[FONT="]Regigigas EX[/FONT][FONT="] clocked in at number seven of Pojo.com’s Top 10 Promising Picks of BW: Next Destinies. Let’s see if we can get a feel for this card![/FONT]
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[FONT="]Stats[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]As usual, I will remind you that we must weigh things a bit different for Pokémon EX than for non-Pokémon EX. They don’t count as having the same card name, thus you could run four copies of Regigigas EX alongside four copies of Regigigas in the same deck. Receiving an extra Prize card of compensation means they can be approximately twice as good as the non-Pokémon EX equivalent. The inherent advantages to having a single, even bigger Basic Pokémon over two different, still big Basic Pokémon isn’t as simple as multiplying all quantities by two. In general, there is a resource savings that means a Pokémon EX that is less than twice as good as a non-Pokémon EX counterpart may still be as good or better. The wording is designed so that other effects can up how many Prizes are drawn, namely the only such effect I can think of, Space Virus; that is the Poké-Body on Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND, and it will add a third Prize to what a player receives for KOing a Pokémon EX. It may be an unlikely occurrence, but three Prizes is half your starting Prizes, so be wary of it nonetheless. Similarly unlikely to matter for most players, if you’re using Pokémon EX with older cards in Unlimited play, Pokémon ex do not count as Pokémon EX in either terms of card name or card effects.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Being a Basic Pokémon is the best in this format: you have the normal benefits of requiring less deck space and being faster and easier to get into play than any other Stage, plus we keep getting cards that support Basic Pokémon usage, and in a format where Basic Pokémon already dominate! Being a Colorless-Type Pokémon, on the other hand, isn’t really good or bad right now: neither Weakness nor Resistance to it is often played, nor is there any support or counters currently legal that specifically target the Colorless Type.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Regigigas EX[/FONT][FONT="], like most of the other Pokémon EX, sports a magnificent HP score of 180. Only a handful of cards have met or surpassed this mark in the entire history of the game. Outside of exploiting Weakness, few Pokémon will be able to take Regigigas EX down in a single shot. Speaking of Weakness, Regigigas EX is Fighting Weak. Mono- or mostly mono-Fighting-Type decks aren’t seeing much competitive play right now, but at least the occasional Donphan Prime deck is still likely, while Fighting-Types splashed into decks means a Terrakion is likely to put the hurt on an unwary Regigigas EX. Even a Fighting deck that isn’t truly successful might also sport a Landorus. These potent Fighting Types can put the serious hurt on Regigigas EX, some even scoring a OHKO without outside help! Conversely, this card possesses no Resistance to offset this Weakness, but if the pattern holds the rest of the card should be good enough that this is justified.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Last for the stats is a gargantuan Retreat Cost of four, the second highest printed and the highest currently being printed. This is awful; you’ll have a hard time paying it except in decks with abundant Energy acceleration and even there, the cost will hurt. You will rarely ever manually retreat this card: bring Switch or another alternative to help and/or pack support so that even if forced up early, it will still be useful. At least this makes Regigigas EX a legal candidate for Heavy Ball to search from your deck.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Effects[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]Regigigas EX[/FONT][FONT="] has two attacks, the standard for the Pokémon EX we’ve gotten so far. The first is Giga Power, which does 60 points of damage for (CCC), with the option of doing another 20 points of damage on top of that if Regigigas EX does 20 points to itself. Completely on its own, this a good attack: with Double Colorless Energy any deck can afford to pay it just fast enough to be worthwhile, and those with compatible Energy acceleration (which is most of it) should build their decks to ready it in a single turn. The secondary affect allows it to hit a little harder when needed, and you get to judge if it is worth the self damage. Thanks to Eviolite, you can essentially do 80 for (CCC) with no drawbacks![/FONT]
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[FONT="]Of course, you almost want that self damage because of the second attack, Raging Hammer. The base damage for this attack is 50 for (CCCC), which is pretty bad even when you can use Energy acceleration. However the effect is that it does another 10 points of damage for each damage counter on Regigigas EX. Obviously his means Giga Power is superior until Regigigas EX is hurting. You need one damage counter on Regigigas EX for Raging Hammer to even equal the minimum damage output of Giga Power without that attack’s optional effect; three damage counters for the boosted version. Especially if you have Eviolite soaking the self damage from Giga Power, Raging Hammer is only stronger when you have at least four damage counters on Regigigas EX, and really worth four Energy when you’ve got at least five damage counters on it.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Raging Hammer is another attack that is only good when you factor in the rest of the card. Use Giga Power a few turns and finish off with a bang![/FONT]
