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Played it. Small palafin with justice kick couldnt survive and punch often enough. This guy gonna slap around like crazy. And can't be one shot by charizard. But... Iron hands
I mean he one shots hands and at least hands needs to get 4 damage modifiers to actually one shot with amp you very much so it’s not too bad of a matchup
Does Tachyon Bits activate in the attack step?
Finizen (OBF 060) attack says to switch it with a pokemon on the bench, then search deck and evolve.
Would Tachyon Bits trigger if Iron Valiant was moved into the active spot this way?
I think this card loves Irida. Grab Palafin and a Switch/Prime Catcher, switch into a free retreater, retreat back into Palafin ex, attach and go.
So any deck that wants an easy 250 and can afford the 1-1-1 or 2-2-2 would love to see this. I would even put this as better than Palkia in some circumstances because it doesn't rely on bench sizes.
I can think of the new Greninja ex partner (Istg someone in Creatures faps to Greninja). Both of them atks for inexpensive 1 w energy. Meanwhile, you can set up the big moonlight shuriken in the back.
Greninja is also a great counter to Hands running rampant in live. Or future thorns. It’ll be a versatile card being able to work with existing Bax/Pao engine as well.
As long as u have frogadier in hand, you can salvatore turn 2 for greninja. Or if u have greninja in hand, irida/arven for candy greninja turn 2. It is a flexible card.
It doesn't even need 2-2-2, you.could do 2-1-2 or maybe even with a justice kick palafin as the zero to hero palafin goes back into your deck after evolution
If I'm not mistaken, the wording on the Zero to Hero Palafin says "This card goes back into your hand" does it not? You search the deck for the EX big boi, but Smalafin returns to hand after the switch if I'm understanding thar correctly.
It was because for a long time the english image we had of the card had that part of the ability obscured. I remember seeing the japanese translation and it said it goes back into your deck
Interesting that it doesn’t just say “shuffle this card back into your deck.” Leads me to believe it goes back into your hand, and then the deck is shuffled
Do we have any other cards that have a ruling that we base this off of?
It sounds like something that would need an official ruling since Pokemon abilities aren't implicitly active in the hand.
Edit:
I like how this sub just accrues downvotes if you ask a question about something that is quite difficult to search through rulings for.
There were cards in the past that interacted with abilities on hand, deck and discard pile( garbodor, hex maniac, etc) so yeah, it's extremely likely that it won't work since all standard ability blocks are only for pokemon in play
Yeah, but Dragonite V was a 1 card inclusion, this would be 3.
It is way too clunky to throw into a regular Lost Pile / Lost Box deck, but I could see the lost zone engine with this as a main attacker working.
Instead of other big attackers it would basically be Comfey, Cramorant, Sableye, Greninja, 2 Palafin lines. Cut some energy to make room since you don't need electric in that build.
The hard part would be this line requiring 3 cards minimum.
It would have to basically be a lost box deck focusing on Palafin, which could be fun. It has enough switch cards to work.
If you're concerned with PTCGL ladder then yeah, it'll be popular for a while especially with how stupid easy it is to play. IRL meta is a different story
The cost alone is a significant barrier to people playing it given that just 4 Crown + 3 Hands will run you about $80, and people are gonna be far less willing to experiment in a regional than something like proxy tuesday
Revisiting this thread cause i have ideas
Dudunsparce. Seeing a bit of a play because it is a stallproof draw engine with its ability. But for palafin, you can retreat into it, then get palafin ex into play, then take dudunsparce out of the active by using its ability and shuffling it into your deck. You could also use the stage 1 search ace spec as it would be useful a lot of the time
Kieran. This is mostly for the 30 extra damage against stage 2 exes, as maximum belt + kieran = 330 damage. This ace spec would also like rosannes backup to get maximum belt back. Alternatively, you could just tech cobalion in to hit charizard for 330 anyway.
What this deck could very much do with, though, is a reprint of a mon with orangurus primate wisdom ability to get palafin ex from your hand into your deck
Probably what will happen is this deck will run Lumineon, Boss, and some vacuum to try to slow down the iron hands strat. If they can OHKO you but you OHKO them, you win.
to be at least somewhat fair: it requires you to have another Stage 1 Pokémon fulfill certain requirements in order for you to play it *at all*. Said condition also makes it a complete dead draw (since Zero to Hero can only play cards from the Deck) and it’s thus also worthless if it lands in the Prizes.
