Adopted from my Pojo review of the card.
Now we look at a heavy hitting Pokémon, Metagross. This version is from HS – Undaunted. It is a Metal-Type Pokémon, allowing it to soak damage with the Special Energy version of Metal Energy. This enhances the usefulness of its 130 HP; for a Stage 2 Pokémon this is on the high end of average . The damage doubling Fire Weakness isn’t so hot, but neither are Fire decks right now. The presence of any Resistance is welcome and Psychic -20 (while not the best), is useful to have and greatly appreciated. The Retreat Cost is a massive: four Energy! You need to bypass it and/or build your strategy around taking Metagross out.
This version of Metagross is meant for damage. For (MMC) you can use Strength to do a reliable 70 damage. No added effects, no restrictive clauses. Like many attacks, it would have been better if that second Metal Energy requirement had been another Colorless Energy requirement: this attack can’t use Double Colorless Energy for extra speed, and after a minimum three turns of setting up, I want to hit for more than a flat 70. Quad slam fairs a little better. It has an extra Colorless Energy requirement, but that means many times you’ll just be able to drop a Double Colorless Energy and go straight from being unable to attack into using Quad Slam, skipping Strength unless you need a reliable 70 damage. Quad Slam is coin flip based: four flips with 50 points of damage per “heads”. Statistics and probability are sticky subjects and when trying to speak in layman’s terms I usually am technically wrong. When trying to use precise probability calculations… I just tend to be wrong. :redface: To keep things simple, you’re either going to get all “heads” for a massive 200 points of damage, three “heads” for a respectable 150 points of damage, two “heads” for a passable 100 points of damage, a single result of “heads” for 50 points of damage, or an awful result of no “heads” which means zero damage. The amount of damage per successful result is high enough that I feel it outweighs the risk of the two lowest results.
It isn’t really worth going into any more depth on Quad Slam, or sadly on this card, because right now it just isn’t worth playing in the Modified format due to three other useful versions of Metagross being available. First is the version from DP – Legends Awakened. It has arguably superior stats coupled with a magnificent Poké-Power called Magnetic Reversal and a good attack. Magnetic Reversal acts like a once-a-turn re-usable Pokémon Reversal. There is no penalty for failing and multiple copies can be included if you want to increase the odds of success… and have spare attackers. The version from Supreme Victors has an interesting and I believe useful Poké-Body that drops maximum HP for all Pokémon by 20 and bench hitting attack. The Poké-Body doesn’t stack so one could probably run a single copy with any other Metagross. The final Modified legal Metagross is from HS – Unleashed. It has worse stats, as it is a Psychic Weak Psychic Pokémon, but it has a useful Poké-Body that drops the Retreat cost of any Pokémon with a Psychic Energy attached to zero, plus one really good and one poor attack. I’d be inclined to run mostly the first one, maybe with a single copy of Supreme Victors version.
This Metagross just doesn’t seem fast enough to be useful in any current decks. Now, if we get a Metagross that once again grants Metal Energy acceleration and/or discard pile retrieval, that could galvanize this version enough to be a useful attacker. At least you can enjoy it in Limited. Yes, it will require running a lot of basic Metal Energy and will probably have to run at least one other type, if not two. Even without lucking into a Special Energy version of Metal Energy, Metagross hard hitting nature and sturdy HP should let you generate significant advantage. With just four Prizes to begin with, only bad luck with coin tosses are apt to keep you from taking two prizes for one Metagross. Still, it is slow to set up and Metang is merely adequate; you may be at a Prize deficit by the time it gets out.
Ratings
Modified: 3/10
Limited: 6.5/10
sychic: is nice, and :colorless::colorless::colorless::colorless: to Retreat is super-expensive. Now, Strength isn't too bad at :metal::metal::colorless: for 70, that's almost average damage for the cost. But what makes him fail is any better follow-up attack or a Power/Body; Quad Smash is bad for :metal::metal::colorless::colorless: for 50x the number of Heads you can get with 4 coins, so unless you plan on cheating/banning yourself by using a rigged coin, he sucks.