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[FONT="]Usage[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]So what use is there for this card? As much of an overstatement as this may sound, Regigigas EX may become the budget player’s Mewtwo EX. 180 HP is great (better than Mewtwo EX, actually) and Pokémon EX versus Pokémon EX revenge KO fests are going to be likely. Facing an uninjured Regigigas EX, Shaymin EX needs your opponent to have taken five Prizes in order for it to score a OHKO. Mewtwo EX needs nine total Energy attached between itself and Regigigas EX to score a OHKO, 10 if Regigigas EX is packing Eviolite (and it likely would be). Kyurem EX, Reshiram EX, and Zekrom EX need outside help. Even if you used Giga Power and did the 20 points of damage to yourself, odds are still good Regigigas EX is surviving the next turn. If your opponent uses a “big” attack that (as indicated) is unlikely to score an actual OHKO, your opponent is just empowering the Regigigas EX player to drop one more Energy and finish off just about anything it can attack. If that is a Pokémon EX, it doesn’t really matter that you can knock Regigigas EX out with a feather the next turn; it did its job.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]If you try to slowly wear down the HP of Regigigas EX, even without using self damage Giga Power is a threat: 60 points of damage adds up fast, and once you’ve done more than 30 points to Regigigas EX odds are Raging Hammer will be used instead for even more damage. Yes, Eviolite offers some great protection to all the Pokémon EX, but Regigigas EX uses it the best of all; as stated earlier, it blocks the self-damage from Giga Power and with it’s massive HP and Raging Hammer, your opponent will have to carefully calculate to avoid enabling to massive hits instead of one (or have an unlikely card heavy combo to pull off a OHKO).[/FONT]
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[FONT="]The full potential of Regigigas EX can be tapped by a deck that runs Double Colorless Energy and Eviolite; a trick to get a third Energy in a single turn is nice but not necessary. If that sounds crazy, I am expecting you to play smart: don’t drop Regigigas EX into play until you’re convinced something worth OHKOing is also in play (probably an opposing Mewtwo EX). If Mewtwo EX takes the challenge and tackles Regigigas EX head on, your opponent is begging for you to drop a second Double Colorless Energy and push for a OHKO, or just committed a lot of Energy to that Mewtwo EX (this situation would require Mewtwo EX supply eight Energy cards for X-Ball). There are some obvious match-ups where this won’t work, but that’s just what they are: obvious! For what amounts to a three card combo involving two cards you probably already run, the rest of your deck should be able to pick up the slack when you face Magnezone Prime, Terrakion, Zekrom or Reshiram (normal versions) with adequate backing. I wonder if Regigigas EX could be the “big hitter” of a good “self-damage” deck. Exactly what that looks like, I don’t know, but I expect to see Regigigas EX alongside Zekrom and maybe Reshiram (yes, the non-Pokémon EX versions of those two). Reuniclus with Damage Swap and Vileplume to block Trainers is a tall order (two Stage 2 Pokémon), and I am not sure if you can really leave enough damage safely on Regigigas EX to make Raging Hammer “worth it”.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]So what about Unlimited? Unlimited is currently dominated in competitive matches by vicious First Turn Win decks that will all but ensure you have a single Pokémon start and place enough damage counters on it for a OHKO, possibly with the ability to resort to the more classic “donk” formula that simply hits hard enough to take most Pokémon out first turn (since some of the biggest Basic Pokémon like Regigigas EX will require both anyway). There are also decks that completely strip away your hand first turn so that you’re top-decking, in which case they have good odds of KOing you before you can get going. After that there are vicious lock decks that will completely deny a resource like Pokémon Powers (so far Abilities are safe, but not original Pokémon Powers, Poké-Powers, and Poké-Bodies), Trainers (all Trainers and not just a subcategory), and even Evolutions. Such lock decks may even mix multiple forms of denial together![/FONT]
