Zekrom-EX (Next Destinies NDE 51/97) – Card of the Day

Hello SixPrizers, Stephan here again with a CotD. This was a request from someone on the forums, so I hope you enjoy it guy (or girl) from the forums. Today’s CotD is Zekrom-EX. I will review his stats, artwork and playability, and then list some decks that he should be played in. So, without further rambling, let’s go to it.

HP

pokegym.net

Zekrom-EX is a beast when it comes to HP. 180 is crazy. His biggest downfall: the EX rule. Basically, you only have to do 90 damage per prize, or 110 with Eviolite, if you are trying to 2-shot it, which most Pokémon (with the exception of Magnezone Prime and Mewtwo-EX) have to do. Still, a 180 HP Basic is nothing to scoff at.

Attacks

Glinting Claw, for one Lightning and two Colorless, does 50 plus 30 more with a coin flip of heads. Not too great, but not terrible. His second attack is where he is strong (terrible pun). Strong Volt, for two Lightning and two Colorless, does 150 damage and you have to discard two Energy attached to him. 150 1HKOs a lot of popular Pokémon, including: Magnezone Prime, Reshiram BW, Zekrom BW, Gothitelle, Typhlosion Prime, Emboar BW, Chandelure, and Donphan Prime with a PlusPower.

Discarding Energy is helpful against Mewtwo-EX, and you can easily get them back with Eelektrik’s Dynamotor if you can get him back to the bench.

Weakness, Resistance and Retreat Cost

Zekrom-EX’s weakness to Fighting could be a problem if your meta is full of Donphan Prime. If you expect to see tons of Donphan at States and are still daring enough to play Zekrom-EX, just add a PlusPower or two to your deck, as he 1HKOs it with a PlusPower. No resistance is OK; if he had a resistance, it would be Metal, and therefore irrelevant.

His Retreat Cost of three is huge, but you could tech in a Skyarrow Bridge to reduce his Retreat to two, and then use DCE to retreat him if you find him stuck in the Active Spot too often, or, better yet, just play Switch.

Playability

pokemon-paradijs.com

Zekrom-EX is a very playable card in the current meta. It 1HKOs a lot of popular stuff, has an almost-irrelevant weakness and easily fits into some already-popular decks. I give it a 8/10 for the reasons listed above. I love this card; not enough to show bias toward it, but I love it. It is really good with Eelektrik, and you can’t ask for much more.

Artwork

I love the artwork on this card. He looks like he is about to tear something apart. If I saw him in the sky, I would probably pass out from fear. The artwork is amazing on both the regular and Full Art, but I like the full art a lot. You really have to hold the card in your hand to know this, a picture doesn’t do it any justice. I give the Full Art a 9/10 and the regular a 8/10.

What decks does it belong in?

Eelzone

It is a great attacker that has great synergy with Eelektrik and Magnezone. He can take prizes without having to Lost Burn Energy, which helps you to have enough Energy to Lost Burn later in the game. A great card in the deck, and should find one or two slots in every Eelzone.

Zekrom and Eels

Zekrom-EX is great in this deck because the deck also runs Eelektrik and allows you to 1HKO things like Chandelure NVI, which his little brother couldn’t. It is great in the deck, and really gives it a boost. It should find one or two slots in every Zek/Eels.

How do you counter Zekrom-EX?

Terrakion NVI

pokemon-paradijs.comTerrakion is certainly an interesting counter. It can 1HKO a Zekrom-EX for only two energy, assuming the Zekrom has no Eviolite attached to it. But honestly, it would probably only work in decks that are already playing Prism Energy, like 6C and CaKE.

2HKOing it

2HKOing Zekrom-EX is probably your best bet, because it does give up 2 Prize cards, so the trade should be in your favor. You attack Zekrom-EX. They KO you with Zekrom-EX and take a prize. You attack Zekrom-EX again, KOing it. You take 2 Prizes. I have also found that anything that can take a hit from it and not get KO’d tend to give it trouble.

Conclusion

The creators of Pokémon must really like the Electric type because they just made it even stronger. Zekrom-EX should have a huge presence in the meta, and every deck should have a way to beat it. I am not trying to overhype the card; just telling you what to expect. I may be wrong, it could just be another Gengar Prime, but only time will tell. Thank you for reading, and happy testing!

Reader Interactions

6 replies

  1. theo Seeds

    ZEKROM EX!

    I think that you covered the points you did cover well, but I wanted to see more talk about the Zekrom EX/Eelektrik/Mewtwo EX Deck, the one that did well at the ECC. I didn’t need you to go too in-depth about it but it could have been mentioned.

    • Stephan Blake  → theo

      I didn’t know about that deck when I was writing this, it was submitted 2 days ago, and I just got a chance to look at the ECC results yesterday.

      • theo Seeds  → Stephan

        Oh whoops, my bad. I have been playing with the deck since before the ECC, but I guess nobody has been otherwise.

        • Stephan Blake  → theo

          Well, I think it is a quite obvious combo, and I really like it. I did write another article, and I am 99% sure that I mentioned it, it just needs to be approved.

  2. Joe Lewis

    Nice article, the only thing that irks me is when you said it has an almost irrelevant weakness. Terrakion is being teched into a lot of decks because of the popularity of lightning.
    +1 anyway

    • Stephan Blake  → Joe

      I didn’t know about Terrakion being a popular tech until I looked at the ECC results a day after writing this.

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