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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	SKYLA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!  ...sorry, I just REALLY like Skyla. She's honestly my favorite Flying-type Gym Leader, as well as maybe my favorite Unova Gym Leader (well, definitely female, I'd have to debate if she's better than Drayden.....nahhh, that beard though). And on top of that she got a fantastic card to work with too! And just look at that Full Art - LOOK AT IT!! She's SO CUTE!!  That's it, I'm retiring to Expanded forever, peace out guys.  ...nah, jk. In all seriousness though, Skyla here has been a fantastic addition as not only a viable Jirachi-EX target but also as one of the most diverse Supporters in the game. The fact of the matter is, she grabs you any Trainer card you need - ANY TRAINER CARD!! Not just a Supporter or an Item or a Stadium, just any ONE of those! And that sort of power plays a massive role in decks!  Early evolution decks centered around Blastoise or Emboar or Empoleon would want Skyla to be able to grab a Rare Candy out of their deck whenever they needed it. Offensive decks could use her to quickly grab HTL or Muscle Band to garner more damage in their attack. Mega Decks would probably have used her to grab a Spirit Link card just before Mega Evolving! Skyla was pure utility when used correctly, and that made her extremely effective at what she did.  Oh Skyla, at least you'll still be around in Expanded, but for Standard players everywhere, I salute you as you set off on your flight out of these lands once and for all.   Rating  Standard: 4/5 (a fairly usable Supporter for utility purposes, and a great addition to any deck!)  Expanded: 4/5 (there are definitely more Trainer cards to choose from, which only adds to her utility!)  Limited: 5/5 (you could grab any of a nice variety of Trainer cards, not to mention one of those Ace Spec cards - useful if you managed to snag a Computer Search!)  Arora Notealus: Personally, I really liked the Boundaries Crossed set. It brought in new aspects to the game similarly to Dragons Exalted and the base XY set, but it kept it simple and focused on restricting once super-powerful reprints and on otherwise extremely powerful effects...at least, in theory. Ace Spec cards were limited to one per deck, so having something like Skyla around to snatch it out was wildly useful!  Next Time: The legend that started it all...in a sense.
Emma Starr	When Skyla came out, it was a big deal (I’m presuming. I didn’t get into the game too much until a few sets later, I think. I started playing the PTCGO around…Dragons Exalted was released, I think?), as you no longer had to rely on Random Receiver to get your Supporters ‘quickly’. However, with Skyla, you weren’t limited to Supporters, as you could now search your deck for ANY kind of Trainer card, along with…as I just mentioned…being able to actually search your deck for a specific card, instead of just revealing cards from the top of your deck until you ran into one. Now, you finally had a convenient way to get cards like Ultra Ball or Computer Search into your hand, which was huge. Thus, she quickly became the deck staple she is today, but unfortunately won’t be for too much longer. Fly high into the skies, and back to Unova, sweet girl, for you have graced us with your TCG presence long enough. Now, go grace Mistralton City with your sexy fashion, piloting, and battling skills once more.   (Look, I’m already a little self conscious that this review was so short compared to my other reviews already, so…)   Standard: 4.8/5 Expanded: 4.8/5 Limited: 5/5
Otaku	Ninth place for our Top 10 Cards Lost To Rotation is… a tie!  Sort of: I’m not doing that thing where we review two cards for the same place just pointing out that tomorrow’s card was nearly today’s and today’s was nearly tomorrow’s.  No we didn’t flip a coin or roll a die: I was in charge of compiling the final list from the individual ones and even looking for “tie breaker” material it was close.  So what is our actual Card of the Day?  Number nine is Skyla (BW: Boundaries Crossed 134/149, 146/149)!  There was an announcement in Japan about a special promo version of Skyla (same effect, new art) if you purchase two boxes of XY8: the short version is that this could indicate an eventual re-release elsewhere as well or it could be a Japan-only thing that won’t.  Skyla is a Supporter that allows you to snag any Trainer you want from your deck and then add it to your hand; Item, Stadium or Supporter.  We’ve reviewed Skyla twice before: here as part of our Top 10 Cards Of Boundaries Crossed list and again here as part of our Top 10 Cards Of 2012.  Surprisingly those reviews aren’t as out of date as they may seem; players still can access some amazing Trainers (more than when those reviews were written): Computer Search means Skyla can ultimately grab anyone card from hand (mind the discard cost), Ultra Ball any Pokémon (again, mind the discard cost) and Professor’s Letter means you can snag any two Basic Energy from your deck.  With VS Seeker you may find you can enjoy serious benefit from fewer copies of Skyla than before; after all you may not need to search out a specific Trainer (instead of drawing or another potent Supporter effect) so badly every game that you need to max out your count of Skyla.  In the past we’ve had Skyla snag a card like Bicycle so that she can fake being a draw Supporter: if you can afford the discard cost now she can snag an Ultra Ball to bring forth Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108) to draw up to six cards.  So in the present, Skyla remains a strong play only losing steam because of competition.  Fighting-Type decks have Korrina which restricts the search from “any Trainer” to just “Items” but throws in a Fighting-Type Pokémon as well (from the same set that gave them lots of other goodies).  The other rival is Trainers’ Mail; while it only lets you add a Trainer from the top four cards of your deck, it is an Item itself and thus combos nicely with most other Trainers.  We also got a few more Supporters now than back then that are near must-plays as well: Colress for potentially huge draws and Lysandre force Active what you want from your opponent’s Bench.  Since you can only play one Supporter per turn this added competition both from rival Supporters and other non-supporters has blunted its usefulness, but not destroyed it.  Skyla will lose a little something if it does get reprinted so that it remains Standard legal: Ace Specs are done.  Well, at least there haven’t been any in the XY-era sets and using Skyla to access an overpowered Item that you’d normally have to “luck” into at the correct time, even at the cost of your Supporter, was (and in many decks still is) a power play.  There are other potent Items we’ll lose due to rotation, but we’ll get more Items in general so even if the next crop isn’t as good, there will be replacements.  The Ace Spec mechanic (thankfully) appears to be done, and like a video game character nerfed in the follow-up for game balance, Skyla wouldn’t have this trick… again if she does get reprinted: in Expanded this will still be a thing and Skyla can still work all her other magic.  If you’re actually using product from BW: Boundaries Crossed for Limited play and you get Skyla, you’ll be happy to know that she’s a must run: even if you whiff on any other Trainers, she still would allow you to look at and shuffle your deck (since the game doesn’t “know” that the search can fail).  If you do get any other Trainers worth running, she gives you another shot at getting to them in a timely manner.  Ratings  Standard: 3.75/5  Expanded: 3.9/5  Limited: 5/5  Summary: Skyla might still be a must run if Item lock wasn’t so potent and popular a strategy: Items are the card class that makes her so versatile as a Supporter you fetch via her effect has to wait a turn to be used - barring something like Magnezone (BW: Plasma Storm 46/135) - while Stadiums aren’t as numerous in decks, are also once per turn - no exceptions I know of - and you can’t play another copy of the same one that is already in play (sometimes that matters).  Items are what make Skyla a Swiss Army Knife; not always the best tool for the job but often providing a tool for the job.  She was actually my 11th place pick but the only reason I am nervous about her taking 9th place is if it turns out she is indeed getting a re-release.  Well that and it being a tie.