Beartic

Deck Workshop: Bear Hug: Beartic, Ursaring, and Vileplume

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs and his sidekick Pedro here with a deck analysis for you.

Before we get to the article, Pedro, I have some news for you.

Some news.  Hmmmm…… is it good news, like…….are you quitting writing?

No I’m not quitting, but it is good news.   The man, Ed, and I call him the man not because he is especially masculine but because he is the authority figure of which he can rebel against, has told us that we can start using more adult humor.

So we are no longer bound  by the rules of the PG rating?

Exactly.

So we can say naughty things……… like dry hump?

Well yes i suppose so.

Dry hump, dry hump.

Well, Pedro.  Just because we can say dry hump, does not mean we should just say it.  It should make sense, you know so it’s comedy.

Comedy, when did we start that?

Well Pedro-

Urethra.

Hey you interrupted me with another dirty word that doesn’t even make sense.  In fact Urethra isn’t even a dirty word, its a part of the human anatomy.

Like coccyx? 

Coccyx is not a dirty word, it’s another word for your tail bone.  Though it is fun to say.  Well this conversation is going no where,  lets just go on to the article.

Uranus

Again, not a dirty word, just a planet, try again.  Wait, don’t try again, just let me talk about the article.

The deck we will be talking about today features Beartic.  While I have not used this deck very much, I thought I should talk about it because everybody is talking about Beartic, but nobody is talking about a list.

So you thought you would screw people up by talking about your stupid version of the deck?

Well I guess you could say it that way.  As I was trying to say, I will talk about the deck and then hopefully people will talk about their own Beartic decks in the comment box at the end of the article.  Hopefully at the end we can get to a Beartic list that is kind of playable.  But, before we get there, lets talk about Beartic and how my Bear Hug deck works.

The Bears

There are two bears in this deck, one of these is Beartic from Emerging Powers.  Let’s talk a little about the basic stats of Beartic.  It is a 130 HP stage 1 Water (Ice) Pokemon.  It has a 3 retreat cost and a weakness to metal.  It has two attacks.  The first attack, “Sheer Cold” is the one that everyone is talking about.  It lets you do 50 damage for WCC, and prevents the defending Pokemon from attacking next turn.  It’s second attack, “Icy Wind” costs WWCC and does 80 damage.

As you can tell, the second attack is nice, but nothing to exciting.  The first attack is what all the fuss is about.  The ability to hit for 50 damage and prevent the defending Pokemon from attacking next turn is great.  The problem is that it is not impossible to switch your active Pokemon with a benched one.  You can just retreat, or you can use a card like Switch. 

If you use Vileplume, you will be able to stop the use of Switch, meaning the only way they can escape from a “Sheer Cold” lock would be to get knocked out or to retreat.  Now there are some good free retreaters like the prime versions of Mew and Yanmega.  But, there are also Pokemon like Donphan Prime that have high retreat cost.  So Beartic will stop a lot of the Pokemon in the format but it will not stop all, so what can we do if we run into Yanmega?

I don’t care, but I have a feeling you are going to tell us.  Also, can I add just one more thing…. Dry Hump.

Just ignore him, he got a little excited when he learned that he can say dirty words.

I was going to say that a good pair for Beartic would be another Bear Pokemon, Ursraing Prime.  It can hit for 120 damage, and Teddiursa can provide an Item Lock until Vileplume gets setup.  Although there is an Item Lock in this evolution line, the main reason to use this Pokemon is because Ursaring Prime can do some damage.

Ursaring has very meager stats, compared to that of Beartic.  He only has 110 HP, and has a fighting weakness.  What is good about Ursaring, however, is that he has the “Berserk” Poke-Body.  It lets him do 60 more damage on each of his attacks if he has a damage counter on him.  His first attack, “Hammer Arm”, does a base damage of 30 damage for CCC, and lets you mill one card from your opponent’s deck.  It’s second attack, “Megaton Lariat,” does 60 damage for CCCC.

