Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Is HL the Answer to a Balanced Modified?

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That jirachi could be fun but it really depends on what you're playing, I think ninetales ex isn't so bad too
90 for an ex is rather low but 100 damage for discaring energy is good and it's a stage 1, the other ninetales could be used to stop ex pokémon. Metagrosse ex is good if you can keep him alive, crobat gives grass a big boost, jeesh you don't even have to flip for the poisen, it has also another plus against other grass: it's weak against psychic and not fire, the dominating type at the moment too bad that psychic is the second most seen type. That masquerain is also quit good, no retreat and an attack of 30 for two energies that doubles the damage that is done to the defending pokémon the next turn. I think it's a rather good set.
 
I would have to agree with other posters that consider this to be some sort of anti-ex set. After reading card after card that says something to the effect of reduce damage, preventing damage, gaurd the bench, etc etc from ex-pokemon, I would have to say that this does appear to be a planned "lets throw in some ex busters" type set. I am wondering though, is this set an actual english release of the same set released in japan? Or did nintendo move some cards around from forthcoming sets to come up with this particular group of what I would call ex-busters?

Also, just thought I would mention that out of the 2 boxes I bought, 1 box had 1 stevens advice, and the other had 6.
 
Just to pop in my two cents, Blaziken ex isn't king, BAR or RAMBO might be, but Blex is just TecH for those decks. I mean, how many Blaziken ex do you run in a deck? I have seen it slaughter things, but I've seen Rayquaza ex slughter a lot more. In the games where it does come out, Blex is a nightmare, but its the Blaziken and Energy mover that let it do its thing. Without those, it'd be a wasteful chicken. THe first attack is good, but would not have been enough to offset its dual Weaknesses.

Gah, I have class tomorrow, and have been on too long. Looks like I have to wait to "enlighten" (yeah right XD) you guys on the other cards.
 
The only cards I really think are good are:

Crobat: Swarms of this thing is annoying. The only thing that beats it is OHKO's.

Exploud: Use Briney and Nurse with this to keep it going. One energy for 10 to everything is gooooood. It adds up and if you have Desert Ruins out, that's even more damage. Metagross kills it though.

Gorebyss: It's good since Fire and Psychic are popular right now and it's good against those types.

Metagross/ex: These things are beasts. The only decks that can beat it are Blaze and maybe Crobat at times. Unfortunately, Blaze is the most popular deck right now...

Jirachi: It's ok maybe in Blaze to get turn 3 catty.

Steven's Advice: Nice draw with everyone using Dunsparce.

Ancient Tomb: Very nice stadium.

Desert Ruins: Another very nice stadium.

Ancient TM [Rock]: People have to use less Rare Candy now. It can also get rid of DRE if they Rare Candied which is nice.

Milotic: It's ok, not great.

Niney: It's ok, not great.

Cards I really don't think are good:

Electrode: It sucks. Do you think your opponent is going to put an ex if you are powering that thing up? You'd have to drop Voltorb, Rare Candy, Electrode, and get 3 energy on it in one turn for it to be a surprise. That doesn't sound like it's happening to often.

Machamp: People are using decks without ex's now. People have non-ex backup in decks with ex's so they don't have to put ex's out. It's attacks cost a lot, though they are economical I guess. But since it's attacks cost a lot it's not swarmable.

Chimeco: no comment

Walrein: Takes to much effort to attach one extra energy when they are better things to do that.
 
Still don;t have a lot of time, but since I see some comments on Exploud, I can explain my plans for it in a single word: Gojira.
 
Okay, just because no one's said it, and some people don't seem to notice; Unless I'm missing something, Machamp cannot do 70 for 2 energy. If you read the card, Brick Smash is not affected by Poké-Bodies, meaning it's not going over 40 damage. Still a good card, but no 70 for [FC].

Desert Ruins - This card, I really like, I can really see this hurting some of the big decks, I guarantee that some people will be playing 3-4 of these per deck, and I really doubt that most BAR players are gonna want to play 4 High Pressure Stadiums just to counter this. Even if it's not out for more than 2-3 turns, it's still putting 4-6 damage counters onto that Blaze, which makes it that much easier to KO.

Gorebyss - Only 70 HP, but perfect in Gardevoir decks, and basically no drawbacks from putting DRE on it, could become a real threat.

Steven's Advice - More solid drawing is always nice, Makes Delcatty a little less of a staple in decks.

Jirachi - That little Duinsparce/Jirachi trick could be decent, and you only really need 1 Jirachi in the deck to pull it off, so expect that to be seen.

ATM (Rock) - Portable Omastar for all you devolving needs, think twice about running all of those Rare Candies.
 
I think Exploud and Crobat are the best Pokemon in the set, Gorebyss is nice too if played with the right stuff.

It really amuses me that no one is saying Exploud is good. Except for a certain uberly cool few.

