#glaceon-ex

Glaceon-EX was an odd one, being a Pokemon-EX that didn’t hit very hard in many situations. The only time it was strong was if it was hitting a heavily-weakened Pokemon, and it was good at finishing something off if needed. The thing that gave it some hope was the attack that was always somewhat weak, because using that attack made life very hard for anyone relying heavily on Evolution Pokemon. Something like that on a Basic Pokemon had serious tech potential.

170 HP, while 10 lower than many Pokemon-EX, was still bulky enough that only the strongest hits had a chance to get through that, usually with stacked damage boosts being involved. A Metal Weakness was notable in the XY-On format as Bronzong decks were still reasonably good there. Later formats, however, had almost no notable Metal-types. Glaceon-EX did need 2 Energy to retreat. Being a Water-type, Glaceon-EX would be used with something like Water Energy or Rainbow Energy, and either way meant that a pairing with Manaphy-EX made life much easier.

Second Bite started at only 20 damage for a Water and a Colorless Energy. 10 more was added for each damage counter on the opponent’s Active Pokemon, and you could take advantage of this against, say, a weakened Pokemon trying to hide on the Bench with use of Lysandre or Guzma. This was not the main reason to include Glaceon-EX in your deck by any means, but there were a few spots where the attack could be useful.

Crystal Ray was the star here. Yes, it really was for just 70 damage on an attack requiring a Water and 2 Colorless Energy. You were actually here for the effect. During your opponent’s next turn, all damage done to Glaceon-EX by attacks from Evolution Pokemon were prevented. There would, of course, be times where this didn’t see much use, with all of the Pokemon-EX and any other Basic Pokemon out there. There were also plenty of spots where Glaceon-EX could wall a team, forcing it to be played around with forced switches and the like. Vespiquen wasn’t doing anything to Glaceon-EX, for example. Greninja BREAK could typically play around it to an extent by hitting the Bench, but it did lower the number of tricks in the arsenal there. The same thing applied for Trevenant BREAK. While all of the Basic Pokemon out there were a problem, this was enough for Glaceon-EX to have a role in some Toolbox decks, which were popular mostly in the XY-On format.