If you find the review is too long, skip straight to the
Ratings and Summary!
Name :
Protective Orb
Set :
EX Unseen Forces
Card# :
90/115
Rarity :
Uncommon
Type :
Trainer
Sub-type:
Pokémon Tool
Effect Text:
Attach Protective Orb to 1 of your Evolved Pokémon
(excluding Pokémon-ex) that doesn’t already have a Pokémon
Tool attached to it. If the Pokémon Protective Orb is
attached to is a Basic Pokémon or
Pokémon-ex, discard Protective Orb.
As
long as Protective Orb is attached to a Pokémon, that
Pokémon has no Weakness.
Attributes:
Protective Orb is a Trainer; more specifically, a Pokémon
Tool. Trainer denial is moderately popular in Modified and
extremely common in Unlimited, but all Trainers are hit that
hard, so it’s not going to drop the score: just remember to use
common sense. What does help is that Pokémon Tools activate
after they are already in play, and that means that if you can
drop them into play before the assorted Trainer prohibiting
cards hit the field, they’ll work fine. Sadly, this too comes
with a downside: since they remain in play, there are specific
cards that can target them – like Ancient Technical Machine
(Ice) – that aren’t currently seeing a lot of play.
Protective Orb
is restricted to use by Evolved Pokémon that aren’t Pokémon-ex.
This is obviously a negative thing in that your options are
lessened, but hopefully it will compensate by being more
powerful.
Proving
that Nintendo is learning how many rule lawyers play this game,
once again the card states that if the Pokémon it is attached to
stops being a non-Pokémon-ex or and Evolution, it gets
discarded. Yes, still a lot of cutting and pasting, but it’s
the only way I can get these done in time: it’s a very busy week
and I still have an exam to go.
Abilities:
Eliminate the equipped Pokémon’s Weakness. This is a fairly
solid ability first seen on Weakness Guard. Unlike
Weakness Guard, which wasn’t a Pokémon Tool and only lasted
until the end of your opponent’s next turn, Protective Orb
will stay with a Pokémon until discarded by another effect. As
usual, this is mostly an advantage, unless you wanted to use
another Pokémon Tool with it.
Uses
and
Combinations:
Most likely something to use when you absolutely have to cover
your Weakness, need a Pokémon Stadium other than Ancient Tomb,
and can’t squeeze in an EX Team Rocket Returns Kingdra
line. One thing to also note is that Ancient Tomb
doesn’t cover Pokémon with an owner in its name… at the moment
that would only apply to Pokémon that wouldn’t be legal for
Modified or would already be unable to use Protective Orb
due to being a Basic or Pokémon-ex.
Let’s
brainstorm a bit and figure out if there are any specific decks
that could really use Protective Orb? Well, it might be
useful for decks consisting of multiple kinds of Stage 1
Pokémon. Why? Yet another downside of Ancient Tomb is
that it helps the opponent as well. So in such decks, even
though it makes using Strength Charm and Crystal Shard
alongside it a pain, the ability to type match against the
opponent without fear of reprisal will at the very least help
against mirror matches. Most such decks that take the
type-matching route are going to naturally run afoul of their
own Weakness quite frequently. In my experience, unless your
deck is fast enough and strong enough to out steamroll them,
exploiting their own Weakness is their Achilles Heel.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.5/5-Damage here tends to be high enough that Weakness rarely
matters, and you’d usually just be better with Focus Band.
Did I mention the whole “mostly Basic attackers” angle?
Modified:
3.25/5-Much like Fluffy Berry, this card can help most
decks, but the amount that it will help will vary greatly.
So find the decks that can’t make use of other means and have a
bad Weakness.
Limited:
4/5-This one is a composite score. First and foremost, it
assumes you have a legal target to attach it to. Second, it
assumes you have a Weakness you know is going to cost you. I
remember Psychic Weakness being particular bad, given the
Unown.
Summary
Protective Orb
is another niche card, but like Fluffy Berry its covering
something we are all familiar with, so it shouldn’t be too hard
to figure out which decks are best off packing it, and which
should use something else.