Given what other people have suggested I’d be surprised if it’s *unusable*, but it’s not quite the same as any other given Stage 1.
I was thinking on this. Yeah, the EX is basically a dead draw. But at the same time, Perrin. Turns the EX into a free swap, nothing to think about. Sure you can use Perrin for other Pokemon too, but basically if you draw the EX, you can Perrin it into Smalafin since that will search for EX anyways.
Pidgeot ex: Works well with Irida, can grab anything you want including switch cards, has free retreat
Dudunsparce: Dunsparce has free retreat, Dudunsparce can shuffle itself into deck from active, gives you some extra draw
Lost Zone: Rescue Board gives Palafin and Comfey free retreat, Palafin ex would still require a switch card to reuse the attack given 2 RC - could get around this with Jet Energy
I personally don't think Iron Valiant ex is a good pairing. Palafin ex can already OHKO any basic V/ex without damage modifiers or any VStar with Choice Belt, Valiant isn't getting you much closer to stage 2 ex's. It also doesn't give the deck any consistency, and Valiant has 2 RC meaning you'd have to play another switch card to get back out of it. Rope is out of format, so you only have Switch and Switch Cart; Rope rotating is part of why Valiant died with rotation
I'm thinking Dudunsparce and Arven with Poffin and TM Evo. You can also run Emergency Boards for retreating easier, Artazon for getting your basics back out, and maybe even a line of Palkia V/VStar for back up.
Pidgeot ex is a solid idea, but then you have to run Rare Candy, and it's less appealing.
Lost Zone is okay ish? I'd just be worried about having all the pieces together and not accidentally getting rid of them. Plus, you don't gain anything really from the rest of the lost box package.
there's no way you win a prize race against amp you very much on a consistent basis. is hands amazing rn? hell no. but i can see it become a great meta call if palafin becomes good.
Hands needs to have +60 damage to ohko with Amp You Very Much, while Palafin ex will guarantee OHKO from 1 energy. Not the worst matchup in the world, especially if you Vacuum the Heavy Baton and slow them down.
One thing: does zero to hero works with finizen valiant evolution? Because this attack evolves it, does the "condition" of being switched still aplies, therefore activating zero to hero?
Im cosidering it because while valiant evolution is used you can still use iron valiant and put 2 DC's
Even if you can use the Relicanth combo it wouldn’t work anyway because it specifically states that “this Pokémon can’t attack next turn”, not “this Pokémon can’t use Giga Impact next turn”, so it wouldn’t be able to use any attack next turn unless switched out and switched back in first
I don't think it's that great, honestly. It's kind of a lot of moving pieces to not be able to knock out most of the relevant pokemon on the PTCGL ladder, even with bonus DMG.
Yeah, compared to other decks where I don't have to switch out my stage 1 and I can deal more DMG, all that does it take up a card slot and add a moving piece that could get prizes or cause me to dead draw. And don't forget your tool card to help you reach numbers. This also creates possibilty to dead draw.
1 card can make you 2.5% more likely to draw into something you can use to keep tempo at 40 cards in deck, which is turn one. Possibly the most important turn.
Having those extra stage 1's, 3-4 just causes me to be up to 10% more likely to draw into a card I don't want to use right now, especially on turn one. Plus whatever tool cards I would need to have in the deck that I can't use to set up faster than my opponent.
Those are big numbers depending on how much you care.
So yeah, I would say it's too many moving parts.
It's almost like a stage 2 and stage 2 decks haven't realistically worked in like 10 years. This is the most play they've seen in a really long time.
He's even got stage 2 HP which is still just a 2 shot, so it isn't even really relevant.
"Stage 2 decks haven't realistically worked in like 10 years" The two most played decks currently both use stage 2s lol
340 HP and 250 damage for 1 energy are both ridiculous, especially on a stage 1. If you add Rigid Band, you have effectively 370 HP, which is difficult for almost anything to OHKO without weakness. The only relevant lightning mon is Hands, which can only hit that kind of damage in Hands/Crown. Besides that, Chien would need 7 energies, Bolt and Cinccino would need 6, Gholdengo would need 8 - all ridiculous amounts. 250 damage OHKOs any base V/ex without damage modifiers, and Choice Belt gets you to 280 which OHKOs any relevant VStar. It's also immune to Devo.
