. So you need to add Jirachi (deoxys) to get the cards you need-you must get Medicham out by turn 2 to stop opponent, so swoop teleporter could change the jirachi into meditate and then Wally’s training would evolve it in medicham. And, since medicham’s power only works when it’s active, Jirachi can get you the swoop/wally you need. When you have medicham out, use Energy removal/rocket admin/pow hand extension, to put opponent into strong lock. (to know more about the deck, check out pokegym
)Then, the other version….The other version also uses a 2-2-1 line of stage 1 pokemon ex, to help the deck and disrupt opponent. The 2 TecH pokemon are Espeon ex and umbreon ex. Those 2 eons can either Devolve opponent’s pokemon, or get the effect of pokemon reversal without a flip.
Both decks are T2 and they use almost the same tactic, but the EspyCham is probably the better choice.
Also, if you want even more locking, use Houndoom (UF) to stop opponent from playing trainers, instead of eeveelutions. That causes some serious havoc.
Well, the Medicham deserves these ratings:
Modified:8.4/10-Can stop popular power decks like LudiCargo or DragTrode.
Unlimited: 3/10- It doesnt stop pokemon-powers >.<
Sealed: 9/10- It has 110 HP and could do some 1 hit Kos with sky kick.
Hope you liked it <>.<>
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Card of the Day
Medicham EX --- EX Emerald
Second COTD and boy is this one a corker. Medicham EX is our second COTD and so, lets begin.
Overview
At a glance, Medicham is Fighting element Pokemon EX, has 110HP, weakness to Psychic, no resistance, a C retreat, two very powerful attacks and a simple awesome Poke-Body.
The Poke-Body is one of the main reasons Medicham is one of today’s biggest archetypes and the reason it is played. Whilst active, Medicham EX shuts down all Poke-Powers of non-Pokemon EX in play. That is amazing and the amount trouble this can cause for Power reliant decks is almost un-parallel.
DragTrode, LudiCargo, BLS, Pidgeot, Magcargo, Metanite. Those are a few decks that DO NOT WORK AT ALL if their Poke-Powers are switched off.
How can Dragtrode manipulate its Darkness Energy without Darkness Navigation and Dark Trace? How can Metanite consistantly do damage with Dragonite d's Delta Charge switched off or find its needed cards without Smooth over and Delta Control? LudiCargo is slowed down greatly once Smooth Over and Swing Dance are gone. BLS cannot work fully without Pidgeot since all the water energies are trapped in the deck and so is the Holon Electrodes/Magnetons. And how many decks these days use a Pidgeot or Magcargo for a search engine? Almost every one save a few rouge/T2 decks. How are they going to cope once Medicham shuts down their key search engine? They will be slowed down considerably (though not as much as the decks mentioned).
110HP is a brilliant amount for a ST.1, but as Medicham is an EX, this is enough to be victimized by Desert Ruins, and any Psychic attack that does 60+ damage is an OHKO for the Wise Pokemon. And plenty of ST.2 and Pokemon EX can do more than enough damage to pose a threat to Medicham. As far as ST.1 EX's go, Medicham is a bit low when compared to Steelix EX and Wailord EX in terms of HP but it can still take the odd ST.1/2 attack or two.
Medicham evolves from Meditite. 3 are currently payable, 2 from HL and one from EM. One of the HL is Psychic types and since that is clashing against Medicham EX’s element, and has an attack that relies on coin flips. The second HL Meditite is Fighting type with a F cost attack for 10 and F/C for 20 or 30 on a head coin flip and the EM one is the same except that the first attack is 10 for C and the second attack does Paralysis instead of extra damage on a good coin flip.
The 2 Fighting types are both alright to play, but I would play the EM one for the chance of buying me an extra turn with paralysis.
The attacks are both excellent and energy efficient. Pure Power, allows you, for C/C, to place 3 damage counters on your opponents Pokemon in any way you like. Very nice since you can do this T1 with Boost Energy or T2 otherwise. This is an amazing attack since you either snipe the bench, spread damage or target a specific Pokemon. The attack puts your opponents under pressure to KO it quickly since leaving Medicham alive for too long will result in them losing a few of their much needed Pokemon, this tactic plays straight into Medicham EX's main strategy which will covered in the combo section. But HOW will you use Pure Power? Which tactic will you use against your opponents? Sniping? Spread damage? Focus on a particular evolution line? How you apply these strategies will determine how good player are you and set the amateurs apart from the seasoned players.
The second attack, Sky Kick, does 60 for F/C/C and, if then opponent is resistant to Fighting, the attack does 60+40 which totals 100, however due to resistance, the damage would be -30 so the actual damage would be 70, 10+ of the original damage. This is a nice attack for all-out assaults and stick around for the combo section to find a way to make Sky Kick a devastating force.
Now, the bottom stats.
Psychic weakness is not the best type to be venerable to. Gengar, Slowking, ScizorGross decks and Espeon EX, all of those pose threat to Medicham EX and have a relatively easy time KOing it. Then again they need to do upwards of 60 damage. Slowking will need 4 Pokemon Tools in the discard pile to acheive that which, with the discard effects in the format currently, will take a few turns (and especially since its Poke-Power is turned off by Medicham EX. More than enough for Medicham to either KO it or run from it (the latter is unlikely). Metagross (DX) is also dangerous as it can do 80 if Medicham has 3 energies on it (Sky Kick ready) or a OHKO 140 if Medicham is hardcore Pure Powering (2 energy). Also note that all of the Psychic Pokemon mentioned do have Poke-Powers and are all turned off by Wise Aura except Esepon EX.
Resistance. No resistance is the worst resistance so, not much to say about here. Loads of Pokemon have no resistance so this nothing spectacular.
The retreat cost of C is beautiful. Quick and easy retreat and, since it is an EX, rather generous and most certainly very payable. No trouble since having Free Retreat would be asking too much.
And of course, this is a Pokemon EX so various liabilities exist to annoy them. Desert Ruins, Safeguard, effects that exclude Pokemon EX and of course, 2 prizes are taken upon KO. 3 Pokemon are out there with Safeguard: Dewgong (FRLG), Ninetales (HL) and Dustox EX. Dewgong is hardly ever played except in a few Water decks which are not big at the moment (save Blastiose EX) but Ninetales is often a Tech in a Ninetales EX deck and Dustox EX is a very big deck currently which is more or less centered around itself. Ninetales' attack damage is about average but Dustox EX is a hard hitter and can very easily pose a seriously threat to Medicham EX.
Desert Ruins is a standard Stadium played by the likes of RockLock, Machamp, Dragtrode and sometimes, LudiCargo (though that deck often plays 4 Battle Frontier) and can prove an obstacle in Medicham EX's way.
Combos
Medicham wouldn’t have existed as an archetype if not for a mistake at 2005 World Championships. Players trying to created a Muk-style deck found out the sheer brilliance of Medicham and, there on, had Medicham become a Worlds runner-up, and one of today’s biggest decks.
Two different Medicham decks are major archetypes at the moment, both powerful and both with similar styles and strategies.
T2POW!Medicham consists of a mere 12 Pokemon: 4Medicham EX/ 4 Meditite/ 4Jirachi DX. With that amount of Pokemon comes less amount of Energy, about 13-16. That leaves us with a simply HUGE amount of space for disruption cards such as Rockets Admin, POW!, Energy Removal 2. Set-up cards like Prof.Elm Training Method, Mary's Request and Copycat that give us the ability to get Medicham out T2 and a simply massive quantity of draw cards (Mary's, Stevens, TV).
The strategy is to get out Jirachis and fish your deck like mad in order to get T2 Cham (hence the name). Now get out Medicham, Swoop! Teleporter away the Jirachis since Medicham renders their Powers useless, Wise Aura locks their Powers and you can snipe their bench with Pure Power. Once Medicham is KOed by any means, the chances are, you’ll be behind in prizes in which you will have access to POW! and a stronger Rockets Admin. This created a combo infamously know as POW! lock where a Pokemon witha high retreat cost is brought up to active position and is stuck there beacuse it cannot pay the retreat cost. As the opponent tries to retreat their stranded Pokemon Pure Power can terrorise their bench. If they try attaching lots of energy, Energy Removal 2 sends off those energy back to the discard pile, prolonging the amount of time that Pokemon is stuck in active position. POW! Lock can also be achieved through Pokemon Reversal. This deck excels against heavy and tight decks where they will need everything to surivive.
The second variant of Medicham EX is the EspyCham deck.
Not as dynamic as T2POW!Cham but still very formidable. This deck uses Medicham EX, Espeon EX and Umbreon EX all to great effect.
The strategy here is to, like T2Cham, get behind on prizes, then POW! is used (creating the POW! lock) , Espeon EX can come in and de-evolve the opponents bench making them easier to KO from Pure Power. Umbreon can be used in place of POW! since its Power is the equivalent of Gust of Wind. Medicham is usually the main attacker but the deck is not afraid to use Espeon EX as a back up support as well since that and Umbreon EX cover Medicham EX's Psychic weakness.
This is more disruptive than T2POW!Cham but is slightly harder to run since you are using 2 Evolution lines (3 if you include Eevee's branch into Umbreon EX)
Another deck played with Medicham EX is known as LoneMonk. It uses Unseen Forces' Houndoom's Poke-Body to stop your opponent playing regular Trainers and Medicham EX in conjunction to shut off Powers. It is plainfully obvious this is a killer disruption deck, though perhaps not as deadly as T2POW!Cham or EspyCham. It cause major trouble since everything is slowed down very much without Quick Search, Smooth Over and all the fast Trainers there.
