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Bullados |
Balloon Berry
Advantages of Balloon Berry:
Free retreat. This is a monster
advantage at any point in the game, especially in the late game,
when you’re probably not going to have a 2nd attacker
up. Aside from that, there really are no real good advantages…
Disadvantages of Balloon Berry:
Pokemon Tool. This isn’t as big in
Modified, but it still prevents you from attaching Oran Berry
and other more helpful tools. Counts as your retreat. This is
huge. You only get one retreat in a turn, and you should try
and avoid using it whenever possible. This is the main reason
why it won’t be used much even in the new format.
Ratings:
Unlimited:
Switch is better and always will
be. Also, there are too many Pokemon Tools to put this thing
on. 1/5
Modified:
Slightly better, but Switch is still
better. Not as many Tools in Modified as in Unlimited, but they
do help out a lot. Keep this thing in your binder. 1.125/5
Limited:
It’s one decent format, and it’s not
all that great here either. However, free retreat is very rare
in Dragons, and this thing helps out a lot. Don’t take this
thing first pick, take a holo or RH over this, but it’s good as
a mid-to-late pack choice in Draft. 2.5/5
~Bullados |
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Otaku |
Okay, I
missed a combo and possibly the main use of Latios ex. The
combo is to use a Roselia to hopefully spend your a few
turns attaching 3 Energy per turn to Latios ex. The second
is that its supposed to be almost purely a cleaner-wait
until you need just 2-3 Prizes and have it loaded up-you can
probably “Rambo” (for those who aren’t familiar with the
term, it means relentlessly attacking while ignoring your
own injuries-think going berserk) your way to a win. This
is important to note, since its
pretty good that way: GGGGGL buys two quick prizes often.
For that matter, GGGL, attach G that turn, Purge (discarding
GGG), then next turn one more of any Energy and that’s two
powerful shots. Still just makes it a 3/5 in Modified, but
it matters. :-P
Name:
Balloon
Berry
Type:
Trainer
Sub-Type:
Pokémon Tool
Text:
Attach Balloon Berry to 1 of your Pokémon that doesn’t
already have a Pokémon Tool attached to it. If that Pokémon
is Knocked Out, discard this card.
When the
Pokémon Balloon Berry is attached to retreats, discard
Balloon Berry instead of discarding Energy cards.
First,
some rulings from the Compendium/ex:
== BALLOON
BERRY (Neo:Revelation;
EX:Dragon) [See Also:
Errata]
* In the Japanese card, there is text saying "If Balloon
Berry is attached to one of your Pokemon,
the Pokemon's retreat cost is 0".
So, you should play Balloon Berry as if it negates the
Pokemon's retreat cost while
attached to that pokemon, not just
when it actually attempts to retreat. For example,
Muk-EX's "Slimy Water" attack damage
will be reduced to only 40 against a
Pokemon with Balloon Berry attached to it. (Nov 13, 2003
PUI Rules Team)
Q. If I have Balloon Berry attached to a
Pokemon, do I *have* to use it to pay for the Retreat
Cost, or can I choose to discard energies and save the Balloon
Berry for later?
A. No, you must use Balloon Berry if you retreat that
pokemon normally. (Nov 13, 2003 PUI
Rules Team)
Q. Can
Apricorn Maker
be used to search for the Trainer "Balloon Berry"? Taking
the card literally, *BALL*oon Berry
contains the exact same "Ball" as given on
Apricorn Maker.
A. Of course not, don't be silly! You
can only search for cards like Poke Ball, Fast Ball, Master
Ball, etc. Nice try, slick... (Nov 13, 2003 PUI Rules Team)
Q.
For Aquapolis
Octillery, the only instance when its
PokeBody would work is when the
opponent "manually" (no Switch/DoubleGust/etc)
retreats their active Pokemon,
correct?
A. Yes, though retreating with Balloon Berry would still trigger
its power. (Jan 16, 2003 WotC Chat, Q548)
Q. When
using Balloon Berry on a Pokemon
with a non-zero retreat cost, do you need to have the
correct amount of energy required to retreat already
attached to it, or can you retreat it with no energies
attached regardless of the normal cost?
A. No you don't. You can retreat by just discarding the
Balloon Berry. (Aug 1, 2002 WotC Chat, Q254)
Q. Can Balloon Berry be used to
retreat a Paralyzed, Confused, or Sleeping Pokémon?
A. No. You have to be able to retreat normally to use the
balloon. (Jul 18, 2002 WotC Chat, Q20)
A few notes: I
left out one out-dated archive ruling that had been directly
over-turned in the Compendium ex. You can look it up if you
want to know it, but if I list it, it will just confuse people.
Also note that I used “ctrl+f” to
find all listing of Balloon Berry, so you will have to do that
if you want to find what I found easily: some rulings were
listed under more appropriate fields (the one about
Apricorn Maker was under “Apricorn
Maker”).