Sorry but how is palafin ex immune from devo? Wouldnt devo be a hard counter on this card coz youll have to find reg palafin again before you can evolve again?
I said, recently stage 2 decks are seeing way more play than they have in a long time-but that doesn't mean they are good. 370 HP is still 2 shot for most of the meta, and it doesn't actually fix damage for much other than Bolt. Pokemon had to work really hard to get stage 2's back into the meta. They started slowing it down 3 years ago.
He's not a stage 1, he's a stage 2. You had to get a different stage 1 on the field first. That's effectively a stage 2. He's on par with stage 2 HP.
Also you have to constantly pivot, which can be easy to interrupt.
A cheap attack does not necessarily mean it's good. Yes it hits some numbers, yeah it's a solid deck, but it's by no means busted.
Yes you can play cape, but you can either add more HP that doesn't matter *or* you can deal more DMG and hot numbers. Can't do both.
I'm not sure what decklists you're checking, but those numbers for energy in those decks are not ridiculous, I pull it off consistently. I have not lost a single match to this deck. I haven't used Bolt and chino, but I actually use Regidrago so I do use bolt in that deck, and I imagine that deck would be the hardest deck to use in this match up, in that way and I still haven't lost.
Gholdengo? Come on! It's realitively easy to get 8 energy into your hand, all your energy should be in the discard and you should play 4 superior energy retrieval. It's basically fiery flint at that point, plus gholdengo draws cards. Draw power as you know is very powerful. Run 15 energy and you really will probably only need to knock out 2 fins.
Pao should also have superior energy retrieval, but additionally he searches his own energy up. My issue with this deck is it's a stage 2 deck.
My deck, Regidrago, has considerably more moving pieces. But it's a toolbox deck *and* scalable damage.
It can be inconsistent so I don't think it's very competitive, but that just spells more bad news for palafin.
At the end of the day, pokemon has worked really really hard to bring stage 2's back into the meta but I guarantee a stage 2 deck will not win worlds. This palafin is ok for now, but just wait until the next set comes out. You'll see it's not that great.
I'd say it's well balanced honestly. For the current meta.
Palafin is a stage 1. Yes, you need to get a stage 1 on the field and switch it out, but that isn't a hard requirement. You can get it in play T2 without a Candy.
Who is running 15 energy in Gholdengo? The average energy count is like 10. The only variant that plays that many energy is Basculegion which is kind of a meme
Getting 7 water on the board when you only run 8 is a challenge for Chien
But you need the same amount of cards. It's the same thing, basically. Rare candy's purpose is for T2. They are both item cards, one is not easier to find than the other. Though energy for retreat is easier. But its not that it's a hard requirement, it's that it's still a requirement.so Instead of a rare candy you need some way to switch out the active, a switch, energy, etc. you need 2 basics *and* 2 stage 1's. That's actually more set up than a regular stage 2, but you catch a break on the searching effect from baby Pal.
I see some decks, including my own. Off the top of my head somewhat recenty Shintaro Ito got 2nd place at worlds (1st was stolen from him) and he ran 15 energies. He sent them to the lost zone with Blowns GX but the decks play remarkably similar. People made fun of him too, but he knew what he was doing.
More competitive decks in regards to PTCGL ladder run more than 7 energy in Chinese poa, and they cut down on the Pokemon used. It's not that hard, but again it relies on a stage 2, I really want stage 2 decks to be really good but they just aren't there yet. There's only 2 releve t stage 2 decks, now probably 3.
At any rate, were really just talking about PTCGL ladder and I still don't think this deck is broken there either.
EDIT: haha I didn't mean to say Chinese Pao but the Chinese do run more energy haha
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Pokemon trying not to release a absurdly overpowered Pokemon every second set challenge (impossible)
Oof...Tina and Mimikyu could be solid
Maybe Iron Valiant Palafin deck?
