Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
#1 Lysandre
Sitting at the top of our top 10 countdown is
Lysandre. That’s pretty
appropriate considering he is the big bad of the XY
video games.
Lysandre
is a Supporter with an effect that will be very familiar
to everyone. When we got Pokémon Catcher in EPO, it was
a bit of a shock to be honest, especially as we also had
Junk Arm in those days, bringing back memories of the
old Base Set days of Gust of Wind and Item Finder. I
always thought Catcher was a good thing to have in the
format because it kept some very powerful Bench-sitters
like Blastoise and
Garbodor in check, but many
players disagreed and complained about how it made some
decks difficult to play, and the admittedly high cost of
obtaining a playset of this
staple card. So, Catcher got an
errata which turned it into Pokémon Reversal. As
a result it went from deck staple to risky niche choice
for those who could find the space for a couple.
Balancing out such a powerful effect as forced switching
is a difficult business apparently: it either becomes
too dominant, or introduces too much chance into the
game.
With Lysandre, they have
probably got it about right at last: the incredibly
powerful ability to drag out your opponent’s Benched
Pokémon now comes at the cost of using your Supporter
for the turn. It’s still a game-changing effect and in
some situations actually superior to Catcher (it can be
used under Item Lock), but now players can’t just spam
it, they must use it wisely and consider the opportunity
cost of not playing a draw Supporter for that turn.
In decks that already have access to non-Supporter draw
(Empoleon DEX,
Delphox XY, Fiery Torch),
Lysandre can be used a bit
more freely, but I think every deck could benefit from
running at least one copy. Cards don’t get more clutch
than this.
Rating
Modified: 4.5 (a well-designed card that takes a bit of
skill to use properly)
Limited: 5 (it’s not like you will be playing a draw
Supporter each turn, so go ahead and abuse this as much
as you can)
|
HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150 |
1. Lysandre.
Unlimited 150 review.
When Pokémon Catcher was errata’d into another Pokémon Reversal, the
effect was noticeable every game. The difference between
having 2 reliable Gust of Wind effects in a deck and
having just 1 is huge, and powerful Bench sitters sat
smugly for a few months. Now that time is over and decks
have access to 2 reliable Gust effects once again.
In Standard, Lysandre isn’t and automatic 4 of in most decks like
Catcher was as they rely on their 1 Supporter each turn
too much for draw power. In U150, bench sitters like
Claydol and Ninetales provide plenty of draw power each
turn to allow the use of more utility based Supporter
cards. The fact that these bench sitting draw Pokémon
are so important to deck consistency makes Lysandre even
more powerful. The fact that he’s a Supporter and not a
regular Trainer card can even be a blessing in this
format especially where Trainer lock is concerned.
Lysandre provides another way to get around the
ubiquitous Spiritomb (Arceus) other than just knocking
it out.
Like previously mentioned this week, decks running Staraptor FB LV.X
can make use of this card and Pal Pad to have a huge
number of Gust effects available to them each game
meaning no bench sitting Pokémon is safe!
Rating: 5 (Easily deserves
the #1 spot on this Flashfire countdown, one of the best
effects in the game!)
|