Okay, so what
is the purpose of this card? It makes retreating easier (Well
d’uh, Otaku). The most obvious aspect is that you discard
it instead of Energy, thus saving you Energy for other purposes
(double d’uh). Under normal circumstances, you only get
one Energy attachment per turn, but as many Trainers as you
want. So not only can it save you discarding Energies, but if
you are just one energy attachment away from the retreat cost
and needed it for another Pokémon, then not only can you still
retreat, but the energy attachment can go where it is really
needed (Ooooookay…). So, why use this over Switch? The
primary draw power in this format involves cards that do a lot
of shuffling. You can drop this so that you not only get to
keep it (Otaku likes stating the obvious), but also means
that you have one less old card to draw. Similarly, it can go
into play and be one less card for Copycat to count. On the
downside, this still counts as retreating; it can’t get you out
of Paralysis, or by pass a Mirage Stadium. So, is there any
reason not to use it? Yes. First, let’s look at the Special
Conditions: only Sleep and Paralysis can’t be retreated out of,
and the one can be gone before your turn even begins while the
other will be gone when your turn ends. You could also
handle those with another Pokémon Tool, Lum Berry. If you
didn’t want to be benched, then Lum would be better; it also is
better at removing Special Conditions since Poison and Burn
would not have a chance to do damage if Lum was already
attached. Since we are on the subject of Tools, let me broach
another point: since you only get one Tool attached at a time to
a Pokémon, that’s another reason why many would chose something
else: in Unlimited, what’s almost always better: Focus Band or
Balloon Berry? If you just want to focus on the Benching aspect
of it (though Benching will of course get rid of those Special
Conditions and well as ending certain attack effects), then we
have Switch, Warp Point, and Warp Energy for Balloon Berry to
compete with. Switch can get around those nasty things that
would mess up a retreat. Warp Point does too, and will make
your opponent switch out their active. Warp Energy is basically
a Switch that uses up your Energy attachment but also gives you
a Colorless Energy. So, is there any use for Balloon Berry?
Yes. If use a lot of hand changing Trainers (I have some decks
were I am running 3 each of Copycat, Desert Shaman, and
Professor Oak’s Research), then you just can’t count on a
Switch, Warp Point, etc. to be in hand when you need it.
Second, there are only a few cards that put the hurt on Pokémon
Tools but ignore other Trainers (Neo Revelation Sneasel and
Aerodactyl ex come to mind). Most other forms of Trainer
disruption will affect all (Dark Vileplume, Neo Genesis Slowking)
Trainers. If a Pokémon Tool is already in play, it doesn’t care
about Dark Vileplume or Slowking. Also, Armaldo (side note:
where is it? Try Armaldo people!) can
shut down most draw/search power, so you couldn’t search for a
Switch as easily.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.75/5-A few decks can really use this card, but most will make
do with Warp Energy, Double Gust, or Switch.
Modified:
2.5/5- A few decks can really use this card, but most will make
do with Warp Energy, Double Gust, or Switch. There are fewer
options here than in Unlimited, though. Also, bigger stuff gets
played with more consistency. Also, there are no where near as
good of Tools to use.
If this and
the other formats that use Modified seem high, remember that
Muk ex eats most of my decks. :-P
2-on-2:
2.5/5-Same
deal again, though to be fair Warp Point is less useful here,
but then again, so are some of those really huge (5 retreat)
guys.
TMP:
2/5-It can’t be used on your partner since it is put into play.
Limited: 3/5-Chances
are you won’t draft that many Trainers, let alone Tools. While
you are apt to have plenty of Energy, getting it into play at
the right time is the tricky part, so this is a decent pick.
Summary:
A specialized card that is outdone by a couple more general
cards. If its use didn’t count as retreating, it’d be much more
attractive. |
|
Meganium45 |
This is going to be a brief review
of one of the new tools for retreating, the balloon berry.
First seen several sets ago, balloon berry is one of those
interesting tools that allows you to discard the berry in lieu
of paying a retreat cost.
It is much more limited in the
current envio than either switch, warp point, or warp
energy, in that you are limited to one retreat per turn.
Further, you can switch, warp point or warp energy any
pokemon that is asleep or paralyzed, whereas with balloon
berry, you may not retreat if your Pokemon is asleep or
paralyzed. This is the limitation that makes the card
flawed. This may help some of the new giants, such as
AggronEX, whch have prohibive retreat costs, but I still
prefer other options in this envio. This card will not, and
should not see much play. There are many other tools which
are better at this point, such as Oran Berry, Star Piece, or
even Buffer Piece.
I rate this as a 1.5/5 in
unlimited, 2.5/5 in modified play. Some will play it, most
should not.
Meganium45
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