I also mentioned that Teddiursa wasn’t a terrible Pokemon.  He does only have 50 HP, but in this format that is not really that donkable.  The good thing about Teddiursa is that it has the “Fake Tears” attack.  This attack lets you flip a coin, and if heads  you can prevent your opponent from using items next turn and prevent 30 damage from any damage done to Teddirua next turn.

These Pokemon work together by each using Double Colorless Energy.  They also work well in regards to weaknesses.  Ursaring is weak to Donphan Prime, but Donphan Prime is weak to Beartic.  So even though these Pokemon may seem a little clunky, they do have some basic things in common.  If we ever do get this deck in working order, I am not sure that we will want to keep Ursaring, but it seems like a good idea to start with him.

How to Set it Up.

This deck is a little bit clunky right now, and does not have a typical setup, but the number 1 thing you should think about when setting up this deck is to lock trainers.  Make sure to have an active Teddiursa (and hope you flip heads) and at least 2 Oddishes on the bench with a way to get a Vileplume in a turn or two.  Next you can think about a main attacker.  You will probably want to start with Beartic.  This means getting  a water energy and a DCE on Beartic.  The hardest thing is consistently finding a DCE.  You might want to play Twins in your deck to setup faster after you lose a Teddiursa.

The List.

As mentioned before this list is very early in testing. 

Pokemon-20

  • 3-Beartic #30 EP
  • 3-Cubchoo #28 EP
  • 4-Teddiursa Cl
  • 3-Ursaring Prime
  • 1-Cleffa
  • 3-Oddish
  • 1-Gloom
  • 2-Vileplume

Trainers-26

  • 4-Juniper
  • 4-Pokemon Collector
  • 3-Elms
  • 4-Twins
  • 3-PONT
  • 1- Flower Shop Lady
  • 3-Pokemon Communication
  • 4-Rare Candy

Energy-14

  • 4-DCE
  • 4-Rainbow Energy- For getting damage counters on Ursraing
  • 6-Water

You know what Pikkdogs-

Do you have another comment about boobies or Uranaus?

Well now that you mentioned it, coccyx.  But, I was going to say that this deck is kinda sucky, it looks a little too slow.

I am afraid of that too.  How would you fix it?

How would I know, I’m a freaking extra dimensional being, how would I know how to fix a deck?   Why don’t you ask the people who read the site to give feedback on the deck, to see if we can get a decent Beartic list?

The Future of the Deck

As you can see, my list is not all that tested, or all that good.  Hopefully you guys can leave comments on this article, to try to improve the list.  There has been talk about Bearitc, but nothing in the way of a workable list.  Maybe we can change that.

Is Ursaring the right play here?  Or should something more orthodox to be used instead?  Is there just not enough DCE to spare?  Or can the two bears co-exsist?  So please leave your thoughts in the comment box so we can try to fix this list up and get a good Beartic list out there.

So Pedro, how do we normally end articles….. So Long and Thanks for all the fish!

Haha I remembered how we normally end articles here and I said it before you could think of something silly like the Teletubbies thing you did last time.

Ahhhhh stick it in your Coccyx.

Revisions to the Deck

As people have commented, I can change the decklist around.  It does seem clear that Reuniclus could be better than Ursaring in this deck.  It does leave the deck with less trainer deck and less heavy hitters.  But, it does make the deck more consistent.  Here are some changes.

Subtractions

-4 Teddirursa

-3 Ursaring Prime

-4 Rainbow Energy

Additions

+3 Solosis

+1 Duosion

+2 Reuniclus

+1 Chansey

+1 Blissey

+3 Water Energy

How to Pick a Battle Roads Deck

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with kind of a strategy article. 

 It may seem like the fourth of July was just a week or two ago, but the summer is now coming to an end.  With the end of summer comes some of my favorite things: cooler weather, cool colored trees, American Football, and Battle Roads.  Although I feel like writing an entire article about fall and how its the best time of the year (except bikini waxing day), I think we should get to the Battle Roads.

