Hello and welcome to another week of Boundaries Crossed
reviews here on Pojo’sCotD. We have some
interesting stuff for you this week, even if not all of
it is going to be exactly playable.
We kick off with Hugh, one of the two new Supporters
from the set. A new Supporter should be an occasion for
great rejoicing in the TCG world, as right now we have a
very limited selection, with virtually all decks running
the maximum numbers of Professor Juniper and N,
supplemented with a few Cheren,
Bianca, and now Skyla.
Unfortunately, we are going to have to wait for a bit of
diversity when it comes to draw Supporters though,
because Hugh is, to be honest, a bit
rubbish. It’s not
blatant rubbish like Rival from Diamond and Pearl,
and it’s not one of those cards that’s just useless
because it is so outclassed by everything else
(Supporter Bill, Mom’s Kindness). In fact Hugh looks as
it there should
be a use for him. And there probably is . . . it’s just
it will be an incredibly situational use that will
almost never happen. The other 99% of the time, you will
spend wishing you had a different Supporter in your
hand.
What Hugh does is basically force both players to five
cards. However, it doesn’t do this in the nice,
shuffle-draw way that Judge did, it does it by making
both players either discard or draw until they have
five. When would it be good? Well, maybe if you had a
very small hand of cards (in which case you would be
better off with Bianca), or perhaps when your opponent
has a very large one (except that N would be better as
it wouldn’t allow them to pick and choose what to
discard). I suppose you could make the argument that you
could benefit from the discard with Hugh by losing cards
like Ho-oh-EX, or Lightning Energy in an Eelektrik deck
. . . but then so could your opponent. However you play
this card it seems like there is a massive risk of it
backfiring and doing more good for your opponent than
you.
When it comes to setting up and getting the stuff out of
your deck that you need, Hugh is an abject failure. Just
because it is possible to imagine obscure scenarios
where he would be great (opponent has 10 cards and
doesn’t want to discard any of them), doesn’t mean he is
ever worth playing for the rare chance it will happen.
When it comes to draw Supporters, stick to what we have
for now, and wait to see what future sets will bring.
Rating
Modified: 1.75 (for some reason, I find this card quite
difficult to pull out of packs. Can’t say I’m sad about
that)
Limited: 3 (draw Supporters normally get a 5 here. This
should tell you how poor of a card it is)
virusyosh
Welcome back, Pojo readers! I hope that all of you
had continued success at your City Championship
tournaments this weekend. We're continuing our
Boundaries Crossed reviews this week, so be sure to
check back to see if your favorites are being reviewed.
Today we're reviewing a new Supporter from the set,
Hugh.
As previously stated, Hugh is a Supporter, meaning
that you can only play it once per turn, and after you
do so, you can't play any more Supporters during that
turn. Hugh's effect is pretty interesting, forcing both
players to either draw cards until they have 5 cards in
hand (if they started off with fewer than 5 cards), or
discard down to five (provided they started with more
than 5 cards). For Modified, players tend to prefer
shuffle and draw cards like Professor Juniper and N, as
they can often bolster bad hands much more effectively
that cards that straight up draw like Cheren and Hugh.
Since you'll probably never play this when you have five
or more cards in hand, Hugh has the added bonus of
forcing your opponent to discard if they have more than
five cards, something that the other Supporters cannot
do. Unfortunately, given the relatively big hand sizes
in Modified (usually between 4-6 cards on average),
chances are you'll only end up being able to draw a
single card or force your opponent to discard one or two
cards most of the time. Therefore, you're probably
better off using something like Professor Juniper for
card draw, or N for disruption.
Modified: 2.5/5 Hugh is a usable but somewhat
inferior option to the Supporter staples we've come to
know and love in Modified. While Hugh's discarding
ability can come in handy on occasion, most of the time
it is better to force your opponent into bad situations
with your own cards. Additionally, your opponent chooses
which cards to discard (greatly weakening the card's
effectiveness), and the draw is somewhat lackluster
compared to Bianca, Cheren, and Professor Juniper.
Overall, you can give Hugh a shot in your Modified deck,
but chances are you'll be better off using other cards.
Limited: 5/5 Card draw is very rare huge hand sizes
are common in Limited, so Hugh can be very disruptive to
the opponent. Taking these into account, you should run
Hugh if you get it, as card draw in slow formats is a
great thing.
Jebulous Maryland Player
Hugh
Hugh is a Supporter that makes both players draw or
discard until they have 5 cards (opponent goes first).
Well, this is another disruption card. Sadly it's not a
great one. The best strategy is to only have Hugh in
your hand and your opponent have a lot more than 5
cards. That way you draw and they discard. Unfortunately
that isn't going to be seen in this format. A lot of
decks are playing items that you can use instantly, so
once they see the first Hugh, they'll know how to
counter it.
The big draw Supporters now are Professor Juniper, N,
Bianca, and Cheren. When these are played, the
opponent's hand size will be 7, max of 6, 6, and x+3,
respectively. In any case they will play a couple of
cards that they get (that is the point of playing a draw
card, to get something else to play). There have been
time where I draw and get nothing playable, but that has
been rare.
So worse case scenario for your opponent, they can't
play anything after their Supporter. You play Hugh and
they discard 2, max of 1, 1, and x-2. So the best case
is after a Cheren and they already have a considerable
hand size (though Cheren is probably the least played of
the 4).
Anyway, all that was to show that not many cards will
be discarded. On top at that, players in this format
don't usually keep large hand sizes. And the disruption
isn't much, seeing as how they still have 5 cards (of
their choice). So I doubt they'd discard anything
critical.
As for disruption, I'd place this after N and before
Hooligans (because I dislike coin flips). N messes their
hand up and you get to draw. Hugh discards (maybe) and
you draw (YOU SHOULD). Hooligans shuffles 3 back in
their deck (optimal if they only have a hand of 3 and
you flip heads).
So if you want to add more disruption to your deck,
Hugh is a viable card. You need to look at how it plays
against other decks though. You don't want a draw card
that will let your opponent draw too...
