R
RattataJoey
In this episode of Future Sight I'm going to be reviewing an upcoming card from Hail Blizzard and that card is Gardevoir
Gardevoir – Psychic – HP110
Stage 1 – Evolves from Kirlia
Ability: Psycho Mirage
As long as this Pokemon is in play, each Basic Psychic Energy card attached to your Psychic-type Pokemon provides 2 units of Psychic energy. This effect can’t be stacked, regardless of how many Pokemon with this ability you have in play.
[P][P][C][C] Mind Shock: 60 damage. Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance for this attack’s damage.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Well what can we say about Gardevoir from a glance, she has 110Hp an attack that requires 4 energy to do 60 damage that ignores weakness and resistance, a retreat of 2 (Which isn't desirable with catcher around) and she has weakness to Gothitelle. There's a lot about this card that just screams 'Don't play me', so why review her? Simply because of the 1 feature that I haven't mentioned above, her ability. Gardevoir has the ability Psycho Mirage which allows any {P} energy attached to a {P} Pokémon to provide 2 units of energy instead of 1, all of a sudden her {P}{P}{C}{C} energy cost can be seen as {P}{P} and her retreat cost of 2 can be read as 1, this doesn't fix her weakness, low Hp or her mediocre damage output but it does make her easier to retreat and completely viable as a support Pokémon for more reliable attackers.
Anybody who has read my previous article on Chandelure from Red Collection may have noticed that she can used to lower attack costs on {P} Pokémon but that may not be the only use for her, the recently released Gothitelle from Emerging Powers and Mewtwo EX from Psycho Drive;
Mewtwo EX – Psychic – HP170
Basic Pokemon
[C][C] EX Ball: Does 20 damage times the number of Energy attached to each player’s Active Pokemon.
[P][P][C] Psycho Drive: 120 damage. Choose 1 Energy attached to this Pokemon and discard it.
Pokemon EX Rule: When Pokemon EX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Both benefit from the lowered attack cost but also are able to inflict more damage when they have more energy attached to them, Gothitelle can attack with just 2 energy attached for 110 damage as opposed to her regular 3 energy for 90 damage, Likewise Mewtwo can attack with just 1 energy for 40 damage as opposed his 2 for the same output. With Gardevoir in play both of these Pokémon have there damage output increased greatly and make recovery much simpler as you effectively only have to attach half as much energy to a new Pokémon to prepare it to attack.
So how do we run Gardevoir in both Mewtwo and Gothitelle, and what are the benefits of having her in the deck?
I'll start with Gothitelle as she gives us the most noticeable either/or situation when running Gardevoir, the current build for Gothitelle is the commonly seen Gothitelle/Reuniclus deck which allows Gothitelle to have survivability while placing your opponent under trainer lock and denying them the speed offered from their trainers. The big issue with Gothitelle/Gardevoir is how to handle the Reuniclus line in the deck, the easiest way to handle it is to remove the Reuniclus altogether and just straight swap it for Gardevoir. This is by no means the best method as you completely remove Gothitelle's ability to tank against your opponent, even though it does give her more offensive capability, another way to do it is to try running both Reuniclus and Gardevoir and to test with different sized lines, this will also allow you chance to see which you prefer as a focus as both could be helpful in different matchups and you can choose between tanking or on attacking faster. If you do choose to run both I'd highly advise against full support lines of both as this will cause you to loose deck space, I'd suggest a 2-1-2 line for the support Pokémon you want to focus on and a 1-1-1 line to the secondary support Pokémon, you could possibly add an additional basic to whichever of the 2 lines belongs to Reuniclus due to Solosis' low Hp too avoid being placed in a tough position.
Next is Mewtwo, like Gothitelle his first attack's damage output is determined by the number of energy attached to him and to the defending Pokémon, with Gardevoir on the field each energy attached to Mewtwo provides 40 damage. He can also attack for only 1 attachment without relying on Double Colorless Energy, as well as 20 extra damage for every energy attached to the defending Pokémon. Mewtwo also has numerous advantages over Gothitelle, first of which is the plain fact that he's a basic meaning that he requires next to no setup, secondly he can attack for 1 attachment meaning he can do damage the turn he's played and lastly there's his 170Hp, which beats Gothitelle by 40. Of course he does have his disadvantages: the first of which is the fact that Mewtwo doesn't carry a trainer lock and secondly is the EX rule which allows your opponent to take 2 prizes for knocking Mewtwo out. Mewtwo is best played for the quick and heavy damage that he can provide plus the fact that with 170Hp he wont be knocked out in the early game giving you chance to get setup and start attacking.
Out of the 2 variants I prefer Mewtwo/Gardevoir just due to it having a much faster early game and better recovery but I wouldn't write Gothitelle variants out. If the build can be found then it should be able to make an impact and could remain a challenge for upcoming tournaments.
So what are your thoughts on Gardevoir? Have any of you had any ideas on how to play her?
