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Altaria ex (Dragon Frontiers DF 90)
Altaria ex — 100 HP — [W]
Stage 1 — Evolves from Swablu — Delta Species
Poké-POWER: Extra Boost
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may attach a basic Energy card from your hand to 1 of your Stage 2 Pokémon-ex. This power can’t be used if Altaria ex is affected by a Special Condition.
[W][C][C] Healing Light: 60
Remove 1 damage counter from each of your Pokémon.
When Pokémon-ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
weakness: [C]×2
resistance: [G][F]-30
retreat: 1
Illus. Shizurow
Dragon Frontiers — 90/101 — Rare Holo
Ziggmiceter
Were stage 2 ex’s playable? That sounds too specific to work well.
CAT5e
Yes, some Stage 2 EX cards were viable. My favorite back in the day was Flygon ex (Dragon Frontiers DF 92). Flygon ex received energy acceleration from Flygon (Holon Phantoms HP 7), which conveniently shared the same evolution line and pulled energy from the deck instead of hand. This was a popular deck at the time.
Back in the day I made a rogue deck that ran this Altaria ex (Dragon Frontiers DF 90). I combined it with the absurdly powerful but energy hungry Salamence ex (Power Keepers PK 96) and disruptive Gardevoir ex (Dragon Frontiers DF 93).
For setup I remember using Holon Mentor and Fearow (Crystal Guardians CG 18). Salamence ex was my late-game heavy hitter. I tried to get Gardevoir ex out ASAP to disrupt my opponent’s setup by permanently disabling a single Poke-Power/Poke-Body each turn. Gardevoir ex’s attack was reasonably powerful at 80 for three energy, and the option to transfer an attached energy to a benched Pokemon was nice if it were soon to be KO’d.
houou
Man… the EX sets were by far the best the TCG has ever been (ironically while the game’s popularity was at its lowest). Even with the absolutely busted set that was Holon Phantoms.