Justin Williams
When it comes to Fire-type SP Pokemon, there are very few in the current Modified format - and even fewer worth playing. While a card like
Houndoom G certainly has its uses, its damage output maxes at 60, and both of its attacks cost at least one
Darkness Energy.
Currently, there are really only two heavy-hitting Fire Pokemon that you should consider using in your SP decks -
Infernape 4 and
Blaziken FB.
Both cards also have Lv. X forms which are incredibly powerful - you should include at least one copy of either depending on which you choose.
Infernape 4/Lv. X
Infernape 4 is already a well-established card in the competitive Pokemon scene - it was paired with
Luxray G Lv. X in Kyle Sucevich's US National Championships-winning deck. The rationale for that combination is simple: both of these SP Pokemon are excellent and cover popular weaknesses well. Much like the popular pairing of
Palkia G Lv. X and
Dialga G Lv. X, there's not necessarily any direct synergy between the two cards, but it's the same "Toolbox" mentality that a player should have different threats for different occasions. It's also the reason
Infernape 4's role is being questioned now - is
Blaziken FB a superior card? That's certainly debatable, but there are pros and cons to each.
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Set:
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Rising Rivals
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Card Type:
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Fire |
| HP:
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90
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| Number:
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43
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| Rarity:
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Uncommon
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The versatility of
Infernape 4 is what makes it such an attractive option in SP decks - not only can it be paired with a powerful attacker in
Luxray, but you could also throw him into a damage-spread deck that features
Crobat G and
Honchkrow G.
Infernape 4 has an impressive 90HP to work with, which means you likely won't be knocked out on your first turn unless you run into a
Kingdra or a
Machamp. A quick
Palkia G can also put a big dent into your hit points, but if you've got an idea of what your opponent is playing then you should be able to avoid these types of situations.
Infernape 4 isn't a great opening Pokemon, but he's not terrible, either.
His first attack, Split Bomb, is incredibly powerful when coupled with an Energy Gain. A damage output of 40 for a mere
Fire Energy make him one of the fastest damage-spreading Pokemon (let alone Basic Pokemon) in the game today. While putting 20 damage on two separate targets isn't always ideal for setting up quick KOs (especially when you're up against a deck featuring
Nidoqueen from Rising
Rivals, which negates the damage entirely), it can definitely help set-up late-game KOs.
Infernape 4's second attack, High Jump Kick, is a nice option for a Fire, Colorless and an Energy Gain. While you likely won't use this attack very often, it can be most effective against Pokemon that are weak to Fire - namely threats like
Dialga G. It's a simple attack with limited uses - but 50 damage can come in handy early against low-HP Basic Pokemon like
Baltoy and
Horsea.
As is standard with all SP Pokemon,
Infernape 4 has a 2x weakness, and in this case it's Water (which makes sense, right?) Ape's retreat cost of one Colorless Energy is also no surprise, and it's likely you won't pay it very often - you'll either level him up, giving him free retreat or you'll simply spend a PokeTurn to fish him out of trouble in your active slot.
Overall, a solid Basic Pokemon that happens to only be an Uncommon card, which means you should be able to stock up on a few of these without much difficulty.
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Set:
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Rising Rivals
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Card Type:
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Fire |
| HP:
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110
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| Number:
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108
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| Rarity:
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Holo Rare
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The real grit of this gorilla comes in the form of its Level X, however. Boasting a meaty 110 HP, most cards (aside from the threats mentioned previously) are going to have to settle for a 2-hit kill on
Infernape 4 Lv. X. The free retreat that
Infernape gains when leveling up is an excellent asset, and one that sets it apart from
Blaziken FB. This means that after one of your other Pokemon is knocked out, you can opt to send up an
Infernape 4, Level Up, and retreat it safely to the bench if you need it later. Truly one of the easiest Level X's to get into play, and yet another reason it combos well with
Luxray.
It has a nice Poke-Power in the form of Intimidating Roar - it's essentially half of a
Warp Point executed on your opponent's side of the board. Making your opponent
Switch their Pokemon is a great disruptive ability, and you can often even get opponents to waste their Power Sprays on it! The most logical application for this power, however, is when your opponent only has one big threat on the board, and a bunch of cheap prizes sitting on the bench. After a Split Bomb, popular cards such as
Azelf,
Uxie and
Mesprit are all within range of a High Jump Kick knockout. If your opponent is struggling to stay in the game, Intimidating Roar can be game-breaking - it just comes down to a matter of timing on your part. You could end up helping your opponent with this power, so just use good judgment!
