One Hit KO

Hey all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with an opinion article, about the playability of Rare Candy.

Before we begin the article I want to introduce some new writers to the site.  Kurt and Kyle, known on YouTube as Misnos, will soon be joining the onehitko family.  For those of you that do not know, Kurt and Kyle post Youtube videos about play-testing sessions that they have.  The videos are fairly fast paced and gives you a lot of information about some pretty cool decks.  The videos are really cool and should be good for the website.  I got a sneak peek at the first article they are writing, and let me tell you, you guys are in for a treat.  Look for their first article/video soon, in the meantime, if you would like to check out their videos, you can find them here.  Now, onto the Rare Candy issue.

The Old Rare Candy

When I first returned to the game, Rare candy was a very important card in almost all decks.  It was one of the first cards that I knew I had to have to make a decent deck.    It was what gave Stage 2 decks a chance against all other decks.  You could go from basic to Stage 2 easy.  It let you do the unthinkable, get a turn 1 Stage 2.  Because it was such a good card it saw a lot of play.  Every stage 2 deck needed at least 2.

I was fascinated by the card and began to collect a bunch of them.  Every player needed a lot of this card to be competitive.  What was good about the card was it let you get a Turn 1 2 Stage 2.  It brought a lot of speed to a Stage 2 deck, and made them really good.

The New Rare Candy Rules.

When I first saw the new rare candy rules, which were put into effect after the release of the Black and White set, I knew that Rare Candy would not be as good as it once was.  But I did not think that Rare Candy would no longer be a playable card.  The official rule change was this, Rare Candy cannot be played on the first turn, or the same turn in which you played the Basic Pokemon.  This took away any chance of a turn 1 stage 2, and made a turn 2 stage 2 very hard to make happen. 

Bye Bye Candy?

Whats the fun of Rare Candy now?  You can no longer get a stage 2 Pokemon on turn 1, which was why the card was good in the first place.  You also can’t Rare Candy right into a Stage 2 from a just played Basic, you have to wait.  Well, if I wanted to wait, why did I waste deck space on this card?  If I have to wait to evolve Pokemon either with Rare Candy or with a Stage 1, why on earth would anyone rely on Rare Candies.  Though they are faster, Stage 1’s are searchable, and do not hurt you as much later in the game when you draw into them.

When I first tested the HGSS-on format I included 4 Rare Candies into each list, I thought that since the card was weakned I needed to have them at exactly the right time.  What I found out that it was really slow to get a stage 2, with Rare Candy or not.  The candies just got stuck in my hand early in the game, and later in the game.  It seems that even when I ran 4, I could never get one at exactly the right time.  And, if you don’t get the candies at the right time, they aren’t any good.  So, I took a candy or two off my list to see if that would help, but I found that I was evolving through stage 1’s even if I had RC in my list. Not having to dedicate 2-4 slots of RC just seem to make my deck more consistent, even without any hopes of skipping stage 1 Pokemon.

The Future of the Card

To my knowledge I am the only player who has completely jettisoned the card from their lists.  However, I know that a lot of players are no longer relying on Rare Candy.  It is much more common to evolve through a Stage 1.  In the current HGSS-on format, you will probably be able to manually evolve without losing your starting Pokemon.

Perhaps when Pokemon Catcher comes to the format Rare Candy will be more important, but for right now, I do not see the need for Rare Candy.  A deck without RC is just more consistent, and has more room for other things.

What do you guys think?  Do you still like Rare Candy? Or did Play Pokemon kill the card when they released the new errata?

So long and thanks for all the fish!

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