by Phoenix A. Desertsong, Staff Writer, Healer & Advocate

While the concept behind Flying Crane Technique is pretty cool, six mana in three different colors is fairly hard to cast. Still, this card has great synergy with Narset, Enlightened Master and the Prowess ability on the other Jeskai clan’s cards.

Prowess gives Jeskai’s creatures additional +1/+1 boosts until the end of the turn whenever you cast a non-creature spell, so then giving them flying and double strike is extremely deadly. Still, it's a lot of mana to play at instant speed. However, it does untap all creatures you control and gives your creatures flying and double strike until end of turn.

A common question that's asked about Flying Crane Technique is if you can cast it even after you declare attacks. You can indeed declare attackers, then cast it, and get the full effect. However, if blockers are declared, any creatures that are declared blocked will still be blocked even if they gain flying. On the other hand, gaining double strike can affect the outcome against those blockers. Do keep in mind, however, that creatures that come into play after you cast this will not gain flying or double strike - only those creatures that you control as you cast it.

Without a doubt this is a finisher. If you happen to attack with Narset, Enlightened Master and exile it using her ability, you even get to cast it at Instant Speed for free. This card can easily end the game on its own, especially if cast for free.

One place this card can definitely be good is in Commander, where Narset decks have run it with some success. Other White/Blue/Red Commanders Ruhan of the Fomori and Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest may find a way to integrate it into some of their builds, as well.

While it hasn't seen any competitive play outside of Limited formats such as draft, Flying Crane Technique is most definitely a bomb that can serve as a useful combat trick that comes out of seemingly nowhere.

As far as value, Flying Crane Technique isn't ever going to have much of a price tag. It's pure "bulk rare" material, meaning you can probably pick up a copy for as little as a dime. Even the foil price of Flying Crane Technique doesn't break a dollar. So, if it's a card you want, it's a cheap one to acquire.

Archlord Kristya  was a very, very good card when she was first released in Stardust Overdrive. Actually, Fairies were a very good anti-meta deck in general for quite a long time. But as they lost many of their trap cards, including Solemn Judgment and Royal Oppression, the deck stopped being as good.

Konami went to war against “anti-meta” decks with their banned and restricted lists over the past few years, which is why Special Summoning based decks have gone haywire. There’s nothing wrong with a deck that can limit your opponent to playing some “old-fashioned” Yu-Gi-Oh once in a while. It’s refreshing, especially when that is being forced by a bunch of pretty Fairies.

All gushing aside, Kristya hasn’t received very much love in recent years. The Melodious Monsters give me a bit more hope. Thing is, do you want to play a Level 8 Monster in a Fairy-type deck that doesn’t have any way to Special Summon herself? Actually, she CAN Special Summon additional copies of herself! There are plenty of ways to cheat out LIGHT monsters, especially.

Duelist Alliance only has Aria the Melodious Diva  and  Sonata the Melodious Diva for us at the common rarity. However, they are decent cards. Aria’s effect is actually pretty decent. As long as she was Special Summoned, your “Melodious” creatures can’t be targeted by card effects or be destroyed by battle. That’s pretty sweet.

Sonata is considerably better. If you control a Melodious monster already, you can Special Summon her from your hand. If she’s been Special Summoned (in any way) your Fairy-type Monsters (all of them!) gain 500 ATK and DEF! Wow. Talk about the beginnings of a good archetype! The problem is these two weren't enough to build a Melodius Deck.

Fortunately, The New Challengers set would change this. Canon the Melodius Diva is the first of two pretty good monsters at common. She has 1400 ATK and 2000 DEF, decent stats. Like Sonata, if you control a "Melodious" monster, you can Special Summon her from your hand. Keep in mind that you can only Special Summon "Canon the Melodious Diva" once per turn this way. Her effect is interesting: Once per turn: You can target 1 "Melodious" monster you control, change its battle position. Why is this good? You can switch Canon into Defense Position after attacking, for one thing, and that's not nothing.

Elegy the Melodius Diva is the other monster, and she's a Level 5 with only 2000 ATK and 1300 DEF. However, her effects are good. First, Special Summoned "Melodious" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by card effects. That's not second. Secondly, if this card was Special Summoned, all Fairy-Type monsters you control gain 300 ATK. She's a somewhat worse version of Sonata, but she also has half of Aria's effect. She's playable.

