[FONT="]Today we are looking at the new
Zapdos from
BW: Next Destinies. I will warn you, you’re in for a storm of puns, most of them quite bad and forced. I am not sure what has struck me thusly.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Will this be a new powerhouse or did lightning strike out?[/FONT]
[FONT="]Stats[/FONT]
[FONT="]Zapdos[/FONT][FONT="] is a Basic Pokémon in a format that seems tailor made for Basic Pokémon. You enjoy the normal benefits of minimum deck space and “to play” requirements, plus a format where Basic Pokémon already dominate and have their own small but effective pool of support cards, with few in the general pool that exclude them. As a Lightning Type,
Zapdos enters a format with multiple potent Lightning-Type decks already battling it out; this could provide a ready made home for this thunderbird, or it might provide rivals that mute its potential. We’ll have to examine that more in the Usage section. For now we do know that Lightning Weakness is a bit rare because with Lightning Pokémon already being potent and prominent, few cards that possess it are worth playing. Conversely Lightning Resistance has often been on cards that struggle to see play, but in this format at least a few cards are played just because they are strong against those dazzling Lightning Type Pokémon.[/FONT]
[FONT="]120 HP is just 10 shy of the maximum for non-Pokémon EX Basic Pokémon, and it’s great. Yes
Zapdos will need a little help to avoid being OHKOed by the second best attackers in the format, but just about everything is KOed by the likes of
Zekrom and
Reshiram, as well as of course the strongest attackers (which includes all the Pokémon EX currently in the format, amongst other cards). Unless it is exploiting Weakness, those that fall below that level (which are the majority of Pokémon) won’t take the bird down in one shot without a lot of help. The Lightning Weakness I said was a big problem for many cards is present on
Zapdos itself. The bad news is this means you either have to use a lot of prep or just accept against a good many decks,
Zapdos is a OHKO after all. There is some compensation in
Zapdos possessing Fighting Resistance. Any Resistance is welcome, and Fighting is actually the traditional Weakness of the majority of Lightning-Type Pokémon, so this could be a great deal of help to the card. The final stat to look at, the two Energy Retreat Cost, is functionally average; you’ll often have the Energy to pay it, though less often will you be able to afford to pay (but often enough). Besides belonging to a Type with Energy acceleration (and even from the discard) which makes paying for Retreat Costs easier, as a Basic Pokémon
Skyarrow Bridge will drop
Zapdos to a good single Energy Retreat cost, which is easily managed in most decks, even those without Energy acceleration.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Effects[/FONT]
[FONT="]Zapdos[/FONT][FONT="] possesses two attacks. Right away it is important to note that the least expensive attack requires a total of three Energy: without some basic form of Energy acceleration, this card will almost certainly be too slow. Almost immediately after that you’ll notice that while the second attack requires four Energy, both the first and second attacks require only a single source of Lightning Energy; the remaining costs are Colorless and thus friendly to multiple forms of Energy acceleration, even something as simple and common as
Double Colorless Energy.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Random Spark, the first attack, requires (LCC) to use. It allows you to select one of your opponent’s Pokémon in play, and hit it for 50 points of damage. In terms of basic Energy costs, you’re paying for 35 points of damage. Being allowed to choose which of your opponent’s Pokémon can be a great effect or can scarcely matter, depending on the rest of the card, so for now I’ll only credit it as being equivalent to about five points worth of damage, maybe 10. My Energy-to-damage ratios of 15 for a specified Energy type and 10 for a Colorless Energy requirement are for Basic Pokémon
that Evolve, so at least some of the extra 15 to 20 points of damage is required to offset
Zapdos lacking that ability. There is also the matter of the very first attack requiring three Energy; usually this is worth a few extra points of damage since it slows the card down; even with a
Double Colorless Energy you’ll need additional forms of Energy acceleration or two turns to do anything with
Zapdos.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The big attack on the card is Thundering Hurricane. It requires a hefty (LCCC) to use, requires you flip four coins, and then does 50 points of damage per result of “heads”. Four coin flips means 16 potential outcomes with five effective results:[/FONT]
- [FONT="]Four “heads” resulting in 200 points of damage (one of sixteen, 6.25%)[/FONT]
- [FONT="]Three “heads” resulting in 120 points of damage (four of sixteen, 25%)[/FONT]
- [FONT="]Two “heads”, resulting in 100 points of damage (six of sixteen, 37.5%)[/FONT]