~Colin
 
Venusaur said:
Brick Smash isn't affected by poke-bodies on the defending pokemon. Since Machamp is the active pokemon it should be able to do 70.
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It doesn't say that, it says "This attack's damage isn't affected by by Weakness, Resistance, Poké-Powers, Poké-Bodies, or any other effects on the Defending Pokémon". It says "effects on the Defending Pokémon", it makes no such specification for Poké-Powers/Bodies.

It shouldn't affected by any Poké-Powers or Poké-Bodies, including it's own...
 
I agree. Machamp is 70 for 2

The effects clearly refer to the Defending Pokemon, not to Machamp itself, otherwise the phrase :eek:ther effects on the defending pokemon: would be meaningless.

M45
 
In addition, there's the fact that the Body says "each of Machamp's attacks". Machamp only has 2 attacks, so if it was intended that it couldn't add 30 to Brick Smash, it wouldn't have used the word "each".
 
Well, I came to my conclusion logically by looking through the Compendium. Seeing as Brick Smash has the same wording as Feint Attack, and the Compendium states that "Feint attacks and Swift attacks ignore ANY effect attempting to reduce their damage." (Which pretty much means increasing the damage is equally as difficult).

Either way, I think it needs to be officially ruled on...

Orange Soda: It would need to say "each" anyway, because it'd still affect attacks from TMs, Memory Berry, etc...
 
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swanton1717 said:
I think Exploud and Crobat are the best Pokemon in the set, Gorebyss is nice too if played with the right stuff.

It really amuses me that no one is saying Exploud is good. Except for a certain uberly cool few.

~Colin
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Colin's right, Exploud, Crobat, and as long as Gorebyss is played right, they are the best Pokemon in the set. And one of those uberly cool people is me. ;)

Anyway, IMNSHO, Exectrode blows. It's only good with 2 Pokemon, Sceptile ET and Gardy PS. Even with them, it isn't that great.

Metagross/ex are the next archertype. Has anyone checked the Deck Help section lately? There have been like 10 Meta/ex decks in the past 3 days. =/ This makes the format with the magic number, 5, archertypes. (Others being Swampy, Gardy, ScepMuk, and Blaze, OBV)

Jirachi is cool, look for it to be in some decks, maybe Crobat or Blaze or something, but don't expect it to be great.

Mmmk, Machamp does 70 for 2 if they have an EX out. What does that tell me? The card is cool. Either swarmable, or comboed with something else, MAchamp will be a deck to look out for (I wonder who plays this from...Neo?:rolleyes:

Ok, the Trainers. Well, the just pwn IMO. Desert Ruins is godly, Ancient Tomb is uberly cool, and Steven's Advice is just plain broken. All of these will see IMMENSE play, so all you Blaze players, be ready to play some counter Stadium. ;)

Well, I think that's it. Watch out for these decks at Nationals/Worlds:
Exploud
Crobat
Machamp

~Chu :)
 
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If you're gunna go to the compendium:

Q. Does Double Rainbow Energy reduce Cacturne's Feint Attack?
A. Yes. Feint Attack refers to ignoring effects on the opponent's Pokémon, not yours. (Mar 25, 2004 PUI Rules Team)
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i really dont get the point of exploud, what is he supposed to do anyway? maybe its because im n00bish. to me, he seems slow, and his attacks suck.
 
JasonthePwnda said:
i really dont get the point of exploud, what is he supposed to do anyway? maybe its because im n00bish. to me, he seems slow, and his attacks suck.
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Eeerr maybe your the slow one and not Exploud.

His first attack is one of the most broken attacks ever, one colorless to do 10 to every Pokemon in your opponents playing field? If that sucks then so does every other attack in Pokeman.

~Colin
 
If you look at Exploud simply by itself, one would think its not that great. BUT when comboes with techmachine rock, it can be great. Granted its not BEX, but then again what is
 
yeah when i looked at him i though Anicent TM Rock, but his damage is too slow, i guess itll usually go 2 breaking sounds and a bunch of bass controls to stuff like delcatty, manectric, but that would take 5 turns to ko two pokemon and do a maximum for 20 damage to 3 others. that to me seems pathetic when bex is just ko after ko after ko,
 
I think they mean to just use the first attack 5 times so all their pokemon have 50 damage then de-evolve stage ones into basics and hopefully candied stage twos into basics which in turn will give you 2-4 Prizes and leave them with a bunch of useless evos. But of course the flaw in that is the 5 attacks needed. Might I suggest SS Xatu to anyone thinking of that deck? It puts one damage counter on all pokemon, which gets around metal energies, it heals Exploud, and it can use the TM itself. Sounds like a plan to me.

Makes me wonder why no one thought up of a Xatu/Omastar deck back when Sand Storm was first released. That would have been mighty cool. It would have forced ppl back then to use more of the stage 1 evos of their stage 2 lines and would have change the metagame from there on end.
 
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