Today we finish counting down our Top 5
Promising Picks of BW: Legendary
Treasures.
If you skipped the rest of the
week, know that we altered our normal
Top 10 formula because the set was
mostly reprints (which we normally
wouldn’t cover).
With new rules going into effect
today and the still relatively recent
rotation, we decided that we would then
also do a Top 5 Reprints list next week
(so still a total of 10 cards).
So the top new card is
Elesa!
Due to the semi-restricted nature
of Supporters (you may only use one per
turn – you would think helpful
“supporting” characters would be more
cooperative) you need to balance the
needs of your deck: options versus
reliability.
You
can’t just run as many of each Supporter
as you wish because you would just have
huge dead hands each turn.
This format has had some stellar
Supporters, but the game’s power creep
means that only
Professor Juniper and
N have been staples.
Several other Supporters are
common sights in decks, but exactly what
extras to run (if any - certain Items
can be used to “fake” having more
Supporters) has been pretty variable as
none match the power or consistency of
those two.
Elesa
doesn’t change that.
She snags three Items from your
deck; in terms of raw card count this is
only the same amount of card advantage
generated by
Cheren… and we don’t play
Cheren competitively, do we?
The key here is quality – you get
the exact three Pokémon Tools you want
and in most decks, you’ll be able to
drop them instantly; important for the
fast paced format.
In fact, the only thing
preventing this from being a staple in
all decks (along with some of the
fantastic Items we have access to) is
Tool Scrapper.
Still, some decks can use it very well.
If
Elesa targeted deck or discard pile,
it would be a staple regardless of
Tool Scrapper.
Decks that already run heavy on
Pokémon Tools (six Pokémon Tools or
more) should definitely run it anyway –
either your deck is built around a combo
that calls for several Pokémon Tools to
be available, or you’re using them to
tweak your Pokémon for the current
situation.
I can’t recommend it if you run less
than four Pokémon Tools, but even if you
run four or five; a single copy might be
worthwhile.
Bit of a bummer if it hides on
the bottom of your deck and have less
than three cards to search out when you
finally get to use it, but especially if
you’re good at baiting out
Tool Scrapper it can still generate
good advantage.
In Unlimited, the raw draw and search
power of the format means you shouldn’t
need to waste a Supporter on searching
out Items.
In Limited, this set doesn’t have
any Pokémon Tools.
So in either format, don’t bother
(and remember I am not supposed to score
cards lower than 1/5).
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
3.5/5
Limited:
1/5
Summary
Elesa
actually isn’t a bad card in many decks
and is very good in specific ones.
I am not expecting her to be even
a one-per-deck staple in general, but
for those key decks at least one and
possibly two or even three could be
useful.
The rule changes may increase
Pokémon Tool play… or they may decrease
it if people begin to rely more on
Tool Scrapper.
I scored
Elesa as my top pick for this set.
As is so often the case, I have
some buyer’s remorse; originally I was
anticipating metagame I no longer am so
certain will materialize, as well as
giving a bit more credit than I probably
should have to the decks I expect will
run her reliably.
At the same time,
Spiritomb (BW: Legendary
Treasures 87/113) counters Ace
Specs, a card in almost ever deck but
just one card, while
Meloetta EX is just a Bench-sitter
that doesn’t even have an Ability but
could make Round decks tournament
viable.
So while I question my decision,
I still stand by
Elesa as being a good card and
possibly the best new card of the set.
