Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
#8 Cassius
Our number 8 card in the countdown is a Supporter and,
to be honest, I like it a lot.
Probably too much, in fact. This is just the kind
of card I tend to over-rate because I can see a lot of
possibilities for it, without being able to say
categorically that people will use them.
Actually, Cassius closely resemble a fondly-remembered
card from the old ex era that
did see a
lot of play: Mr Briney’s
Compassion. However, whereas Briney
allowed you to pick up a Pokémon with all its attached
cards and put them into your hand, Cassius picks them up
and sends them back to the deck (which is obviously much
worse). On the upside, though, Cassius, unlike
Briney, does not have a
clause excluding EX (or ‘ex’ as it was then) Pokémon, so
Cassius could be used in any deck.
But should it be used at all? Cassius can obviously play
the role of a healing/Prize denial card. Using your
Supporter for the turn is a hefty price to pay, but
unlike Max Potion, it puts the Energy in the deck,
rather than the discard pile, which is going to be
preferable most (though not necessarily all) of the
time. Cassius could also be a way of dealing with
inconvenient starts where you are forced to put a
Pokémon in play when you would rather not: instead of
waiting for your opponent to KO, or having it sit there
taking up a Bench space after retreating, you can simply
get rid of it. The third potential use for Cassius is
the re-use of coming-into-play Abilities. At the moment,
the choice is very limited with only
Jirachi EX,
Ninetales DRX, and the
occasional Roserade DRX
getting any play at all. It’s always possible that this
mechanic will be expanded on in the future, though, and
that would increase the playability of Cassius
considerably.
Cassius may have a high opportunity cost, but it has
more utility than you might think. It can preserve your
Energy, deny your opponent a Prize, and help with Bench
management. I guess in extreme circumstances it could
save you from a deck-out loss. If you can find the
space, it’s well worth trying out a copy in your deck.
Rating
Modified: 3.5 (surprisingly useful, with a lot of
potential)
Limited: 4.75 (Prize denial is huge here)
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HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150 |
Cassius.
Modified.
XY brings a few Supporters that finally do something
other than just draw cards! The main use of this card
will be prize denial, when your opponent is attempting a
2 hit KO on a Pokémon you can ruin that plan with a
Cassius. It also helps conserve energy in your deck as
opposed to letting it get discarded. Blastoise may like
this card for rescuing energy laden Keldeo EXs as well
as decks that focus on tanking, denying prizes wherever
possible. Whether it’s worth playing over draw
Supporters or simply Potion items remains to be seen.
As a side-note, it’s odd to see this generation’s PC
admin doesn’t follow tradition of most previous ones
like Lanette, Bebe and Celio who all searched for
Pokémon.
Unlimited 150.
Whereas I’m not totally sure of his role in Modified
I’m sure Cassius will definitely see some play in U150!
The purpose of prize denial in tank decks carries over
joining the ranks of Mr Fuji and Mr Briney for scooping
up worn out behemoths. A more universal use will be
reusing commonly played Pokémon with comes into play
Abilities like Crobat G, Uxie (Legends Awakened) and
Celebi ex (POP2). Because you only get 1 of each card,
being able to reuse them is a very powerful effect! Your
5 bench spaces seem to be even more important in this
format and simply being able to clear a space to play a
vital counter or tech can be very important.
Ratings.
Modified: 3
Unlimited 150: 3.5
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