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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	#7 Random Receiver (Dark Explorers)  Our final card for this week, and the #7 card on the list, is Random Receiver. This is a card that tends to divide player opinion. Some have considered it almost a staple, while others think it’s a poor alternative to just running a few more Supporters. Personally I think it was under appreciated even when it was played a lot, and is somewhat underrated even now.  What Random Receiver does is guarantee you a Supporter whenever you play it (as long as you have one in your deck). In a format where Supporters are practically the only source of draw (unless you are playing Empoleon DEX), this is a very good thing. Of course, the argument against it is that you might as well just run more Supporters instead, but there’s a problem with that: our range of draw Supporters is fairly limited. Sure, Juniper and N are (usually) great to have, but after that the only other options are the inferior Cheren or Bianca. This means that going the ‘more Supporters’ route means that you are padding the count with cards that aren’t optimal, when you could just run Receiver and make sure that you do get the N or the Juniper instead.  There was a time when every deck ran at least two copies of Receiver, but that isn’t the case anymore. Players seem to have decided that they want some variety in their Supporter line up, as there are definitely times when you don’t want to Juniper away some needed cards, or play N when you have taken most of your Prizes, or you suspect that your opponent has a poor hand. The other thing that players don’t like about Receiver is the way it can end up revealing most of your deck to an opponent, giving them a lot of information about any techs you may run, as well as what is still in the deck.  Nevertheless, Random Receiver is still a good card in any deck using Sableye as it can be brought back with Junk Hunt for multiple uses. Looking to the future, I can see it making a comeback when we eventually get Ghetsis, a Supporter that can generate a massive advantage on turn one: no matter what else you are holding in your opening hand, it could be worth playing Receiver just to give you another chance to dig for Ghetsis. Good card is good, basically, and I don’t think it will ever completely disappear from the format as long as it’s in rotation.  Rating  Modified: 4.25 (Can help boost consistency in any deck that doesn’t run many tech Supporters)  Well, that’s it until Boxing Day for our Card of the Year Countdown. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Christmas. Whatever you celebrate, and however you do it, I hope you have a great time.
virusyosh	Hello once again, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing the #7 card in our Top 10 Cards of 2012 countdown, and this card happens to be the first Trainer card on our list. Today's Card of the Day is Random Receiver.   Random Receiver is an Item card, meaning that you can play as many of them as you like during your turn. Random Receiver allows you to reveal cards from the top of your deck until you find a Supporter card, show the Supporter to your opponent, and put it into your hand, shuffling afterward. Random Receiver has been a very important card in our BW-on Modified format, as Supporters are somewhat scarce. Even still, Random Receiver guarantees you a Supporter, so if you're lacking one in hand, you'll definitely be able to play one during your turn. It is for these consistency building reasons as to why it's such a great card, and is an easy inclusion at #7 on our Top 10 countdown.   Modified: 4.5/5 Random Receiver is a very good card, guaranteeing you a Supporter on a turn when you potentially don't have one, or want a different Supporter in hand. Unfortunately, what you get will be dependent on luck, and this is where Random Receiver is slightly less powerful than Skyla. Of course, Skyla is also a Supporter herself, so the choice between Random Receiver and Skyla (or even both) is largely a matter of personal preference.   Limited: 5/5 Any card that builds consistency is really good in Limited, and Random Receiver is no exception. Dark Explorers also has some good Supporters (Cheren, N, Professor Juniper, even Hooligans) that can be played, so Random Receiver is just as effective here as it is in Modified, if not more so.
Jebulous Maryland Player	Random Receiver   Random Receiver is one of those cards that you have a little struggle inside about whether to play or not.  When it first came out, it was more about whether to play it and allow your opponent to see what is in your deck, or just throw in another draw Supporter.  There can be some bad time with Random Receiver, where you reveal most of your deck, or whatever secret tech you have in it.  Thus, your element of surprise is gone.  Then Skyla came out.  Now you don't really want to run Random Receiver when there is a chance you'll get a Skyla.  Usually when you play it, it is in hopes of getting a draw Supporter.   But there are definitely good points about it.  It lets you get a Supporter if you don't have one.  If you get N'd late game and you run it, that means there is a higher chance to get a Supporter off of that N.  The only problem is playing it then not having any Supporters left (since it's late game).  And you can always play it to get a different Supporter if your hand is full of, say, Junipers.   Nowadays, you don't see Random Receiver in too many decks.  It started as a 2-of card, then became a 1-of, and now it's barely run.  Some choose Random Receiver, others choose to just play another Supporter in it's place.  It's really up to how it fits in your deck.
