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1.5K
- ↓ 87.00
- ꩜ 89.44
- ↑ 120.00
{F}{C} → Mud Shot : 20
{F}{F}{F}{C} → Earthquake : 60
Does 10 damage to each of your Benched Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
illus. Mitsuhiro Arita
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feyblade
With the gen 3 remakes confirmed, Groudon will be getting the typical “ridiculous cover-legend” treatment that’s been going on since BW. It looks like we’ll finally be seeing a non-EX Groudon card that could maybe kind of possibly be viable.
Skittle
AFAIK, Gen 6 in the TCG didn’t see any competitive Groudons.
But here in 2023, PAR Groudon has seen a bit of play — it can hit 240 damage for only three energy, which isn’t bad for a single-prizer!!
SenatorStonk
One of the four Worlds decks for 2015 featured Primal Groudon EX :)
Anonymous
What feyblade was referring to was that fact that Reshiram BW, Zekrom BW, Black Kyurem BCR (and I guess Kyurem NVI), Yveltal XY and Xerneas XY were all immediately playable single prize versions of the box legendaries of their respective games. Most of these cards were the primary attackers in their own decks, while Black Kyurem was a Rain Dance tech for the mirror match, since it could OHKO a Black Kyurem EX and give up only one prize (actually, that one wasn’t immediately playable). The expectation was that the new single-prize Groudon and Kyogre would have equally stellar attacks, similar to Outrage, Blue Flare, Bolt Strike, Glaciate, Geomancy and Oblivion Wing, or at least a 100 for 3 attack with some minor downside (which both Xerneas and Yveltal had, and which weren’t horrible, even if Blue Flare and Bolt Strike’s 120 damage was far stronger in their own historical context). Instead, the Hoenn box legendaries got weak and luck-reliant two Energy attacks, and did an average of 90 damage for FOUR Energy, with the difference coming from whether the Pokémon hits your bench or your opponent’s bench. So th trend of playable single prize box legendaries was broken. Fortunately, Primal Groudon EX PRC was a meta deck that got a Worlds reprint, and Primal Kyogre EX PRC was… playable. (Here is a sample list from Jason Klaczynski. I can’t promise it’s not a meme deck just because it’s on his blog, since Jason does allow himself to be explore meme decks in various formats, but it was playable enough he bothered publishing this list. https://jklaczpokemon.com/xy-decks-2/#primal-kyogre-ex)
JP
Groudon’s first one-prize card was Team Magma’s Groudon, which won Worlds 2004 in all three age divisions! (Team Aqua’s Kyogre was just… happy to be there, I guess.)
Anonymous
You’re right, JP, Groudon’s first card was 11 years old and a legend by that point. I wasn’t being very clear in my wording. What feyblade was hoping for were cards for Groudon and Kyogre on par with https://pkmncards.com/card/xerneas-xy-xy-96/ and https://pkmncards.com/card/yveltal-xy-xy-78/, which, to be fair, both received playable EX’s as well.
Unfortunately, by 2015, even getting a three Energy attack that did 120 with a drawback wouldn’t have been sufficient to make https://pkmncards.com/card/groudon-primal-clash-prc-84/ and https://pkmncards.com/card/kyogre-primal-clash-prc-53/ playable. What set Xerneas and Yveltal apart were their first attacks, one Energy attacks that facilitated the setup of more powerful Pokémon EX (and which, in Yveltal’s case, OHKOed Night March’s attackers).
Anonymous
By the way, JP, how did you create those hyperlinks? I can’t seem to figure it out.
Blob Takeshi
Wait… what is the secret card a non-ex?
salad
yes baltoy
Nosredna
There he is… the Hidden Legend