- [FONT="]A single “heads”, resulting in 50 points of damage (four of sixteen, 25%)[/FONT]
- [FONT="]No “heads”, resulting in no damage done (one of sixteen, 6.25%)[/FONT]
[FONT="]The average damage done is just 100 points, which may be too low by competitive play standards. You’re paying for at least 45 points worth of damage with your investment, an thus averaging a combined “Doesn’t Evolve” and “extra large Energy requirement” bonus of 55 points, which is actually fairly good… except it is likely to miss some key OHKOs. Many of the Big Basic Pokemon that see play are still going to hold on.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Fortunately the two effects do compliment each other. Random Spark can still hit the Active, so if you need a reliable 50 points of damage, you don’t have to chance the flips. While the flips are unreliable, they are still threatening: five of sixteen possible outcomes (31.25%) score 120 or better damage and is still too much of a chance to take for granted. The times you hit for 100 points of damage aren’t something an opponent can shrug off. With the single Lightning Energy requirement, it is quite reasonable to run this card off-type, where it is being used primarily to hit the Bench, exploit Weakness, or enjoy its Resistance.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Usage[/FONT]
[FONT="]Zapdos[/FONT][FONT="] has only one glaring issue with its Stats (Lightning Weakness), and while the attacks aren’t especially good, with a big body behind them they can still prove effective. The question now is what competition does it face? There are no other
Zapdos in Modified, though there are some other large Lightning-Type Basic Pokémon.
Zapdos squares off against the aforementioned
Zekrom (multiple printings, all the same card),
Zekrom EX (
BW: Next Destinies 51/99, 97/99), and
Thundurus (
BW: Emerging Powers 35/98, 97/98). When it comes to raw, reliable damage all three have
Zapdos beat, but that should not be the only factor.
Zapdos Weakness is worse than the Fighting Weakness they all share, but then again they are all Fighting Weak, while
Zapdos is actually Resistant.
Thundurus doesn’t strike me as all that needed anymore:
Zekrom and
Zekrom EX are more valuable in dedicated Lightning-Type decks, while
Thundurus is ill-suited for use off-type.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Zekrom[/FONT][FONT="] of course inflicts self-damage, but with all it has going for it,
Zekrom is out of
Zapdos league, except when it comes to splashing a Lightning-Type Pokémon into another deck.
Zekrom can use Outrage with any Energy, which would make it look superior, but Outrage requires
Zekrom take a good hit to be worth it. This can make safely getting it damaged enough for Outrage to be worth using, without inviting an easy follow up KO a bit tricky. To tap into the big attack on
Zekrom requires a source of two Lightning-Type Energy; no big deal when it is a Lightning-Type deck, but when it comes to the off-type splash, investing two of your few
Lightning/
Prism/
Rainbow Energy cards on even a big self-damaging Pokémon is intimidating. Plus if you’re using something off Type, it usually is because you need to exploit Weakness, so while that helps a no-damage Outrage a little,
Zapdos comes out much, much better for it, as it now exceeds the damage to Energy returns I said it needed under the Effects section. It is only that Lightning Weakness on
Zapdos that then keeps them even here.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Zekrom EX[/FONT][FONT="] is a Pokémon EX, which counts against it even though that technically is
why it was designed to be so powerful. Some decks can handle running a lot of Pokémon EX, but in general you don’t want to overload on them – if you have a poor set-up and something has to go out to stall, two Prizes is expensive for a sacrificial Pokémon. That gives
Zapdos a small edge. For the same Energy,
Zekrom EX can do a 50/80 split, dependent on a coin toss, while of course
Zapdos has a reliable 50 point snipe attack. It is their big attacks where things get blurry:
Zekrom EX needs two of its four Energy to provide Lightning Energy, and must discard two Energy (but fortunately those two can be any type). Since it is bigger (even though it is worth two Prizes), in an off-type deck it will be safer to use two of your limited sources of Lightning Energy on it; in short it should usually get off two attacks. An expensive 150 points of damage is better than a luck-based 200 most of the time. If sniping is strong,
Zapdos wins it, but if not I’d say only the Pokémon EX factor leaves them on even footing.[/FONT]
[FONT="]So really,
Zapdos will see play if your Lightning-Type deck needs to hit the Bench, a reasonable Lightning splash for a non-Lightning deck, and especially if you want both in one card. There isn’t anything else quite like it, at least for now. Being Fighting Resistant is a nice bonus for actual Lightning-Type decks as well. So what about in Unlimited play?