Setting the Stage

If you were not able to make it to Nationals, you must feel really out of the loop.  The last time you played you were looking at Garchomp C’s and stuff like that, Battle Roads will be a whole nother animal.  Those of us who made it to nationals, and those that went to world’s, basically know the format.  Stage 1 Rush is good along with decks like Reshiphlosion, Reshiboar, ZPS, and Primetime (Yanmega Prime and Magnezone Prime).  But, thanks to the release of Emerging Powers, Battle Roads will be a little different.  So before you start getting your deck ready for BRs, make sure you know what is coming your way.

The Effect of Pokemon Catcher

The most dramatic change in the game will be the rise of Pokemon Catcher.  Of course, Pokemon Catcher is a card that lets you switch your opponent’s active.  Meaning Knock Outs are easier to get and disruption is easier to do.  There is no question that Pokemon Catcher will be a very popular card, and there will be probably 4 Catchers in just about every deck.  So how will this effect your deck choice.

Just like when we had SP decks in the format, you can either use Catcher or plot against it.  If you want to use Pokemon Catcher you will need a fast deck.  Donphan Prime is great because it requires 1 energy to do 60 damage.  That attack will knock out almost all basic Pokemon, so it will be great for disruption.  But on the other hand, Pokemon Catcher is also great for decks that are a little slower like Reshiram based decks.  So although fast decks and Pokemon Catcher are a great fit, you don’t need to run an extremely fast deck.  Just be aware that if you don’t plan for your basics being knocked out and your bench sitters getting dragged into the active, you are in for a long day.

I  do not think that Pokemon Catcher will dramatically change the format.  We will see a lot of the same decks, games just will be a little quicker and we could see more lopsided wins.  We could see less big lumbering Pokemon like Magnezone Prime, and more speedier cards like Yanmega Prime.  We could also see a lot of cards that can stand up against Poekmon Catcher, like Vileplume.

Was that a Segway into the next part of your article?

No, I wouldn’t do that, segway’s are for professionals, I am just a creepy fat guy writing a Pokemon article on a website nobody reads, the only segway I know about is the geeky vehicle.

A Segway isn’t geeky

Of course it is Pedro (of course Pedro is the name of my sidekick who randomly jumps in).  Could you prove it isn’t by showing me a picture of an attractive Woman on a Segway.

Well met Pedro, well met. 

Anyway, we are talking about Vileplume.  Vileplume is great because it sets up an item lock that is very hard to break.  While Gothitelle can put one heck of a nice itemlock on your opponent, it is easy to knock out.  Vileplume might be a better play because it does not have to be active. 

Vileplume will make games a lot simpler because you won’t have to worry about Pokemon Catcher messing things up.  And it will also mess other things up like Pokemon Communication and Super Scoop Up.

The bad thing about Vileplume is that your deck will have Schizophrenia because you need to run trainers like Rare Candy to setup.  If you want to run Vileplume you will need to make sure your list is tight and polished for it to work in this trainer heavy format.

New Emerging Powers Decks!

Emerging Powers does not just have Pokemon Catcher, it has some other decks that might see some play at BRs, and you better know what they are you they don’t end up taking you by surprise.

I do not know of any specific deck lists that I can share right now, but I would at least be prepared to deal with two cards: Gothitelle and Beartic.  Gothitelle is fairly easy to take care of, just have something that doesn’t take a lot of setup to attack, and you will be able to match it blow for blow.  This is another reason to use a deck that is simple and fast.  Donphan is a good candidate here to take care of Gothitelle. I would reccomend Yanmega, but the trainerlock makes it a LOT harder to even your hand size.  

The other big card you might see is Beartic.  Beartic actually won’t be able to hit that hard, or that quickly.  With 3 and 4 energy attacks only doing 50 and 80, it will take a while for damage to add up.  The problem here is that his first attack does not let you attack next turn.  That is not so much of a problem if you have Yanmega Prime, you can just retreat and use another attacker.  However, Beartic could give you fits if you have a high retreat like Donphan, Zekrom, or Reshiram.  If you think a lot of your metagame will be made up of Beartic decks and techs, then make sure to run Yanmega Prime and Max Potion.  If you get 2 Yanmega’s out Beartic will not be able to do anything, and Max Potion will guarantee that the damage will not stack up. 

