Land's Judgment
• "Lands visited by Landorus grant such bountiful crops that it has been hailed as 'The Guardian of the Fields.' From the forces of lightning and wind, it creates energy to give nutrients to the soil and make the land abundant." ~ Pokémon B&W
If you had told me back in 2012, as BW: Boundaries Crossed was being released, that Landorus-EX was going to be one of the most splashable non-Colorless attacking cards in the game, I wouldn't have believed you. But that was the case. Landorus found its way into an insane amount of decks, simply because of its first attack, Hammerhead.
30 to the Active and 30 to the bench was INSANE at the time. Of course it set up for reachable 1HKOs later in the game, but the snipe potential was potent. With Pokémon in the format like Tynamo
, Spritzee
, Munna
, Pikachu
, & Exeggcute
, hardly any deck was safe from a Turn 1 or Turn 2 snipe KO.
Pair Landorus-EX with Strong Energy
, Muscle Band
and even the infamous Hypnotoxic Laser
+ Virbank City Gym
combo and oooohhhhh boy were you cooking!
Landorus-EX wasn't only just splashable in random decks like Fairy Box, Flareon, and Donphan however, it was its own deck in and of itself throughout its legality. Most notably its most famous iteration in "Landy Bats", Landorus-EX paired with a Crobat line with the end-goal of lethal, game-sweeping damage spread. Check out this list:
Source: Rowan Stavenow - 1st Place Worlds (Jr) 2015
View other decks from the 2015 Worlds format here
Rowan Stavenow's 2015 World Championship winning list is a widely-beloved deck that many hold dear to their hearts to this day. No other damage-spreading deck was nearly as consistent as this powerful deck. The deck could quickly deal 90 damage to an active EX + 30 to the bench, followed by placing damage counters on the bench with Golbats before attacking again for another 90 for a 2-prize KO & KOing something on the bench with Hammerhead. In just two turns, the deck often found itself having taken three prizes incredibly quickly!
The Crobat line paired well with Hawlucha and Lucario-EX as well. Given that Landorus-EX's second attack was too hard to build up sometimes, Hawlucha and Lucario-EX could both do big damage for fewer Energy. And again, what makes their damage output bigger that what you may think at first glance is the addition of Strong Energy, Muscle Band, and Fighting Stadium. But paired with a couple of Surpise Bites and Sneaky Bites, the deck essentially takes 1HKOs all over the place.
Another famous deck Landorus took a lead role in the year prior was Ross Cawthon's Top 16 Worlds list, "Raichu Landorus". Its key role in this deck was as a setup attacker, spreading 30s across the board so Raichu could sweep anything in its way.
Landorus-EX was an awesome and powerful card. I personally loved the BW era and play Landy Bats quite often when playing BW retro formats. Do you think an attacker like Landorus-EX would be a healthy card for the game today? Would it be out-powered? Would be interesting to think about.
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