Hey guys! It’s Dane here, and I figured that it was time to be a Drifblim and “Drift Away” from the CoTD’s for a while (bad pun :P). But don’t worry; this isn’t a -7 rated rogue deck analysis. This is an article about the cards that have finally made an impact on our format after being horrible in years past (or vice versa).
Strengthened Cards
The first card I would like to talk about is Energy Search. This card has been in pretty much every format since the beginning of the Pokemon TCG, yet it was only (sometimes) used early on. In the HS-On format, there are no TSS cards that can search your deck for energy.
For example, there’s no more Cyrus’s Conspiracy which has been the Energy-Go-To guy. And he even helped and got you a Supporter and a TGI, as well. In the new format, Girafarig could possibly help, but that would take up your attack for the turn.
There’s also Unown DARK, but he’d only help in Darkness decks. In this format, we don’t have Double Rainbow Energy, Claydol, Uxie, or Cyrus’s Conspiracy. So if you want energy quickly, you’d now run Energy Search; it is definitely a viable card that helps a lot.
Another card that’s making a HUGE comeback is Switch. It was used in the early days, but then it was forgotten. It was replaced by cards such as Warp Point, Warp Energy, and (as in the 2007-2008 format) Gardevoir LV.X‘s “Teleportation” Poke-Power.
First off, many powerful Pokemon in the past couple formats had a one (or even free) retreat cost, so it wasn’t really needed in the first place. Then Vileplume and Spiritomb entered the format and deleted the use of Switch once and for all. But in the new format, almost all good attackers (Reshiram, Zekrom, Donphan Prime, Machamp Prime, Emboar, etc.) have high retreat costs, so Switch is needed. Good thing Spiritomb’s getting rotated, huh?
The next card is Cleffa. Originally released in Neo Genesis, Cleffa has an amazing attack called “Eeeek”, which tells you to shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 6 cards (the original text said 7).
Though it originally needed an energy to attack, HeartGold & SoulSilver gave it a zero-energy cost, which is pretty sweet. The idea is to use all the cards that you need, and then get rid of the useless cards replace it with a brand-new hand.
With the Black & White rules, it makes it even stronger, as your can burn through all your Trainers, then refresh. It was also given a body called “Sweet Sleeping Face”; as long as this Pokemon is asleep, prevent all damage from attacks done to it.
Since they edited the attack to put it to sleep, this works out perfectly. It wasn’t used last season because it only has 30 HP. But in the new format, very few Pokemon can do 30 damage on the first turn. But even if they can, they might not even be able to damage Cleffa at all because of his Poke-Body.
Yet another card is Dual Ball. Dual Ball was popular when it first came out in Expedition, and even more so in Delta Species. It was in almost every Top 4 Deck at Worlds 2006. When it got released in Unleashed, however, people didn’t use it, because they had the much more reliable Pokemon Collector to grab their Basics.
If they really wanted to grab their Basics with a Trainer, they could use Great Ball (when it still searched for a single Basic, not with the Master Ball eratta). It’s used in Sabledonk, but that doesn’t really count (for Spring BR use only).
But in the HS-On format, it’s used much more as we don’t have the easiest search engine as we did before (no Bebe’s Search, no Luxury Ball, no Claydol, no Uxie, etc.), and Supporters are needed to get the harder-to-get cards, such as Evolutions.
The final strengthened card is none other than Professor Elm’s Training Method. It was very popular when it first came out because during that format, it was pretty hard to get your evolutions out.
But when it was re-released in HeartGold & SoulSilver, no one used it because they had Bebe’s Search, which could search for any Pokemon, Luxury Ball, which could also search for any Pokemon, and Pokemon Communication, which was used because it was a Trainer so you don’t have to waste your Supporter for the turn (plus it could also get any Pokemon).
However with the rotating of Bebe’s Search and Luxury Ball, Evolutions are much harder to get out, hence the new found use of Professor Elm.
Weakened Cards
Pokemon Collector last format was used to grab two Basics and a Uxie. This way you can, for example, get your Luxray GL, and Garchomp C, and then be able to draw into other important cards with Uxie’s “Set Up”.
Now that Uxie is gone, you can get 3 important Basics that you need, but you’re not going to be able to draw into other important cards. I’m not saying that Pokemon Collector is now suddenly horrible, but it’s power is definitely weakened.
Double Colorless Energy (DCE) was the all-star of many decks last format (LuxChomp, DialgaChomp, Sablelock, [Insert Pokemon Name Here]Chomp, etc.). But in the new format, there’s not many good Pokemon that need DCE. Sure, there’s Bouffalant, but you’re not gonna focus a deck around him, right?
DCE could be added there as a tech, but only one or two, not a full set. The only possible deck that will always use in is Cinccino, but that’s (from what I’ve heard) only a Tier Two deck. All in all, DCE is still useable, but definitely not in the Best-Card-In-Format status anymore (Emboar took that spot up :P).
Well, well. Looks like Pokemon Company International crashed the set up party by changing the text of one of the most powerful set-up cards in the format: Rare Candy. Rare Candy was the all-star of many decks from the moment it was released until the Black & White rules set in.
It used to be that you can drop a basic, use Rare Candy, and then have a Stage 2 right away. But nooo, they just had to make it that you have to wait a turn to use Rare Candy. Oh hooray.
So those are some strengthened (and weakened) cards that I thought should deserve some attention. If you think of any others, please comment below and I’ll ask Adam to edit them in for me. :) Thanks for reading, and I’ll see ya next time. Bye!
Check out my website at http://dcdane.webs.com/ !!!
