At last we come to the collective top
pick of the Pojo Pokémon review crew,
and it is
Ultra Ball!
So what makes this Item so
potent?
Stats
The downside of being a Trainer is in a
sense, you’re superfluous.
While Trainers are usually the
driving force behind a deck, few
Trainers actually directly win you the
game.
There's only a handful that
directly contribute to a “win”
condition, though there are a few more
that can function as Pokémon or
otherwise directly keep you from losing
for the turn.
However, it is Pokémon and Energy
to fuel Pokémon that ultimately wins
games the vast majority of the time.
Fortunately Trainers really are what get
a deck going and keep it flowing most of
the time, though sometimes Pokémon do a
good job of that as well.
Trainers are also a little easier
to block than Pokémon or Energy, and
Ultra Ball is an Item, which makes
it even easier to block.
Still, when there are no outside
effects interfering, Items are the
easiest cards to play in the game; weak
effects can become amazing through
stacking them, and potent cards border
on or crossover into being unbalancing.
Effects
Ultra Ball
has a built in cost, which tells you the
designers thought the effect would be
potent.
They were right; while it costs
you three cards from hand (Ultra
Ball and two discards)
Ultra Ball let’s you search your
deck for any Pokémon and add it to hand.
No worrying about Stage or coin
flips.
No worrying about Retreat Cost.
No worrying about printed HP.
It may be costly, but you’re
getting what you pay for.
Usage
Here is where things finally get a bit
interesting.
Ultra Ball can function in any deck,
like two of our previous entries on the
top 10;
Enhanced Hammer (BW: Dark
Explorers 94/108) at number nine and
Tornadus EX (BW: Dark Explorers
90/108, 108/108).
Besides running into
Gothitelle (BW: Emerging Powers
47/98) and
Vileplume(HS: Undaunted
24/90) (which of course would block all
Item cards and are quite deck specific)
you have only to concern yourself with
what your own deck is doing; on the
other hand the usefulness of
Enhanced Hammer varies according to
how much Special Energy your opponent is
running and
Tornadus EX is less useful if your
opponent isn’t running Fighting-Type
Pokémon and can even become a liability
against the usual Lightning-Type decks.
In many decks right now,
Ultra Ball can function quite well
indeed; the two card discard cost can be
a bonus when it combos with a major part
of a deck.
As you are well aware by now,
Lightning-Type decks are still going to
focus on
Eelektrik (BW: Noble Victories
40/101) and its Dynamotor Ability and
Darkness-Type decks are going to focus
on using
Dark Patch in a similar set-up.
Other decks will still have
discard friendly options, such as
Pokémon and basic Energy that aren’t
needed at the moment and that
Super Rod or
Flower Shop Lady can throw back in
if needed for later.
In fact, there is a single thing that
hurts this card and I’ve found many
players have either overlooked or (in my
opinion) undervalued;
Junk Arm.
Decks rely heavily on
Junk Arm right now.
In some ways this sets the stage
for
Ultra Ball; we have already learned
how to utilize and build decks with an
eye towards meeting discard
requirements.
Mostly though this becomes
direct competition for discarding
resources; if you can’t meet the discard
costs of both
Junk Arm and
Ultra Ball you’ll feel it pretty
bad.
As such, it really is possible
for some, perhaps many decks to still
rely on the other “Ball”
Items instead.
We do have several, and honestly
all have their uses.
Dual Ball
was never really competition for
Ultra Ball anyway; if you really
need Basic Pokémon that bad you’re just
going to make use of all copies you run
of
Pokémon Collector, instead of just
trying to run as few as you need to open
with it.
Poké Ball wasn’t ever viewed as a
“real” choice either, though given how
well players adapted to
Pokémon Reversal backed by
Junk Arm, I do wonder if Evolution
cards had been more important to decks
at large if we’d have seen it run.
Level Ball and
Heavy Ball, on the other hand, have
proven useful in prominent, tournament
caliber decks.
Even running a mix of both can
sometimes be safer than trying to get by
with
Ultra Ball, if you just can’t afford
the discard costs.
Of course the card is pretty pointless
for Unlimited.
Yes it can help with Sabledonk
and other first turn nasty decks, but
you’ve already got
Computer Search (you know, the
better version of
Ultra Ball),
Luxury Ball, and non-Supporter draw
cards; you shouldn’t have room or need
of
Ultra Ball.
So what about Limited?
It is search power in Trainer
form; unless there’s some bizarre
restriction that’s an automatic must
run.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
3.8/5
Limited:
5/5
Summary
So the number one card actually scores
lower than other cards in the top 10?
How does that work out?
Well those other cards had a much
narrower focus and to be honest, I am
starting to have some “buyer’s remorse”
with placing
Ultra Ball so high after a little
more testing.
I favor versatility and utility
over raw power, and what I scored higher
worked for slightly specific to very
specific decks.
Almost everything I have against
this card boils down to finding it hard
to afford both it and
Junk Arm, and if I’ve got to choose
Junk Arm wins.
If you need just one or two
universal search Items, it isn’t a
problem, but if you were trying to
replace several
Level Ball and/or
Heavy Ball, the savings in deck
space may not be worth the difficulty in
paying the discard cost.
Don’t let a few tenths of a point
scare you off of snagging a play set and
testing it out thoroughly.
In many decks it is a perfect
fit.