Finally, the stadiums Medicham can uses are slightly limited, but one is a part of making Medicham a weapon a destruction last seen on stick-men’s killing spree: HL Magnetic Storm.
This stadium prevents any attack from Fighting and Psychic Pokemon to be affected by resistance. This allows Sky Kick to do a massive 100 damage to any Pokemon resistant to Fighting because the damge will not be reduced! This is on par with Armaldo EX! It wont help you now to be resistant to Fighting! The very same thing can be done with Crystal Shard and is a perfect way to score OHKO's on Pidgeots, Rayquaza EX's and about several dozen more Pokemon that are resistant to Fighting.
Pros
• 110HP is decent for ST.1.
• Absolutely fantastic Poke-Body that locks many decks to the ground.
• As a locking card, it is probably the best next to the synergy of RockLock.
• Pure Power is very good. Bench damage is one of the more strategic ways of winning.
• Sky Kick is devastating to anything resistant and gives Magnetic Storm a purpose.
• Decent Basics. Even the Psychic one isn’t all that bad.
• Has quite a few combos, several of which, are archetypes.
• T2Cham is extremely fast and not much can out run it.
• EspyCham and T2POW!Cham are perhaps the most disruptive decks in the format.
• Retreat cost of C is great.
• Both attacks are energy efficient.
• It is beautiful to watch a Medicham EX deck (T2POW! or Espy) in motion.
• Is one of the few decks that can stand up to BLS and win.
• It wins against the majority of decks in the format and has very few weaknesses.
Cons
• Its is an EX Pokemon, so there are liabilities and the 2 prize set-backs.
• 110HP is alright, but enough to make it vunerable to Desert Ruins.
• The HP is too little to be considered enough to soak up damage from the heavy hitters like Scizor EX, Machamp, Metanite decks and of course, Lugia EX.
• Weakness to Psychic doesn’t help since there are a few out there (Gengar, Espeon, Slowking) that pose some trouble for Medicham.
• The T2 variant has a slightly bigger chance of a mulligan than most decks considering it carries a mere 8 basics.
• The counter gyms at its disposal are limited. The only ones worth playing are Island Cave and of course, Magnetic Storm.
• Any anti-EX card (Ninetails (Safeguard), Dustox EX) is not a pleasant match up.
• It relies on being in behind in prizes before it can do any serious locking.
Match-ups
Here I wil be looking at how an average Medicham EX deck would cope with todays current metagame. X/100 is the percentage chance I think that Medicham EX has against that deck. I will describe these match ups as if you were playing Medicham EX.
BLS: 70/100 The power stops Pidgeot, the search engine, Medicham EX murders Steelix EX and Lugia EX is resistant to Fighting so with Magnetic Storm, Cham can OHKO. The thing is though that Energy Rain, the core of the deck is not terminated by Wise Aura which is a bit problematic since Blastiose is a Pokemon EX. Otherwise though, Medicham can simply POW! lock Blastiose EX or Steelix EX and snipe away at their bench with Pure Power. BLS can fight back but the odds are more in Medicham EX's favour.
RockLock: 75/100 Medicham OHKO’s almost everything in here except the Tyranitar.
Medicham can eaisly POW! lock the majority of stuff in this deck whilst Sky Kick OHKO's thoses pesky Ampharos's.
SMP: 50/100 Tough. Medicham is weak to Metagross and Scizor EX decimates it with the massive firepower. Though that would activate POW! and Cham shuts off Metagross’s power. It is a hard battle but appears to be even since they can't use Metagross's power to save the energies.
QueenDom: 70/100 If you setup quickly then there is no stopping you other than NidoQueen (if they have a lot of evolutions on their side). Their Milotic can't save them since your Power shuts it off. Pidgeot is also down so you have an advantage but they have a massive amount of firepower so it comes down to who dominates who (usually Medicham dominates QueenDom in which case, rather easily).
Liability (Typhlosion variant): 25/100 Very little chance to survive. Unless you are extremely fast and KO all the Koffings, then you will die to the Typholsion-liability combo.
Medicham T2/Espy: 50/100 Either way it is a stand-off. The first person to take the first prizes is committing suicide as they will be susceptible to Admin, POW! and a Pure Powering.
ZRE: 95/100 Electrode EX is weak, Zapdos EX and Rayquaza EX are resistant, and the whole deck functions around Poke-Powers. Easy, easy victory. Crystals Shard and Magnetic Storm allows Medicham EX to OHKO everthing in here except for Zapdos which just survives with 10HP.
Gengar: 45/60 Gengar is dangerous. They play Curse Powder so you will have to think before killing it even if you do have its very lethal power turned off. Don’t KO it then 120 from Super Psy Bolt will kill you. Winnable, but hard since you are very weak to it. Crystal Shards ans=d Magnetic Storms are essential.
Machamp: 80/100 Machamp is powerful but relies on support card to get the energy. Those cards (Delcatty/Huntail/Electrode EX/Magcargo/Pidgeot/Jirachi) use Poke-Powers which are turned off by Wise Aura and since without them Machamp becomes as slow as slug trying to find its way around Sibiria, this makes Medicham EX the winner.
Ludicargo: 85/100 Without Swing Dance and Smooth Over. Ludicargo becomes very slow. You also can also keep your bench limited with Swoop! Teleporter and minimizing the damage from Circular Steps. Overall, a easy victory for you and Ludicargo cannot fight back once their SwingOver combo is diminished.
Metanite: 90/100 The deck does not work without the powers. Almost an autowin unless you get a horrific setup (which is almost unheard of). Dragonite d is resistant as well so a Crystal Shard or Magnetic Storm will guarantee a OHKO. Metagross d has a retreat cost of 3C so it is very vunerable to a POW! lock.
Dragtrode: 95/100 Easier than MetaNite. They are resistant and, it falls apart without the Powers. No chance for the Darkness. Dark Dragonite is resistant and weak to colorless so a Crystal Shard quickly OHKOs it. Dark Electrose is also weak and any Sneasel EXs they will have Teched in will also be weak to Medicham. There is nothing stopping you.
Overall
Medicham EX is a wonderful card. Strong, reliable, disruptive and very easy to adapt to. You will see this deck in Worlds this year and throughout the new Modified format after the Worlds this year as EspyCham. The Body is fantastic and definatly one the best in the format. A simply marvellous card that is one of the best in Modified.
UnLimited: 4/10 The temptations to use Double Colorless Energy to power Pure Power T1 and the cost of Sky Kick leaves it vunerable to Energy Removal.
Modified: 9.5/10 Simply astonishing. One of the best cards in the format.
Limited/Draft: 7.5/10 If you get it, play it! But it is rare and not enough Powers for it to stop limit it's usefulness outside damage.
Card of the Day
Medicham EX --- EX Emerald
Second COTD and boy is this one a corker. Medicham EX is our second COTD and so, lets begin.
Overview
At a glance, Medicham is Fighting element Pokemon EX, has 110HP, weakness to Psychic, no resistance, a C retreat, two very powerful attacks and a simple awesome Poke-Body.
The Poke-Body is one of the main reasons Medicham is one of today’s biggest archetypes and the reason it is played. Whilst active, Medicham EX shuts down all Poke-Powers of non-Pokemon EX in play. That is amazing and the amount trouble this can cause for Power reliant decks is almost un-parallel.
DragTrode, LudiCargo, BLS, Pidgeot, Magcargo, Metanite. Those are a few decks that DO NOT WORK AT ALL if their Poke-Powers are switched off.
How can Dragtrode manipulate its Darkness Energy without Darkness Navigation and Dark Trace? How can Metanite consistantly do damage with Dragonite d's Delta Charge switched off or find its needed cards without Smooth over and Delta Control? LudiCargo is slowed down greatly once Smooth Over and Swing Dance are gone. BLS cannot work fully without Pidgeot since all the water energies are trapped in the deck and so is the Holon Electrodes/Magnetons. And how many decks these days use a Pidgeot or Magcargo for a search engine? Almost every one save a few rouge/T2 decks. How are they going to cope once Medicham shuts down their key search engine? They will be slowed down considerably (though not as much as the decks mentioned).
110HP is a brilliant amount for a ST.1, but as Medicham is an EX, this is enough to be victimized by Desert Ruins, and any Psychic attack that does 60+ damage is an OHKO for the Wise Pokemon. And plenty of ST.2 and Pokemon EX can do more than enough damage to pose a threat to Medicham. As far as ST.1 EX's go, Medicham is a bit low when compared to Steelix EX and Wailord EX in terms of HP but it can still take the odd ST.1/2 attack or two.
Medicham evolves from Meditite. 3 are currently payable, 2 from HL and one from EM. One of the HL is Psychic types and since that is clashing against Medicham EX’s element, and has an attack that relies on coin flips. The second HL Meditite is Fighting type with a F cost attack for 10 and F/C for 20 or 30 on a head coin flip and the EM one is the same except that the first attack is 10 for C and the second attack does Paralysis instead of extra damage on a good coin flip.
The 2 Fighting types are both alright to play, but I would play the EM one for the chance of buying me an extra turn with paralysis.
The attacks are both excellent and energy efficient. Pure Power, allows you, for C/C, to place 3 damage counters on your opponents Pokemon in any way you like. Very nice since you can do this T1 with Boost Energy or T2 otherwise. This is an amazing attack since you either snipe the bench, spread damage or target a specific Pokemon. The attack puts your opponents under pressure to KO it quickly since leaving Medicham alive for too long will result in them losing a few of their much needed Pokemon, this tactic plays straight into Medicham EX's main strategy which will covered in the combo section. But HOW will you use Pure Power? Which tactic will you use against your opponents? Sniping? Spread damage? Focus on a particular evolution line? How you apply these strategies will determine how good player are you and set the amateurs apart from the seasoned players.