Finally, the most useful asset of
Infernape 4 Lv. X is in its attack, Fire Spin. For the price of only two
Fire Energy and a Colorless (or an Energy Gain), you're swinging for 100 damage with relative ease. While you do have to discard two Energy attached to the Ape, cards like
Aaron's Collection,
Night Maintenance and
Palmer's Contribution ease the pain. More than likely, you'll only use Fire Spin to finish off big threats - it just wouldn't make sense to throw down 100 damage only for it to be PokeTurned or
Super Scoop Upped immediately after.
Another fair assumption is that you won't be able to use Fire Spin twice in a row since it requires two
Fire Energy. However, there are a few ways to keep the monkey flinging flames.
Flint's Willpower allows you to attach an extra Basic Energy from your hand to one of your Pokemon - which means if you've got two
Fire Energy (or a
Fire Energy and an
SP Energy) in hand, then you can keep the assault going if you've got an Energy Gain attached. This is a great way to catch your opponent off-guard, and it's not uncommon to tech one copy of
Flint's Willpower in an SP deck featuring
Infernape 4. Since you're supposed to run four copies of Cyrus' Conspiracy, you'll be able to search Flint's out without much difficulty - just plan it out in advance since you can only play one Supporter card per turn.
Another way to keep your
Infernape 4 powered up (and to keep your opponent guessing) is to keep a
Bronzong G on the bench. If you've got other Fire or
SP Energy lying around in play on your other Pokemon,
Bronzong has the unique capability of moving one energy attached to your SP Pokemon to another via his Poke-Power, Galactic
Switch. It comes at the mere cost of placing two damage counters on your
Bronzong G - a fair price to pay if it means you get to whack your opponent for another 100 with Fire Spin! Just be sure to keep your PokeTurns handy in case you need to heal your
Bronzong G, or better yet, put him into play again to use Galactic
Switch a second time in the same turn!
The upsides to the card are obvious - huge damage output and versatile attacks. The greatest downside to
Infernape is the expensive cost of Fire Spin - you're going to spend a lot of resources to keep this attack going. So what could
Blaziken FB possibly have to offer that
Infernape 4 doesn't?
Blaziken FB/Lv. X
Splashability and speed - two key elements of any successful SP deck. The hype surrounding
Blaziken FB is huge, but there's a lot of merit behind this beastly bird. Similar to
Infernape 4, many players are pairing him with
Luxray G. The synergy between "Blaze" and "Ray" might actually be greater than "Lux" and "Ape". The logic in this is not unlike the strategy employed in 2009 World Champion Stephen Silvestro's RayBees deck - use
Luxray to "gust" up weak benched Pokemon and take cheap prizes - only instead of using a swarm of
Beedrills to grab knockouts, BlazeRay uses (and re-uses) a flock of
Blaziken FB Lv. X. However, there are other big SP Pokemon you could potentially pair with Blaze. While Ape is a big-time energy hog, you could easily squeeze
Blaziken into any SP deck looking to run a cheap Fire option. Potential partners include
Dialga G,
Garchomp 4 or the other usu al "toolbox" SP Pokemon.
The basic form of
Blaziken FB, like
Infernape 4, isn't exactly the greatest opener, but overall isprobably more useful on turn one than the fiery chimp. While it only claims 80 HP to Ape's 90,
Blaziken FB comes complete with a one-Energy attack that can mess with your opponent's board right off the bat. Luring Flame acts similarly to
Froslass GL's Sleep Inducer in that you can drag up a benched Pokemon and inflict a status condition on it - only
Blaziken does it one better. While
Froslass GL has to worry about the sleep flip after it attacks,
Blaziken FB burns the new active Pokemon, effectively nullifying any Poke-Powers it could use! This is a great attack to shut down
Claydol - it's cheap, disruptive and can also inflict some damage. The biggest downside to this attack is obviously that it costs a Fire and not a Colorless - so if you're set on using the big bird, you've got to pack enough Fire or
SP Energy for him to be useful on turn one.
Blaziken FB's second attack, Vapor Kick, can be an efficient way to smack down 60 damage on the defending Pokemon. For just a Fire and a Colorless (or again, an Energy Gain) you can efficiently set up two-hit KOs if they've got Water-types on the board. This is the beginning of
Blaziken's biggest weakness - he's going to be easy to one-hit KO in several scenarios. For this attack to be worth using, your opponent has to lay
Blaziken's weakness, meaning you're probably going to be in for trouble soon. This attack is probably less useful than
Infernape 4's High Jump Kick, simply because your opponent has the option to play around this attack. Even if they run Water-types in their deck, they can choose not to play them, negating the 30 bonus damage you'd be dealing with Vapor Kick.