The Melodius archetype also gained a valuable spell card, 1st Movement Solo, at super rare in the New Challengers. It's pretty good. If you control no monsters, you can use it to Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower "Melodious" monster from your hand or Deck. Being from the deck is super awesome. There are a couple of drawbacks, though. First, you can only activate 1 "1st Movement Solo" per turn. Also, you can't Special Summon monsters during the turn you activate this card, except "Melodious" monsters. Those drawbacks aren't a huge deal, though, not in a Melodius deck!

Watch out for Mozarta and her Melodious friends. They might become a fairly good deck someday!

Considering that this deck had an original MSRP of about $75, it’s great to see a card with a high value like Sword of Feast and Famine in a deck. It obviously fits the deck quite well. It also somewhat makes up for the lack of fetch-lands in the deck.

Speaking of fetch-lands, let’s look over the no-fetch mana base.

A full play-set of the white-black “pain” land will help you fix for your colored mana, plus two  City of Brass.  A full play-set of  Isolated Chapel,  the white/black “buddy” land will help you also fix without the need for pinging yourself for life, as long as you control a Plains or Swamp. There are 5 plains and 4 swamps to complement them. In addition, there is a  Vault of the Archangel, with which you can tap for 2WB to give your creatures deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn. There is also a full play-set of  Windbrisk Heights, a rather useful card with Hideaway. Whatever card gets put under it can be cast for a single white mana and a tap, providing that you have attacked with at least three creatures in a given turn.

Overall, it’s not a bad mana base, although I would replace the two City of Brass and at least one plains and one swamp for a full play-set of  Godless Shrine. It is, at least, a functional mana base.

An old white/black favorite, sure to see even more play in the near-future in Modern with the existence of  Athreos, God of Passage,  Tidehollow Sculler deprives your opponent of a non-land card until the Sculler leaves the battlefield. It’s a very solid two-drop that compliments the other hand disruption in this deck quite nicely.

Let’s move on to the meat of the deck, the non-creature spells!

The three copies of Honor of the Pure, which pumps all of your white creatures by +1/+1 are an obvious inclusion, as are the full play-set of Intangible Virtue, which gives all tokens +1/+1. Being able to stack multiple copies of this card on the board is key to this deck’s success.

As many speculated, there are also two copies of  Inquisition of Kozilek  in the deck. It’s yet another way to disrupt your opponents’ hands of their early plays, giving you time to build up your forces on the board while they recover. There are also 3 copies of Zealous Persecution, an instant which gives your creatures +1/+1 and your opponents’ creatures -1/-1 until end of turn, making combats a bit tricky for your opponent.

As for tokens, there is a full suite available. A full-playset of  Lingering Souls, with its Flashback ability, is an absolute must. It’s joined by a full-playset of Raise the Alarm, which creates two 1/1 white soldiers for only 1W. There’s also a full play-set of  Spectral Procession, which makes 3 flying tokens.

There’s also  a couple of copies of a fun card from New Phyrexia,  Shrine of Loyal Legions. The cool part about this card is that so much of the deck is comprised of white spells. Each time you cast a white spell (which includes the dual-colored spells) it gains a charge counter. You can pay 3 and sacrifice the Shrine and put a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the field for each charge counter that had been on the Shrine. This can potentially be a lot of token generation.

The deck also contains 3  Path to Exile, which is a very pricey removal card nowadays.

Now onto one of the main win conditions of the deck, my favorite card in all of Magic: the Gathering:

Elspeth, Knight-Errant  should need no introductions. Both of her +1 abilities are fantastic, and her ultimate ability, her -8, gives you an emblem that basically wins you the game. Making more tokens, then making them fly over opponent’s creatures is always fun. And making everything indestructible is pretty good, too. You also will have enough blockers to protect her, meaning that her potential of going ultimate is actually pretty high if they don’t deal with her outside of combat.