The second attack, Sky Kick, does 60 for F/C/C and, if then opponent is resistant to Fighting, the attack does 60+40 which totals 100, however due to resistance, the damage would be -30 so the actual damage would be 70, 10+ of the original damage. This is a nice attack for all-out assaults and stick around for the combo section to find a way to make Sky Kick a devastating force.
Now, the bottom stats.
Psychic weakness is not the best type to be venerable to. Gengar, Slowking, ScizorGross decks and Espeon EX, all of those pose threat to Medicham EX and have a relatively easy time KOing it. Then again they need to do upwards of 60 damage. Slowking will need 4 Pokemon Tools in the discard pile to acheive that which, with the discard effects in the format currently, will take a few turns (and especially since its Poke-Power is turned off by Medicham EX. More than enough for Medicham to either KO it or run from it (the latter is unlikely). Metagross (DX) is also dangerous as it can do 80 if Medicham has 3 energies on it (Sky Kick ready) or a OHKO 140 if Medicham is hardcore Pure Powering (2 energy). Also note that all of the Psychic Pokemon mentioned do have Poke-Powers and are all turned off by Wise Aura except Esepon EX.
Resistance. No resistance is the worst resistance so, not much to say about here. Loads of Pokemon have no resistance so this nothing spectacular.
The retreat cost of C is beautiful. Quick and easy retreat and, since it is an EX, rather generous and most certainly very payable. No trouble since having Free Retreat would be asking too much.
And of course, this is a Pokemon EX so various liabilities exist to annoy them. Desert Ruins, Safeguard, effects that exclude Pokemon EX and of course, 2 prizes are taken upon KO. 3 Pokemon are out there with Safeguard: Dewgong (FRLG), Ninetales (HL) and Dustox EX. Dewgong is hardly ever played except in a few Water decks which are not big at the moment (save Blastiose EX) but Ninetales is often a Tech in a Ninetales EX deck and Dustox EX is a very big deck currently which is more or less centered around itself. Ninetales' attack damage is about average but Dustox EX is a hard hitter and can very easily pose a seriously threat to Medicham EX.
Desert Ruins is a standard Stadium played by the likes of RockLock, Machamp, Dragtrode and sometimes, LudiCargo (though that deck often plays 4 Battle Frontier) and can prove an obstacle in Medicham EX's way.
Combos
Medicham wouldn’t have existed as an archetype if not for a mistake at 2005 World Championships. Players trying to created a Muk-style deck found out the sheer brilliance of Medicham and, there on, had Medicham become a Worlds runner-up, and one of today’s biggest decks.
Two different Medicham decks are major archetypes at the moment, both powerful and both with similar styles and strategies.
T2POW!Medicham consists of a mere 12 Pokemon: 4Medicham EX/ 4 Meditite/ 4Jirachi DX. With that amount of Pokemon comes less amount of Energy, about 13-16. That leaves us with a simply HUGE amount of space for disruption cards such as Rockets Admin, POW!, Energy Removal 2. Set-up cards like Prof.Elm Training Method, Mary's Request and Copycat that give us the ability to get Medicham out T2 and a simply massive quantity of draw cards (Mary's, Stevens, TV).
The strategy is to get out Jirachis and fish your deck like mad in order to get T2 Cham (hence the name). Now get out Medicham, Swoop! Teleporter away the Jirachis since Medicham renders their Powers useless, Wise Aura locks their Powers and you can snipe their bench with Pure Power. Once Medicham is KOed by any means, the chances are, you’ll be behind in prizes in which you will have access to POW! and a stronger Rockets Admin. This created a combo infamously know as POW! lock where a Pokemon witha high retreat cost is brought up to active position and is stuck there beacuse it cannot pay the retreat cost. As the opponent tries to retreat their stranded Pokemon Pure Power can terrorise their bench. If they try attaching lots of energy, Energy Removal 2 sends off those energy back to the discard pile, prolonging the amount of time that Pokemon is stuck in active position. POW! Lock can also be achieved through Pokemon Reversal. This deck excels against heavy and tight decks where they will need everything to surivive.
The second variant of Medicham EX is the EspyCham deck.
Not as dynamic as T2POW!Cham but still very formidable. This deck uses Medicham EX, Espeon EX and Umbreon EX all to great effect.
The strategy here is to, like T2Cham, get behind on prizes, then POW! is used (creating the POW! lock) , Espeon EX can come in and de-evolve the opponents bench making them easier to KO from Pure Power. Umbreon can be used in place of POW! since its Power is the equivalent of Gust of Wind. Medicham is usually the main attacker but the deck is not afraid to use Espeon EX as a back up support as well since that and Umbreon EX cover Medicham EX's Psychic weakness.
This is more disruptive than T2POW!Cham but is slightly harder to run since you are using 2 Evolution lines (3 if you include Eevee's branch into Umbreon EX)
Another deck played with Medicham EX is known as LoneMonk. It uses Unseen Forces' Houndoom's Poke-Body to stop your opponent playing regular Trainers and Medicham EX in conjunction to shut off Powers. It is plainfully obvious this is a killer disruption deck, though perhaps not as deadly as T2POW!Cham or EspyCham. It cause major trouble since everything is slowed down very much without Quick Search, Smooth Over and all the fast Trainers there.
Finally, the stadiums Medicham can uses are slightly limited, but one is a part of making Medicham a weapon a destruction last seen on stick-men’s killing spree: HL Magnetic Storm.
This stadium prevents any attack from Fighting and Psychic Pokemon to be affected by resistance. This allows Sky Kick to do a massive 100 damage to any Pokemon resistant to Fighting because the damge will not be reduced! This is on par with Armaldo EX! It wont help you now to be resistant to Fighting! The very same thing can be done with Crystal Shard and is a perfect way to score OHKO's on Pidgeots, Rayquaza EX's and about several dozen more Pokemon that are resistant to Fighting.
Pros
• 110HP is decent for ST.1.
• Absolutely fantastic Poke-Body that locks many decks to the ground.
• As a locking card, it is probably the best next to the synergy of RockLock.
• Pure Power is very good. Bench damage is one of the more strategic ways of winning.
• Sky Kick is devastating to anything resistant and gives Magnetic Storm a purpose.
• Decent Basics. Even the Psychic one isn’t all that bad.
• Has quite a few combos, several of which, are archetypes.
• T2Cham is extremely fast and not much can out run it.
• EspyCham and T2POW!Cham are perhaps the most disruptive decks in the format.
• Retreat cost of C is great.
• Both attacks are energy efficient.
• It is beautiful to watch a Medicham EX deck (T2POW! or Espy) in motion.
• Is one of the few decks that can stand up to BLS and win.
• It wins against the majority of decks in the format and has very few weaknesses.
Cons
• Its is an EX Pokemon, so there are liabilities and the 2 prize set-backs.
• 110HP is alright, but enough to make it vunerable to Desert Ruins.
• The HP is too little to be considered enough to soak up damage from the heavy hitters like Scizor EX, Machamp, Metanite decks and of course, Lugia EX.
• Weakness to Psychic doesn’t help since there are a few out there (Gengar, Espeon, Slowking) that pose some trouble for Medicham.
• The T2 variant has a slightly bigger chance of a mulligan than most decks considering it carries a mere 8 basics.
• The counter gyms at its disposal are limited. The only ones worth playing are Island Cave and of course, Magnetic Storm.
• Any anti-EX card (Ninetails (Safeguard), Dustox EX) is not a pleasant match up.
• It relies on being in behind in prizes before it can do any serious locking.
Match-ups
Here I wil be looking at how an average Medicham EX deck would cope with todays current metagame. X/100 is the percentage chance I think that Medicham EX has against that deck. I will describe these match ups as if you were playing Medicham EX.
BLS: 70/100 The power stops Pidgeot, the search engine, Medicham EX murders Steelix EX and Lugia EX is resistant to Fighting so with Magnetic Storm, Cham can OHKO. The thing is though that Energy Rain, the core of the deck is not terminated by Wise Aura which is a bit problematic since Blastiose is a Pokemon EX. Otherwise though, Medicham can simply POW! lock Blastiose EX or Steelix EX and snipe away at their bench with Pure Power. BLS can fight back but the odds are more in Medicham EX's favour.
RockLock: 75/100 Medicham OHKO’s almost everything in here except the Tyranitar.
Medicham can eaisly POW! lock the majority of stuff in this deck whilst Sky Kick OHKO's thoses pesky Ampharos's.
SMP: 50/100 Tough. Medicham is weak to Metagross and Scizor EX decimates it with the massive firepower. Though that would activate POW! and Cham shuts off Metagross’s power. It is a hard battle but appears to be even since they can't use Metagross's power to save the energies.
QueenDom: 70/100 If you setup quickly then there is no stopping you other than NidoQueen (if they have a lot of evolutions on their side). Their Milotic can't save them since your Power shuts it off. Pidgeot is also down so you have an advantage but they have a massive amount of firepower so it comes down to who dominates who (usually Medicham dominates QueenDom in which case, rather easily).
Liability (Typhlosion variant): 25/100 Very little chance to survive. Unless you are extremely fast and KO all the Koffings, then you will die to the Typholsion-liability combo.
Medicham T2/Espy: 50/100 Either way it is a stand-off. The first person to take the first prizes is committing suicide as they will be susceptible to Admin, POW! and a Pure Powering.
