aroramage |
...it's Cheren again. Or Tierno.
But now it's Hau.
The effect's the same, there are
better draw cards right about now, but maybe there's
hope for Hau unlike Cheren and Tierno. While we don't
know too much of the draw power going into the Sun&Moon
era, there hasn't been a big draw card like Sycamore or
Colress in a long time, so it might be an indication
that the designers are looking to slow the pace of the
game down again. That could be hinted alongside the
evolutionary GX that are in the game, and it might give
Hau a chance to shine in some decks.
Among the newer draw cards, though,
Hau doesn't have that first turn utility that Lillie has
- much less the ability to draw up to 6 cards - and
while he can nab another card more than Professor Kakui,
he doesn't add on the extra 20 damage the Professor
does. So in that case, Hau might be just as out of luck
as his regional counterparts.
Such is the fate of a simplistic
draw-3.
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (Hau's still a good
card, but he just doesn't provide the same oomph as some
others)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (and his
simplicity, while it can be a plus, is also a big minus
to him as well)
Limited: 4/5 (but in Limited
environments, you can never really turn down draw power)
Arora Notealus: That all being
said, I did find Hau to be a charming part of Sun and
Moon. Sure, he was just that happy-go-lucky sidekick
like how Bianca was, but he still had his own stake in
the trials - that being he wanted to be a Kahuna like
his old man. He also gets access to Alolan Raichu, which
is actually a lot tougher during the course of the game
than I would've imagined.
Next Time: Sniffing out trouble
wherever it may be!
|
21times |
Hau
(Sun & Moon, 120/149) comes from the Sun &
Moon base expansion set, and it replicates the same
function as a couple of cards before it (Tierno
(Breakpoint, 112/122) and
Cheren (Boundaries
Crossed, 148/149).
Today, and through the end of August, most of us
quickly skip by
Hau in favor of the superior draw support cards
available.
However, we may be entering an era where options for
draw support become much more limited.
So I’m going to warn you right
now: if you don’t want to read about Rotationageddon,
skip to Aroramage’s or Otaku’s reviews.
Before I even say IF, let me
first lay out that I DO NOT think that Rotationageddon
will occur.
If you don’t know what I mean by Rotationageddon, there
is a conspiracy theory (if you want to call it that)
that the rotation at the end of August / beginning of
September will leave us with only Sun & Moon,
Guardians Rising, and Burning Shadows.
If your heart just stopped
beating, if I made your jaw hit the floor, if you maybe
even vomited a little bit, take a deep breath and let me
give you some reassurance.
Otaku recently pointed out in a discussion that a
rotation including Sun & Moon on would be
the largest rotation ever.
The most number of sets that have been rotated at
one time was seven, and that has happened only once.
Leaving us with only Sun & Moon on would
rotate out a whopping ten sets.
It’s difficult to imagine that we would be left
with only three sets, and that Pokemon would rotate out
so much of the current meta.
Having said that,
circumstantial evidence exists that leads us to wonder.
First, the clear movement away from EX Pokemon
has to make one contemplate the delineation between
Sun & Moon and XY.
The design of cards (and not just that they moved
the retreat cost from one side of the card to the other)
in XY and Sun & Moon differ significantly,
and some people point to this as a major reason why
Pokemon might completely wipe away everything before
Sun & Moon.
Because of such a contrast in the design of the
game between the two eras, some believe that this
signals a major change in what Pokemon wants to include
in the Standard format.
Pokemon has recently released a
number of Mega Evolution Pokemon as promo cards.
Since Sun & Moon, neither expansion set
has included an EX, Mega, or Break Pokemon.
Although we have seen some Mega Pokemon
introduced outside of the expansion sets, they have not
included the corresponding Basic Pokemon these Megas
evolve from.
Therefore, while the Megas would be Standard legal, they
would be unplayable because the Basic form would not be
available in Standard play.
This release of Megas detached from their basics
has led people to speculate that everything from the EX
era will be rotated.
The exclusion of the basic forms of these Mega
evolution Pokemon prompts people to wonder if we won’t
soon be in a GX exclusive format.
Finally, the cards Pokemon has
chosen to reprint in Sun & Moon and Guardians
Rising indicate that a large rotation could be
possible.
Double Colorless
Energy (Evolutions, 90/108),
Switch (Evolutions,
88/108), and
Pokemon Catcher (Breakpoint, 105/122) are all
cards that would remain in the Standard format if the
rotation included the typical (and expected) number of
four sets.