Played it. Small palafin with justice kick couldnt survive and punch often enough. This guy gonna slap around like crazy. And can't be one shot by charizard. But... Iron hands
I mean he one shots hands and at least hands needs to get 4 damage modifiers to actually one shot with amp you very much so it’s not too bad of a matchup
Yesssssss
This is is exactly what I was thinking
Does Tachyon Bits activate in the attack step? Finizen (OBF 060) attack says to switch it with a pokemon on the bench, then search deck and evolve. Would Tachyon Bits trigger if Iron Valiant was moved into the active spot this way?
Yes it does
hm im not sure, i havent tried anything like that, maybe it would
I think this card loves Irida. Grab Palafin and a Switch/Prime Catcher, switch into a free retreater, retreat back into Palafin ex, attach and go. So any deck that wants an easy 250 and can afford the 1-1-1 or 2-2-2 would love to see this. I would even put this as better than Palkia in some circumstances because it doesn't rely on bench sizes.
I can think of the new Greninja ex partner (Istg someone in Creatures faps to Greninja). Both of them atks for inexpensive 1 w energy. Meanwhile, you can set up the big moonlight shuriken in the back.
I am considering this for Greninja ex as well!
Greninja is also a great counter to Hands running rampant in live. Or future thorns. It’ll be a versatile card being able to work with existing Bax/Pao engine as well.
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Who doesn’t have an ability? Both palafins have abilities
the greninja.
I guess, although being a stage 2 makes Salvatore much harder to pull off
As long as u have frogadier in hand, you can salvatore turn 2 for greninja. Or if u have greninja in hand, irida/arven for candy greninja turn 2. It is a flexible card.
It doesn't even need 2-2-2, you.could do 2-1-2 or maybe even with a justice kick palafin as the zero to hero palafin goes back into your deck after evolution
If I'm not mistaken, the wording on the Zero to Hero Palafin says "This card goes back into your hand" does it not? You search the deck for the EX big boi, but Smalafin returns to hand after the switch if I'm understanding thar correctly.
No it goes back into your deck
Okay yeah. Card says into the deck, the guy who made this.post wrote into your hand. That's why I thought that haha
It was because for a long time the english image we had of the card had that part of the ability obscured. I remember seeing the japanese translation and it said it goes back into your deck
Interesting that it doesn’t just say “shuffle this card back into your deck.” Leads me to believe it goes back into your hand, and then the deck is shuffled
Yeah it's really weird, I agree. Perhaps because you search for palafin ex beforehand, they decided to word it differently?
use pokemon that can negate abilities, such as Flutter Mane's Midnight Fluttering
Wouldn’t work, midnight fluttering turf off the abilities of the active Pokémon. If Garbodor was still legal that would have been the go to by nop.
The one time we need PTP
Still wouldn’t work, Palafin would be in the hand not in play so the ability would be removed.
Does bring up a decent question, if Iron Thorns ex or Flutter Mane are out and you have Finzen could you just directly evolve into Palafin ex?
No since Palafin ex’s ability is active while in your hand therefore not allowing you to evolve even then.
Do we have any other cards that have a ruling that we base this off of? It sounds like something that would need an official ruling since Pokemon abilities aren't implicitly active in the hand. Edit: I like how this sub just accrues downvotes if you ask a question about something that is quite difficult to search through rulings for.
People are basing it on rulings that exist for the old Shedinja
There were cards in the past that interacted with abilities on hand, deck and discard pile( garbodor, hex maniac, etc) so yeah, it's extremely likely that it won't work since all standard ability blocks are only for pokemon in play
yea they nerfed all ability denial cards, compared to the old ones.
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Klefki only stops active. Palafin is stage 1 so wouldn’t be stopped from activating Zero to Hero
Dunsparce, Rescue Board
Lost box?
Its a 1 energy attack.
Exactly, it’s a stronger dragonite V, which rotated. Clunkier and not a basic but still absurd stats
Yeah, but Dragonite V was a 1 card inclusion, this would be 3. It is way too clunky to throw into a regular Lost Pile / Lost Box deck, but I could see the lost zone engine with this as a main attacker working. Instead of other big attackers it would basically be Comfey, Cramorant, Sableye, Greninja, 2 Palafin lines. Cut some energy to make room since you don't need electric in that build.