ZRE: 95/100 Electrode EX is weak, Zapdos EX and Rayquaza EX are resistant, and the whole deck functions around Poke-Powers. Easy, easy victory. Crystals Shard and Magnetic Storm allows Medicham EX to OHKO everthing in here except for Zapdos which just survives with 10HP.
Gengar: 45/60 Gengar is dangerous. They play Curse Powder so you will have to think before killing it even if you do have its very lethal power turned off. Don’t KO it then 120 from Super Psy Bolt will kill you. Winnable, but hard since you are very weak to it. Crystal Shards ans=d Magnetic Storms are essential.
Machamp: 80/100 Machamp is powerful but relies on support card to get the energy. Those cards (Delcatty/Huntail/Electrode EX/Magcargo/Pidgeot/Jirachi) use Poke-Powers which are turned off by Wise Aura and since without them Machamp becomes as slow as slug trying to find its way around Sibiria, this makes Medicham EX the winner.
Ludicargo: 85/100 Without Swing Dance and Smooth Over. Ludicargo becomes very slow. You also can also keep your bench limited with Swoop! Teleporter and minimizing the damage from Circular Steps. Overall, a easy victory for you and Ludicargo cannot fight back once their SwingOver combo is diminished.
Metanite: 90/100 The deck does not work without the powers. Almost an autowin unless you get a horrific setup (which is almost unheard of). Dragonite d is resistant as well so a Crystal Shard or Magnetic Storm will guarantee a OHKO. Metagross d has a retreat cost of 3C so it is very vunerable to a POW! lock.
Dragtrode: 95/100 Easier than MetaNite. They are resistant and, it falls apart without the Powers. No chance for the Darkness. Dark Dragonite is resistant and weak to colorless so a Crystal Shard quickly OHKOs it. Dark Electrose is also weak and any Sneasel EXs they will have Teched in will also be weak to Medicham. There is nothing stopping you.
Overall
Medicham EX is a wonderful card. Strong, reliable, disruptive and very easy to adapt to. You will see this deck in Worlds this year and throughout the new Modified format after the Worlds this year as EspyCham. The Body is fantastic and definatly one the best in the format. A simply marvellous card that is one of the best in Modified.
UnLimited: 4/10 The temptations to use Double Colorless Energy to power Pure Power T1 and the cost of Sky Kick leaves it vunerable to Energy Removal.
Modified: 9.5/10 Simply astonishing. One of the best cards in the format.
Limited/Draft: 7.5/10 If you get it, play it! But it is rare and not enough Powers for it to stop limit it's usefulness outside damage.
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Medicham EX
Ok folks this is our 2nd card of the week!
First off, Medicham has a decent hp (110) its pretty average for a stage 1 EX thats not steelix EX. It has a Weakness to psychic, which can be bad since alot of Metagross DX decks are startin to show up. It has 1 retreat which is fine.
Now onto its Pokebody (this is where it gets interesting) Wise Aura states"As long as Medicham EX is you're active pokemon no Pokemon in play can use pokepowers". This is HUGE in todays Metagame.
Medicham also has 2 attacks, 1 is Pure Power: It puts 3 damage counters on ANY pokemon , in ANY way you like. This can be useful to ko those weak basics and stage 1 pokemon. Medicham's 2nd attack is Sky kick, it does 60 damage but if the defending pokemon is resistant to fighting it does 100. Paired with the stadium called Magnetic storm, this attack CAN and IS very NASTY.
A LIST OF THE DECKS THAT GET SHUT DOWN BY WISE AURA:
1.Queendom-shuts down pidgeot, AND milotic and without healing and search this deck falls apart.
2.Dragtrode- although not as popular as it once was, youll still defintly see some. Dark Dragonite AND dark Electrode get shut down. Without the ability to get out the dark energy and move it the deck loses its main goal.
3.MetaNite- This deck is TOTALLY dependant on Pokepowers. Wise aura gets rid of Smoothover, Delta Control ,and Delt Charge. This deck loses to Cham.
4. Basically Any deck that isnt EX and uses alot of Pokepowers is at a MAJOR disadvantage to medicham EX.
CURRENT MEDICHAM ARCHETYPES
1. Powdacham AKA espycham- it uses jirachi DX as a starter then when they have all the cards they need they swoop!teleporter into a meditite then evolve into Medicham EX. Then they get out their 2 evee by draw. once the get the 2 evee out they either use umbreon to get a high retreat pokemon out or they use espeon to devolve a benched pokemon then use pure power to KO it. Sometimes they even use both! This deck attacks with espeon only when they have to..
2. Regular Old Turn 2 Medicham- This deck is ANYTHING but regular and Old. It uses the Jirachi Swoop! engine to get out a turn 2 medicham almost ALL THE TIME! The deck uses disruption like pokemon reversals and energy removal 2's, to slow down their opponent. It also uses Pow! to lock a high retreat pokemon in place.
Overall I give Medicham EX a 9/10
Medicham EX
Ok folks this is our 2nd card of the week!
First off, Medicham has a decent hp (110) its pretty average for a stage 1 EX thats not steelix EX. It has a Weakness to psychic, which can be bad since alot of Metagross DX decks are startin to show up. It has 1 retreat which is fine.
Now onto its Pokebody (this is where it gets interesting) Wise Aura states"As long as Medicham EX is you're active pokemon no Pokemon in play can use pokepowers". This is HUGE in todays Metagame.
Medicham also has 2 attacks, 1 is Pure Power: It puts 3 damage counters on ANY pokemon , in ANY way you like. This can be useful to ko those weak basics and stage 1 pokemon. Medicham's 2nd attack is Sky kick, it does 60 damage but if the defending pokemon is resistant to fighting it does 100. Paired with the stadium called Magnetic storm, this attack CAN and IS very NASTY.
A LIST OF THE DECKS THAT GET SHUT DOWN BY WISE AURA:
1.Queendom-shuts down pidgeot, AND milotic and without healing and search this deck falls apart.
2.Dragtrode- although not as popular as it once was, youll still defintly see some. Dark Dragonite AND dark Electrode get shut down. Without the ability to get out the dark energy and move it the deck loses its main goal.
3.MetaNite- This deck is TOTALLY dependant on Pokepowers. Wise aura gets rid of Smoothover, Delta Control ,and Delt Charge. This deck loses to Cham.
4. Basically Any deck that isnt EX and uses alot of Pokepowers is at a MAJOR disadvantage to medicham EX.
CURRENT MEDICHAM ARCHETYPES
1. Powdacham AKA espycham- it uses jirachi DX as a starter then when they have all the cards they need they swoop!teleporter into a meditite then evolve into Medicham EX. Then they get out their 2 evee by draw. once the get the 2 evee out they either use umbreon to get a high retreat pokemon out or they use espeon to devolve a benched pokemon then use pure power to KO it. Sometimes they even use both! This deck attacks with espeon only when they have to..
2. Regular Old Turn 2 Medicham- This deck is ANYTHING but regular and Old. It uses the Jirachi Swoop! engine to get out a turn 2 medicham almost ALL THE TIME! The deck uses disruption like pokemon reversals and energy removal 2's, to slow down their opponent. It also uses Pow! to lock a high retreat pokemon in place.
Overall I give Medicham EX a 9/10
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
New: Medicham ex
Name: Medicham ex
Set: EX Emerald
Card#: 95/106
Rarity: Pokémon-ex
Pokémon-ex Rule: When Pokémon-ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent
takes 2 Prize cards.
Type: Fighting
Stage: 1 (Evolves from Meditite)
HP: 110
Weakness: Psychic
Resistance: None
Retreat: (C)
Poké-Body: Wise Aura
As long as Medicham ex is your Active Pokémon, each Pokémon (excluding Pokémon-ex) (both yours and your opponent’s) can’t use any Poké-Powers.
Attack#1: (CC) Pure Power
Put 3 damage counters on your opponent’s Pokémon in any way you like.
Attack#2: (FCC) Sky Kick [60+]
If the Defending Pokémon has (F) Resistance, this attack does 60 damage plus 40 more damage.
Attributes: We have a Stage 1 Pokémon ex. So it is worth two Prizes when it gets KO’d. That means high HP, but not too high; in this case, 110 feels about right. It’s not the best score available, but it’s pretty good. Being a Fighting-type is fairly good: there are multiple ways around Resistance, and Weakness isn’t too uncommon. We haven’t seen a real break-out Fighting deck since Monarchy, possibly Magma. Still, there are some nasty ones out there when they see play. Speaking of nasty types that aren’t at the top but see a lot of play, we come to a Psychic Weakness. Personally, I think Gardevoir/Gardevoir ex might make a comeback, but even if it doesn’t, you run into Psychic Pokémon just enough to be trouble. Better hope they aren’t out of date and running Wobbuffet from Sandstorm. There is no Resistance, which is a bit of a cop out-this is a half Psychic Pokémon in the GBA games, after all, so something should work out okay. Thankfully, it’s a common problem, and usually not a disadvantage so much as a lack of advantage. The last bottom stat is the Retreat for just one Energy. This is great: it’s not free, but it’s so low you’ll rarely need to worry about it.
Now, before we go on, let’s take a look at the Meditite from EX Emerald. Like the other Meditite, the one from Emerald doesn’t seem to combo with the Evolved forms. Like the others, this one has balanced attacks. Pick this one if you want to be able to fall back on Paralysis.