Why would they have issued reprints of these cards when
they would still be around in a four set rotation?
Furthermore, Pokemon has
not reprinted important and popular meta defining draw cards such as
Professor Sycamore
(Steam Siege, 114/114),
N (Fates
Collide, 105/124), and
VS Seeker (Roaring
Skies, 110/108).
By NOT reprinting these cards, Pokemon is sending
a message that they significantly want to change the
nature of the game… which only fuels the speculation
that a massive rotation is imminently on the horizon.
If Pokemon wants to substantially change the
game, they’re not going to leave EXs (holdovers from the
previous era) and GXs intermixed in a Standard format,
especially since Expanded format tournaments are
becoming almost as common as Standard ones.
So… to bring this review back
to Hau, a
Sun & Moon on format right now only includes a
handful of draw support cards:
Hala (Guardians Rising, 143/145), Lillie (Sun & Moon, 147/149), Ilima (Sun & Moon, 146/149), and Professor Kukui (Sun
& Moon, 148/149) don’t leave us with a lot of
choices.
Certainly, none of these is even close to
Sycamore.
I had previously made a good argument for
Ilima if you
had Octillery (Breakthrough, 33/162) set up… but if
Octillery is
rotated out, Ilima
is not as good as
N.
Hala might be
good in GX decks in which you’ll probably play your GX
attack early.
Lillie
will be far less playable in Grass decks.
Considering all of these choices,
Hau might
become a four of in some – maybe even many – decks.
Rating
Standard: 1.5 out of 5
Conclusion
While
Hau might see more usage post-rotation, right now it simply won’t
help you win as much as
Professor Sycamore
and the other draw support cards that we currently have
in the meta.
|
Otaku |
How are you doing?
…
We’re reviewing
Hau (Sun & Moon 120/149); as it is a name
I’ve never heard before, I have no idea if I was sort of
making a pun or not. What I do know is that Hau
joins the growing list of Supporter cards that let you
draw three cards, with no additional cost or effect.
Besides him, we have Cheren and Tierno.
It is so odd to me as a long time player; not just
seeing three Supporters only different in name, but that
these three have barely - if ever - been competitive
when for years we had Supporters that drew three
cards but came with a drawback and were good (if not
great!) for competitive play. Something like TV
Reporter (“Draw 3 cards. Then discard any 1
card from your hand.”) was vital to many (if not most)
decks back in the day, and not just those that could
combo off of the discard cost. The game is just
too fast and resource intensive to get by drawing three
cards from your Supporter usage for the turn… at least
most of the time this is the case. If there is
some quirky deck build that makes Hau and company
awesome, I haven’t seen it.
That doesn’t mean
Hau is useless, though. Hau demonstrates
that the base value of a Supporter is still drawing
three cards, which is useful for estimating the quality
of other effects. If you want to get really in
depth, this provides a nice data point for the math
behind the game; you try to find cards that are nearly
identical except for one difference and that helps you
deduce the value of that difference. A lot more
universal, at least for a time, is allowing new players
to focus on the fundamentals of Pokémon TCG without
having to make the kind of judgment calls required for
competitive Supporters like N or Professor
Sycamore. I’ve never tested it myself, but I
have known others to try at least a clutch Cheren/Hau/Tierno,
especially when Battle Compressor and VS
Seeker are both legal because there are times
when you need to draw three cards; no more and no less.
I haven’t seen any competitive decks that needed Hau
(or friends) for it, so a theoretical advantage to these
Supporters is that certain combos are going to need you
to draw while not messing with your deck order or hand
contents. Where Hau shines is in the
Limited Format (where you build your deck based on pulls
from sealed product), as well as the PTCGO only Theme
Format (where each player uses a preconstructed Theme
Deck). Unsurprisingly, decks are usually lacking
in draw power and this makes any draw better, and
hassle-free draw a little bit better as well.
Ratings
Standard:
2/5
Expanded:
2/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Theme:
3.75/5
Conclusion
Part of me wishes
Hau drew another card or two; that might be
enough to have made it worthwhile. The reason
another part of me is glad it doesn’t is because that
means there is just the slightest chance that the pacing
of the game will slow down in the future after cards
like Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108,
106/108) and Professor Sycamore rotate from
Standard play… but probably not. It looks more
like we’ll still have some potent draw power, just
structured a bit differently than what we’ve become
accustomed to over the last few years. Hau will
have to settle for being a solid learning card for new
players and a suboptimal but not the worst play for the
rest of us.
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