Overall, the main deck looks quite playable. Let’s look over the sideboard:

Here’s a card you don’t typically see, two copies of  Burrenton Forge-Tender. Obviously, this card exists to help in match-ups against mono-red decks. I’m pretty sure by design that these are meant to replace the two copies of main-board Soul Warden in those match-ups. The cool thing about Forge-Tender is that it can prevent damage from any red source, including board-wipes like  Anger of the Gods  (the bane of this deck’s existence) and Blasphemous Act. Speaking of Blasphemous Act, in those Boros builds that include  Boros Reckoner, that damage isn’t dealt to the Reckoners, either, saving you at least 13 points of damage from that card’s ability. Solid little sideboard option here.

Most of the remaining side-board cards are self-explanatory.  Dismember deals with big threats,  Duress  gives you more hand-destruction,  Ghost Quarter gives you some land destruction ability against greedy mana-bases and  Relic of Progenitus  helps stop graveyard shenanigans.

The last card in the sideboard is a very useful card called  Kataki, War’s Wage. Three copies exist in this sideboard. Essentially what it does is make all artifacts have an upkeep cost of 1 mana. This obviously can be quite problematic for Affinity and Tron decks in the format. It also has a negative interaction with the  Shrine of Loyal Legions, but those can come out when this card is boarded in. It’s nice to have three copies included.

Overall, this deck looks fairly solid. Black/white tokens are a deck that doesn’t necessarily need the fetch-lands to function. Of course, four Marsh Flats and the four Godless Shrine would be nice, but the pain-lands do suffice in this case. Besides, the pain from the fetch-lands and the shock-lands coming in untapped is very similar, and you’re gaining life back from Soul Warden in many cases anyhow.

I think as a gateway deck into the format, there’s nothing wrong with Wizard’s first attempt. Is it worth the $75 MSRP? I would say most likely. Since card price numbers can fluctuate over time, I won’t break it down here, but the cards did add up to well over $75 at the deck's release, if you consider median prices for these cards (double that, in fact!) Unfortunately, as the decks did not sell as well as anticipated, many hobby shops and card stores broke them down to sell the individual cards, deflating the value of many of the cards included. However, the original printings of the cards have maintained their values a bit better due to the fact that the Modern Event Deck cards have a separate set symbol, fortunately.

While I certainly am happy to see the Sword in here, Hero of Bladehold  may have made more sense. It’s clear that Wizards wants to give it the “Bang for its Buck” without having speculators buying them all up, thus making them inaccessible to players trying to enter the format. For what it’s meant to be, it’s pretty good, and it’s put copies of some harder-to-get cards out there more readily available without flooding the market too much.

I can why see this didn't sell quite as well as some might have first suspected, but I think the  Modern Event Deck is a worthy start to what will hopefully be a long line of event decks for the Modern Format.

As a female Magic player, I was truly saddened at the passing of our beloved Elspeth Tirel in the conclusion of the Theros story-line. While I'm certainly a fan of Nissa Revane, who may be more than a little too elvish for me, there is no other female planeswalker that I have truly bonded with over the years that I've been playing Magic.

As I started around the time of Lorwyn, I am very familiar with Chandra Nalaar  and Liliana Vess. But while I certainly love Chandra's style and Liliana's abilities in her various incarnations, no female planeswalker has ever screamed out to me the way that Elspeth Tirel did as a true champion.

But with the new Commander 2014 decks now available to us, I finally get to play with who became my favorite planeswalker ever upon her spoiling. That is, our good old friend the Stoneforge Mystic:  Nahiri, the Lithomancer.

The five planeswalkers that are featured in Commander 2014 are each able to be used as your Commander. This obviously could lead to quite the shenanigans. While I will very much likely go into greater depth about the friends joining Nahiri in her quest to become a powerful White Commander, Nahiri herself will be the primary focus of my musings here today.

Let's take a look at her loyalty-based abilities, shall we?

Her +2: Put a 1/1 white Kor Soldier creature token onto the battlefield. You may attach an Equipment you control to it.

This is an extremely solid ability. Nahiri begins her sojourn on your battlefield with 3 loyalty counters, so being able to gain 2 loyalty counters right away to bring her to 5 is very useful. Also, not only do you get a creature token that counts as a Kor and a Soldier, you also get to attach any stray Equipment you have lying about to that token. With the sort of deck that Nahiri will be commanding - as she is indeed the Stoneforge Mystic - you can imagine that equipments will be plentiful in your arsenal.

