As I might not get a chance for a full review, this shall be a somewhat disorganized "placeholder" review that may become permanent.
We've had some good versions of
Moltres before, but like most Legendary Pokémon, it is easier to remember all the bad versions over the tournament winning ones such as
Moltres ex (
EX: Fire Red/Leaf Green 115/112) or even the merely "adequate" ones like
Moltres (
Skyridge H20/30, 21/144). Then again having to cite examples from so far back is also an explanation for the lack of knowledge or memory lapse.
Moltres EX comes at an important time in the game. To be blunt, its potential depends on if there is a deck for it. Besides waiting for cards not yet released or trying to review
Emboar with Inferno Fandango (several printings) decks, I have been toying with a formula for trying to power through with Pokémon-EX.
That sounds like what has already been done, so I have to be clear; a deck built around powering up, rapidly, a single Pokémon-EX, using Trainers and/or Special Energy cards, not other Pokémon. The deck would have minimal other Pokémon, in fact;
Ditto (
BW: Boundaries Crossed 108/149) to reduce mulligans and then something else to act as a back-up for Type-Matching and bypassing Safeguard (and similar effects); 12 Pokémon, max.
Still not that radical, but with
Hypnotoxic Laser and
Virbank City Gym, as well as T1 Energy acceleration, suddenly key OHKOs and 2HKOs are possible. That I think is the hope of
Moltres EX. T1 30, T2 120, and ideally the final three damage counters coming from
Hypnotoxic Laser and
Virbank City Gym (if needed). The key is making this reliable while also packing in enough disruption to handle other decks that set-up quickly, but can't spare the room because they are concerned with more... versatility.
Assuming something important isn't missing, it should have a fighting chance; even a match-up that you would expect to be "bad", may not be; Deluge decks need to Bench multiple
Squirtle, as you should be FTKOing one. If the opponent gets a
Keldeo EX or
Black Kyurem EX up alongside a
Blastoise, it is game over, but the formula is meant to have enough speed to make that a challenge for them... which again, isn't hopeless for a "bad" match-up. Weakness is less of a concern if they aren't able to efficiently attack.
Again, all that is quite, quite hypothetical. Even factoring that in as a viable deck (which I really shouldn't), the score for the card would just barely hit 7/10 for Modified. In Unlimited there are just better options, and in Limited you can probably get by pulling the 39 Energy + Pokémon-EX deck. Probably, but not guaranteed. If you try to build a more fleshed out, well rounded Limited deck, it is almost, almost always going to be worth incorporating.
Its real scores are
Unlimited: 1/10
Modified: 6/10
Limited: 9.95/10