Abilities: Medicham ex will most likely be played for its Poké-Power, so let’s look at that last and the attacks first. I’ll start with Sky Kick. Why? It influences my evaluation of the first attack. Sky Kick gives pretty decent damage return based on Energy alone: (FCC) should yield 35 points of damage. Of course, then you realize it is a Stage 1, so a little more should be added, boosting it to 50 or maybe even 60 to be fair. As such, the effect, as compensation for being a Pokémon-ex is somewhat mixed: if the Defending Pokémon is Resistant to Fighting Pokémon, you do 40 more points of damage. On its own, this doesn’t seem like much, but thanks to combos it is better than doing 10 more damage and ignoring Resistance. It is also nice that a Boost can let it go off when you only have one Fighting Energy card on it. On its own it’s solid, neither making nor breaking this card.
So, why does this affect my opinion of Pure Power? It places damage counters, three total, as you wish. In Unlimited, this is actually… good? A Double Colorless Energy would let you snipe a benched Baby Pokémon. Unfortunately, it hits some snags. It can be powered by a single Boost Energy… but that would be true if it costs another Colorless Energy. Also, since a Double Colorless Energy is a prime target for Energy Removal, it means that the benefit of using is less significant. It is still there (they expend a resource), but it’s a small gain in Unlimited that wouldn’t be equal to, say, (CCC) if it gave another counter, and especially if it gave a full five. Probably the best option would be to have made it cost (FF) and given more counters of damage… or just (F) and given less. As is, it is still useful though, and excellent for sniping, especially since it gets around Metal Pokémon with Metal Energy, something I have seen used in a fairly sturdy, but not widespread, deck.
So the attacks aren’t going to make me play this card. The Poké-Body will though. Wise Aura shuts down the Poké-Powers of all other Pokémon in play except Pokémon-ex and only works when Medicham ex is Active. This is a mixed blessing, since as long as you have this in play with any other Pokémon than itself, especially if it is the only one you have in play, there are a lot of ways to bench Medicham ex and thus shut off its Poké-Body. As a whole it is a fantastic ability, as an active Medicham ex will slow down most decks, hurt most of the big decks, and shut some of the best of the best down.
As a whole, the Poké-Body makes this card, while the attacks do a decent job of supporting it.
Uses and Combinations: Okay, the big combo is with Crystal Shard. Drop shard and Sky Attack does 100 points damage to Fighting Resistant Pokémon. That isn’t too big a deal against, say, a Rayquaza ex, since you’re already scoring double damage since you just became Colorless. Against a few cards, most notably Pidgeot from Fire Red/Leaf Green, it becomes a perfect OHKO, in addition to over 50 other Pokémon that have less than 100 HP and are OHKO’d by this trick. You can also use Magnetic Storm if you wish. Also the deck EspyCham has it combos for Medi. This deck basically has Espy devolving and Medicham doing damage to the bench. Its a pretty simple deck for people to play, if you can get all the cards. It mess with a lot of decks including Dragtrode and Machamp [LM]. It shocks me how much Deck really on Poke-Power to win their games.
8/10 I can say that this card will rise to its full potential and become better than it is rght now. Also at States the Medcahm T2 deck won 15+.
New: Medicham ex
Name: Medicham ex
Set: EX Emerald
Card#: 95/106
Rarity: Pokémon-ex
Pokémon-ex Rule: When Pokémon-ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent
takes 2 Prize cards.
Type: Fighting
Stage: 1 (Evolves from Meditite)
HP: 110
Weakness: Psychic
Resistance: None
Retreat: (C)
Poké-Body: Wise Aura
As long as Medicham ex is your Active Pokémon, each Pokémon (excluding Pokémon-ex) (both yours and your opponent’s) can’t use any Poké-Powers.
Attack#1: (CC) Pure Power
Put 3 damage counters on your opponent’s Pokémon in any way you like.
Attack#2: (FCC) Sky Kick [60+]
If the Defending Pokémon has (F) Resistance, this attack does 60 damage plus 40 more damage.
Attributes: We have a Stage 1 Pokémon ex. So it is worth two Prizes when it gets KO’d. That means high HP, but not too high; in this case, 110 feels about right. It’s not the best score available, but it’s pretty good. Being a Fighting-type is fairly good: there are multiple ways around Resistance, and Weakness isn’t too uncommon. We haven’t seen a real break-out Fighting deck since Monarchy, possibly Magma. Still, there are some nasty ones out there when they see play. Speaking of nasty types that aren’t at the top but see a lot of play, we come to a Psychic Weakness. Personally, I think Gardevoir/Gardevoir ex might make a comeback, but even if it doesn’t, you run into Psychic Pokémon just enough to be trouble. Better hope they aren’t out of date and running Wobbuffet from Sandstorm. There is no Resistance, which is a bit of a cop out-this is a half Psychic Pokémon in the GBA games, after all, so something should work out okay. Thankfully, it’s a common problem, and usually not a disadvantage so much as a lack of advantage. The last bottom stat is the Retreat for just one Energy. This is great: it’s not free, but it’s so low you’ll rarely need to worry about it.
Now, before we go on, let’s take a look at the Meditite from EX Emerald. Like the other Meditite, the one from Emerald doesn’t seem to combo with the Evolved forms. Like the others, this one has balanced attacks. Pick this one if you want to be able to fall back on Paralysis.
Abilities: Medicham ex will most likely be played for its Poké-Power, so let’s look at that last and the attacks first. I’ll start with Sky Kick. Why? It influences my evaluation of the first attack. Sky Kick gives pretty decent damage return based on Energy alone: (FCC) should yield 35 points of damage. Of course, then you realize it is a Stage 1, so a little more should be added, boosting it to 50 or maybe even 60 to be fair. As such, the effect, as compensation for being a Pokémon-ex is somewhat mixed: if the Defending Pokémon is Resistant to Fighting Pokémon, you do 40 more points of damage. On its own, this doesn’t seem like much, but thanks to combos it is better than doing 10 more damage and ignoring Resistance. It is also nice that a Boost can let it go off when you only have one Fighting Energy card on it. On its own it’s solid, neither making nor breaking this card.
So, why does this affect my opinion of Pure Power? It places damage counters, three total, as you wish. In Unlimited, this is actually… good? A Double Colorless Energy would let you snipe a benched Baby Pokémon. Unfortunately, it hits some snags. It can be powered by a single Boost Energy… but that would be true if it costs another Colorless Energy. Also, since a Double Colorless Energy is a prime target for Energy Removal, it means that the benefit of using is less significant. It is still there (they expend a resource), but it’s a small gain in Unlimited that wouldn’t be equal to, say, (CCC) if it gave another counter, and especially if it gave a full five. Probably the best option would be to have made it cost (FF) and given more counters of damage… or just (F) and given less. As is, it is still useful though, and excellent for sniping, especially since it gets around Metal Pokémon with Metal Energy, something I have seen used in a fairly sturdy, but not widespread, deck.
So the attacks aren’t going to make me play this card. The Poké-Body will though. Wise Aura shuts down the Poké-Powers of all other Pokémon in play except Pokémon-ex and only works when Medicham ex is Active. This is a mixed blessing, since as long as you have this in play with any other Pokémon than itself, especially if it is the only one you have in play, there are a lot of ways to bench Medicham ex and thus shut off its Poké-Body. As a whole it is a fantastic ability, as an active Medicham ex will slow down most decks, hurt most of the big decks, and shut some of the best of the best down.
As a whole, the Poké-Body makes this card, while the attacks do a decent job of supporting it.
Uses and Combinations: Okay, the big combo is with Crystal Shard. Drop shard and Sky Attack does 100 points damage to Fighting Resistant Pokémon. That isn’t too big a deal against, say, a Rayquaza ex, since you’re already scoring double damage since you just became Colorless. Against a few cards, most notably Pidgeot from Fire Red/Leaf Green, it becomes a perfect OHKO, in addition to over 50 other Pokémon that have less than 100 HP and are OHKO’d by this trick. You can also use Magnetic Storm if you wish. Also the deck EspyCham has it combos for Medi. This deck basically has Espy devolving and Medicham doing damage to the bench. Its a pretty simple deck for people to play, if you can get all the cards. It mess with a lot of decks including Dragtrode and Machamp [LM]. It shocks me how much Deck really on Poke-Power to win their games.
8/10 I can say that this card will rise to its full potential and become better than it is rght now. Also at States the Medcahm T2 deck won 15+.
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Hiya,
Okay…Today, I will review another card that is widely used in the current metagame. That card is Medicham ex. Now…I’m sure you all have seen this card played with a lot of variations. Let’s see them.
HP: 110
-Quite high for a Stage 1 ex. Desert ruins could hurt this card, so better be careful
Poke-Body: Wise Aura
-This is the first reason why Medicham ex is widely used. It’s stops Poke-Powers(excluding ex). That means, your opponent is pratically stuck if you are fighting a deck that concentrate on powers. Pidgeot, Jirachi, Magcargo, Ludicolo, Dragonite d, Metagross d, and all those pokemon that have good Poke-Powers are pratically useless when Medicham is active.
Attacks:
[C][C] Pure Power
-This attack lets you put 3 damage counters on any of your opponent’s Pokemon. This is the second reason Medicham ex is widely used. This attack is great, because you can spread damage counters on your opponent’s Pokemon. With only 2 colorless energy, this attack can be used turn 2, even turn 1 with candy and Boost Energy.
[F][C][C] Sky Kick 60+
-Sky kick helps your resistance problem a lot. Just place a Magnetic Storm, and your resistance problem is gone. Free 100 damage to 100 hp Pokemon that have resistance to [F]. (Ex: Pidgeot, Gengar, Bannette). With Boost, you can use this attack turn 2.
