#talonflame break

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Pokemon Card of the Day #2306: Talonflame BREAK (Steam Siege)

Talonflame BREAK was meant to be an upgrade from the Talonflame in the same set. The type choice was very strange, as the BREAK here was Fire-type but the Talonflame to be used below it was Colorless. This meant that the BREAK was far harder to fit into a deck than the base form, which was not only Colorless but could be put into play as your Active Pokemon on set-up. Using the BREAK meant having specific cards in your deck as well... though being connected to something that was already good was still a big plus.

170 HP was nice, though you’d want the high bulk on a BREAK that evolved from a Stage 2. The first Talonflame you got out would hopefully be on the first turn without needing to evolve, though if you wanted to make use of the BREAK you’d probably want to at least have a copy of Fletchling to have a chance to use one later on. This was not standard, really, but Talonflame BREAK played differently. The other stats, as usual, came from the other Talonflame. The Lightning Weakness was different from other Fire-types, though you did have to watch out for Manectric-EX, Night March, and Vikavolt due to that. A Fighting Resistance would always be good to see if up against Gallade, Zygarde, Buzzwole, or Lycanroc-GX decks. Being able to retreat for free was always great as well.

Flare Blitz hit incredibly hard for just 2 Fire Energy, even if it did require discarding all of the Fire Energy attached to Talonflame BREAK for use. 150 was quite strong in almost any context, falling just short of taking out the standard Pokemon-EX. If you were playing in anything after the XY-On format, you’d want to have Choice Band for that sort of thing. XY-On lacked that option, and  Talonflame BREAK did tend to fall just short of those sorts of numbers. Still, 150 was going to apply a lot of pressure as any minor form of chip damage would send that over the line, though you absolutely needed Fire Energy in a deck to use Flare Blitz and that limited its use to decks running the type.

Talonflame BREAK was weird. That strong attack looked so nice. The problem here was that it didn’t mesh with the other Talonflame’s role at all. The base Talonflame wanted to get its first copy into play at the start, and while you were running 4 to maximize the odds of this, the other three were just fodder and you didn’t want to raise the risk of having to start with something else by running Fletchling. The base was also Colorless and used as a starter to fetch specific cards you needed from your deck, useful for other Stage 2 Pokemon but not mixing that well with Fire decks in particular. That Talonflame was going to mostly be used with Greninja, and Fire didn’t fit with that deck. Talonflame BREAK was more like your typical Stage 2 BREAK that needed a thick line of Pokemon to get into play, and having something like Volcanion to help with Energy was also very important. In that role, you’d probably want to just use Volcanion-EX itself with other Fire-type Pokemon-EX and GX. With Talonflame and Talonflame BREAK fitting into very different decks, Talonflame BREAK didn’t have a real chance to break through.

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