How to Pick A Deck

Battle Roads are a very tricky tournament to plan for.  Bigger tournaments like Nationals, States, and Regionals are fairly easy to plan for.  For the the bigger tournaments it is all about consistency.  For BR’s there are many ways to skin a cat.  Of course you usually see a lot of the better players do well with consistent decks, but that is not always the best play.  Battle Roads rely on luck a lot of the time since there are usually only 4-5 rounds.

For example, my first tournament was a Spring Battle Road.  I was playing a risky build of Scizor/Cherrim that relied on a lot of luck.  Despite the odds, I was able to grab 2nd place in the tournament, beating a lot more expierenced players on the way.  Sometimes its not all about consitency, sometimes in a BR its better to have a risky deck and a lot of luck.  Though, its always great to have a consistent deck.

So how should you pick your deck?  Well that is hard because even I do not know what I am going to play yet, but I would suggest that you go with a few principles.

1.  Go with what you are familiar with.  There are always growing pains with a deck, so if you haven’t had your growing pains with your deck, don’t take it to a tournament.  Make sure you know your deck in and out before you go.

2.  Be comfortable with Pokemon Catcher.  If you are not comfortable with either blocking this card or using it, you should get familiar very soon.  The card is very powerful, do not be caught un-prepared (see what I did there, “caught” and Catcher, haha).

3.  Consistency is always good.  If you got a really great consistent deck, than by all means play it. 

4.  But you can do well at a BR with luck and a risky deck. A deck that relies on flips and stuff like that could do well, if you are lucky.

5.  Leave disruption alone.  For some reason disruption does well in tournaments like States and Regionals, but does not do well at Battle Roads.  So wait for a while to break out your Ambipoms, Weaviles, and Sharpedos.

Well I wish you all good luck on preparing for states.  Remember make sure to test Pokemon catcher with Pokemon like Reshram, Zekrom, Magnezone Prime, Yanmega Prime, Beartic, Donphan Prime, Zororark Bw, and whatever else you hear will be popular in your metagame.   And if you can’t get your deck to where you want it, it might be best to just go balls to the walls with a risky deck and hope you get lucky. 

So long and thanks for all the fish!

The Top 10 Impactful Cards of Emerging Powers

Hey all you OHKOers!  Yes, it is finally time for Pikkdogs to release his list of the top 10 impactful cards of the next set.

Emerging Powers is your 2nd Black and White Set.  It is made up of cards that were in the Japanese Black and White sets, along with cards from the “Battle Strength Decks” and random Promotional cards.  A lot of people are a little upset about this set because the current Japanese set seems to be a lot better than our Emerging Powers set.  But, there are some good and impactful cards in this set. It is not one of the better sets we have seen in a while, but at least it’s better than Call of Legends.  The thing I hate most about this set is that there is that it has another rare Unfezant that is useless.  It seems like I pulled just about all of the BW Unfeazants, and now I feel like I’m about to get 150 more crappy Unfezants.  But enough about my hatred of Unfeazant, let’s take a closer look at the set to get at the best cards.

Honorable Mention (#12) Thundurus

Our first honorable mention of the countdown is Thundurus.  Thundrus has 110 HP, a 1 retreat, and a fighting weakness.  It’s first attack, “Charge” lets you attach a lightning energy from your deck to this Pokemon. Its second attack, “Disaster Bolt”, does 80 damage for LLC and a one energy discard.

At this moment I do not really see Thundurus as a great Pokemon in the modified format.  Some people have been talking about Thundurus being a secondary attacker in a Zekrom deck, but I don’t see that either.  It is OHKOable by Donphan Prime, and it takes 2 turns in the active spot to get charged up.  Perhaps later next year if Donphan Prime gets rotated this card could become good, but right now it’s too fragile and too slow.

