aroramage |
So yeah, Mega Catcher was
yesterday...woop-dee-doo! It's just a Pokemon Catcher
for Megas, and I think otaku covered why that's really
niche enough already. And succinctly too! That's so
unlike him :P
Anywho, Team Rocket's back again,
and they've got some down and dirty business to work
with! I wonder if all the Team Rocket drops are either
callbacks to Kanto like how XY had the Kanto starters
alongside the Kalos starters or if perhaps they've been
hinting at something bigger...but enough about that,
what's Team Rocket up to this time? Well, their
Handiwork ends up flipping a couple of coins, and for
each heads, the opponent has to mill off two cards.
That's okay for an effect, but at
that point, I'd rather it'd have been on an Item of some
sort. Truth be told, milling is a powerful thing
depending on the deck you play against, and considering
the top of the line LOVES milling, it's likely you're
not gonna see Handiwork teched into so many decks. In
fact, chances are you're not gonna see Handiwork in most
decks period; taking up that Supporter slot means
abandoning stuff like Sycamore and Lysandre for the turn
in favor of attempting to dump some of your opponent's
better cards into their discard. Keyword: attempt. You
don't know what cards you'll actually send to their
discard, let alone if you'll send any at all.
So Team Rocket's Handiwork proves
to be more like Team Rocket's grunts: not that powerful,
not that good at what they do, and yet for a very
specific reason will probably still see some work. Who
knows, maybe Durant decks in Expanded will make good use
of the milling...
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (chancy flips don't
make a strong card, and the mill effect at the moment
isn't that great)
Expanded: 2/5 (but if we get into a
competitive format that doesn't involve so much going
into the discard, there's a chance Handiwork may see
more play)
Limited: 4/5 (as it is, it's going
to be limited to mill-based decks)
Arora Notealus: I wonder who these
three grunts are anyway? And I wonder how they're able
to form up the R so well. Don't get me wrong, it's
amazing for sure, but I just can't help but feel like
there was a lot more effort put into the choreography to
get into that than their actual tactics. Considering
they're apparently using a butterfly net.
Next Time: Doubling up for the end
of the week, it's two cards of the same Pokemon but with
very different effects!!
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Otaku |
Team Rocket’s Handiwork
(XY: Fates Collide 112/124, 124/124) is our card
today; though I could have known when I scheduled it, I
shall try not to be biased in its favor because I just
pulled the Full Art version from a booster on the PTCGO.
Yes I can be that fickle if I am not careful; a card
that does not really exist can sway me if I let it
simply because I want the “cool thing” I pulled to be
good.
So what is this card and what does it do? Team
Rocket’s Handiwork is a Supporter, which means the
turn you use it you are giving up access to the effects
of any and all other beneficial Supporters. In
most cases it also means a valuable slot in your deck.
You never want to whiff on your Supporter for the turn
as even if you choose not to play it, there is something
about having one in hand for the next turn so you don’t
have to topdeck one. Yet at the same time you
can’t afford to run too many Supporters because they’ll
just clog your hand since - again - you can only use one
per turn. Battle Compressor, VS Seeker,
and Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108,
106/108) have made it so using your Supporter for
draw/search isn’t as big of a burden and made it easier
for a single Supporter to make a big difference.
The actual effect of Team Rocket’s Handiwork is
that you flip two coins and discard two cards from the
top of your opponent’s deck for each “heads”.
I think mill ought to be a competitive strategy,
so I am happy to get a Supporter dedicated to it. I
really dislike effects totally reliant on coin flips,
however, as not only are variable effects more difficult
to balance but at least I have a hard time feeling like
I’ve earned a win or loss when it comes down to a coin
flip on top of everything else. Yes, luck is
already baked into the traditional TCG; you pick the
cards that go into your deck but you are supposed to be
drawing (most of the time) from a sufficiently
randomized deck. Pokémon adds in the “Prize Card”
mechanic so six of your cards (four in Limited Format
play) are locked away from you, which can be awful or
awesome depending on if that keeps you from a card you
need or makes it conveniently available to you because
you took a Prize at the right time and also selected the
“correct” Prize card. Team Rocket’s Handiwork at
most discards four cards, not much even if you spam this
card, which is good and bad; we don’t want the
frustration felt during the heyday of Durant (BW:
Noble Victories 83/101) but then again that deck was
attacking to discard four per turn. The real
frustration of facing those Durant decks came
from them sometimes getting lucky and discarding
something really important and either difficult or
impossible to retrieve, from them running many
disruptive effects so that you often had to just sit
there while the Durant deck did its thing, and of
course various “come from behind” effects that proved to
be ill thought out in the face of a successful mill
deck.
Team Rocket’s Handiwork
has a real problem though with its low and unreliable
discard output; discarding can backfire or be
counteracted somewhat easily. Maybe you discard a
card your opponent would be worse off having drawn.
Maybe they have a tactic that wants that card in
the discard pile. Even if you do discard something
your opponent would prefer wasn’t in the discard pile,
you might hit something they can easily recycle.
The Item Trick Shovel isn’t a staple but has
shown up from time to time because it allows you to pick
either player’s deck, look at the top card, and then
choose whether to leave it or discard a card. I am
resisting writing up all the mill Supporter ideas I have
had, because as you can tell I’ve been hoping for one as
a possible solution to the insane pace of the game, so
let us discuss how this card might actually be used.
The best chance is the stall/mill deck built around
Wailord-EX; if you don’t need your Supporter for
something else, why not speed things up by up to several
turns? The only real answer is “Because I need
that spot in my deck for something else.” About the
only place I feel comfortable really recommending
Team Rocket’s Handiwork is in your Limited Format
deck. You likely have Supporter space to spare
plus as decks are only 40 cards, each “heads” is a
bigger deal. Your opponent may have more “filler”
in their deck, but he or she is also unlikely to have a
way of reclaiming what you discard.
The card may also have a bit of an expiration date
beyond the usual rotation concerns. In Japan there
is a promo card named Karen, and she is a
Supporter that shuffles all Pokémon in both players’
discard piles into their respective decks. Most
decks don’t run massive amounts of Pokémon, but since
this should wreck Night March (their set up if not their
actual prospects in competitive play), even decks
without a massive amount of Pokémon have an incentive to
include it. It means mill is going to be a less
effective approach, as a player just needs to fill his
or her discard pile with Pokémon, then send them all
back to the deck. Pure theory though as I have not
playtested the card nor do I know how well it is
performing in Japan.
Ratings
Standard:
2/5
Expanded:
2/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Team Rocket’s Handiwork will allow you to discard
zero to four cards from your opponent’s deck; even if
you hit double “heads” it may backfire because you end
up discarding something your opponent didn’t want to
draw (or specifically wanted to discard) anyway.
On the other hand you could discard something important
and/or finish off an opponent with that discard, so
Team Rocket’s Handiwork scores a bit better than it
might otherwise deserve because it is an effect we don’t
have a lot of and that can somewhat directly win you the
game.
In the end it’s biggest problem is that even the TecH or
clutch Supporter is a crowded field right now. Do
you run this in the hopes of some mill? What about
Xerosic to discard either a Special Energy or
Tool, even ones protected by Item lock? Hex Maniac
to shut off Abilities? Another copy of Lysandre?
Odds are something will take that place in your deck
before Team Rocket’s Handiwork.
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