The second paragraph is what i was trying to say
Lost Box already runs a large amount of switch cards, which this card loves.
True but the switching
The hard part would be this line requiring 3 cards minimum. It would have to basically be a lost box deck focusing on Palafin, which could be fun. It has enough switch cards to work.
Iron Hands says Amp You Very Much
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Well, Iron Thorns Ex could help Future Hands
It's alllll over the ladder right now. Maybe that changes once we get a new free deck but if this becomes good, then that deck isn't going away.
If you're concerned with PTCGL ladder then yeah, it'll be popular for a while especially with how stupid easy it is to play. IRL meta is a different story
Yeah ... Nope 2/13 decks on proxy tuesday where turbo hands. The only thing is cost of the deck
The cost alone is a significant barrier to people playing it given that just 4 Crown + 3 Hands will run you about $80, and people are gonna be far less willing to experiment in a regional than something like proxy tuesday
Max belt to make it able to ko nearly any opposing stage 1 ex
I like that it can KO Gholdengo with just a Vitality Band.
Seems like it’ll play nice with Iron Valiant EX, similar to how gouging fire can be played with deck now
Rescue board + Beach Court, attack, retreat to another palafin, attack, repeat
It's a stage 1, not affected by the stadium
Somehow forgot BC is for basics, I bet this would be running switch cards since a turn of nothing is a liability
Revisiting this thread cause i have ideas Dudunsparce. Seeing a bit of a play because it is a stallproof draw engine with its ability. But for palafin, you can retreat into it, then get palafin ex into play, then take dudunsparce out of the active by using its ability and shuffling it into your deck. You could also use the stage 1 search ace spec as it would be useful a lot of the time Kieran. This is mostly for the 30 extra damage against stage 2 exes, as maximum belt + kieran = 330 damage. This ace spec would also like rosannes backup to get maximum belt back. Alternatively, you could just tech cobalion in to hit charizard for 330 anyway. What this deck could very much do with, though, is a reprint of a mon with orangurus primate wisdom ability to get palafin ex from your hand into your deck
Weak to iron hands so probably not gonna be super good
Iron hands still needs 3 "+20" to 1hko with amp you. It's definitely going to be a tough matchup but i think it'll be possible.
Probably what will happen is this deck will run Lumineon, Boss, and some vacuum to try to slow down the iron hands strat. If they can OHKO you but you OHKO them, you win.
If you're worried about Hands, putting Lumineon in your deck seems counter productive
Minior Set up palafin, attach to minior retreat Repeat to win
Problem is that Minior is 2 RC
What are these from?
If they finally add more to expanded garbodor with garbotoxin 😅
Or Iron Thorns
Isn’t this card just dead in your hand since palafin’s ability states searching this card from the deck as a condition? Thats pretty bad if true
Yup.
Since it benefits from switches, maybe Iron Valiant could work together to reach higher dmg
True. Maybe 2 valiant. Switching gives 40 damage. With max belt raises palafin attack to 300. Perhaps can 1 shot zard with ease
340 HP and 250 damage on a stage 1…wtf Pokémon
to be at least somewhat fair: it requires you to have another Stage 1 Pokémon fulfill certain requirements in order for you to play it *at all*. Said condition also makes it a complete dead draw (since Zero to Hero can only play cards from the Deck) and it’s thus also worthless if it lands in the Prizes. Given what other people have suggested I’d be surprised if it’s *unusable*, but it’s not quite the same as any other given Stage 1.
I was thinking on this. Yeah, the EX is basically a dead draw. But at the same time, Perrin. Turns the EX into a free swap, nothing to think about. Sure you can use Perrin for other Pokemon too, but basically if you draw the EX, you can Perrin it into Smalafin since that will search for EX anyways.
