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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Bench Shield

Arceus

Date Reviewed: 12.14.09

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.67
Limited: 2.87

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

Back to the main COTD Page

Baby Mario
Top 4 UK Nats

Hi, and welcome to a week of Trainers here on Pojo’s Card of the Day.

 

We kick off the week with Bench Shield, a Pokémon Tool with a very specific, but potentially very useful function.

 

Bench Shield’s effect is simple: when it is attached to a Benched Pokémon, it prevents all damage from attacks. Now, when deciding whether or not you need Bench Shield, it is important to bear in mind what it will, and will not, protect you from. It will give your Pokémon protection from  sniping and spreading attacks such as Honchkrow G’s Target Attack, Abomasnow SF’s  Snow Play and Flygon LV X’s Extreme Attack. What it won’t do is protect your Pokémon from the Effects of an attack. These include switching attacks like Trapinch SW’s Inviting Trap and Blaziken FB’s Luring Flame, as well as attacks which place damage counters such as Gengar SF’s Shadow Room.

 

Although spread decks are not often seen these days, thanks to Nidoqueen RR, Flygon LV X remains a huge threat to decks which like to bench LV X’s in order to use their Powers and Bodies. SP decks often like to keep a Dialga G LV X on the bench to shut down opponent’s PokeBodies, Grass decks enjoy the HP boost from Shaymin Land Forme LV X, and some Fire decks get great benefits from Heatran LV X. If you are building a deck that relies on a Benched LV X, then Bench Shield is definitely worth considering for your deck.

 

However, because of the lack of Effect protection (often the bigger threat), you may find you want to attach an Unown G to your Pokemon instead. If this is the case, an alternative way to protect your Bench from Damage is to tech a Manectric PL into your deck, which will prevent attack damage to everything but itself, and still allow you to use Unown G.

 

Although Bench Shield is a very effective card, very few decks absolutely need it, or would want to run it over Unown G. As a result, I don’t expect it to see much play but it’s good to know that it’s there.

 

Rating

 

Modified: 2.25 (Does a good job, but not often essential)

Limited: 3 (there are quite a few snipers in the set . . . and if you pull a Luxray line . . . )

Guy

Welcome to one of the more intriguing tool cards around. Bench Shield prevents the Pokemon it is attached to from being damaged by attacks while on the bench. This could be nice as it blocks damage from Relicanth, Infernape 4, Garchomp C, Arceus, etc. It does have its draw backs tho. Unown G is far superior when facing Machamp, Gengar, or Blaziken FB. I would say stick with Unown G, but Bench Shield may have its day in the sun sometime soon.

Modified: 3/5
Limited: 2.75/5


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