#tornadus ex

It’s hard to believe that Tornadus could get a second EX in such a short period of time, but Plasma Freeze did indeed provide that. The first one was a nice attacker that took Colorless Energy, letting it fit into decks of any type. This one did the same, but it also needed a specific Energy to have any chance of being powerful. Yes, this was as awkward as it sounds, though all that Plasma support was helpful.

180 HP was a rather nice number, being pretty common for a Pokemon EX but at the higher end of that range. There was that Lightning Weakness to consider, which could be annoying against Thundurus EX, Raichu, Manectric EX, and even the odd moment where Joltik tried to attack in a Night March deck. The Fighting Resistance, while small, could be nice at a time with Landorus EX, Lucario EX, and Medicham providing that type with fast, only moderately strong hits. 2 Energy was around the average when it came to Retreat Costs. If Switch or something similar could fit in your deck, it was nice, but not 100% necessary.

Windfall only required a Colorless Energy and had you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 6 cards. Hand refreshment was nice. It could be okay early in a game in some spots, but you probably didn’t want to subject a Pokemon EX to a big attack just for that if you could help it.

Jet Blast was really disappointing. You needed 4 Colorless Energy just to use it and the damage was iffy. The base was an awful 60 damage, with 30 added for each Plasma Energy on Tornadus EX. The problem here was that you only had 4 Plasma Energy in your entire deck and you needed multiple on just Tornadus EX to make this attack worth your time. It was nearly impossible to chain together Tornadus EX due to this, and while Colress Machine was enough to help the first one get going, it wasn’t going to help with that problem.

Darkrai EX wasn’t the only Pokemon EX of note in the Dark Explorers set. While we had also seen some good ones before this, the clear second-best EX in the set was Tornadus EX. It was just a Colorless-type with very good damage, sure, but that was more than enough to be useful. The typing let it fit into decks using any type of Energy and the power was more than good enough to qualify as an attacker. Okay, so there were other Pokemon out there that were stronger, and there was a rather nasty Weakness to overcome. There was still more than enough here to use Tornadus EX and far fewer hoops to jump through to let it reach its potential.

170 HP was a nice and bulky number, as expected from a Pokemon EX. It was also a number a lot of decks, especially in the BLW-On format, aimed for due to the number of Pokemon at 170 and 180. This was usually only achieved with multiple boosts or the use of Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym. A couple of Pokemon, such as Black Kyurem EX and the NXD-On format’s Genesect EX, could do it themselves, but this was rare. Needless to say, Tornadus EX could usually take a hit or two. There was the issue of a nasty Lightning Weakness, which caused issues against those Eelektrik decks that were still quite good. While a lot of them eventually moved on to revolve around Rayquaza EX, you’d still see a decent bit of Zekrom, Zekrom EX, and Raikou EX. The flip side of this was the Fighting Resistance, which was fantastic against the likes of Terrakion and Landorus EX. This actually let Tornadus EX take an extra hit against some important Pokemon. Tornadus EX was also blessed with a Retreat Cost of just 1, which many other Pokemon could only dream of.

Blow Through, while not the attack you’d be using most often, had an occasional use. It needed 2 Colorless Energy to use, and the base of 30 was awful, but 30 more was added if there was any Stadium card in play. Stadiums were used a decent amount at the time, and cards like Aspertia City Gym went well with Tornadus EX. The quick 60 damage for a low cost was useful in spots.

Tornadus EX’s main attack was Power Blast. 100 damage for 3 Colorless Energy was enough to keep up, taking out other Pokemon EX in two hits. There was a coin flip, and a tails meant that you had to discard an Energy attached to Tornadus EX, but even that wasn’t too much to ask. It was just a really solid attack on a Pokemon that fit into a surprising number of decks.

With introduction of the new Pokemon TCG set, Plasma Storm, we were given a card that was suppose to be in our last English set but was withheld for whatever reason. But now it is here! I'm talking about Hypnotoxic Laser.

At first glance I didn't think it would be that great. Automatic poison with a coin flip of heads, your opponent is also asleep. With free retreating in Darkrai decks and Keldeos Rush In ability in Blastoise decks, I thought there was too many "outs" for this card. I traded for two at my pre-release this last Sunday and decided to try it out against a buddy of mine who was running Empoleon/Mew/Terrakion.

I have to say, the extra 10 in damage goes a long way for Darkrai vs. Terrakion match ups! If you Night Spear your opponents active and deal 30 to a bench Terrakion, it is a automatic kill if you can catcher and Hypnotoxic Laser it your next turn. This thing single handily changed the meta-game simply with that extra 10 in damage. If an extra ten can be that much of a difference maker, then how great for be another extra 20 damage?

Pokemon also decided to give us another card we were suppose have in our last english set in Virbank City Gym.

Putting two more damage counters on poisoned Pokemon makes Hypnotoxic Laser one of the deadliest cards we've had in quite awhile. Virbank City automatically increases damage output by 30 for those running +2 Virbank and +3/+4 Hypnotoxic lasers in their deck. I was looking through my binder seeing what deck I could possibly make once I get my hands on some Virbank Cities when I realized I still have a couple of Tornadus EX in there.

This can and very much will be the ultimate donk set up once a definite list surfaces up. The chance of doing a whooping 90 damage T1 is shattering. This set up can knockout any non-ex starter in almost every deck besides Sigi for obvious reasons. It's hard to see ANY Pokemon surviving any T2 attack after being hit with this. Some people can say opening with Virbank, DCE, Tornadus EX, and a Hypnotoxic will be all luck and I'll probably agree with them but all you really need is to open with a Tornadus EX, DCE/Laser/Virbank, and a Juniper/N. If your list is legit and the draw gods like what your wearing that day, your more often than not draw into those two cards you need.