Her - 2: You may put an Equipment card from your hand or graveyard onto the battlefield.

Who doesn't love to recycle? I know that I do, being one of the greatest advocates for reuse, upcycling, et al in my "real" life. It's tricky to put her down to only 1 loyalty if you decide to use this ability right off the bat. It's likely you'll have other ways to recur your Equipments, but not necessarily directly onto the battlefield. Being able to choose from your hand or graveyard and place that choice directly onto the battlefield is very powerful. But as your Commander, I would think it unwise to depend on this particular abilities. I would only use it in dire circumstances, or if Nahiri is supplementing your deck, rather than Commanding it.

Finally her ultimate! -10: Put a colorless Equipment artifact token named Stoneforged Blade onto the battlefield. It has indestructible, “Equipped creature gets +5/+5 and has double strike,” and equip 0

Yes, that says equip 0. You can equip the Stoneforged Blade to any creature for free. Who doesn't want to give somebody +5/+5 and double strike. It will take time to build up to this ultimate ability, of course, but not only is that an extremely broken Equipment, but it is also indestructible. The only way you can deal with it is to exile it.

Overall, Nahiri is a pretty wicked planeswalker even at a casting cost of 5 mana (3WW). SHe is heavily equipment-based, of course, but that's why I love her so much. I've always loved equipment. Her +2 combines beautifully with cards like Skullclamp, which will kill your token but net you two cards from your deck. Just use that a few times, go for her ultimate ability and go to town with your best creature. I love Nahiri, and while she may not be my Commander on many occasions, her flavor, my love of artifacts (especially Equipments) and her amazing beauty will make her a Planeswalker that will forever remain close to my heart.

When it comes to  Constricting Sliver, six mana for a 3/3 creature is a lot for Constructed. It has a great effect, though, turning all of your Slivers into Banisher Priests. It does have some good synergy with commonly played Slivers in Commander. But for Standard and Modern, it’s fairly highly costed. It’s a good addition to  to the Sliver toolbox, but not one that really should see any play outside of “kitchen table” Magic or Commander.

Leeching Sliver is another strong Sliver from Magic 2015 that doesn’t look strong on the surface. It’s a 1/1 for 1B that says “Whenever a Sliver you control attacks, defending player loses 1 life.” Like Diffusion Sliver these effects stack. I did have this to say about Leeching Sliver previously:

“It has been mentioned by some players that Thorncaster Sliver is already in Standard and does pretty much the same job as Leeching Sliver, and in fact, is able to make Slivers deal damage to creatures as well. However, Thorncaster Sliver is 5 mana. Leeching Sliver is two mana, and their abilities stack as separate instances. So Leeching Sliver is overall a far more aggressive card and even though it’s only a 1/1, Thorncaster is merely a 2/2.”

I definitely like this card over the Thorncaster Sliver. As a two-drop, it may be fairly easy to remove, but it also is going to help deal its fair share of damage before it’s gone.

Sliver Hivelord is easily an auto-include in any Sliver Commander deck. Still, he isn’t quite the Commander that the other three 5-color Sliver Legendary Creatures in Sliver Legion, Sliver Overlord, or Sliver Queen are. The Legion and Queen, however, are quite pricey money-wise, and Overlord himself is about $20 USD. Also, only the Legion is Modern-playable, and he would definitely be played considering he’s a 7/7 for 5 mana (WUBRG) and the weight of his effect: “All Sliver creatures get +1/+1 for each other Sliver in play.”

That being said, making all Slivers you control indestructible is huge, especially in a Slivers mirror match-up – unlikely, but possible. Being able to survive most board-wipes definitely helps your cause. He’s also currently the least expensive of all of the Sliver Legendaries (at this time). He is definitely a potential Commander, but his best place is in Constructed.

Lastly we have the Sliver-friendly land, Sliver Hive.