If you'd like me to review a card at anytime just drop me a line via my profile.
Signing off for now
RattataJoey
Gardevoir – Psychic – HP110
Stage 1 – Evolves from Kirlia
Ability: Psycho Mirage
As long as this Pokemon is in play, each Basic Psychic Energy card attached to your Psychic-type Pokemon provides 2 units of Psychic energy. This effect can’t be stacked, regardless of how many Pokemon with this ability you have in play.
[P][P][C][C] Mind Shock: 60 damage. Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance for this attack’s damage.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Well what can we say about Gardevoir from a glance, she has 110Hp an attack that requires 4 energy to do 60 damage that ignores weakness and resistance, a retreat of 2 (Which isn't desirable with catcher around) and she has weakness to Gothitelle. There's a lot about this card that just screams 'Don't play me', so why review her? Simply because of the 1 feature that I haven't mentioned above, her ability. Gardevoir has the ability Psycho Mirage which allows any {P} energy attached to a {P} Pokémon to provide 2 units of energy instead of 1, all of a sudden her {P}{P}{C}{C} energy cost can be seen as {P}{P} and her retreat cost of 2 can be read as 1, this doesn't fix her weakness, low Hp or her mediocre damage output but it does make her easier to retreat and completely viable as a support Pokémon for more reliable attackers.
Anybody who has read my previous article on Chandelure from Red Collection may have noticed that she can used to lower attack costs on {P} Pokémon but that may not be the only use for her, the recently released Gothitelle from Emerging Powers and Mewtwo EX from Psycho Drive;
Mewtwo EX – Psychic – HP170
Basic Pokemon
[C][C] EX Ball: Does 20 damage times the number of Energy attached to each player’s Active Pokemon.
[P][P][C] Psycho Drive: 120 damage. Choose 1 Energy attached to this Pokemon and discard it.
Pokemon EX Rule: When Pokemon EX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Both benefit from the lowered attack cost but also are able to inflict more damage when they have more energy attached to them, Gothitelle can attack with just 2 energy attached for 110 damage as opposed to her regular 3 energy for 90 damage, Likewise Mewtwo can attack with just 1 energy for 40 damage as opposed his 2 for the same output. With Gardevoir in play both of these Pokémon have there damage output increased greatly and make recovery much simpler as you effectively only have to attach half as much energy to a new Pokémon to prepare it to attack.
So how do we run Gardevoir in both Mewtwo and Gothitelle, and what are the benefits of having her in the deck?
I'll start with Gothitelle as she gives us the most noticeable either/or situation when running Gardevoir, the current build for Gothitelle is the commonly seen Gothitelle/Reuniclus deck which allows Gothitelle to have survivability while placing your opponent under trainer lock and denying them the speed offered from their trainers. The big issue with Gothitelle/Gardevoir is how to handle the Reuniclus line in the deck, the easiest way to handle it is to remove the Reuniclus altogether and just straight swap it for Gardevoir. This is by no means the best method as you completely remove Gothitelle's ability to tank against your opponent, even though it does give her more offensive capability, another way to do it is to try running both Reuniclus and Gardevoir and to test with different sized lines, this will also allow you chance to see which you prefer as a focus as both could be helpful in different matchups and you can choose between tanking or on attacking faster. If you do choose to run both I'd highly advise against full support lines of both as this will cause you to loose deck space, I'd suggest a 2-1-2 line for the support Pokémon you want to focus on and a 1-1-1 line to the secondary support Pokémon, you could possibly add an additional basic to whichever of the 2 lines belongs to Reuniclus due to Solosis' low Hp too avoid being placed in a tough position.
Next is Mewtwo, like Gothitelle his first attack's damage output is determined by the number of energy attached to him and to the defending Pokémon, with Gardevoir on the field each energy attached to Mewtwo provides 40 damage. He can also attack for only 1 attachment without relying on Double Colorless Energy, as well as 20 extra damage for every energy attached to the defending Pokémon. Mewtwo also has numerous advantages over Gothitelle, first of which is the plain fact that he's a basic meaning that he requires next to no setup, secondly he can attack for 1 attachment meaning he can do damage the turn he's played and lastly there's his 170Hp, which beats Gothitelle by 40. Of course he does have his disadvantages: the first of which is the fact that Mewtwo doesn't carry a trainer lock and secondly is the EX rule which allows your opponent to take 2 prizes for knocking Mewtwo out. Mewtwo is best played for the quick and heavy damage that he can provide plus the fact that with 170Hp he wont be knocked out in the early game giving you chance to get setup and start attacking.
Out of the 2 variants I prefer Mewtwo/Gardevoir just due to it having a much faster early game and better recovery but I wouldn't write Gothitelle variants out. If the build can be found then it should be able to make an impact and could remain a challenge for upcoming tournaments.
So what are your thoughts on Gardevoir? Have any of you had any ideas on how to play her?
If you'd like me to review a card at anytime just drop me a line via my profile.
Signing off for now
RattataJoey
