By Jack Snell
Hey everyone, welcome to my review of the definitively best and most hyped card in Emerging Powers, Pokemon Catcher, Hell, its one of the most broken cards ever seen in the TCG.
It’s basically a reprint of Gust of Wind, Luxray GL LV X in Trainer form, or Pokemon Reversal without the flip (depending on how long you have been playing the game). You play this Trainer, you get to choose one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon and drag it active.
No-one needs a reviewer like me to tell them how good that effect is. Want to take a Prize but the Defending Pokemon has too much HP? Use Catcher and bring up something weaker from the Bench. Need to cripple your opponent’s deck by getting rid of support Pokemon like Typhlosion or Emboar? Use Catcher on them. Want to take out a potential threat like Vileplume or Magnezone Prime before they can hurt you? Play Catcher while the vulnerable Basic is sitting on the Bench.
Pokemon Catcher will have a huge impact on the format. Almost all decks will run multiple copies; fast, hard-hitting Pokemon that require little support (such as Cinccino and Donphan Prime) will become extremely powerful; and anyone wanting to set up a Stage 2 better be grabbing a couple of copies of the Basic because one is very likely to get KO’d before it can evolve. Expect to see a rise in Trainer Lock decks featuring Vileplume or the new Gothitelle (I’m calling that deck Emo Lock) to try and combat the effect of Catcher, though whether they will be fast enough to make a difference remains to be seen.
Is Catcher a bad card for the game? I don’t believe it is, Would you rather have everything decided on Pokemon Reversal flips as it was just a few months ago? Nobody likes scrubs beating them due to pure luck on coin flips. Sure, it will bring about change, and speed up the game (even more), but neither of those things are necessarily terrible. The good players will do what good players always do: adapt and master the format they are in.
From now on, you will need to play knowing that nothing on your Bench is safe.
Rating: Modified: 4.8 If only for the existence of Vileplume and Gothitelle
Combos with ;
Junk Arm, Donphan Prime, Yanmega Prime, Zoroark
Signing out, Jack Snell, Peace
Tags: Card Collecting