Skyla
(BW: Boundaries Crossed 134/149,
149/149) takes the number four spot in
our Top 10 of 2012 list.
So what does this young woman who
stole classic Mega Man’s arms…
…oh, I am the only one that sees the
visual similarities?
So what does this card bring to
the game that gets it ranked the fourth
best card of the year and the second
most promising card of its set, BW:
Boundaries Crossed?
You can read our initial reviews
here while I summarize and update
what has already been said.
In BW-On we currently have the following
Supporters:
Bianca,
Cheren,
Cilan,
Hooligans – Jim & Cas,
Hugh,
N, and
Professor Juniper in addition to
Skyla herself.
Eight total Supporters sounds
like a lot, but the game has shifted a
bit over the years; in past formats
where a deck might run just eight
Supporters, there were significant
sources of Pokémon, non-Supporter
Trainer, and/or Energy draw/search
power.
So in the past where there would
12 to 16 significant draw/search cards
of varying types, here they must all be
Supporters, with two exceptions.
Don’t get excited, one of those
exceptions doesn’t see competitive play
and neither are perfectly reliable. The
first is the number seven pick for this
list, Random
Receiver, that you will recall adds
a Supporter to your hand (unless none
are in deck) at the cost of it being the
first to show up as you reveal cards
from the top of your deck (everything
else is shuffled back in).
Xtransceiver
is simply “tails fails” on the otherwise
amazing effect of adding your choice of
Supporter to your hand.
So eight actual Supporters and two
placeholders for them… why is that still
on the low side?
It is what they do and how they
do it.
Simply put they clash;
Professor Juniper is too powerful
not to play, especially with decks that
can play down their hands relatively
reliably to minimize the sting of
discarding your hand.
N
provides nearly as much draw with a
shuffle-and-draw alternative, but since
it is based on Prizes, your return can
get too low past the first few turns,
and while it offers disruption by
affecting your opponent in a similar
matter, it can backfire tremendously.
Professor Juniper
and
N have become the gold standard, and
the other draw cards just don’t measure
up. Bianca
can be totally dead and seems to average
only about as much as
Cheren.
Cheren is reliable but with the
power creep of the game might is no more
useful than
Bill and
Mom’s Kindness were when they were
legal.
Cilan grabs a lot of basic Energy
but in a format where only one or two
competitive decks really need that
service, if even that many.
Hooligans – Jim & Cas is disruption
and “tails fails” at that.
Hugh draws one less for you than
Bianca with the potential of forcing
you to discard and the same odds of
either for your average opponent.
It is no wonder
Random Receiver was being run
heavily as a stopgap measure; most decks
don’t actually need to play 12-16
Supporters, but run that many to avoid
any missed Supporter uses early game.
Thus
Random Receiver can still try and
fill the void.
So with this non-competition,
Skyla was looking at good odds of
being useful; not a guarantee, but good
odds.
She met this by being not only
being the currently rare “search”
Supporter, but by searching for any one
Trainer, something that is quite rare in
Supporters.
This format thrives on powerful plays of
Items, this quickly propelled here to a
must run for all but a few decks, and in
some you will see her run with a three
or four count.
After all, many of those big
draws were being run to try and pull the
correct Item or a card that a
pre-existing Item could search out.
Skyla was accompanied by our first
“Ace Spec” Trainers, which (so far) are
powerful Item cards you may only one of;
not just one copy, but only one “Ace
Spec” at all!
One of our first happens to be
Computer Search, making for an
obvious combo where a deck can give up
Skyla (and your Supporter usage for
the turn) plus two discards to
ultimately get any one card you need!
Despite all this,
Skyla is just snagging a single
card, and sometimes you’ll need quantity
over quality.
For most current Modified decks
she is a must run; a card with a
widespread, somewhat deep impact but
with a big cost.
I don’t know if she would be
worth the effort in Unlimited, but for a
significant amount of decks, I think she
would be; this format has access to a
lot of non-Supporter-based draw, with
some famous Item cards (like
Professor Oak) that
Skyla can snag easily.
In Limited, as long as you have
another Trainer besides herself to
search out, she is a must run.
Ratings
Unlimited:
4/5
Modified:
4/5
Limited:
4.8/5
Summary
Skyla
excited more than just fans of the
character, and everyone should have a
play set even though most decks are
running just two or three.
She
and
Ultra Ball are very even in value
and in my own list she was also one
above
Ultra
Ball.
The big difference is that they
were in the fifth and sixth place slots
instead of fourth and fifth.
The difference comes from
Tornadus EX (BW: Dark Explorers
90/108, 108/108), which I apparently was
more impressed by, ranking it the fourth
best card of the year while collectively
we only scored it as the eighth best.
Another card I ranked higher
didn’t even make the list
*gasp* but come back next year
(relax, that’s just next Wednesday) to
learn more about what did and managed to
outrank even
Skyla.