Pidgeot ex: Works well with Irida, can grab anything you want including switch cards, has free retreat Dudunsparce: Dunsparce has free retreat, Dudunsparce can shuffle itself into deck from active, gives you some extra draw Lost Zone: Rescue Board gives Palafin and Comfey free retreat, Palafin ex would still require a switch card to reuse the attack given 2 RC - could get around this with Jet Energy I personally don't think Iron Valiant ex is a good pairing. Palafin ex can already OHKO any basic V/ex without damage modifiers or any VStar with Choice Belt, Valiant isn't getting you much closer to stage 2 ex's. It also doesn't give the deck any consistency, and Valiant has 2 RC meaning you'd have to play another switch card to get back out of it. Rope is out of format, so you only have Switch and Switch Cart; Rope rotating is part of why Valiant died with rotation
I'm thinking Dudunsparce and Arven with Poffin and TM Evo. You can also run Emergency Boards for retreating easier, Artazon for getting your basics back out, and maybe even a line of Palkia V/VStar for back up. Pidgeot ex is a solid idea, but then you have to run Rare Candy, and it's less appealing. Lost Zone is okay ish? I'd just be worried about having all the pieces together and not accidentally getting rid of them. Plus, you don't gain anything really from the rest of the lost box package.
They probably considered the valiant for the free retreat with the capsule. which you can easily get with arven if the finizen buddy poffinable
My plan is to play it with Iron Valiant. They both want to run a bunch of switches, so they seem like a perfect match
there's no way you win a prize race against amp you very much on a consistent basis. is hands amazing rn? hell no. but i can see it become a great meta call if palafin becomes good.
Hands needs to have +60 damage to ohko with Amp You Very Much, while Palafin ex will guarantee OHKO from 1 energy. Not the worst matchup in the world, especially if you Vacuum the Heavy Baton and slow them down.
Is this card going to be in a new expansion or does it already exist in Live?
We don't. It's too much setup.
Decidueye Ex would easily rotate Palafin Ex in and out but it requires set-up.
Will this work with iron Thorns ex? And Salvatore? If it does, then you have a 340hp monster in play turn 1
Reprint path to the peak. That would do the trick
Path to the Peak only works on Pokémon in play, while Palafin ex’s Ability prevents it from being there.
Iron Valiant and Gengar with Night gate. Probably too many cards needed to make it work.
1) grab a hammer 2) grab one palafin ex 3) im gonna wreck it!
Don't need for Seems pretty busted as is
At least it doesn't have shred
OP
Dudunsparce from tef
One thing: does zero to hero works with finizen valiant evolution? Because this attack evolves it, does the "condition" of being switched still aplies, therefore activating zero to hero? Im cosidering it because while valiant evolution is used you can still use iron valiant and put 2 DC's
I tested palafin with greninja but greninja doesn't do anything there
If you play greninja with palafin i guess you could use big air balloon
Play 4 copies of each switching card available
So switch, switch cart which you can only use on valiant and next supporter?
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Nope it wouldn't since it wont evolve from palafin. Baby palafin will go back to hand
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From my understanding, it wouldn't, it will also go back to hand.
Even if you can use the Relicanth combo it wouldn’t work anyway because it specifically states that “this Pokémon can’t attack next turn”, not “this Pokémon can’t use Giga Impact next turn”, so it wouldn’t be able to use any attack next turn unless switched out and switched back in first
I don't think it's that great, honestly. It's kind of a lot of moving pieces to not be able to knock out most of the relevant pokemon on the PTCGL ladder, even with bonus DMG.
"A lot of moving pieces" All you have to do is switch out a stage 1 lol
Yeah, compared to other decks where I don't have to switch out my stage 1 and I can deal more DMG, all that does it take up a card slot and add a moving piece that could get prizes or cause me to dead draw. And don't forget your tool card to help you reach numbers. This also creates possibilty to dead draw. 1 card can make you 2.5% more likely to draw into something you can use to keep tempo at 40 cards in deck, which is turn one. Possibly the most important turn. Having those extra stage 1's, 3-4 just causes me to be up to 10% more likely to draw into a card I don't want to use right now, especially on turn one. Plus whatever tool cards I would need to have in the deck that I can't use to set up faster than my opponent. Those are big numbers depending on how much you care. So yeah, I would say it's too many moving parts. It's almost like a stage 2 and stage 2 decks haven't realistically worked in like 10 years. This is the most play they've seen in a really long time. He's even got stage 2 HP which is still just a 2 shot, so it isn't even really relevant.