Otaku	Lucky number seven of our Top 10 Card of 2012 is… Random Receiver (BW: Dark Explorers 99/108)!  You can read the original reviews here!  Just remember that that review was for the previous format, HGSS-On!   I wonder if former Pojo CotD reviewer rAnDoM knows of this card’s existence.   Yearly Performance Overview Random Receiver debuted with a strong performance; it was a way for Junk Arm to become a Supporter, and for decks that just needed to focus on just draw Supporters (at the time, the likes of N, Professor Juniper, and Professor Oak’s New Theory) you could simultaneously thin your deck while reducing Supporters cluttering your hand.   After the format switch and rotation to BW-On, players began experimenting with Supporters.  The dilemma created by Professor Juniper and N became more pronounced without a card like Professor Oak’s New Theory; each provided fantastic draw power but at an important cost.  Professor Juniper of course trashed your hand, which made building up combos that couldn’t be played piece by piece harder rather than easier.  N wasn’t much better for such combos, being a variable amount drawn (six cards at max and as few as a single card) but at least just shuffling your hand away instead of discarding it.   Other legal Supporters of the time were Bianca, Cheren, Cilan, and Hooligans – Jim & Cas; Hooligans – Jim & Cas was a disruption only Supporter and unreliable, so obviously it wasn’t a good fit for most decks.  Cilan snagged three basic Energy cards, but basic Energy usage wasn’t always very high and most decks could only play down one at a time: with no other draw power that usually wasn’t a good plan.   Bianca was useful for recovering from an opponent’s N (and sometimes the turn after your own), but in testing many found it didn’t average more than the three cards Cheren would draw.  Drawing three cards with no costs or penalties was great (and not present) for most of the game, but the decks that could more easily utilize Professor Juniper and N did, making just three cards “too slow”.  In fact, in my own testing I often found a clutch Cilan or two more useful because used early, it improved the quality of later draws!   Just to be clear, since the two best forms of draw power either discarded your hand or shuffled it away while having a diminishing yield as you took Prizes, you couldn’t maintain a steady hand size very well.  Using two or three Cheren, especially if you weren’t getting what you needed, could lead to an agonizing Professor Juniper with a massive amount of cards discarded from your hand.  Bianca was even vulnerable since because of the risk of big but useless hands and actually ending up a dead card in hand!   All this sets up for the current format (pre-Skyla) being ripe for Random Receiver.  Decks honestly didn’t often need to physically play more than eight Supporters; they just needed to make sure those early turns always had a Supporter being played.  Without a lot of good draw/search options in Pokémon form, decks could seldom afford to miss a Supporter usage.  For decks that did need a higher Supporter count, you still were better off “faking” it by still maxing out N, Professor Juniper, and Random Receiver, with the remaining four slots filled with the best combination of Bianca, Cheren, and Cilan.   Most recently Skyla has shaken things up again.  Random Receiver still seems useful, but no longer having “pure” draw options weakens its usefulness.  While not ideal, you can use Skyla for a different Supporter for the next turn as well.  Random Receiver will still be in many decks, but at a lower count.  As more useful Supporters are released, its role may further diminish, but I do not believe it will ever go away.   Computer Search, while only allowable as a single in decks due to its “Ace Spec” status, risks bumping out a TecH Random Receiver in some decks.  However its discard cost is sometimes too much, especially in a deck that needs to spam search.  Of course it can grab anything and not just a semi-random Supporter, but usually a Random Receiver for a Supporter will lead to quantity over quality.  There is also the question of do you want to run Computer Search for something you can’t otherwise snag from the deck (like Special Energy) or for something an unrestricted Item can grab for you?   Ratings   Unlimited: 3.25/5   Modified: 4/5   Limited: 1/5 or 5/5 with at least one Supporter     Summary I may be going out on a limb by saying Random Receiver has likely seen the height of its usefulness, and it is still a great card to use in several decks.  I believe future releases will whittle away at its usefulness, but it will still probably be a common sight in decks throughout the rest of the format, and its future doesn’t affect its performance for 2012.   Oddly enough, despite two of my lower picks not appearing on this list, Random Receiver was also my #7 pick for 2012.  Some cards are more powerful, but this is a card that fits into any non-gimmick (e.g. Supporter-less) decks and still works well.
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Hello again, another Top 10 Poke'mon CotD. Weighing in at number 7 is Random Receiver, the most effective Supporter search in the current format.   The effect is simple enough. Flip over the top card of your deck until you reveal a Supporter, add it to your hand, then shuffle the rest of the cards back into your deck.   Random Receiver is a one-for-one trade but because the vast majority of currently viable Supporters are used to refill your hand, this acts as an extra copy of all of your Supporters, allowing you to bend the 4-per-rule and increasing consistency without competing for that once-per-turn slot.   Is this card fun? Not really. It enables the crazy antics elsewhere by grabbing Professor Juniper, N, Hugh or Skyla but in and of itself it isn't an exciting card. Luke yesterday's review, this is the solid workhorse to which you hitch your wagon of wacky fun (try saying that 5 times quickly!).   Modified: 4.5 (it isn't for every deck, but if you are running full sets of only a few Supporters, you can be reasonably sure to get what you want despite the 'Random' name)   Limited: 5 (if you have even 1 Supporter this is a must run)   I'm enjoying the email responses to Monday's article so far, please keep sending in further ideas for my cube (especially any older Poke'mon you want to see make a return to play).