COTD – 21st August 2011 – Yanmega Prime TM

Hey everybody, apologies for the lateness of the COTDs recently, but I have been busy with a tournament and writing up my latest SixPrizes article and I hope you forgive me cause I won the tournament I went to I should have a small tourney report up on Wednesday, anyways, here is today’s card, Yanmega Prime.

This is the big gun of the current format obtaining a massive reputation in a very short span of time so how does it look at first glance? We have here a Stage 1 Grass type with 110HP, a single PokeBody and two attacks. You may also notice the retreat cost space is blank in the bottom left-hand corner giving us a fantastic free retreat.

Let’s look at Yanmega’s PokeBody first since it will help us to analyse the attacks in a much better light. ‘Insight’ simply states that if the cards in each player’s hands are the same, then Yanmega’s attack cost 0 energy. This is what makes Yanmega the quickest card in the format since it needs no energy attachment, is a Stage 1 and there are multiple different ways to get matching hand sizes through the use of Judge, Copycat and just burning cards. I guess with this PokeBody, we’re going to need some good attacks to utilise it properly.

‘Linear Attack’ is Yanmega’s first attack and usually costs a Grass and a Colourless, but with the PokeBody mentioned above, we don’t need to worry about that here. This attack simply allows you to choose one of the defending Pokemon and then do 40 damage to it, doesn’t sound so great does it? But where this attack shines is where it can pick off Baby Pokemon and weak Basics like Oddish for cheap prizes, but it can also finish off heavily damage Pokemon your opponent has tried to hide on the bench. Since you can use this attack for free, your opponent will never know when you’re going to use it and means that you can pluck that extra prize out of nowhere, whenever you like.

Yanmega’s second attack is why it’s such a fast and powerful Pokemon right now. ‘Sonicboom’ simply does a base damage of 70 and the small print states that it isn’t affected by weakness or resistance which can sometimes be strangely handy. As the above PokeBody states, this attack can be used for free as soon as the second turn, meaning that pretty much any Basic in a Stage 2 line is going to be KO’d, putting some early offensive pressure on your opponent as well as forcing one of their precious Basics into the discard pile early. A turn two 70 damage is nothing to take lightly, for all the reasons stated above, and because there are so many ways to get this going for free, we have ourselves a very powerful attack indeed.

Yanmega is also incredibly versatile and can fit into pretty much any deck you can think of since it requires no energy commitment in a list and most decks run off of similar shuffle-draw cards anyway, aiding you to match the hand sizes. With the -20 Fighting Resistance, you’ve got a pretty hand answer to Donphan to bide you some time when put in a tricky situation and the free retreat means that you will have many more options during your turn following a KO or just when you want to go for an attack with a different Pokemon.

So overall, Yanmega is probably the fastest attacker in the format (which requires the least help, before you say Zekrom is faster!) and there is a reason why this card is so sought after right now. Come the new set, nothing much is going to really change about this card apart from the fact that you’ll be able to choose which Pokemon to KO as soon as turn two, rather than having to KO what’s in the active spot at the time.

Even with all these good points, there must be some bad and its ‘Achilles Heel’ if you will, is its x2 Lightning Weakness. Popular cards such as Magnezone and Zekrom will have no problem KOing your Yanmegas in a single blow and when paired with a PlusPower, Magnezone will only need a single energy to Lost Burn to send it right to the discard pile, with Yanmega only having an attack of 70 to retaliate with. Reshiram also gives Yanmega a hard time for the same reason, Reshiram can one-hit it a Yanmega, but Yanmega struggles to do any decent damage back.

But even with those bad points, Yanmega is still wreaking havoc in the format right now, simply because of its speed and sniping ability. I’m going to give it a very healthy 9/10 and it just misses out on that perfect score for its Lightning troubles. A very versatile and quick attacker, but not without some issues to face on the way.

Artwork: Unlike some of the previous Card of the Day’s, Yanmega is actually a really cool looking Pokemon and I must say I do like the art on this card. Most people would say that a giant but wouldn’t look so good on a shiny piece of card, but this artwork will provide you with a decent counter argument. The artist has given the bug a polished 3D effect and it looks as though it is slinking through the air and preparing to blast whoever in the way with its powerful winds. Its big bug eyes are enhanced by the traditional ‘Prime Glint’ and the Japanese flowers in the background really does top off the card, making it one of my personal favourite background from the Primes.

Overall, I’m going to give it an 8/10. I have a soft spot for this cool looking bug and I must congratulate the artist on combining it with the traditional Japanese art behind to make for a really nice looking holographic card.

Thanks for reading today’s COTD and please comment below what you think