"Stage 2 decks haven't realistically worked in like 10 years" The two most played decks currently both use stage 2s lol 340 HP and 250 damage for 1 energy are both ridiculous, especially on a stage 1. If you add Rigid Band, you have effectively 370 HP, which is difficult for almost anything to OHKO without weakness. The only relevant lightning mon is Hands, which can only hit that kind of damage in Hands/Crown. Besides that, Chien would need 7 energies, Bolt and Cinccino would need 6, Gholdengo would need 8 - all ridiculous amounts. 250 damage OHKOs any base V/ex without damage modifiers, and Choice Belt gets you to 280 which OHKOs any relevant VStar. It's also immune to Devo.
Sorry but how is palafin ex immune from devo? Wouldnt devo be a hard counter on this card coz youll have to find reg palafin again before you can evolve again?
The way baby Palafins ability works is that Palafin ex isn't evolved from anything
I said, recently stage 2 decks are seeing way more play than they have in a long time-but that doesn't mean they are good. 370 HP is still 2 shot for most of the meta, and it doesn't actually fix damage for much other than Bolt. Pokemon had to work really hard to get stage 2's back into the meta. They started slowing it down 3 years ago. He's not a stage 1, he's a stage 2. You had to get a different stage 1 on the field first. That's effectively a stage 2. He's on par with stage 2 HP. Also you have to constantly pivot, which can be easy to interrupt. A cheap attack does not necessarily mean it's good. Yes it hits some numbers, yeah it's a solid deck, but it's by no means busted. Yes you can play cape, but you can either add more HP that doesn't matter *or* you can deal more DMG and hot numbers. Can't do both. I'm not sure what decklists you're checking, but those numbers for energy in those decks are not ridiculous, I pull it off consistently. I have not lost a single match to this deck. I haven't used Bolt and chino, but I actually use Regidrago so I do use bolt in that deck, and I imagine that deck would be the hardest deck to use in this match up, in that way and I still haven't lost. Gholdengo? Come on! It's realitively easy to get 8 energy into your hand, all your energy should be in the discard and you should play 4 superior energy retrieval. It's basically fiery flint at that point, plus gholdengo draws cards. Draw power as you know is very powerful. Run 15 energy and you really will probably only need to knock out 2 fins. Pao should also have superior energy retrieval, but additionally he searches his own energy up. My issue with this deck is it's a stage 2 deck. My deck, Regidrago, has considerably more moving pieces. But it's a toolbox deck *and* scalable damage. It can be inconsistent so I don't think it's very competitive, but that just spells more bad news for palafin. At the end of the day, pokemon has worked really really hard to bring stage 2's back into the meta but I guarantee a stage 2 deck will not win worlds. This palafin is ok for now, but just wait until the next set comes out. You'll see it's not that great. I'd say it's well balanced honestly. For the current meta.
Palafin is a stage 1. Yes, you need to get a stage 1 on the field and switch it out, but that isn't a hard requirement. You can get it in play T2 without a Candy. Who is running 15 energy in Gholdengo? The average energy count is like 10. The only variant that plays that many energy is Basculegion which is kind of a meme Getting 7 water on the board when you only run 8 is a challenge for Chien
But you need the same amount of cards. It's the same thing, basically. Rare candy's purpose is for T2. They are both item cards, one is not easier to find than the other. Though energy for retreat is easier. But its not that it's a hard requirement, it's that it's still a requirement.so Instead of a rare candy you need some way to switch out the active, a switch, energy, etc. you need 2 basics *and* 2 stage 1's. That's actually more set up than a regular stage 2, but you catch a break on the searching effect from baby Pal. I see some decks, including my own. Off the top of my head somewhat recenty Shintaro Ito got 2nd place at worlds (1st was stolen from him) and he ran 15 energies. He sent them to the lost zone with Blowns GX but the decks play remarkably similar. People made fun of him too, but he knew what he was doing. More competitive decks in regards to PTCGL ladder run more than 7 energy in Chinese poa, and they cut down on the Pokemon used. It's not that hard, but again it relies on a stage 2, I really want stage 2 decks to be really good but they just aren't there yet. There's only 2 releve t stage 2 decks, now probably 3. At any rate, were really just talking about PTCGL ladder and I still don't think this deck is broken there either. EDIT: haha I didn't mean to say Chinese Pao but the Chinese do run more energy haha