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[FONT="]After all of this, you get the fun, crazy matches that use the best of the rest. Normally that is a bit of a knock, but not here: once you get past the outright broken combos, you’ll get to enjoy the madness that is… well probably something backed by Slowking from Neo Genesis. Trainer denial is important, and Slowking is easy to work into most decks, especially if the deck already has Evolutions and thus pretty much has to run Broken Time Space. At least, this is my current understanding of how Unlimited works: your mileage may vary. Once we get to the bottom of all of that… Regigigas EX isn’t actually bad. I’ve been somewhat hard on the Pokémon EX (though I think it is deserved) because most seem to be “over” killing machines that require too much support in Unlimited. Regigigas EX is a bit different. The bad news is that yes, its Weakness a problem: you’ll have little Tyrogue from Neo Discovery hitting you half the time for 60 point of damage on a single Energy, protected by both “the Baby Rule” and an equipped Focus Band. Then again you’ll remember how Regigigas EX works and the fact that it would take three successful hits for a KO… and Regigigas EX probably has its own Focus Band. Don’t sweat the self-damage from Giga Power; 60 points will be enough to OHKO many Pokémon here (at least if its Focus Band doesn’t save it), and after a single turn you’ll have the damage needed for Raging Hammer to take out almost anything else in the format.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Yes, I am going into a lot of detail here, but (and I confess this is all conjecture) as I began writing, I realized exactly how much Regigigas EX has going for it in this format, and how close it could be to enjoying this in other formats. With its mono-Colorless Energy costs, Regigigas EX can make excellent use of many classical, long retired forms of Energy like Call Energy (allowing it to open), Cyclone Energy (allowing you to hopefully disrupt your opponent’s set up), etc. Regigigas EX is otherwise a blank slate to build a deck around. Using the traditional route, not only would you have room for Slowking, but possibly something healing Bench sitter as well, or something with a Pokémon Power or Poké-Power that has a Gust of Wind-like effect (but isn’t hurt by an opponent’s anti-Trainer measures). You could use Chaos Gym instead to protect yourself from Trainers, and build the deck in a manner to exploit this. Various forms of healing/damage counter manipulation can actually fit on top of everything else this Pokémon needs, enabling[/FONT]
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[FONT="]The only real concern is that if people are expecting Regigigas EX, they might run [/FONT][FONT="]Sprout[/FONT][FONT="] [/FONT][FONT="]Tower[/FONT][FONT="] and Unown N (Neo Discovery): the former drops all damage done (including self damage) from Colorless Pokémon by 30, while the latter just drops the damage received by 30 points for the controlling player. Sprout Tower actually helps Regigigas EX almost as much as it hurts, and even both together are just going to delay your ability to hit for decent damage, since I’ll remind you that you’ll regularly be smacking Pokémon with less than 100 HP (the infamous Neo Genesis Sneasel only has 60 HP!). A half-KOed (literally has taken 90 points of damage) Regigigas EX can still hit through Sprout Tower/Unown N for 80 points of damage, not only enough for Sneasel but for a Slowking.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]In Limited play, Regigigas EX is a must run. If you get stuck opening with it, you still have solid odds of breaking even and taking two Prizes, due to the lower average damage and HP scores of this format. Yes, unless you are extremely lucky and managed to pull and then draw a Double Colorless Energy when you have this problematic opening, you’ll need three turns to use Giga Power and four to use Raging Hammer. The thing is most Pokémon can’t hit you too hard until their player's third turn. Even against the Fighting-Type Pokémon in this set, most need to get lucky to take Regigigas EX down in three hits in this scenario. Late game, if you’re foolish and promote a Regigigas EX when your opponent has a fully powered Stage 1 Fighting-Type Pokémon in this set, you might be looking at a OHKO and probably a 2HKO. So in short, unless you’re really unfortunate or really stupid, you should break even with Regigigas EX and possibly sweep for four Prizes.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Ratings[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
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[FONT="]Unlimited:[/FONT][FONT="] 7.2/10[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Modified:[/FONT][FONT="] 8.3/10[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Limited:[/FONT][FONT="] 10/10[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Summary[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]I am giving this card pretty high praise all around, but while the attacks seem ‘so-so’ or even poor at a glance, on top of the HP and the ability to use any Type of Energy for the full cost creates amazing utility, and that results in power. I really think that someone struggling to get a Mewtwo EX should consider this as an alternative. They do not use the same technique so don’t try to run them the exact same way, but both should make for good “big basic Pokémon EX beatsticks”. I also may not be giving Fighting-Type Pokémon their full do. Certainly if more Fighting-Type decks (or at least splashed Pokémon) start popping up, Regigigas EX loses up to a full point off of its score.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]If my gushing didn’t make it obvious, Regigigas EX placed higher on my specific Top 10 list… in the number four slot, in fact![/FONT]