Honorable Mention (#11) Cheren

Cheren is a supporter that lets you draw 3 cards.  It is kind of like Cheerleaders Cheer, except your opponent does not get the option of drawing 1 card.  I think this is a pretty good card and will see decent play.  If Cheerleaders Cheer were not in the format I think this card would be ranked around #6.  The reason why it is not is because this card will only replace C.C.  If a deck does not run C.C. they will not decide to run Cheren.  Cheren will just be switched in to decks that currently run C.C.  If I thought Cheren was a huge set above C.C. I would asl put it in, but it doesn’t seem to be that much better.

The format right now is really draw/hand referesh supporter heavy.  Cheren comes into a format where Professor Juniper, Professor Oak’s New Theory, and Judge are used a lot.  Cheren is really not in a position to challenge any of these supporters.  I don’t think that Cheren will see a lot more play then Cheerleaders Cheer has, just about the same.  For that reason although Cheren is a good card, it is not very impactful.

#10- Leavanny #7

At first glance Leavanny does not seem like a very impactful card.  It is a stage 2 Grass Pokemon with 130 HP, a fire weakness, and a 1 retreat cost.  Its second attack, “X-scissor” does 30 damage for GC and lets you flip a coin, if heads you can do 50 more damage.  But this card is possibly impactful because of it’s first attack.  “Nurturing” lets you search your deck for a Pokemon that evolves from one of the Pokemon on your bench, and put it on that Pokemon.  The current rules for this type of attack only allow you to place the next evolution line on the benched Pokemon.  This means that you can only go from basic to stage 1, not basic to stage 2 (even though the stage 2 does evolve from the basic).

This means that Leavanny is like a Spiritomb Ar with the “Darkness Grace” like attack.  This attack does not seem to great coming from a stage 2, but if put in the Lost Zone, Mew Prime can use “Nurturing.”  I’m not sure if this is a great startegy with Mew, but it does make it faster to evolve Vileplume, and Vileplume will be very important in the next season.  I am not sold on this card, but it could be somewhat impactful. 

#9-  Swanna

Swanna is a card that has received no hype, but it is good because it is a Donphan counter.  For WCC you can do 70 damage and a discard, with the “Air Slash” attack.  This makes it a pretty good Donphan counter.  Its stats are not all that great.  It has 90 HP, a 1 retreat cost, and a lightning weakness.

This will not be a great card, but if you need a Donphan counter, this card will take it out in one hit.  It also uses DCE, so it hits well into decks that already use that card.

#8- Recycle

Recycle is a simple Item card.  It lets you flip a coin, if you get heads you can put 1 card from your discard pile to the top of your deck.

This is not a great card considering the card does not go to your hand, and you have to flip.  But, this format is seriously thin on recovery cards.  If you do not use a supporter, you cannot get back evolution cards without Recycle.  I could see a lot of people running at least 1 Recycle since you can re-use it when needed with Junk Arm.

It will not change the format, but I think it will see some play initially.  When we get some better recovery cards you probably will never see this card, but I think a lot of Battle Roads decks will run at least 1 Recycle.

#7- Tornadus

Tornadus is a Donphan counter.  It has 110 HP, a 1 retreat cost,a resistance to fighting, and a weakness to lightning. Its first attack, “Energy Wheel”, lets you move an energy from your bench to Tornadus.  This attack doesn’t seem great, but it does work well with Manaphy.  You can use Manaphy’s attack to refresh your hand, then retreat and move the energy to Tornadus.  His second attack does 80 damage for CCC and you must move an energy from Tornadus to a benched Pokemon.

The good thing about Tornadus is that unlike the other BW high HP Pokemon, it can use DCE.  It can also benefit from Emboar BW.  Tornadus’s main job is to stop Donphan Prime, which it can do.  Donphan can only do 40 damage to it with “Earthquake”, and Tornadus can 2HKO it.  Tornadus can be used in almost every deck, and fits well into a Reshiboar or any deck with DCE.

