art by Naoki Saito
This week we are going to be taking a shocking turn of events as we will look back at an old favorite Pokemon! This Pokemon has been with us for generations and has fans from all over the world. You can expect that the people who love this Pokemon will appear in a flash and now they have a reason with this new card. You can expect this Pokemon to come down in a clash of thunder and lightning! Maybe even in a flash! It will move swiftly and powerful with each attack it does. We could soon see a new generation of meta game thanks to this card. This week we are going to feature a new card from Pokemon Generations, Jolteon EX!
Jolteon EX is a new card from the Pokemon Generations TCG set. This card has 160 HP and is an Electric type Pokemon. This Electric Eeveeultion has no retreat cost, a weakness to Fighting types and resists Metal types. Jolteon EX has two attacks. The first one is Swift which costs a single Lightning Energy. This attack isn’t affected by weakness, resistance or any other effects on your opponent’s active Pokemon. Jolteon EX’s second attack is called Flash Ray. This attack cost a Lightning and two other energy. When you use this attack, Jolteon EX can’t be damaged by attacks from your opponent’s Basic Pokemon.
The Pros
The best thing about Jolteon EX is that it has an attack like Flash Ray which prevents Basic Pokemon from harming it. This format is filled with so many Basic Pokemon attackers such as Night March and various EX attackers. All you need to do is attach a Lightning energy and Double Colorless Energy in order to get set up. That is really easy to do in order to be immune from damage by Basic Pokemon. If you can pull this off by your second turn then decks like Night March will be shut down and force to play around you. This is only just one awkward position a deck will be force to do when facing against Jolteon EX.
A speedy attack cost also makes Jolteon EX shine even more due to how quickly it can be to set up multiple of them. That free retreat cost helps out a lot too as you can easily save one in case you find your Jolteon EX getting damaged some how. If one Jolteon EX is heavily damaged, simply retreat to a fresh one on your bench who is ready to attack. Meanwhile, start healing off your damaged Jolteon EX with cards like Rough Seas and Pokemon Center Lady.
The best part about Jolteon EX’s immunity to damage from Basic Pokemon attacks? It can’t be shut down. This immunity comes from an effect of an attack which we know is almost impossible to stop thanks to a big, ugly toad. There are ways to prevent the damage such as certain abilities but as long as Jolteon EX is able to use Flash Ray then it is immune from damage by those scary Basic Pokemon.
The Cons
There are a few cons to using Jolteon EX. One of them involves Jolteon EX’s weakness to Fighting types. Lucario EX is popular among players thanks to how well it pairs with Bats and how quick it is to attack. It could out speed Jolteon EX in attacking first and taking a knock out. It doesn’t help that Jolteon EX has a low HP which could make it easy to knock out if Lucario EX can get the first attack with Strong Energy, Muscle Band and some Bat damage. You may lose one Jolteon EX. That is even if you take into consideration to plan ahead to set up a Jolteon EX on the bench and your opponent doesn’t use Lysandre to bring that bench Jolteon EX into the active.
Jolteon EX also doesn’t like anything that is evolved. This especially includes Mega Pokemon who can hit Jolteon EX really hard. Jolteon EX can go against Evolved Pokemon but it won’t be too happy. You will be relying on retreating and attacking if you wish to outlive your opponent and prevent them from taking knockouts. You will also be hoping that they don’t knock out Jolteon EX with one hit.
How to Play It
If you are building a deck with Jolteon EX in mind then do this: Keep it simple. You want to run a few Jolteon EX, Lightning Energy and Double Colorless Energy. That way you can quickly set Jolteon EX up and get that immunity quickly. You can run some cards like Shaymin EX or Octillery to get that draw support. The faster you get your energy to power up Jolteon EX, the faster you can mess up your opponent and get them playing your game.
If you want to put things in your deck to help you out then Zebstrika from BREAKpoint could be interesting. It has the Zap Zone ability which makes attacks from Electric types be unaffected by effects on your opponent’s Pokemon. This means that it can cut though Aegislash EX’s Mightily Shield ability if Jolteon EX has a DCE attached. It may not be much of an attacker but it could be useful if you want to keep doing damage against pesky Pokemon.
Now you may want something to use against some Evolved Pokemon or Pokemon that Jolteon EX may not like. You do have a few Pokemon that you can consider to use in this situation. I would recommend Manectric EX who can hit any Pokemon hard. If you attach two energy to Manectric EX then you can use Assault Laser to do 120 damage on your opponent’s active Pokemon. Their Pokemon will need to have a Pokemon Tool attached to them in order to do 120 damage but most likely they will have some sort of Tool attached. There are not many Pokemon who would want to take 120 damage and it could knock out some Pokemon if Manectric EX has a Muscle Band attached. If Manectric EX can’t knock them out then you can always use Jolteon EX to clean up.
Raikou could be consider a backup attacker. It can use Lightning Energy to hit hard and cost one prize card if knocked out.
If you are worried about Lucario EX or another other Ground type Pokemon then Flash energy could be added to this deck. The only problem with this is that you are relying a lot on Special Energy at this point and may find yourself in an awkward situation when facing against a deck that has ways to remove energy such as Special Energy or Giratina EX who could lock you out of at least half of your energy.
Jolteon EX can come in a flash and really give your opponent a tough time. It could cause an overcast day for your opponent but Jolteon EX can be your ray of sunshine! This is all thanks to a pesky attack that can take care of a lot of pesky Basic Pokemon. You may have a few weaknesses but those can be handled thanks to a few techs. Generations may past but great cards are still around! So you may want to pick up a few Generation packs and try your luck on getting such a flashy Pokemon!