It's no surprise that
Blaziken FB is double-weak to Water, and the one retreat cost has it neck-and-neck with
Infernape 4 in a foot-race.
As with Ape, the furor of this feisty fire-type lies in the Lv. X. Another 110HP Basic Pokemon,
Blaziken FB Lv. X can catch opponents off-guard with huge, cheap damage. Worth noting, however, is the Poke-Body this card carries, Burning Spirit. This is an ability you could build an entire deck around - the 40 damage bonus gained from attacking burned Pokemon is nothing to scoff at. Remember Luring Flame? It just got that much better. Basically, if you drag up a benched Pokemon with that attack, then follow it up with a Vapor Kick , you can hit for 70 for just a lone
Fire Energy and an Energy Gain - and that's not even counting the burn flips your opponent is going to have to fight through!
One of the greatest things about this Poke-Body is that
Blaziken FB Lv. X doesn't have to be active for it to work. In fact,
Blaziken FB doesn't even have to be attacking. An obvious strategy for instant firepower is pairing this Lv. X with the hot-tempered
Magmortar from Supreme Victors. His Poke-Power, Evolutionary Flame, instantly burns and confuses the Defending Pokemon when you put it into play - that means that 40 bonus damage comes out of nowhere! Plus they've got those two statuses to contend with, which is great news if your opponent flips tails on a regular basis. What stops this simple strategy from being overpowered is the numerous power-blocking cards in the format. If your opponent drops a Power Spray when you Evolutionary Flame, you waste a
Magmortar drop. You'll also run into the same problems with
Mesprit's Psychic Bind and
Gardevoir's Psychic Lock.
So if
Blaziken FB is so easy to play around, why bother?
The answer is in
Blaziken FB Lv. X's attack - Jet Shoot. There aren't many cards that can deal 80 damage for a lone energy, and the ones that can (Kingdra,
Beedrill) have been hugely successful. The difference between Blaze and that lot is that they're big, beefy Stage 2s - Blaze, however, is an incredibly ripped Basic Pokemon. There is a drawback, unfortunately - and it's a pretty big drawback, too. The turn after you attack with Jet Shoot,
Blaziken FB Lv. X is in for an extra 40 damage. That means your opponent is only going to have to respond with 70 damage to fry this chicken.
Blaziken FB should be played with the mentality that it's going to die as soon as you unload with Jet Shoot. A smart player will have a response to knock it out after the 80 damage eruption (it's particularly vulnerable to other
Blazikens,
Luxray G and
Toxicroak G promo), and to expect Blaze to st ick around for long would be unrealistic. The 40 damage drawback can be played to your advantage though - you're practically taunting your opponent into taking this prize, or else they suffer through another Jet Shoot the next turn. This could be a crafty technique to cull them into taking a prize - perhaps you've got your own
Toxicroak G promo to respond with for a one-hit knockout?
The rest of
Blaziken FB Lv. X's stats are typical - but also part of what sets it apart from Ape. While they're both double weak to Water, Blaze has a one-Energy retreat cost - Ape's is free. This is important to consider when making your selection. If you're using Blaze primarily for his Poke-Body, be prepared to spend an Energy,
Switch or
Warp Point to get him out of the active slot. If you plan on attacking with Jet Shoot that turn, however, the retreat cost doesn't much matter.
Verdict: Draw
You'd think that there would be a clear-cut winner in this fight, but it's definitely a Split-Decision. Both cards have their own strengths and weaknesses, but neither is truly better than the other. It depends on the situation, it depends on the deck, it depends on the player. A lot of it comes down to personal preference - your playstyle will dictate which you find to be the better card.
Infernape 4 is likely the safer option; packing a cheap spread attack, free retreat as a Lv. X and an attack you might be able to pull off consecutively, Ape's definitely got a lot of things going for it. However, it is an Energy hog, and it's certainly a less-splashable card. You won't be able to fit him into too many decks without devoting a lot of resources to him.
Blaziken FB caters to the player that likes to hit hard and hit fast - reckless damage dealing for incredibly cheap. However, while Jet Shoot is the main reason you're going to run this bird, Luring Flame should also play a role in your decision-making. It's a great attack to disrupt your opponent, and can cause them to burn precious Warps or
Switches that could win you the game when the clock is running out.
Overall, it's great that players have two world-class basic Fire-types to pick from in this format. Fossil
Magmar would be proud.
-Absolution
Card Info/Spoilers
