If you’re reading this, then I forgot to
write an actual intro.
Stats
Computer Search
is an Ace Spec card; you may only run a
single Ace Spec card in your deck.
In one sense, this makes your Ace
Spec choice very important; like your
“Supporter usage” for the turn, if you
don’t make use of it, you’re giving up
some potential advantage.
Unlike Supporter usage, this is a
single card and without dedicating
resources to making it easier to pull
from your deck and/or re-use, it’s a
one-and-done deal.
It is possible some decks will be
better off running a copy of some other
card over an Ace Spec, but unlikely.
Computer Search
is otherwise an Item, one of the three
kinds of Trainers; you can play as many
other Items per turn as you wish… and if
you’re in a format that has an effective
way of reclaiming Items from the discard
pile, you could even spam multiple Ace
Spec cards as well (use it, get it back,
use it again, etc.).
This actually makes it part of
the best supported form of Trainer card.
Thanks to
Skyla, we now have a Supporter that
can grab any one Trainer card from your
deck and add it to your hand, including
Ace Spec Trainers.
If Ace Spec cards prove potent,
you may actually finally start seeing
Recycle used in more decks, but
glancing ahead it won’t be because of
Computer Search.
You probably will see
Computer Search recycled frequently
by
Sableye (BW: Dark Explorers
62/108) via its Junk Hunt attack; the
only real draw back to the combo is
actual cost built into
Computer Search through its own
effect text.
Effects
Computer Search
requires you discard two cards from hand
in order to use it.
If you do, you are then allowed
to search your deck for any one card and
add it to your hand.
This is a very, very potent
effect and as an iconic card from the
earliest days of the game (Computer
Search originally appeared in the
Base Set and Base Set 2 as
“normal” Trainers a.k.a. Items), it
seems an appropriate choice for
demonstrating the Ace Spec mechanic.
Being an Ace Spec card, however, means
those of us who know it from the early
days of the game (or recent Unlimited
play) must be careful.
Becoming an Ace Spec has “nerfed”
Computer Search; what made it so
formidable back in the day was that you
could run up to four (I found three was
usually optimal) as it allowed you to
abuse the copious amounts of
draw/search/recursion power available
from older cards.
With
Computer Search it was hard not to
effectively open with a
Professor Oak, and with
Item Finder, it was uncommon to lack
the option of adding the infamous draw
card to hand.
Usage
Simply put, this card will become the
default Ace Spec used from now on.
Even completely on its own, the
one-in-60 chance of hitting a “search
and add anything to hand” card is
potent.
Most decks are likely to pack
Skyla now, and as already stated
those running
Sableye can use this to set-up; play
out as much of your hand as possible,
then you can use this to thin before
using
Professor Juniper or to dump your
last few cards in hand to get
Professor Juniper.
The discard cost will hurt, and badly at
times; you may not have any good fodder
(to be fair, every card in your deck
really should matter) and this is why
some riskier combos are almost
impossible to make pay off.
My earlier comment about
Recycle, for example; though
searching for any one card is well worth
top decking something from the discard,
coupled with
Recycle only working on a flip and
the two card discard for
Computer Search, and it becomes too
expensive and unreliable at the same
time.
Even using it with
Skyla and
Sableye will require caution.
Of course, there will be some decks that
will make good use of (or at least
mitigate) the discard cost;
Sableye is a good choice for
spamming it because basic
Darkness Energy then can be targeted
by
Dark Patch or
Super Rod (as needed), Pokémon can
be targeted via
Revive or
Super Rod (as needed), and Junk Hunt
itself can reclaim any discarded Items.
Since everything I just described
focuses on Items that also means Junk
Hunt is useful for recycling the
recycling cards; the combo just feeds
its self.
A few decks will use one of the other
Ace Spec cards currently out, and I’ve
already seen a few debut in
Japan
that rival
Computer Search, but for now this is
the top Ace Spec to use in Modified… and
Unlimited.
Unless we get a rather odd
ruling, I am assuming that just as you
can only use the new version in
Modified, you can only use that version
in Unlimited due to the text changes
(the addition of the Ace Spec rule).
Here decks are going to have to
adjust as we are used to running up to
four copies, so most decks are losing
two-to-three cards!
The bright side is that this
should weaken the first-turn-win/lock
decks, which are most dependent upon it.
As for Limited play, this is a must run,
as any Item based search would be.
The Ace Spec clause is written on
the card, so unlike some of the other
deck building restrictions, you are
still limited to running only one Ace
Spec here.
It seems unlikely you would pull
more than one Ace Spec, but this is the
top choice amongst them.
Ratings
Unlimited:
4.95/5
Modified:
4.75/5
Limited:
5/5
Summary
Computer Search
was my number one pick for this set as
well, and it is easy to see why; search
and increasing your deck’s
stability/reliability/however you wish
to phrase it is the chief strategy in
most TCGs, not just Pokémon.
I can’t bring myself to give it a
perfect score for Modified or Unlimited,
however; there will be a few decks where
accessing one of the other Ace Spec
cards is just more advantageous than
being a little more reliable.
Since you only have a single copy
of
Computer Search floating around your
deck, it just isn’t as good as it was
“in the old days”.
