Hello, and welcome to the first full Supreme Victors
week, which, and I'm just guessing this, is celebrating
the release of Supreme victors this week (the 19th to be
precise). Anyway, we start the week with Cyrus's
Initiative, one of the new Supporters in Supreme
Victors, with a strange little effect. You flip 2 coins,
and for each heads, you choose a card from your
opponents hand (whilst looking, not randomly) and put it
on the bottom of your opponents deck. It seems mildly
disruptive at first glance, getting useful cards from
your opponents hand out of it, so they can't use them
during their turn, but just think about it properly.
Your one Supporter for the turn to possibly get up to 2
cards from your opponents hand to the bottom of their
deck, so they can draw more cards with Claydol (GE) or
Uxie (LA). OK, you get to choose what cards, but often,
they will be able to them back next turn with useful
Supporters, or just drawing into them. I suppose there
is one use I can't think of for this card, and that is
if you are against an SP deck that you know run a few
Power Sprays. Using Cyrus's Initiative, you (may) get to
look at your opponents hand, see if they have any Power
Sprays, and if so, remove them before you use your Poké-Powers,
without worrying about them Power Spraying any of them.
Useful if you have a big turn coming, but still a bit
luck reliant.
Ratings:
Modified: A bit too luck reliant, and really, if you
truly think about it long and hard, is really not that
good. All you allow them to do is draw more cards with
Claydol next turn, probably getting the cards back that
you took away eventually. As far as I can tell, getting
rid of Power Sprays are the only useful thing to come
out of using this card. Really no. 1.25/5
Limited: Still no here really. OK, you may remove a key
evolution or energy for many turn, but it's still flippy,
which makes it unreliable, and something you really
don't want to use. It may be nice, but since you'll
probably only get 1 or maybe 2 tops in your limited
packs, and are they really going to help in such
numbers? There's a chance, and that's the cards biggest
problem, luck. 1.75/5
Finally, a congratulations to the new World Champions,
and also, to Sammi Sekkoum. He may not have won, but he
did a great job for the UK.
Steel_Winger
Welcome back to the Pokemon COTD!
And for those of you who went to Worlds, I hope you all
had a great time there! Congratulations to the champions
of the Masters, Seniors, and Juniors divisions!
Now, on to our featured card, which is one of the new
Supporters from Supreme Victors: Cyrus's Initiative! You
get to flip 2 coins, and for every heads you get to look
at your opponent's hand, choose a card from it, and put
it at the bottom of his/her deck.
Personally, I like this card. With this you can deny
your opponent certain cards with a successful coin flip.
You also get to flip 2 coins instead of just one, so
there's a better chance of success. A 75% chance to get
the effect off as a matter of fact, and a 25% chance
that you'll get to shrink your opponent's hand by 2
cards. Sure, many people may not think 75% is consistent
enough, but it's a lot better than some 50-50 cards we
have. (Imagine how broken Poke Ball would be if you
could flip two coins instead of one.) Not to mention
that you can basically what your opponent plans to do
next turn if you're good at reading plays.
So, what do you try to target if you succeed with this
effect? Here's a quick list of potential targets:
Claydol (GE).
Bebe's Search.
Roseanne's Research.
Rare Candy.
Cyrus's Conspiracy.
Energy Gain/Power Spray.
Basically, anything that helps your opponent set up
(there's another target right there!) or take control of
the match. It may not send the targeted cards to the
discard pile, but putting it at the bottom of the deck
means they'll more than likely have to expend some more
resources to get a card or two back in hand. Unless
they're playing Underground Expedition...
Combos? Combo this with Sableye (SF), first and
foremost. When you go first, if you can Impersonate this
successfully, chances are that your opponent will be
less likely to explode out of the gate with a barrage of
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums when their turn comes up.
That can be pretty helpful, don't you think? You could
also try it with Absol (SW). Use the Initiative first
and target a Pokemon or energy or two; this makes it so
you'll have a better chance of Absol targeting the
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums left in their hand, making
it easier for you to discard more cards.
If you get it, playtest with it. It could prove to be a
big help if it works.
Ratings:
Modified: 4/5 It would get an extra point if it didn't
have a chance of failing... A great card for disruption.
Limited: 5/5 If you have it, you have GOT to play it.
You don't get that many Supporters in Limited anyway,
and this is a great one to use.
This is Steel_Winger, and now I leave you with a quote
from "The Art of War", Chapter 13, excerpt 4:
"Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good
general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond
the reach or ordinary men, is foreknowledge."