Modern already has Cavern of Souls  and  Ancient Ziggurat  to help cast Slivers, but having yet another play-set of a land that fixes mana for any of your Slivers very much helps. In Standard,  Sliver Hive  and  Mana Confluence  is all you really have. The fact that it also can tap for 1 colorless mana is a nice bonus, and the third ability to create a 1/1 colorless Sliver creature token for 5 mana is just a nice little bonus you can use as a mana sink (as long as you control a Sliver, that is.) It’s a very strong non-basic land, even though its usage is so narrow.

Magic 2014 had a bunch of Slivers, too. So when these Magic 2015 slivers arrived, Slivers would appear to be a playable deck in Standard. There was Galerider Sliver at a single Blue mana able to give all of your Slivers flying, and Manaweft Sliver at 1G to help all your Slivers become five-color mana rocks. You also had Predatory Sliver at 1G to give all of your Slivers +1/+1 and Blur Sliver to give all of your Slivers haste. To top it all off, you had Bonescythe Sliver at 3W to give all of your Slivers double strike. All things considered, you could have an extremely nasty Sliver list. You even have  Obelisk of Urd in Magic 2015 to help with Tribal! It’s 6 mana but it has Convoke and gives all creatures of the chosen type you control +2/+2.

So are the Slivers good in Magic 2015? I would say that Constricting Sliver is only Commander playable, and Two-Headed Sliver may be a bit better than Belligerent Sliver in Modern. Until October 2014, there was some potential for Slivers to make some noise. But after the arrival of the Khans of Tarkir block, these few Slivers became a curiosity in Standard. Most of these Slivers are quite Modern-playable, though. They have all definitely strengthened Slivers in the Commander format. Five of them are also uncommon, which makes them easier to get, and the Hive is only a rare in a Core Set.

I like that Wizards put these new Slivers into the Magic 2015 Core Set, but it felt like a plant for Casual Constructed more than anything else. Slivers are not really a viable draft strategy in M15 Limited because there simply aren’t enough of them and there aren’t any at common. I do like all of the Slivers overall, however, and I’m excited to see them potentially start showing up in Modern on a more competitive basis. I love the tribe, and I wish they would bring back their original “hive-mind” flavor of affecting all Slivers, but I’ll live with these. After all, it’s always better when you get to enjoy the effects and not your opponents.

Final verdict: Magic 2015's Slivers are good. They made only a slight impact in Standard, though, with a very limited window in which to actually provide much value. But these few Slivers definitely gave deck builders in Modern and other formats more ammo to play with.

Back when I was younger, Pikachu was the most popular Pokemon in the world. I never really minded Pikachu, but I wouldn't say it was one of my favorites. To be fair, I just never figured out why Raichu wasn't more popular than he was.

I realize that Raichu has plenty of fans, but I would've been so happy to see Ash have a Raichu, even if it was in addition to Pikachu. I understand that Pikachu has sold a lot of Pokemon games and merchandise  just by itself. But still, Raichu is a far superior Pokemon. If Ash's Pikachu had become a Raichu, Ash would've probably become the most unstoppable force on the planet. He would've broken Pokemon.

Raichu has always been one of my favorite team members while playing the games. He was usually the Pokemon I used more than any other when I played the original Red and Blue. It bugged me in Pokemon Yellow when I couldn't get him to be a Raichu!

Sadly, as time went on, Raichu was on my team less and less because of availability. Over time, I ended up having another electric-type favorite. Still, Raichu will always have a special place in my heart. The amount of pure raw energy that guy can put out is absolutely ridiculous. If I could have any Pokemon in real life, Raichu would be a top candidate.

Photo credit: Bulbapedia

While Misdreavus is a second-generation Pokemon, I didn't really like her much until third-generation. I say her because every Misdreavus I've ever had was female. It's not that I disliked her; she was fine. It's just that she was very rare in the original Gold and Silver games. I didn't catch one until Diamond and Pearl came out (actually) and by then she had an evolution: Mismagius.

The reason I came to like her in third-generation Pokemon was because of an old browser-based game called Pokemon Crater. It doesn't exist anymore because Nintendo apparently shut them down for copyright reasons. From how I understand it, though, they gave the creators of the site money to sell them the domain name. If you try to go to pokemoncrater.com now, it goes directly to the Nintendo website.

