aroramage |
Today is a delicious treat from
Hawaii, a confection of fried goodness that's apparently
got its name origins in...Portuguese? Wait a sec, this
is Portuguese food popular in Hawaii? Huh. American
dream right there.
Anyways, the Big Malasada is
Generation VII's variation of the Full Heal item,
similar to items like Lava Cookie, Old Gateau, and
Casteliacones. At least that's its function in the
games. In the TCG it's similar, healing off a Status
Condition from your Pokemon and adding an additional
healing factor of 20. That's not too bad, arguably makes
it better than the game version...well, except that you
can have unlimited Big Malasadas in game and only 4 in
your deck.
All kidding aside, let's be real
here: the economy of this card is that it's a slightly
weaker Potion that gets rid of those pesky Status
Conditions. It only gets rid of one, in case your
Pokemon has more than one (such as the case can be with
Poison or Burn). It's not a bad trade-off for 10 damage,
honestly, but what does it reverse? Basically it's gonna
just take away that damage done from the Poison or Burn
you're going to remove - because chances are you'll use
this to get rid of one of those first if there's two
Statuses. That being said, if there's only one Status on
your Pokemon, getting rid of it is still better than
not, and the 20 heal, while not too much, could afford
your Pokemon a chance at not getting crushed on the next
turn...potentially.
That said, the only thing that can
really fault such a simple card is can it do enough to
justify running it in your deck? And to that end, it's
hard to say. Sure, the healing is nice, but is it worth
your time to take out a Tool like, say, Fighting Fury
Belt, or an Item like Ultra Ball in order to take
advantage of that? Or would you rather focus on
increasing the consistency of your deck or your damage
output? That's the sort of thing that keeps healing
Items like Big Malasada out of competitive decks most of
the time...
...most of the time.
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (sure, it's a great
Item card in a vacuum, but when it's got so much
competition for deck space, it can be a bit of a hassle)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (and the bigger the
card pool gets, the less likely you'll want to throw it
into your deck in favor of something...nicer)
Limited: 4/5 (but it's definitely
nice to have in limited environments)
Arora Notealus: You know what I
just realized is really missing from Pokemon right now?
An attack based around Items. Not the Junk Hunt style
attack of Sableye (DEX), but more of a Vengeance style
attack but with Items instead of Pokemon. Like how
bonkers would it be to play this deck filled with all
sorts of Items like Potion, Big Malasada, etc. and then
use an attack that does damage based on those Items? Or
maybe it'd be like, "This attack does damage based on
the number of Items you used this turn", sorta like M
Audino-EX's attack. Now wouldn't that be something? But
what Pokemon would do that...
Weekend Thought: Any cards from
this week that catch your eye? Getting nostalgic over
Throwback Thursdays? Scheming of new inventive ways to
play with the Sun & Moon cards? Or maybe you're like me
and wondering what the next big mechanic or attack will
be. Maybe that's just me, what can I say?
|
Otaku |
It’s Friday and you know what that means? This is
the official launch day for the new Nintendo Switch
gaming console! It doesn’t have anything to do
with our Card of the Day, other than Pokémon being one
of the staple franchises of Nintendo. Then again,
a lot of us tend to snack while gaming, so maybe Big
Malasada (Sun & Moon 114/149) makes a bit
more sense than I thought? This is a new Item
card, so it can enjoy the small bit of useful Trainer
support (Skyla, Trainers’ Mail) and
whatever Item based support it may enjoy, but it tends
to be a bit deck specific, and the best examples of
which I can think - Korrina, Sableye (BW:
Dark Explorers 62/108) - are Expanded only.
Their strength is that they have no additional costs
play beyond those universal to all cards (be in hand, do
something) and any their own individual text
specifies. The big drawbacks are that this means
they tend to be simple (even weak) effects -
disregarding those that aren’t well balanced - and the
fact the current metagame has a competitive Item lock
deck (or more than one in Expanded). What Big
Malasada actually does is to heal your Active
Pokémon of 20 damage and remove a Special Condition.
You don’t have to be able to make full use of both
effects to use Big Malasada, but you have to at
least heal 10 damage or remove a Special
Condition.
Big Malasada
is hurt by only being able to target your Active
Pokémon, but the big thing to remember is that this may
very well be intended as a “beginner’s” card. When
you’re still learning the game, these effects are more
valuable; partially because your opponent may have a
weaker, slower deck but even if only so that you have
fewer complications to deal with and keeping your Active
from being KO’d and able to attack without Special
Condition interference makes it easier for you yourself
to learn. This is why a card like Potion or
Pokémon Center Lady are often more welcome in
Theme Deck battles than in competitive play, though
both have been competitive TecH in the last five
years (Pokémon Center Lady possibly being useful
at present). Like damage buffs, healing damage is
all about shifting the turn count for scoring the KO.
The exact match-up (and even decisions during play) can
mean a tiny bit of healing is worth it. A Pokémon
can shake any and all Special Conditions through
Evolving, retreating or leaving the field, and as such
card effects focused only on removing Special
Conditions aren’t all that worthwhile; many decks won’t
inflict them, after all. Removing one is better
than none, but a deck focused on Special Conditions
often has a combo in mind, which may mean multiple
Special Conditions at a time, or just some other effect
means Big Malasada will be too little or too
late. At the same time, the combination of both
healing some damage and ditching a Special Condition, in
Item form, may be worth not healing 10 more damage (Potion)
or not doing more at a higher cost (Max Potion,
Pokémon Center Lady).
Ratings
Standard:
2/5
Expanded:
2/5
Limited:
4/5
Theme:
4/5
Summary
Big Malasada
is a general usage card that isn’t really too great
unless you find a niche deck/metagame justification.
Personally, I’m not coming up with any specific combos
for it, but as long as your deck doesn’t lock down its
own Items, run only Pokémon guaranteed to be OHKO’d,
etc. you should still get some benefit from it.
Standard has less competition for it, but Expanded has
more combos; I can’t get this image of Korrina
tossing this doughnut to one of her (your) Fighting
Pokémon out of my head! Less fanciful is its
benefits to a player in the Limited Format or the Theme
Deck mode of the PTCGO; unsurprisingly these can also be
great players for players to learn, including the
beginners that might want to use Big Malasada
before trying out more advanced healing tactics.
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