Zapdos doesn’t contribute much to first turn win decks, save that you can technically use it for a risky donk strategy (and where many other cards would be better). Once we dial it back to the next level of competitiveness, it has some chops: Random Spark is enough to OHKO the classical
Neo and e-card era Baby Pokémon (on the Bench, where “the Baby Rule” won’t protect them), and two-hit-KO several older Bench-sitters. With 120 HP and a
Focus Band, it actually has a good shot at surviving long enough to get two or three shots off. The Energy requirements (and likelihood you’re running some form of Trainer denial yourself) allow it the two turns it needs without any Energy acceleration other than
Double Colorless Energy to power-up, though if you do have another Type it is compatible with, that’s even better. It won’t change the format, and due to people clinging to stubborn favorites it might not make a dent (to be fair, for many Unlimited is more about enjoying older cards than anything else), but it definitely has some merit.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Then there is Limited. Unless you absolutely cannot afford to run
Lightning Energy in your deck, you run it. It doesn’t have to be a lot: if you have just a single
Zapdos, odds are four
Lightning Energy will do it (and then only so that you have one in hand when
Zapdos shows up). The great HP becomes even better in a format where the average HP
and damage outputs are lower. The Weakness is still a concern: this set doesn’t have a ridiculous amount of Lightning Pokémon, but it has some good ones other than
Zapdos. Fighting Resistance is handy, since Fighting Weakness is so common (most Colorless-, Darkness-, and Lightning-Type Pokémon have it) and thus people tend to try to work Fighting-Types into their decks. Building on the Bench and retreating something nearly KOed to the Bench to deny your opponent a Prize/save it for one last shot later are basic parts of Limited strategy, so a sniping attack is amazing, plus like I said lower HP/damage outputs so Thundering Hurricane can pretty easily earn its keep here.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Ratings[/FONT]
[FONT="]Unlimited:[/FONT][FONT="] 7/10[/FONT]
[FONT="]Modified:[/FONT][FONT="] 6.25/10[/FONT]
[FONT="]Limited:[/FONT][FONT="] 9.5/10[/FONT]
[FONT="]Summary[/FONT]
[FONT="]I believe
Zapdos was very close to being a near staple: leaving the stats and Energy cost of Random Spark alone,
Zapdos is worth using in many key match ups, with the drawback being it usually needs three hits to take down an important Bench-sitter (instead of a Basic waiting to Evolve), and most of the time it will only (though just barely) hold on to get that second shot, falling short. As is, I believe it will have its uses, at least until some cards we see on the horizon in [/FONT][FONT="]Japan[/FONT][FONT="] hit the rest of the world.
My thanks to dark wobbuffet for catching an embarrassing error: before corrections were made I had shifted halfway through evaluating Thundering Hurricane, and was literally treating three of the five outcomes as if the attack only did 40 points of damage per "heads" instead of 50!
[/FONT]
, -20 Resistance to :fighting: is nice, and :colorless::colorless: to Retreat is a bit pricey. Random Spark is a bit pricey for a sniping attack