“Pokémon Collector” is a card that has been in the format for some time now. We could take deeper look in the card, but in the end it’s as meaningless as it seems to be; that’s because we all know what it does, just search for three basic Pokémon from your deck. It’s sounds simple and so it is. But, if we would think more, what in the world could those three basic Pokémon’s be? Maybe a Pikachu, Pikachu and one more Pikachu. Or maybe we could get one Pikachu and two more interesting cards. So it does sound good, but there is always “Roseanne’s Research” and “Call Energy” to do the basic searching. So why would you play “Pokémon Collector” instead of those two? – you ask.
The keyword for this one is numbers. For using “Roseanne’s Research” as Supporter or “Call Energy” as attack’s effect you can get two basic Pokémon. So it would seem that “Collector” would be a lot better than “Roseanne’s Research” because you can get three basics instead of two. But there is always the but, with the “Roseanne’s Research” you can also search for basic Energy or two. “Call Energy” effect would just mean to throw one attacking turn away to search some Pokémon into your bench. This could be good or this could be bad, either way it’s a fact that there is good attacks from basics also.
For example you start with “Spiritomb” AR and “Baltoy” with a “Pokémon Collector” in your hand. Would you be happier if that “Pokémon Collector” would be a “Call Energy” instead? Mostly, you wouldn’t be, but if you would be discarding the “Call Energy” later for retreating then it would be something. However, for retreating there’s always the Unown Q, so you would want to attach Energy (one-per-turn) to your actual attacker. So there’s one reason for playing “Pokémon Collector”, you can search for Unown Q which is a little like Energy (and still two more basic Pokémon‘s).
“I want to take this one, and maybe this one too and this would also be nice, but I can’t with this “Roseanne’s Research”. I wish that I would have the “Pokémon Collector” right now.” Well, that kind of feeling would be really something not to fish for. So we can just take “Roseanne’s Research” out for “Pokémon Collectors”. Of course you really can’t do that if you’re running only few basic Energy cards, but then again you can if you just play “Cyrus’s Conspiracy” for nice example. So in the end there’s no space for the “Pokémon Collectors”, but what an awesome feeling it would be to get great start always. We just throw this and that out and we have 4-4x “Pokémon Collector” and “Roseanne’s Research”.
Seriously speaking, wouldn’t it be fun to take “Baltoy”, “Pikachu” and “Spiritomb” same time with just only using one Supporter. And if you would have problems with drawing, you could just get “Uxie” LA to do the drawing job and you could still take the “Baltoy” if you would want to. Another great cards to get with “Pokémon Collector” are: “Unown G” GE, TeCh-lines basic form, “Mesprit” LA or just the main attacker’s basic form so you could hit fast.
“Pokémon Collector” does also good job with a card called “Pokémon Communication”. All of you readers get the idea, don’t you? Get some foolish basic Pokémon from your deck just to throw it away as soon as it gets to your hand. It does good job with SP Pokémon’s favourite (not really) “Power Spray” also. You can easily get your SP Pokémon out and in the same time, a card like “Uxie” to draw after all those SP Radars and stuff.
If you just have space in your deck, give it a try. It can be surprising good when a bad start comes in the way or you just want to have more basics. It can also actually make some spaces for your deck being able to search so much stuff that you need. Thanks for reading and remember to collect some Pokémon to be a “Pokémon Collector”!
- Henrik Laihanen
