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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

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Rocket's Pokeball
- Team Rocket Returns


Date Reviewed: 12.15.04

Ratings & Reviews below

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.

Thundachu Rocket's Pokeball

Overview: This card is actually pretty good. Unlike the original Pokeball, it doesnt require you to flip a coin, but also unlike it, you dont get to search for whatever you want. You can only search for pokemon with Dark in their name. Rocket's Pokeball can greatly come in handy now with more and more Dark pokemon being added to the mix, espeacilly in Unlimited with Neo Destiny, and Team Rocket sets.

Unlimited: As I said, with more Dark pokemon here than in Modified, this card is a great resource to getting out those Dark Tyranitar and Dark Crobat or whatever other Dark pokemon out fast. 3/5

Modified: 2.5/5

Draft: If you are doing a draft with EX Team Rocket Returns only, especially in preReleases, I suggest this card. 3.5/5
 
Jermy101
Rocket's Pokeball is just like The Boss's Way from TR set. Searching for a dark evolution and not being a supporter is good. It's necessary in modified dark decks these days.
 
Unlimited - No good dark pokemon here. 1/5
 
Modified - There are a few dark pokemon here. 4/5
 
Limited - It can help you stay alive longer. 3/5
 

Pokepop  
Hey, I was the only reviewer yesterday. If I'm also the only reviewer today, I can perform a coup! Take over!
Yee hah! I control all the reviews.

Heh heh heh. I can declare Venture Bomb as the best card in the world and no one will dispute me. I can change deck contents around the worls...

OK, OK, time to come back to reality..

Rocket's PokeBall is a great card if your playing a Dark deck.
Automatically get an evolution card (with Dark in it's name) and it's not a supporter.
Won't help you get Basics, though.

Unlimited: Not many Dark decks played here, so not too useful. Maybe for a Dark 'Plume deck. 2.75/5

Modified: I think we'll see a lot of Dark decks and it makes sense to use this there. 4/5

Unlimited: You have to take this if you get it. You'll need it to find that one Stage 1 or 2 that you have in your deck that you'll need to overcome all the Basics that will be on the field. This is an automatic pick. 5.0/5
 

Johnny Blaze
Rocket's Poke Ball – A Rocket’s Poke Ball that you cant use to search for Pokemon with Rocket in their name. Whats up with that? Probably because everyone would play these to search for all those awesome Rocket insert name EX Pokemon.
Actually this is a must if you are using Dark Pokemon. No flip and search for a Dark basic or evolution for free? No downside to this card whatsoever.

5/5: In all formats. This is assuming you are running Dark Pokemon of course. Search for any Dark Basic or Evo for free and no downside. Nuff’ said.
 

Otaku

If you find the review is too long, skip straight to the Ratings and Summary! 

 

Name   : Rocket’s Poké Ball

Set       : EX: Team Rocket Returns

Card#   : 89/109

Rarity   : Uncommon

Type    : Trainer

Sub-type: Ball

Effect Text: Search your deck for a Pokémon with Dark in its name, show it to your opponent, and put it into your hand.  Shuffle your deck afterward.

 

Attributes: Rocket’s Poké Ball is a normal Trainer.  This means that as long as its effect is useful, it should get played.  You are allowed to play as many Trainers (other than Stadiums and Supporters) each turn as you can meet the requirements of; only external factors such Neo Genesis Slowking’s Mind Games Pokémon Power or Vileplume ex’s Block Powder Poké-Body can change that.  I will point out that since it has “ball” in its name, it can be searched out in Unlimited with Apricorn Maker.  Since this characteristic is emphasized by one card, I went ahead and treated it as a Trainer sub-type.

 

Abilities: This is the new, slightly improved version of The Boss’s Way.  Just like that card, Rocket’s Poké Ball let’s you search your deck for a Dark Pokémon.  Remember, if it’s italicized, I am using the term “Dark” to refer to “Dark in name” and not “Dark(ness) Type” Pokémon.  Sadly, it doesn’t affect Rocket’s Pokémon, and can’t nab any Basic Pokémon other than Dark Celebi.  So between that and being a “ball”, it’s ever so slightly better than The Boss’s Way, which states it can only nab Dark Evolutions.  Depending on the situation, this makes it better or worse than the similar “Team” Trainers, Team Aqua Ball and Team Magma Ball.  Those two Trainers will always be able to grab a Basic Pokémon with the appropriate team affiliation, and roughly half the time can grab an appropriately affiliated Basic or Evolved Pokémon.  Rocket’s Poké Ball, on the other hand, can always grab a Dark Evolution card… but can only grab one Basic Pokémon (Dark Celebi) that is rarely played and cannot grab any Pokémon that is capable of Evolving.  So in the end, it’s a good effect, but only for specific decks.  You trade off versatility for reliability, which is usually worth it: consider how few people play Pokéball, or how lame it would be if there was a cost involved.

 

Uses/Combinations: If you have a Dark themed deck, this will essentially act as a variable Evolution.  Other than giving you a peek at your deck, it’s not as good as having another copy of a particular Dark Evolved Pokémon, but it can be better than having two copies of two different ones.  If you get this and all Dark Pokémon are either in prizes or in the discard, it’s only good for peeking at your deck.  If you do have two Dark Evolution lines in your deck, this will make things flow a lot smoother, especially when combined with Rare Candy (if at least on of those lines is a Stage 2).  If you only have a single Dark Evolution line, it’s still pretty useful, but it you have a non-Dark line with it you might find Celio’s Network more productive, in spite of being a Supporter, since it would work for anything Rocket’s Poké Ball would, plus any non-ex Evolution or Basic.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 3/5-While what I said hold’s true for Unlimited, it’s rarely going to be as useful.  You have Computer Search for exact searches, even though it requires a discard, and you have immense draw power from Neo Genesis Cleffa and Professor Oak.  Still, there are several decks in which it is a wonderful time and resource saver.

 

Modified: 3.5/5-I’ve seen some potent looking rogue decks using Dark Pokémon in them, and this card is a nice, painless way to help them.  I wouldn’t max out on it, but two copies sounds good.

 

Limited: 4.5/5-This is actually hard to score right.  It’s a fantastic pull unless you had the misfortune of not pulling a workable Dark Evolutionary line.  I suppose there is a decent chance for it to be useless, since a deck in this format will have few Evolutions in them, but as they are often single copies of multiple lines, its function as a “variable Evolution” is even more important.

 

Summary

Rocket’s Poké Ball is a straight forward Trainer.  It is designed to let you search your deck for a limited class of cards, Dark Pokémon, in a painless manner.  In a deck where they feature prominently, this will almost certainly improve your set up and speed up your deck.  In a deck that doesn’t use Dark Pokémon, or uses very few, it will be worthless or nearly worthless, respectively.

 

Pity it didn’t match the one spoiler I apparently misread. ;) If it could nab Rocket’s Pokémon as well, it would have made it a tad more versatile, and possibly made decks oriented around Rocket’s Pokémon more feasible.  Oh well.
 

 


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