On this game, there was a bug where you could train ghost Pokemon all the way from level 1 to 100. It had to do with one of the Elite Four Trainers, Bruno. Because only one of his Pokemon, Hitmonchan, had an attack that could hit ghosts, you could literally grind a level 1 Gastly to a level 100 Gengar just by fighting Bruno. It was very silly.

I had teams of Gengars, Dusclops, Bannettes, Sableyes, and of course, Misdreavus. Because of how easy it was to build level 100 Ghost Pokemon on Crater, they became among my favorites. But Misdreavus has a special place in my heart. I think I just really like the whole design of her, and her mischievousness and all that. Plus, it's super cute!

I really like Mismagius, but I think it looks so witchy compared to the adorable Misdreavus. Still, Mismagius is a good Pokemon that has served me well since fourth-generation, so I like her just fine, too!

Oh, how I miss Crater...


Photo Credit: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Misdreavus

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Dragonite EX  easily became one of the most anticipated EX cards in the X&Y Furious Fists expansion set. It was epic  to have a  Dragonite EX  card for the first time since way back in EX Dragon Frontiers. Sadly, this Dragonite wasn't so game-breaking as was hoped.

Still, being a Dragon-Type, this card looks awesome! He does, of course, have a 2x weakness to Fairy-type Pokemon, as with all Dragon-types. He does have an interesting Ability to consider called Bust In. When you play Dragonite EX from your hand onto your Bench, you may move any number of basic Energy attached to your Pokemon to this Pokemon. If you do, you switch him with your Active Pokemon. While that Ability is very strong, what does he then have the opportunity to attack with?

Dragonite EX  only has one attack, Jet Sonic. It requires two Grass Energy and one Lightning Energy to use. It deals 80 base damage, but you may discard an Energy card to deal 40 more damage. 120 damage for only 3 Energy at the cost of discarding one is fairly decent. However, the combination of Energy required greatly limits Dragonite EX's playability. Therefore, despite being one of the more sought-after EX cards to collect from this set, he isn't getting much love in the competitive TCG atmosphere.

Fortunately, collectors have the opportunity to acquire a full-art version of this card, which looks very powerful and deadly. It's unfortunate that Dragonite EX's play-ability is somewhat limited by the clunky Energy requirements.

This isn't to say that Grass and Lightning decks aren't playable - quite to the contrary. There are simply EX cards available that are a bit stronger than this one when it comes to deck-building. However, his ability to literally "Bust In" and deal some quick damage strategically is a fairly powerful move. He just doesn't have a deck that he can truly benefit.

While his limited playability has kept his  #74 printing relatively inexpensive, Dragonite's overall popularity has made his full-art printing quite popular. Either printing is a great addition to any Dragonite lovers' collection. Long-term, you definitely want to have a copy of the full-art ultra rare Dragonite EX, as they're fairly rare.

In addition to the powerful  Lucario EX, the Pokemon X&Y Furious Fists TCG set also includes his MEGA form,  M Lucario EX. With Mega Evolution, you play the Mega form over the original EX card. The one major drawback to Mega Evolution is that your turn ends as soon as you play it, meaning you cannot attack that turn. Is the benefit worth it?

Mega Lucario EX  has 220 HP, which is fairly standard for Mega Evolutions. He only has one attack, but that attack is formidable. Rising Fist deals 140 damage for only 3 Fighting Energy, making it considerably better than Lucario EX’s final attack. That attack only deals 100 for 3 Fighting Energy with no additional effects. This attack  also  makes your opponent’s active Pokemon have to discard an Energy card attached to it.

As if Lucario EX wasn’t solid enough to begin with, his Mega form is definitely a force to be reckoned with. It's well worth being played in any deck alongside his normal form to be a destructive finisher. He not only deals major damage but also sets your opponent’s Pokemon back, as well. Without a doubt, the Furious  Fists set is built around this combination of Lucario and his Mega form.

Lucario EX is one of the hottest cards from the Pokemon Trading Card Game Expansion Set X&Y Furious Fists. There is also a Mega Lucario EX  in this set, as well. Right away, you can see that this Lucario card has three attacks and 180 HP.

Each of  Lucario EX‘s attacks requires one more Fighting Energy than the previous attack. This allows for an easy progression through his different attacks, making him quite the formidable force right from Turn One.

