EX Cards That Are Not Worth The Risk

Summary

• Pokemon TCG Pocket re-introduces EX cards with huge risks and minimal rewards.
• Key EX cards like Gyarados, Mewtwo, and Arcanine have underwhelming moves, making them ineffective.
• Legendary Pokemon like Moltres & Zapdos also disappoint with inefficient moves that aren’t worth the risk it takes to use them.

Fans of the Pokemon Trading Card Game have had an exciting few months after Game Freak released Pokemon TCG Pocket, a new mobile app allowing players to collect and battle with exclusive Pokemon card decks. There are quite literally hundreds of cards to collect, but only a select few are as rare and powerful as EX cards, though these Pokemon come with a price.

Unlike regular cards, when a Pokemon EX card is knocked out of battle, the opponent is granted two points instead of one. This means, while getting an EX card active may be an incredible reward for patient and strategic players, it’s a massive risk at the same time. These eight cards might be incredibly lucky pulls for completionists, but for battlers, they’re not worth the trouble it’d cause to lose them.

8

Gyarados EX

The Atrocious Pokemon

Gyarados is already a difficult Pokemon to bring out in the TCG, as it requires players to waste a spot on their bench (or god forbid, their active slot) with poor little Magikarp. The risk is even greater when you look at Gyarados’ sole move: Rampaging Whirlpool, which does a whopping 140 damage at the cost of four Energies, but with a caveat that makes it not worth the trouble.

Whenever Rampaging Whirlpool is used, all players must remove a single Energy from every Pokemon in either the active spot or the bench. This can be a helpful way to throw an opponent off guard, but they’ll already see it coming from a mile away once the Gyarados has been drawn. Unless you’re willing to be patient and place some extra Energies on Gyarados, this EX card is just too much to ask.

7

Exeggcutor EX

The Coconut Pokemon

It’s quite a bad look when Exeggcutor EX isn’t even as good as its non-EX form, which has the useful attack Psychic, allowing for an additional 20 damage for each extra Energy placed on the card. Exeggcutor EX may have slightly more HP, but its sole move, Tropical Swing, maxes out at only 80 damage, which is the base damage of Psychic.

With Tropical Swing, players must flip a coin to determine if the attack does 40 damage or 80. It might come in handy for the rare close call, but there’s simply no reason to put Exeggcutor EX in your deck when there are far better Grass-type EX cards, like Venusaur EX, which can confuse or poison active opponents and heal an ally once per turn.

6

Mewtwo EX

The Genetic Pokemon

It might come as a shock that a Pokemon as revered as Mewtwo isn’t up to snuff when it comes to its EX card. Mewtwo EX does have the rare bonus of two moves, the low-cost Psychic Sphere and the high-cost Psydrive, but Psydrive is quite an annoying move to put into action. For four Energies, players will deal 150 damage, but they must discard two Psychic Energies from the Pokemon.

This means that, unless a player has been stocking Mewtwo EX with Energies on the bench, it’ll take at least an extra turn before it’s ready to use Psydrive again. In that time, an opponent (especially a super-effective one) can easily dispatch Mewtwo while Psychic Sphere does 100 less damage. The only benefit is that Mewtwo EX has a relatively low retreat cost at only two Energy.

5

Arcanine EX

The Legendary Pokemon

Arcanine EX comes with a side effect to its one move that fans of the Pokemon video games will be all too familiar with: recoil damage. For three Energy, Arcanine’s Inferno Onrush will deal 120 Fire-type damage, but it will also deal 20 back to Arcanine. This may not seem like a lot for a Pokemon with 150 HP, but that’s on top of any damage Arcanine might be taking from an opponent on a given turn.

In the competitive Pokemon meta, 20 recoil damage isn’t such a bad thing. Arcanine (as well as its Hisuian form) is typically utilized competitively with the move Flare Blitz, which does recoil damage equal to 33% of HP lost by the target. Nevertheless, in the much different meta game of Pokemon TCG Pocket, taking an extra 20 damage every turn is a huge risk players will want to avoid.

4

Mew EX

The New Species Pokemon

Like its sibling Pokemon Mewtwo, Mew EX is a rather big disappointment for competitive TCG players. Its cheapest move is Psyshot, which deals a measly 20 damage for one Energy, but its other move, Genome Hacking, takes three Energy to simply a copy an attack from one of the opponent’s active Pokemon. This may sound sweet, but it’s entirely dependent on the opponent.

In some cases, players who draw Mew EX may be able to use an attack that costs an opponent four or more Energies for the price of three, but it’s based on a lot of assumptions about whichever Pokemon they use. It can even be a solid strategy for opponents to foil Mew EX’s plan by retreating and sending out a worthless Pokemon that can still tank a 20 damage hit from Psyshot.

3

Zapdos EX

The Electric Pokemon

Like Mew EX, Zapdos EX comes with a disappointing single-Energy move, Peck, which only deals 20 damage. On the flip side, Zapdos EX’s other move, Thundering Hurricane, might seem overpowered with a maximum of 200 damage, but that’s only if a player flips a coin four times and gets heads all four times. If it’s tails all four times, Zapdos EX will do nothing for the entire turn.

A move that deals 200 damage is obviously incredibly useful in Pokemon TCG Pocket, since it can wipe pretty much any Pokemon off the board in one turn. However, it’s extremely rare that players will get to experience that — unless they’re incredibly lucky with their coin flips. Most of the time, they’ll be lucky if it does even 50 damage, which is not a lot for a Legendary Pokemon like Zapdos.

2

Moltres EX

The Flame Pokemon

Zapdos EX isn’t the only member of its legendary trio with a disappointing EX card in Pokemon TCG Pocket. Moltres EX has only one damaging move, Heat Blast, dealing a measly 70 damage for three Energy, which is already pretty bad. However, it has an additional, non-damaging move in Inferno Dance, which costs one Energy.

With Inferno Dance, players must flip three coins. For each heads, players can attach a Fire-type Energy to any Pokemon on their side of the field. This can be a helpful way to boost up other, better Fire-type Pokemon cards in a game, but for Moltres, it’s not exactly the biggest boon when its highest amount of damage output is 90 toward Pokemon that are susceptible to Fire-type moves.

1

Charizard EX

The Flame Pokemon

Put all your biases aside, because yes, Charizard EX is not worth the risk to use in Pokemon TCG Pocket. On the surface, it may seem like a pretty great EX card, with two attacks. However, its cheapest attack, Slash, does only 60 damage at the cost of three Energies, which is already asking a lot of players. And, that’s not even counting the high risk, high reward of Crimson Storm.

Crimson Storm costs four Energies to use and deals a staggering 200 damage, with no coin flips or other caveats. However, after using the move, players must discard two Fire-type Energy. For players who haven’t been stacking Fire-type Energies onto Charizard EX, this means they not only can’t use Crimson Storm for at least one turn, but also Slash, which is incredibly egregious.