Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Dark Explorers
Countdown
#6 Random Receiver
For our final review of the week, we look at one of my
favourite cards from the set. One that placed a bit
higher than #6 on my own top 10 list.
Random Receiver is a Trainer Item that reveals cards
from your deck until you hit a Supporter. Then you get
to put that Supporter in your hand. Why is this so good?
Well, we all know how vital it is to be able to play a
Supporter on every turn that you can (especially early
game when an explosive set up is so important), and you
cannot always rely on having one in your hand at any
given time. Yes, there’s always Pokégear 3.0, but that
comes with a possibility of failure: Random Receiver
will guarantee
you a Supporter (as long as there is one in the deck, of
course). This offers a big boost in consistency, and
that’s so important in Pokémon. Great plays and
innovative techs may win you games, but over the course
of a long tournament, it’s consistency that pays off in
the end.
There are some decks that will still prefer to run
Pokégear over Receiver. If you run Pokémon Collector,
you will prefer to use Pokégear because it gives you a
choice which
may include that vital early Collector, instead of just
giving you the first thing it comes across. Decks that
run off-beat tech Supporters like Seeker and Black Belt
will probably stick with Pokégear too, as they would
likely prefer not to be given one of those cards when
they are trying to dig for draw. For everything else
though (i.e: most decks),
there’s Random Receiver. It works brilliantly with a
search engine based around the Ball Cards (Dual Ball,
Level Ball etc), because they pretty much exclusively
run draw Supporters, and whether Receiver grabs you a
PONT, a Juniper, or an N, you will most likely be able
to make good use of it.
This is the kind of card that I completely approve of
and believe is very good for the game. Everyone accepts
that there is a certain amount of luck of the draw (and
the coin flip) involved in Pokémon, but anything that
can cut down on that can only help increase the value of
skill and good deckbuilding
in the game. Random Receiver does that job by taking
some of the chance factor out of drawing into your
Supporters.
Rating
Modified: 4.5 (improves deck consistency, which is
something we all want)
Limited: 5 (as long as you manage to pull a Supporter)
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virusyosh |
Happy Friday, Pojo readers! I hope that you all have
exciting weekend plans. Today we're reviewing the #6
card on our countdown of the Top 10 best Dark Explorers
cards, and we'll end this week with a fairly useful Item
card, Random Receiver.
Random Receiver is an Item card, so you can use as many
of it as you'd like per turn (as well as other Items)
without having to commit to that turn's Supporter slot;
however, Random Receiver is also blocked by Vileplume,
Gothitelle. and Zebstrika. Random Receiver has a fairly
simple effects, where your reveal cards from the top of
your deck until you reveal a Supporter, show it to your
opponent, and put it into your hand, shuffling the other
cards back into your deck. This card is great as it
guarantees getting a Supporter (where Xtransceiver and
Pokegear 3.0 are more lucky reliant), however one
drawback when compared to Pokegear is that you aren't
given the choice amongst multiple Supporters. That being
said, a guaranteed Supporter is great in any format, so
expect Random Receiver to make its way into many decks
in both Modified and Limited alike.
Modified: 4/5 Supporters are a major part in getting
decks to run in Modified, so Random Receiver will be
great here to ensure that you get a Supporter when you
need it. Of course, it could always get you the wrong
one, but this card's pseudo-search shouldn't be
overlooked. Expect to see this card to see play in decks
that utilize Pokegear already, as this card is a major
upgrade, even if you don't get to choose from multiple
Supporters.
Limited: 5/5 Supporters are much less common in Limited,
therefore drawing into them is a lot harder, as well.
Even if you're running just one Supporter, Random
Receiver will fetch it for you, and if you're running
more than that, great. With the reprints of Professor
Juniper, N, and Cheren all showing up in this set,
Random Receiver can be an important part in getting the
cards you need to set up before you opponent, and
therefore aid in helping you grab a victory.
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