His first attack, Missile Jab deals 30 damage, and ignores Resistance. This is important as there are a good number of Pokemon in the card game that do have Fighting Resistances. The second attack,  Corkscrew Smash, not only deals 60 damage, but allows you to refresh your hand until you have 6 cards in hand. This sort of card advantage on such a damaging attack is quite formidable.

His third and final attack is Somersault Kick for 3 Fighting Energy, which deals 100 damage. It’s a fitting final attack to deal a crippling blow to a likely already weakened enemy. While it doesn’t offer anything special beyond that, 100 damage for only 3 energy with no drawback is a fairly strong attack.

While his dedication to Fighting Energy makes him not as “splash-able” as some other EX cards, his pure power level makes him a formidable weapon and a great EX to build a deck around. Lucario is also one of the most popular Pokemon around, making him both a sought after collectible as well as a powerful card for deck-building.

Only released as a promotional card, Krookodile EX packs quite a bunch for a card that you can get out of a promotional package. Like all of today’s EX Pokemon cards, he is a Basic Pokemon. He has a fairly standard 180 HP. This Krookodile has two attacks, Second Bite and Megaton Fang. Krookodile does have -20 resistance to Psychic Pokemon, and like most Dark Pokemon a 2x weakness to Fighting Pokemon

His first attack, Second Bite, requires one Dark energy and two colorless energy. It deals 40 base damage, but does 10 more damage for each damage counter on your opponent’s Active Pokemon. This can make Krookodile’s first attack quite deadly if you’re dealing with an already wounded foe.

Megaton Fang costs 2 Dark energy and 2 colorless energy for 130 base damage, which is slightly above average. However, it does require you to discard a card as additional cost to attack, making the little bit of extra damage a bit more costly.

While he’s not exactly a highly competitive EX Pokemon card, Krookodile EX is fairly powerful and could find some Modified play at some point if the right deck emerges for it. Otherwise, it’s just a really cool card to have as part of the collection, as it only has the one printing.

Heracross EX may not be the strongest EX card in the X&Y Furious Fists set. But this Heracross is not a bad card at all considering that it’s only a Basic Pokemon. Having 170 HP, this Grass-type Pokemon has two useful attacks: Guard Press and Giga Power. The 2x weakness to Fire-type Pokemon is fairly standard for Grass-types, as well.

Guard Press does require a Grass Energy as well as a Colorless energy to use, making it a bit of a slower starter than some other EX Pokemon. It deals 40 damage and during your opponent’s next turn, any damage dealt to Heracross EX is reduced by 20 damage after applying Weakness and Resistance. This can make him a decent little tank.

His second attack, Giga Power, requires two Grass Energies and one Colorless Energy. It deals 80 base damage, but can deal 40 more damage if you deal 20 damage to Heracross. 120 damage for 3 energy is perfectly acceptable.

Hawlucha EX  is a very cool card, and it’s become a very popular Pokemon in the X&Y video games, as well. This Hawlucha card does have some interesting stats. It only has 130 HP, which is a bit low for an EX Pokemon. But considering that it  is ordinarily a Basic Pokemon, that’s still a healthy number.

Hawlucha’s main plus is its ability: Counterattack. If Hawlucha EX is your Active Pokemon and is damaged by an opponent’s attack, even if that attack would knock it out, you put 2 damage counters on the Attacking Pokemon. That’s a pretty sweet ability.

Its  lone attack, Moonsault Stomp, costs 1 Fighting Energy and 2 colorless energy, and deals 60 base damage. If there is a Stadium card in play, it deals 40 more damage. 100 damage for a 3 energy attack is OK, but having to rely on a Stadium card means that Hawlucha EX’s overall play-ability is a bit limited.

However, Hawlucha EX does have a couple things going for it.

Skyarrow Bridge  is a Stadium card that is quite playable, and has seen play in a good number of decks. Also, being a Fighting Pokemon, Hawlucha EX is a perfect counter to Darkrai EX, who has been very strong in competitive play.