#6- Beartic #30

Beartic is one of the cards that has received a lot of hype since its Japanese release.  I for one am not drinking the Beartic Kool-Aid (and not just because upon searching for the card on Google I once stumbled on a gay pornography site), I just don’t think that it can make a good consistent deck in this format, but I have been wrong in the past.

Beartic is a 130 HP Water Pokemon with a weakness to metal.  His first attack costs WCC, is named “Sheer Cold”, and does 50 damage and prevents the defending Pokemon from attacking next turn.  Its second attack, “Icicle Crash”, does 80 damage for WWCC. 

Now not allowing the defending Pokemon to attack is really useful.  It will not be as good against Yanmega since it has free retreat, but it is harder to retreat Pokemon like Magnezone, Reshiram, Zekrom, and Donphan.  I could see a lot of people running this card in a BR deck.  I’m still not sold on it being a great card, but I think it will be impactful in the short term. But the lesson we learned today about Beartic is that if you do a Google search for the card make sure to spell the name of the card right, awful things can happen if you don’t.

#5- Great Ball

The #5 card is Great Ball…………..well sort of.  Great Ball was a card that I knew from the LA set that let you search your deck for a basic and put it straight to your bench.  This card was fairly good until most decks used Pokemon like Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Crobat G, and Chatot G that had coming into play Poke-Powers.  But this card is not your father’s Great Ball, it is actually your father’s Master Ball.

The text on this Great Ball allows you to look at the top 7 cards of your deck and grab a Pokemon you find there.  If this card came out a year ago I would not even consider running this card.  We had other trainer/item cards like Pokedex, Luxury Ball, Premier Ball, and Bebe’s Search that let you get the cards you wanted fairly easily.  Now a days those trainer/item cards are all gone, all we have is Dual Ball which only works on basic Pokemon and requires a flip.

If you have a deck that has about 20 Pokemon in it, and a lot of them are Legend Pieces or Evolution cards, then this card would work fairly well.  If you are just running a Yanmega deck, your proabably will not look twice at this card.  But, I could see this card being used throughout the time that it is in the format.  It will not be a staple card, but I could see it being used in some decks.  

#4- Crushing Hammer

Our #4 card is Crushing Hammer, which is again just a reprint of another card from our past.  This time it is a reprint of Energy Removal 2.  The text is simple, you flip a coin, and if heads you can discard an energy attached to any of your opponent’s Pokemon.

Now we have a similar card in the format, “Lost Remover”.  Lost Remover also lets you take an energy away from any of your opponent’s P0kemon.  But there are three differences; the first is that thre is no flip involved, the second is that Lost Remover only works on Special Energies, and the third is that energies that have been removed by Lost Remover go to the Lost Zone while Crushing Hammer puts them in the discard.  These differences are very significant.

A lot of people have complained about Pokemon Reversal because it was a very powerful card that required a flip.  If you weren’t happy about that, you probably won’t be happy about Crushing Hammer.  It will be frustrating having a game come down to a coin flip (because that is what removing an energy can do, especially in a format with Pokemon Catcher), but that is what I think will be happening.  Crushing Hammer is much more playable than Lost Remover thanks to the fact that it works on all energies.  I know that I was very skeptical of using Lost Remover because I never knew for sure if it was going to be useful.  You now know that Crushing Hammer will be useful because every deck plays energies of some kind.  The difference in where the energies go is not very substantial because it is hard to get Special Energies back from the discard pile anyway.  The chances are that it will not matter whether you put a DCE in the Lost Zone or the discard pile, your opponent will most likely never get it back.

So after all that discussion do I think it will see some play, yes I do.  I am not sure how much play it will receive, but I’m sure it will at least be in disruption decks.  I could also see it becoming a staple, with Junk Arm being so popular.

#3- Gothitelle #47

The only actual Pokemon to be in the top 5 is Gothitelle.  It has 130 HP, a 2 retreat cost, and a weakness to psychic.  Its ability, “Magic Room”, prevents your opponent from play item cards when Gothitelle is active.  Its attack, “Mad Kinesis” does 30 damage for CCC, and will do 20 more damage for each psychic energy attached.