Weakness: [P]
-[P] weakness is not a big problem for Medicham ex. Just beware of Gengar. It can OHKO Medicham ex.
Retreat cost: [C]
-Great retreat cost for an ex. Could really help when you are in a tight spot.
Combos
T2 Cham:
-The combo starts with a Jirachi, which will search for Swoop! Teleporter. An energy is then attached to Jirachi, and next turn, Swoop! it. Evolve into Medicham, lay down an energy or Boost energy to do Pure Power or Sky kick. When in trouble, stall with Jirachi attached with Metal energy. When you have more prize than your opponent, just use Pow! Hand extension to weak Pokemon on the bench.
EspyCham:
-It’s the same with T2 Cham, only added Espeon ex. Medicham ex uses pure power on benched pokemon. When they had enough damage counters on them, lay down Espeon ex, which will cause a devolution on a benched evolved Pokemon. Either the Pokemon will be KO’d because of the damage counters or Medicham ex uses Pure Power again to KO the weakened Pokemon. This combo is probably the best combo for Medicham.
LoneMonk:
-Houndoom with Medicham. Houndoom locks your opponent’s trainers while Medicham ex locks your opponent’s Poke-Power. A very disruptive deck.
CroCham:
-It’s a new combo, I taught of it, but never used it. Basicly, Spread damage counters on Opponent’s benched Pokemon and then use Crobat d. Target Attack anybody that Medicham ex have damaged with Pure Power.
Final Rating:
This power stopping monk is a very nice card, also with the right combos. It can even stand alone by itself.
Unlimited: 5/10
Destroys Slowking, but will most probably defeated by Energy Removal 2 and it’s weakness.
Modified: 7/10
Since the current metagame relies a lot on Pidgeot for searching, Medicham’s Poke-Body could really hurt a lot of your opponents.
That’s all for today’s Card Of the Day. Hope to see you again,
Cya.
Hiya,
Okay…Today, I will review another card that is widely used in the current metagame. That card is Medicham ex. Now…I’m sure you all have seen this card played with a lot of variations. Let’s see them.
HP: 110
-Quite high for a Stage 1 ex. Desert ruins could hurt this card, so better be careful
Poke-Body: Wise Aura
-This is the first reason why Medicham ex is widely used. It’s stops Poke-Powers(excluding ex). That means, your opponent is pratically stuck if you are fighting a deck that concentrate on powers. Pidgeot, Jirachi, Magcargo, Ludicolo, Dragonite d, Metagross d, and all those pokemon that have good Poke-Powers are pratically useless when Medicham is active.
Attacks:
[C][C] Pure Power
-This attack lets you put 3 damage counters on any of your opponent’s Pokemon. This is the second reason Medicham ex is widely used. This attack is great, because you can spread damage counters on your opponent’s Pokemon. With only 2 colorless energy, this attack can be used turn 2, even turn 1 with candy and Boost Energy.
[F][C][C] Sky Kick 60+
-Sky kick helps your resistance problem a lot. Just place a Magnetic Storm, and your resistance problem is gone. Free 100 damage to 100 hp Pokemon that have resistance to [F]. (Ex: Pidgeot, Gengar, Bannette). With Boost, you can use this attack turn 2.
Weakness: [P]
-[P] weakness is not a big problem for Medicham ex. Just beware of Gengar. It can OHKO Medicham ex.
Retreat cost: [C]
-Great retreat cost for an ex. Could really help when you are in a tight spot.
Combos
T2 Cham:
-The combo starts with a Jirachi, which will search for Swoop! Teleporter. An energy is then attached to Jirachi, and next turn, Swoop! it. Evolve into Medicham, lay down an energy or Boost energy to do Pure Power or Sky kick. When in trouble, stall with Jirachi attached with Metal energy. When you have more prize than your opponent, just use Pow! Hand extension to weak Pokemon on the bench.
EspyCham:
-It’s the same with T2 Cham, only added Espeon ex. Medicham ex uses pure power on benched pokemon. When they had enough damage counters on them, lay down Espeon ex, which will cause a devolution on a benched evolved Pokemon. Either the Pokemon will be KO’d because of the damage counters or Medicham ex uses Pure Power again to KO the weakened Pokemon. This combo is probably the best combo for Medicham.
LoneMonk:
-Houndoom with Medicham. Houndoom locks your opponent’s trainers while Medicham ex locks your opponent’s Poke-Power. A very disruptive deck.
CroCham:
-It’s a new combo, I taught of it, but never used it. Basicly, Spread damage counters on Opponent’s benched Pokemon and then use Crobat d. Target Attack anybody that Medicham ex have damaged with Pure Power.
Final Rating:
This power stopping monk is a very nice card, also with the right combos. It can even stand alone by itself.
Unlimited: 5/10
Destroys Slowking, but will most probably defeated by Energy Removal 2 and it’s weakness.
Modified: 7/10
Since the current metagame relies a lot on Pidgeot for searching, Medicham’s Poke-Body could really hurt a lot of your opponents.
That’s all for today’s Card Of the Day. Hope to see you again,
Cya.
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Today we shall look at another ex pokemon, which is Medicham ex. Firstly, it has an average HP and one retreat cost is great. Medicham ex is weak against psychic, however, weak against psychic will not affect Medicham ex much since nowadays psychic deck is not that popular except Scizorgross and Gengar deck. Next Medicham ex’s poke-body brings it to be powerful in current environment. Its Wise Aura says that when Medicham ex is active; all pokemon except pokemon-ex cannot use any poke-power. Thus, it locks the most heavily played search engine, Pidgeot RG and Magcargo DX. Without these two main search engines, most deck’s speed will cut down greatly. Then Medicham ex has two attacks which are Pure Power and Sky Kick. Pure Power allows you to put three damage counters in anyway you like. Most probably people will use pokemon reversal or pow! Hand extension to pawn opponent’s high retreat cost pokemon (especially Magcargo DX) and start put damage on the bench. When opponent decided to attach energies to meet the retreat cost, this is when Sky Kick attack becomes handy. Sky Kick does 60 damage to the defending and 100 if the defending has resistance to fighting type. Thus, you can knock out the defending within one or two turns. In addition, when your opponent has resistance to fighting type, you can play crystal shard or magnetic storm to do 100 damages to the defending. Wow, 100 damages with only three energies and no drawback is awesome!!
Now, we shall take a look at some of the deck based on Medicham ex. Most of time, player will play with Turn-2 Medicham or so called powdacham, Medicham ex with Espeon ex and also Medidoom which is the combination of Medicham ex and Houndoom UF. First of all, we shall discuss about turn-2 Medicham ex. Bear in mind that here is no any special strategy to play with Medicham ex actually. What you need to do is get out Medicham ex in turn two to lock opponent’s poke-power. Then, just like what I mentioned in my early review, use pow! Hand extansion or pokemon reversal to gust out high retreat cost and start put damages on bench. In the other hand, Medicham ex/Espeon ex deck does the same too. Yet, you can use Espeon ex’s power to devolve and knock out one of opponent’s heavily damaged pokemon in bench. Furthermore, Espeon ex is used to counter psychic pokemon since most of the psychic pokemons are weak against psychic themselves. Besides, Espeon ex also can devolve some powerful pokemon-ex and then shuffle back into deck with Rocket’s admin. With the safe guard pokemons, especially Dustox ex; however, have pull Medicham ex down. Hence, it leads player to play with Houndoom UF. Houndoom prevents opponent play non supporter trainers if opponent has more bench pokemon then you. Meaning opponent cannot play rare candy, warp point or desert ruins; meanwhile, Houndoom can OHKO Dustox ex and Ninetails with Flamethrower attack. Moreover, being a non pokemon ex, Houndoom helps Medicham ex to clear up pokemon with safeguard attack.
Currently, Medicham ex deck still can fit in current metagame. Some popular deck such as BLS, Metanite, Zap-turn-dos are hard to stand a chance against Medicham ex. For BLS deck, once Pidgeot’s power is locked, the whole strategy can be said is totally ruined. Additionally, Steelix ex, the main attacker for BLS is weak against fighting. So when a Medicham ex against BLS, most of the time Medicham ex player will enjoy gust up Steelix ex or Blastoise ex with pokemon reversal or pow! Hand extension and knock them out with Sky Kick. While the gusting strategy goes same with Zap-turn-dos deck, gust out Zapdos ex and knock out the bench. Besides, all pokemon in Zap-turn-dos deck except Zapdos ex are weak against Medicham ex. As for Metanite, Metanite player cannot do anything since Medicham’s Wise Aura stops all poke-power. In the other hand, Medicham ex will has bad match up against three decks. First is deck with safeguard pokemon, of course. Once opponent has safeguard pokemon in play, what you can do is use Pure Power or gust out bench and knocks other pokemon out. In this case, you have to hope that opponent has enough bench pokemon for you to grab all prizes. If opponent is playing with safeguard based deck such as Dustox ex, then you are totally doomed except you are playing with Houndoom. Secondly, Medicham ex deck also has bad match up against liability deck. Nevertheless, the only advantage and the only key to win the game is Medicham’s power already locks Pidgeot. Thus, liability deck’s setup will be slow and this is the only chance to win the game before opponent gets out Weezing. Last but not least, Medicham’s weakness brings bad match up for him as well. The major psychic decks in current metagame are Gengar and Scizorgross. During the game with those two decks, at first you will take a lead, but just watch out for scramble. It is because Scamble allows Gengar or Metagross to OHKO Medicham ex.
In conclusion, Medicham is still able to stand out in current metagame. However, just watch out some decks. So I will give it 8/10. See you next time. Cheers.
Today we shall look at another ex pokemon, which is Medicham ex. Firstly, it has an average HP and one retreat cost is great. Medicham ex is weak against psychic, however, weak against psychic will not affect Medicham ex much since nowadays psychic deck is not that popular except Scizorgross and Gengar deck. Next Medicham ex’s poke-body brings it to be powerful in current environment. Its Wise Aura says that when Medicham ex is active; all pokemon except pokemon-ex cannot use any poke-power. Thus, it locks the most heavily played search engine, Pidgeot RG and Magcargo DX. Without these two main search engines, most deck’s speed will cut down greatly. Then Medicham ex has two attacks which are Pure Power and Sky Kick. Pure Power allows you to put three damage counters in anyway you like. Most probably people will use pokemon reversal or pow! Hand extension to pawn opponent’s high retreat cost pokemon (especially Magcargo DX) and start put damage on the bench. When opponent decided to attach energies to meet the retreat cost, this is when Sky Kick attack becomes handy. Sky Kick does 60 damage to the defending and 100 if the defending has resistance to fighting type. Thus, you can knock out the defending within one or two turns. In addition, when your opponent has resistance to fighting type, you can play crystal shard or magnetic storm to do 100 damages to the defending. Wow, 100 damages with only three energies and no drawback is awesome!!
Now, we shall take a look at some of the deck based on Medicham ex. Most of time, player will play with Turn-2 Medicham or so called powdacham, Medicham ex with Espeon ex and also Medidoom which is the combination of Medicham ex and Houndoom UF. First of all, we shall discuss about turn-2 Medicham ex. Bear in mind that here is no any special strategy to play with Medicham ex actually. What you need to do is get out Medicham ex in turn two to lock opponent’s poke-power. Then, just like what I mentioned in my early review, use pow! Hand extansion or pokemon reversal to gust out high retreat cost and start put damages on bench. In the other hand, Medicham ex/Espeon ex deck does the same too. Yet, you can use Espeon ex’s power to devolve and knock out one of opponent’s heavily damaged pokemon in bench. Furthermore, Espeon ex is used to counter psychic pokemon since most of the psychic pokemons are weak against psychic themselves. Besides, Espeon ex also can devolve some powerful pokemon-ex and then shuffle back into deck with Rocket’s admin. With the safe guard pokemons, especially Dustox ex; however, have pull Medicham ex down. Hence, it leads player to play with Houndoom UF. Houndoom prevents opponent play non supporter trainers if opponent has more bench pokemon then you. Meaning opponent cannot play rare candy, warp point or desert ruins; meanwhile, Houndoom can OHKO Dustox ex and Ninetails with Flamethrower attack. Moreover, being a non pokemon ex, Houndoom helps Medicham ex to clear up pokemon with safeguard attack.
Currently, Medicham ex deck still can fit in current metagame. Some popular deck such as BLS, Metanite, Zap-turn-dos are hard to stand a chance against Medicham ex. For BLS deck, once Pidgeot’s power is locked, the whole strategy can be said is totally ruined. Additionally, Steelix ex, the main attacker for BLS is weak against fighting. So when a Medicham ex against BLS, most of the time Medicham ex player will enjoy gust up Steelix ex or Blastoise ex with pokemon reversal or pow! Hand extension and knock them out with Sky Kick. While the gusting strategy goes same with Zap-turn-dos deck, gust out Zapdos ex and knock out the bench. Besides, all pokemon in Zap-turn-dos deck except Zapdos ex are weak against Medicham ex. As for Metanite, Metanite player cannot do anything since Medicham’s Wise Aura stops all poke-power. In the other hand, Medicham ex will has bad match up against three decks. First is deck with safeguard pokemon, of course. Once opponent has safeguard pokemon in play, what you can do is use Pure Power or gust out bench and knocks other pokemon out. In this case, you have to hope that opponent has enough bench pokemon for you to grab all prizes. If opponent is playing with safeguard based deck such as Dustox ex, then you are totally doomed except you are playing with Houndoom. Secondly, Medicham ex deck also has bad match up against liability deck. Nevertheless, the only advantage and the only key to win the game is Medicham’s power already locks Pidgeot. Thus, liability deck’s setup will be slow and this is the only chance to win the game before opponent gets out Weezing. Last but not least, Medicham’s weakness brings bad match up for him as well. The major psychic decks in current metagame are Gengar and Scizorgross. During the game with those two decks, at first you will take a lead, but just watch out for scramble. It is because Scamble allows Gengar or Metagross to OHKO Medicham ex.
In conclusion, Medicham is still able to stand out in current metagame. However, just watch out some decks. So I will give it 8/10. See you next time. Cheers.
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Medicham ex
Let’s start first on getting Medicham. It’s an ex from EX: Emerald therefore the chances of getting a Medicham is about 1:3.5 per box (taking into account ex’s to boxes ratio).
If you were to buy one on Ebay, it could fetch you anything from £5-20 ($8.5-34.50) give or take a bit. I set this as the same price as Steelix as sets come a good. Price chances during what combos are out. So buying or selling is worth the investment. It’s a good card to have in its worth.
Let’s get down to the card details now. An 110HP fighting type EX Pokémon. First problem may people think is Desert Ruins, but the way this is played many people are not bothered by it. Another problem is it has no resistance.
The body of which that you can stop all powers, is good and bad. Excellent to mess up your opponent and bad cause you can’t play any pokémon with powers in your own deck. But most decks do have powers now so it’s good to play.
The attacks of C,C for a total of 3 damage counters placed around over the opponents pokémon is very nice. Very nice for a turn 2 attack. This comes very handy later on in some decks. (look under combos).
The second attack of 60 + 40 if there is a fighting resistance, I don’t think is very useful. There isn’t a large amount of fighting resistance about.
Problems..
Well there aren’t many problems apart from finding a pokémon with a fighting resistance.
Combos
Well first is the main combo Medicham turn 2.
Normally the aim is the have an EX: Deoxys Jirachi out first as active, and use its power. Then next turn use a swoop teleporter to change to a Meditate out then evolve into a Medicham and start to dam.
The second version is with Espeon ex. Same start with the above would be nice, but after putting 3 damage counters on there main evolved pokémon use evolve a Eevee in to Espeon and use its power on that pokémon. As it’s a come to play power from an ex, Medicham doesn’t stop it.
Match ups
Here I have listed some of the most common net decks that is being played and the estimated chances on winning:
ZRE 6/10
Ok early game, but most of the time you will have problems
MetaNite 6/10
Metagross can get it Ko quickly
Rock Lock 8/10
Not much for a problem really. You will knock them out before they knock you.
Nidoqueen 5/10
Personally I don’t know how this will go. If playing with Espeon then it becomes easier to play.
Gengar 5/10
Weak to Psychic, but most of the time you get hit from damage counters. It’s a stage 2 so, all depends on the draw for both players.
Liability 4/10
With desert ruins in play, you need to get it away quickly.
Arcanine EX 5/10
All depends on who starts, Medicham starts means a better chance of winning.
Mirror match 5/10
Most of the time is the luck of the draw. It goes anyway
LBS 3/10
You will have problems surviving its attacks every turn. You will need Espeon when you play this.
Overall
Overall this hasn’t been my best review. Medicham has no real good things and no real bad things
Overall 6.5/10 in current in Modified format.
Me personally i can't give it anymore.
Medicham ex
Let’s start first on getting Medicham. It’s an ex from EX: Emerald therefore the chances of getting a Medicham is about 1:3.5 per box (taking into account ex’s to boxes ratio).
If you were to buy one on Ebay, it could fetch you anything from £5-20 ($8.5-34.50) give or take a bit. I set this as the same price as Steelix as sets come a good. Price chances during what combos are out. So buying or selling is worth the investment. It’s a good card to have in its worth.
Let’s get down to the card details now. An 110HP fighting type EX Pokémon. First problem may people think is Desert Ruins, but the way this is played many people are not bothered by it. Another problem is it has no resistance.
The body of which that you can stop all powers, is good and bad. Excellent to mess up your opponent and bad cause you can’t play any pokémon with powers in your own deck. But most decks do have powers now so it’s good to play.
The attacks of C,C for a total of 3 damage counters placed around over the opponents pokémon is very nice. Very nice for a turn 2 attack. This comes very handy later on in some decks. (look under combos).
The second attack of 60 + 40 if there is a fighting resistance, I don’t think is very useful. There isn’t a large amount of fighting resistance about.
Problems..
Well there aren’t many problems apart from finding a pokémon with a fighting resistance.
Combos
Well first is the main combo Medicham turn 2.
Normally the aim is the have an EX: Deoxys Jirachi out first as active, and use its power. Then next turn use a swoop teleporter to change to a Meditate out then evolve into a Medicham and start to dam.
The second version is with Espeon ex. Same start with the above would be nice, but after putting 3 damage counters on there main evolved pokémon use evolve a Eevee in to Espeon and use its power on that pokémon. As it’s a come to play power from an ex, Medicham doesn’t stop it.
Match ups
Here I have listed some of the most common net decks that is being played and the estimated chances on winning:
ZRE 6/10
Ok early game, but most of the time you will have problems
MetaNite 6/10
Metagross can get it Ko quickly
Rock Lock 8/10
Not much for a problem really. You will knock them out before they knock you.
Nidoqueen 5/10
Personally I don’t know how this will go. If playing with Espeon then it becomes easier to play.
Gengar 5/10
Weak to Psychic, but most of the time you get hit from damage counters. It’s a stage 2 so, all depends on the draw for both players.