Another thing that  Hawlucha EX  has going for it is that instead of a weakness to Psychic, like many Fighting-type Pokemon, it instead has Electric weakness. Also, being a flying type Pokemon in the games,  Hawlucha EX  has a -20 Resistance to other Fighting-type Pokemon.

There are some players already looking for ways to integrate this Hawlucha EX  card into their decks. Overall, Hawlucha is just a really cool Pokemon card, and is yet another EX card that many players and collectors will be happy to add to their collections.

Seismitoad EX is a very powerful EX card from the X&Y Furious Fists Expansion Set. Like most EX cards that would ordinarily be a Stage 2 Pokemon, it has 180 HP as a Basic Pokemon. It has 2x weakness to Grass-type Pokemon and a retreat cost of 3.

Seismitoad has two good attacks. The first, Quaking Punch, requires 2 Colorless Energy (or a Double Colorless Energy) and deals 30 base damage. However, it also prevents your opponent from playing any Item cards from his or her hand during his or her next turn. That can definitely serve as a drawback for your opponent.

The second attack, Grenade Hammer, costs 2 Water Energy and a Colorless Energy. It deals 130 base damage, which is already powerful. However, it also deals 30 damage to 2 of your Benched Pokemon, so there’s fairly serious backlash for using it. Because of Seismitoad EX’s raw power, however, and being a Basic Pokemon, it’s possible that the damage to your Benched Pokemon may be well worth the impact of Grenade Hammer on your opponent.

Its first attack also  combines fairly well with the  Garbodor  from Dragons Exalted:

With plenty of Tool Cards out there to put on Garbodor, it will be easy to shut down all Pokemon Abilities – except for Garbotoxin, that is. With Seismitoad locking out Item cards until delivering a final blow with the Grenade Hammer, this could prove to be a fairly decent lock-down, as your Pokemon in such a deck will not be ones that worry about abilities.

Seismitoad EX is an excellent and powerful EX Pokemon card for your Deck, as long as you build around it carefully. There is also a full-art version of it available, as well. As far as pulls from this set are concerned, Seismitoad EX is definitely one of the best cards you can get.

Gengar EX, not to be confused with the Gengar EX from EX Fire Red & Leaf Green, is an EX-Pokemon from the  X&Y Expansion, Phantom Forces. There's also a full-art version of this edition of Gengar EX. Like all of the newer EX Pokemon, Gengar EX is a Basic Pokemon, whereas Gengar is ordinarily a Stage 2 Pokemon. He has 170 HP, which is a bit below average for newer Pokemon, but he does have the -20 Resistance to Fighting. However, he also has the times 2 weakness to Dark type Pokemon’s attacks.

One of the best things about Gengar EX is that his attacks are not Energy-intensive. His first attack costs a colorless Energy, Night Attack, and it puts 3 damage counters on one of your opponent’s Pokemon. This gets around any Resistance and you can assign the damage to opponent’s Benched Pokemon, which can be very useful if they have a weak Basic Pokemon on their bench.

Gengar's EX's second attack, Dark Corridor, costs only a single Psychic energy and two Colorless Energy. It deals only 60 base damage, but it Poisons your opponent’s Active Pokemon, essentially allowing this attack to do much more. However, Gengar EX must switch out after using Dark Corridor.

Overall, this looks to be a pretty good Pokemon. It can attack right from the get-go and its ability to Poison an opponent and run is fairly good, especially if you have a big beater to switch into. But that’s not all. There’s a Mega Evolution for this guy.

Mega Gengar EX has 220 HP, which is a very high number, indeed. Unfortunately like all Mega Evolutions, your turn ends upon playing him. But he only has a retreat cost of 1, unlike regular Gengar EX which has a retreat cost of 2.

His attack is incredibly interesting. It costs one Psychic energy and two Colorless Energy, just like Gengar EX’s Dark Corridor attack. You get to choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon’s attacks and use it as this attack. That’s pretty silly, considering that you ignore any energy requirements for it.

This guy could just win you the game out of nowhere if deployed correctly. The only downside is that if your opponent brings out a Pokemon without any really good attacks, Mega Gengar EX isn’t too good. But his retreat cost is so cheap, why not play him?

This is a great pair of EX cards. They are very playable and should be a force to be built around.

Photo credits: Bulbapedia