Pokemon Card of the Day #1757: Tornadus EX (Plasma Freeze)
It’s hard to believe that Tornadus could get a second EX in such a short period of time, but Plasma Freeze did indeed provide that. The first one was a nice attacker that took Colorless Energy, letting it fit into decks of any type. This one did the same, but it also needed a specific Energy to have any chance of being powerful. Yes, this was as awkward as it sounds, though all that Plasma support was helpful.
180 HP was a rather nice number, being pretty common for a Pokemon EX but at the higher end of that range. There was that Lightning Weakness to consider, which could be annoying against Thundurus EX, Raichu, Manectric EX, and even the odd moment where Joltik tried to attack in a Night March deck. The Fighting Resistance, while small, could be nice at a time with Landorus EX, Lucario EX, and Medicham providing that type with fast, only moderately strong hits. 2 Energy was around the average when it came to Retreat Costs. If Switch or something similar could fit in your deck, it was nice, but not 100% necessary.
Windfall only required a Colorless Energy and had you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 6 cards. Hand refreshment was nice. It could be okay early in a game in some spots, but you probably didn’t want to subject a Pokemon EX to a big attack just for that if you could help it.
Jet Blast was really disappointing. You needed 4 Colorless Energy just to use it and the damage was iffy. The base was an awful 60 damage, with 30 added for each Plasma Energy on Tornadus EX. The problem here was that you only had 4 Plasma Energy in your entire deck and you needed multiple on just Tornadus EX to make this attack worth your time. It was nearly impossible to chain together Tornadus EX due to this, and while Colress Machine was enough to help the first one get going, it wasn’t going to help with that problem.
This Tornadus EX was much worse than the original. It did have the potential to deal more damage, but it was locked behind Plasma Energy and required more work than it was worth. This was not a time where it was hard to find big attacks that had the right support to work. Putting effort behind Tornadus EX with all of the other options wasn’t a great choice.












