Name:
Quick Ball
Set:
Mysterious Treasures
Card#:
114/123
Rarity:
Uncommon
Type:
Trainer
Sub-Type: Ball
Text:
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a
Pokémon. Show that Pokémon to your opponent and put
it into your hand. Shuffle the other revealed cards
into your deck. (If you don’t reveal a Pokémon,
shuffle all the revealed cards back into your deck.)
Quick Ball
is a “Ball Type” Trainer (a sub-type designation owing
to Apricorn Maker from Skyridge). Ball Type
Trainers are Normal Trainers that specialize in
searching your deck. Poké Ball (search your deck
for a Pokémon on a successful coin flip), is the oldest
(and probably weakest) of them, and other currently
legal versions are Dual Ball (flip two coins, get
a Basic Pokémon per head), Great Ball (searches
for a non-Pokémon-ex Basic and Benches it), Master
Ball (search the top 7 cards of your deck for a
Pokémon), and Dusk Ball (search the bottom seven
for a Pokémon, reviewed this last Tuesday).
Quick Ball
is the update to Fast Ball, but has sadly been
weakened. Fast Ball had you reveal cards from
your deck until you hit an Evolution card, which was
then added to your hand and the other revealed cards
then shuffled back in. If you had only one Stag 1
Evolution in the deck, it was a guaranteed success.
Early game, given how many ways we have (Supporter and
Trainer) of filling our Bench, Fast Ball would
still be good with multiple Stage 1 lines. Quick
Ball, however, can also catch a Basic, which really
hurts it most of the time: we have so many good ways of
getting Basics, so that it does indeed seem to be a draw
back. If we had the option to just discard the Basic
and continue the discarding, it might be pretty sweet,
but I suppose that would be a bit to potent with some of
the currently legal cards. Oh well.
Quick Ball
is still well worth playing in decks with very low
Pokémon counts. For example, in a deck built around a
single Basic and Stage 1, most of the time you’d either
be looking to Evolve the Basic or get another Basic so
getting KO’d doesn’t win the game for the opponent. So
hitting either is good. Even getting a spare of the
Stage 1 if you were already Evolved would be fine.
However, in very complex decks, it becomes pretty risky:
if you’ve got multiple Evolution lines, you have to make
sure you have enough of the Basics in play that any
Evolution is okay… but then that makes it even lamer to
hit a Basic. Also, TecH Pokémon, Openers, Cleaners,
etc. may all “get in the way”. Still, there are no
annoying flips or the potential for true failure unless
all your remaining Pokémon are Prized, which is
something only shared with the original Fast Ball
and the super specialized Rocket’s Poké Ball,
Team Aqua Poké Ball, and Team Magma Poké Ball.
I should also remind you that showing cards to your
opponent is also a downside, as it lets them identify
your deck not only as a general theme, but even bits of
TecH or other unique aspects. Early game this is a
bigger problem, since that is when they are most apt to
remain ignorant of what you are running. Mid-game a
good opponent will have it figured out, and late-game
you probably aren’t going to need it (or else have
really good odds of getting what you want).
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5 – If the big name Trainer cards aren’t good enough,
run a few copies of Fast Ball.
Modified:
3.25/5 – Quick Ball is a great card in a few
select decks, and a decent filler card for most. At
least it has to get something or else reveal your entire
deck to you (though sadly to your opponent as well).
Limited:
4.75/5 – Search power in Limited is almost always a
must. As it can’t fail (only hit a less desirable
target) and thus still thins your deck (usually
desirable in this format), it gets a near-perfect score.
-Otaku
