Pokedex Entry: Magnezone

Pokedex: Magnezone

The Magnezone line is a newer addition, but it’s quickly become one of my favorites. It seems to do a bit of everything from drawing cards, to accelerating your Energy and even hitting hard. It’s all about utility.

Magnezone Prime is easily one of the main reasons to think about drafting this line. Its Power is an easy way to refresh your hand without even using a Supporter. It combos well with things like Judge or various discard outlets and can be used immediately which makes up for being a Stage 2. I have no problems using my Luxury Ball and Rare Candy when I just get to fill up my hand right away.

Though Lost Burn isn’t an attack you’ll be using regularly, it’s a great way to nab an important KO in a pinch. Worth noting is the fact that Magnezone says you can remove Energy attached to ANY of your Pokemon, making it possible to use Lost Burn a few times without having to power up Magnezone each time.

Magnezone PLS 46 is another combo piece for a Trainer heavy list. Dual Brains is amazing in conjunction with tutors like Oracle or Skyla, letting you search up important cards for big plays. Just make sure to draft an extra Supporter or two when playing it to make sure you can take full advantage of its Ability. 

Magnezone PLS 47 and SF 6 are lumped together because they both serve the purpose of ramping up your attackers. They both require Energy to be in your discard, so picking up something like Felicity’s Drawing or Professor Oak should be a priority. If you don’t have another Pokemon you feel like setting up, then no worries, as both make decent attackers on their own; SF 46 even has the option of bypassing its high retreat cost with Gyro Ball. Ursaring Prime is one of my favorite targets for Super Connectivity, since it turns on Berserk while making it easy to hit those 3 and 4 Energy costs.

While most Basic and Stage 1 evolutions have very little impact on the game, Magnemite and Magneton both have a few tricks that make them worth your while. Holon’s Magnemite and Magneton both can serve as Energy when needed, with Magneton even serving as a Double Rainbow Energy (Without the damage drawback!). Magneton PK 16’s Magnetic Field is an incredibly useful Power that lets you grab discarded Energy while netting you a card each time. Several of the Magnemite/ton can Paralyze as well, which always helps to stall for time while you dig for a Magnezone.

All in all, the Magnezone family might not always be the star of your deck, but it’s an amazing support chain that can help push you ahead and keep you there when played correctly.

Here’s a sample draft deck that makes use of Magnezone’s sweet draw power to play out an abundance of cheap threats:

Pokemon (21)

Jumpluff DRX 3
Jumpluff HS 6
Jumpluff N3 9
Jumpluff RR 11
Skiploom SW 65
Skiploom AQ 60
Skiploom N1 49
Hoppip N1 61
Hoppip EX 112
Hoppip RR 57
Hoppip HS 67

Magnezone TM 96
Magnezone PLS 46
Magneton SF 42
Magnemite DS 74
Magnemite SK 76
Magnemite SF 67

Genesect PLB 10
Virizion NVI 13
Virizion EPO 17
Togekiss C SV 86

Trainers (11)
Junk Finder
Rare Candy
Evosoda

Bianca
Celio’s Network
Cheren
Judge
Oracle
Pokemon Fan Club
Scott

Broken Time Space

Energy (17)
Cyclone Energy
Holon’s Magneton DS 22
5 Electric Energy
10 Grass Energy

Computer Search: There’s a list!

Jumping right into it, here’s a breakdown of the Pokecube and some info as well:

Cube Information

• Total Cards: 366
• Players Supported: 6
• Format: Draft (4 packs of 12, 1 pack of 13*), Sealed, Rotisserie
• Draft Decks: 50 Cards, 5 Prizes, Sealed Decks: 40 Cards, 4 Prizes
• Rules: Singleton, No ex/EX Pokemon, No ACE SPEC Trainers

So that’s everything in a nutshell.  The PC is based around Travvy the Renewer’s idea of drafting Pokemon lines (i.e. I’m going to draft Blastoise) and building decks from that.  Each Energy type has 1-2 main lines as well as a set of Basics and Eeveelutions to help fill out decks and synergize with specific archtypes.  The rest of the Cube is filled with powerful Trainers spanning from Base Set to XY and will continue to update as sets are released.

4/12, 1/13

The draft style is made with the intention of drafting the entire Cube among 6 players, although you can always draft with less.  I keep the 6 most recently added Trainers in ‘flex slots’ and seed 1 of them into the last pack for each player.  You don’t need to do this, of course, but I find it useful in quickly judging how well newer cards are doing.  For Sealed format, simply shuffle up the Cube and deal 90 cards to each player.

50/5, 40/4

Normal Pokemon games are played with 60 cards and decks and 6 prizes, however, this proves to be difficult to replicate in limited play.  These numbers currently hit the sweet spot for creating consistently strong decks while managing to end games before decking (Losing due to not being able to draw a card) occurs.

Singleton

A Cube wouldn’t be very interesting if all you did was throw in multiples copies of all of the most powerful cards.  Instead, we add in no more than one of each which makes deck building and discovering synergy that much more fun.  Since Pokemon require other specific cards to evolve, this is solved by adding in several different copies of each Pokemon (Like 6 different Pikachu).  The caveat to this is that reprint under different names (Gust of Wind/Pokemon Catcher) are allowed because they’re technically different cards.  Plus, they’re usually obscenely good and multiple decks will want to draft them.

No ex/EX or ACE SPEC

This is one of those rules that’s up the air right now.  The idea is that ex/EX Pokemon become very centralizing, making decks that manage to open them in drafts much stronger than those that don’t.  Pokemon is already an extremely luck based game and I’m not looking to further that.  Also, in games where you only have 5 or 4 prizes, knocking out an ex/EX can end a game prematurely.

ACE SPEC cards are a bit different in that they create restrictions I don’t necessarily enjoy.  People Cube because they want to be able to play all of the best cards and not being able to play one card because you have another in your deck is counter-intuitive to that.

Cube List

Right now you can check out a text version of the list here.  Feel free to comment on what you like or dislike, I’m always up for new ideas.  My next goal will be to set up a visual spoiler since pictures are way more fun to look at than words.  For now, enjoy and happy Cubing!

Professor’s Letter: An Introduction

If you’re reading this, then I’m going to guess that you’re either a fan of Pokemon, Cubing or card games in general. (If not, then welcome! Enjoy your stay.)  This blog is an effort to provide information about my playgroup’s Pokemon TCG Cube that I manage.  I know there’s a lot of strange words in that sentence, so some introductions are in order.

What’s a Cube?

A Cube is the best format you could imagine for playing your favorite TCGs.  Imagine if you threw all of your favorite cards from a game (Like Magic or Pokemon) into a box.  That’s kind of what a Cube is: A self-built set or collection of cards that you use to create decks with.

Why Pokemon?

While I do already have a MTG Cube built (You can view it here!), I’m also a big fan of Pokemon.  I play VGC competitively and have even messed around in TCG tournaments a few times.  The thing is, I love having every card at my disposal, so rotating formats just aren’t for me.  I want to use all of my favorites and see how powerful older cards synergize with newer puzzle pieces.  This Cube is an outlet for that.

What’s next?

If you’ve gotten this far, then I’m sure you want to see the list!  It’s currently updated through X&Y and has undergone quite a few changes.  I check new sets regularly for updates and occasionally dig through forgotten sets for old gems.  As of now, an older version of the list is compiled here in a Google Doc.  Over the next week or so, I’ll be updating the list to its current form as well as adding a visual spoiler for ease of access.  Following that will be blogs about specific Pokemon lines or deck archtypes and anything else that I may feel like writing about. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you all soon!