Liability 4/10
With desert ruins in play, you need to get it away quickly.
Arcanine EX 5/10
All depends on who starts, Medicham starts means a better chance of winning.
Mirror match 5/10
Most of the time is the luck of the draw. It goes anyway
LBS 3/10
You will have problems surviving its attacks every turn. You will need Espeon when you play this.
Overall
Overall this hasn’t been my best review. Medicham has no real good things and no real bad things
Overall 6.5/10 in current in Modified format.
Me personally i can't give it anymore.
RE: Next assignment: Medicham ex
Medicham ex (Ex: Emerald)
Ah yes...the infamous Medicham ex. This card brings back memories of a time when it was all the rage...when it was feared, either “play Medicham or lose”. Of course, after Worlds 2005, the card became anticipated more and wasn’t as dominating as before.
So here’s the rundown on the card itself:
Medicham ex is a Stage 1 Pokemon-ex with 110HP. This is a rather solid number, and should not give most Medicham ex players much trouble, unless when running into Medicham ex’s Psychic weakness. With Mew ex, Mr. Mime Ditto, and any of the various Deoxys ex running around these days, this is something to be feared yet can be countered with Espeon ex’s type and Umbreon ex’s resistance. A Retreat of 1 is nice, discarding a single energy helps you to not lose too much progress when getting it out of harm’s way.
Wise Aura, the Poke-Body that Medicham ex has, stops the use of either player’s non-ex Poke-Powers from working. This is what makes Medicham ex feared. Shutting off the Poke-Powers of search engines and energy manipulators turns the tables to Medicham ex’s favor. The first attack Medicham ex has, Pure Power, for [C][C], allows you to place 3 damage counters amongst your opponent’s Pokemon in any way you like. Putting the damage in the right places is key, and is what sets skilled players from beginners apart. Some questions when using Pure Power you should ask yourself are “Where does the energy lie?” “Where is the attacker?” “What can I snipe away that my opponent needs most?” Figure out where the damage needs to go, and you can mess your opponent’s plans. You can also set the damage up to OHKO your opponent’s Pokemon with Medicham ex’s second attack, Sky Kick. For [F][C][C], the attack does a guaranteed 60 damage. However, if the Defending Pokemon has a Resistance to [F], the attack does 40 additional damage, for a grand total of 100 damage! Normally, that would then reduce down to 70 due to the Resistance, but it can be played around. With a Magnetic Storm in play, the resistance is ignored, therefore doing the whole 100 damage!
And now, the combos segment.
Medicham ex has been played in two different ways-the T2 or “Turn 2” deck, and another variant known as “Espycham”.
T2 was the version Medicham ex was popularly played in. This deck was simple in its Pokemon engine, playing a full 4-4 line of Medicham ex and then 4 Jirachi from Deoxys. This deck was part of the steam that started the popular use of Jirachi DX, with the first being Seena G’s Muk T2, launching the existence of the T2 engine. Using so little Pokemon, and needing no more than 14-16 energy, a lot of room was left over for Trainers. Namely, enough room for the game’s few remaining disruption Trainers-Energy Removal 2 and Pokemon Reversal. These two cards were looked down upon because of their “Tails fails” effect, but proved to be very powerful in this deck. On heads, the two become the games’ reincarnated Energy Removal and Gust of Wind, THE staples from the old Base Set days. It was this combination of unprecedented deck building and use of what were otherwise forgotten cards that made it a monster. However, on its own, the deck falls to the Psychic type Pokemon that are otherwise making a comeback in the format, namely through Mew ex’s new found use and through the teched Deoxys ex and Mr. Mime Ditto that are played in some decks. At the time, Dark Slowking was played to counter it, and did see play at Worlds 2005. This is where the T2 version’s flaw was-it couldn’t hold up its weakness.
Espycham, on the other hand, found a way around the Weakness. Using the Espeon ex and Umbreon ex from Ex: Unseen Forces, any Psychic type Pokemon would have problems against the two counter Pokemon. As well with countering type, the two fox Pokemon had two useful Poke-Powers to boot. Espeon ex, when evolving into it from your hand, could return an evolution card from one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon, devolving it. In combination with Medicham ex’s Pure Power attack, the devolution could cause a Knock Out, which could be a key Benched Pokemon that your opponent would rather have in play. Another strategy with devolving is to play Rocket’s Admin. in order to shuffle back the card to mess with your opponent’s plans. Umbreon ex’s Darker Ring Poke-Power activates in much the same way, and acts as a non-flip Pokemon Reversal. It helps not only to pull up a Pokemon hiding on the Bench, it could also be used to send back the Active in order to devolve it with an Espeon ex. In my personal opinion, I find Espycham to be the more successful Medicham ex deck, given that it appears to have improved upon the idea of using Medicham ex to its fullest potential.
Time to grade!
As a whole in today’s game, Medicham ex is still a huge contender. It’s surely not forgotten, and certainly still has a chance to place. Its only concern is the weakness factor, that and anything that could prevent ex damage. What Medicham ex can’t handle an Eeveelution helps to take care of. With the synergy that it can be provided with, I give Medicham ex a 7 out of 10.
Medicham ex (Ex: Emerald)
Ah yes...the infamous Medicham ex. This card brings back memories of a time when it was all the rage...when it was feared, either “play Medicham or lose”. Of course, after Worlds 2005, the card became anticipated more and wasn’t as dominating as before.
So here’s the rundown on the card itself:
Medicham ex is a Stage 1 Pokemon-ex with 110HP. This is a rather solid number, and should not give most Medicham ex players much trouble, unless when running into Medicham ex’s Psychic weakness. With Mew ex, Mr. Mime Ditto, and any of the various Deoxys ex running around these days, this is something to be feared yet can be countered with Espeon ex’s type and Umbreon ex’s resistance. A Retreat of 1 is nice, discarding a single energy helps you to not lose too much progress when getting it out of harm’s way.
Wise Aura, the Poke-Body that Medicham ex has, stops the use of either player’s non-ex Poke-Powers from working. This is what makes Medicham ex feared. Shutting off the Poke-Powers of search engines and energy manipulators turns the tables to Medicham ex’s favor. The first attack Medicham ex has, Pure Power, for [C][C], allows you to place 3 damage counters amongst your opponent’s Pokemon in any way you like. Putting the damage in the right places is key, and is what sets skilled players from beginners apart. Some questions when using Pure Power you should ask yourself are “Where does the energy lie?” “Where is the attacker?” “What can I snipe away that my opponent needs most?” Figure out where the damage needs to go, and you can mess your opponent’s plans. You can also set the damage up to OHKO your opponent’s Pokemon with Medicham ex’s second attack, Sky Kick. For [F][C][C], the attack does a guaranteed 60 damage. However, if the Defending Pokemon has a Resistance to [F], the attack does 40 additional damage, for a grand total of 100 damage! Normally, that would then reduce down to 70 due to the Resistance, but it can be played around. With a Magnetic Storm in play, the resistance is ignored, therefore doing the whole 100 damage!
And now, the combos segment.
Medicham ex has been played in two different ways-the T2 or “Turn 2” deck, and another variant known as “Espycham”.
T2 was the version Medicham ex was popularly played in. This deck was simple in its Pokemon engine, playing a full 4-4 line of Medicham ex and then 4 Jirachi from Deoxys. This deck was part of the steam that started the popular use of Jirachi DX, with the first being Seena G’s Muk T2, launching the existence of the T2 engine. Using so little Pokemon, and needing no more than 14-16 energy, a lot of room was left over for Trainers. Namely, enough room for the game’s few remaining disruption Trainers-Energy Removal 2 and Pokemon Reversal. These two cards were looked down upon because of their “Tails fails” effect, but proved to be very powerful in this deck. On heads, the two become the games’ reincarnated Energy Removal and Gust of Wind, THE staples from the old Base Set days. It was this combination of unprecedented deck building and use of what were otherwise forgotten cards that made it a monster. However, on its own, the deck falls to the Psychic type Pokemon that are otherwise making a comeback in the format, namely through Mew ex’s new found use and through the teched Deoxys ex and Mr. Mime Ditto that are played in some decks. At the time, Dark Slowking was played to counter it, and did see play at Worlds 2005. This is where the T2 version’s flaw was-it couldn’t hold up its weakness.
Espycham, on the other hand, found a way around the Weakness. Using the Espeon ex and Umbreon ex from Ex: Unseen Forces, any Psychic type Pokemon would have problems against the two counter Pokemon. As well with countering type, the two fox Pokemon had two useful Poke-Powers to boot. Espeon ex, when evolving into it from your hand, could return an evolution card from one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon, devolving it. In combination with Medicham ex’s Pure Power attack, the devolution could cause a Knock Out, which could be a key Benched Pokemon that your opponent would rather have in play. Another strategy with devolving is to play Rocket’s Admin. in order to shuffle back the card to mess with your opponent’s plans. Umbreon ex’s Darker Ring Poke-Power activates in much the same way, and acts as a non-flip Pokemon Reversal. It helps not only to pull up a Pokemon hiding on the Bench, it could also be used to send back the Active in order to devolve it with an Espeon ex. In my personal opinion, I find Espycham to be the more successful Medicham ex deck, given that it appears to have improved upon the idea of using Medicham ex to its fullest potential.
Time to grade!
As a whole in today’s game, Medicham ex is still a huge contender. It’s surely not forgotten, and certainly still has a chance to place. Its only concern is the weakness factor, that and anything that could prevent ex damage. What Medicham ex can’t handle an Eeveelution helps to take care of. With the synergy that it can be provided with, I give Medicham ex a 7 out of 10.