Decks next season will be unbeliebably trainer heavy, so having a trainer lock will be amazing.  I think trainer lock will be perhaps the best strategy in the next format, but I do not see Gothitelle in those plans.  I think that Vileplume is the way to go.

Even though Gothitelle does not item lock you, it does restrict the amount of damage you can do.  You will never realistically get 3 Psychic energies on it, and if you do that still will not even be 100 damage.  Realistically you are looking at a Psychic and a DCE on Gothitelle by turn 3, this means that your opponent has probably already setup and will probably be able to knock out Gothitelle. This is why I favor Vileplume, you can still attack with whatever Pokemon you want to attack with and have the item lock on.

But a lot of people are eying Gothitelle as a deck worthy card.  You will have the ability to have an item lock, while still use items yourself.  This means you can slow them down by not letting your opponent use Rare Candy, and then Pokemon Catcher up a basic to knock it out.  I think this card will see play early in the season and I think it will see play later, possibly 2 seasons from now when it gets a proper supporting Pokemon to go with it. 

#2- Max Potion

The second to the most impactful card in this set is Max Potion.  This card lets you remove all damage counters and energies on any one of your Pokemon.  While removing the energies is not good, it does work well with low energy attackers like Yanmega and Donphan Prime.

The Stage 1 Rush deck gets a lot better in this set because of trainers like Max Potion.  It is very hard to OHKO Donphan Prime, now with Max Potion most decks can only hope to 3HKO it.

I have tested this card, and although it is very hard to get the card when you really need it, it still is an amazing card.  The only problems I have with this card is that it increases your reliance on trainers and it along with Pokemon Catcher hurt the consistency of decks by making less room for cards like Professor Elms Training Method and Pokemon Communication.

Despite these weaknesses, I think I can still say that this card will see a lot of play and become a staple in a lot of decks.  This card will live up to the hype that people are giving it.

#1- Pokemon Catcher

Of course the most impactful card of this set is Pokemon Catcher.  Heck, Catcher is the most impactful new card since Garchomp C.  Not only will it be a staple, but it will change the way that people play the game.  Of course, like Crushing Hammer, Pokemon Catcher is a reprint of a card that was formally in the modified format.  That card was called Gust of Wind.  Pokemon Catcher is just like Pokemon Circulator in the effect that you get to change your opponent’s active, but this time you can choose which Pokemon gets switched in.

This dyanmic creates a lot scenarios.  You can bring up something that has a high retreat and then attack your opponents bench.  You can bring up something that has a high retreat and then attempt to mill your opponent’s deck.  You can also bring up techs and knock them out before they can serve their purporse.  Or, you can bring up a basic Pokemon and knock it our before it comes a scary stage 2 Pokemon.

I wish I could say more about this card, but all I can say that it is huge.  Catcher will be one of the most important cards in the format.  It will help usher in the rise of Vileplume and item lock, and it will see a lot of success in tournaments.  Pokemon Catcher is kind of like SP Pokemon in the fact that you either have to play it or play against it (item lock).

A lot of people are against Pokemon Catcher, but although it will be very impactful, it will not be bad for the game.  Because the format is relatively slow, it is hard to get Catcher when you need it.  This means that as long as each player is prepared  by either playing 3-4 catchers or playing Vileplume, the game will not be unbalanced. 

Overview of the Impactfullness of Emerging Powers.

Unlike Black and White, there are no big Pokemon in this set to build your deck around.  But, that does not mean that this set is not impactful.  Just one card can change the format around, and that is what we got with Pokemon Catcher.  It may not turn the game on its side, but Catcher will be in all non item lock decks.

Besides Catcher, cards like Crushing Hammer, Great Ball, Max Potion, and Recycle could be very impactful in this trainer heavy format.  And although I do not think they are the best cards, Pokemon like Beartic and Gothitelle could see play in some moderately successful decks.  This set may not be the best, but I would say thanks to Pokemon Catcher this set is very impactful. Feel free to leave your top 10 in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish.