Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Shadow Circle (XY)
Weakness has always played a big part in the TCG,
especially now when we have double Weakness and an
abundance of attacks that can exploit it to take OHKOs.
You would think that cards which eliminate Weakness
generally would have played a huge role over the years,
but they really haven’t: Blastoise
δ CG and Bubble Coat were rarely used in the past, and
more recent solutions like Leavanny
NVI/LTR and the Lake Trio from Plasma Blast haven’t been
played at all. They were all kind of awkward and tended
to hurt the performance of a deck more than they would
have helped.
Shadow Circle is a Stadium which could be just about the
most efficient anti-Weakness card we have seen yet: all
that is required to negate Weakness is to have a Dark
Energy attached to a Pokémon while the Stadium is on the
Field. Obviously this can be used easily in the powerful
Darkrai EX-based Dark decks
that we have now, but it can also work in anything
running Rainbow Energy, Prism Energy, or even Blend
GPRD, so that would include Fairy Toolbox and most
Plasma decks for a start. Imagine the benefits:
Darkrai no longer vulnerable
to Terrakion LTR or
Landorus EX;
Thundurus EX unafraid of
Sawk PLB techs;
Yveltal EX not worrying
about Raichu XY etc.
But I suspect that, as with the other anti-Weakness
cards, most players will decide Shadow Circle is not
worth it. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly,
an opponent can react to it and make it a non-issue –
all they have to do is counter with their own Stadium
before they attack, and let’s face it, most decks these
days are running 2-3. Secondly, players may well decide
that their deck will get more benefit from running
different Stadiums, such as Virbank
City Gym to increase damage from Laser; Tropical Beach,
to aid set up; or even Frozen City to mess with Rain
Dance style decks (Blastoise
and Emboar). The fact is
that our current format puts attack way, way ahead of
defence in terms of priority. With Muscle Band and
Hypnotoxic Laser around, a
lot of decks don’t even need to exploit Weakness in
order to take KOs. The usefulness of Shadow Circle would
then be restricted to dealing with tech cards (like
Terrakion) or pure
4-Corners/Counter decks such as
Dugtrio/Raichu, and
it’s doubtful if they are enough of a threat to justify
giving up your Stadium slots.
I do think Shadow Circle is a little underrated by a lot
of players, and it may become a key card in future.
Right now though, you will most likely prefer to use
something else.
Rating
Modified: 3 (good card, but there are better Stadiums)
Limited: 2.5 (you would play it if using Dark Energy,
but it is unlikely to affect the game that much)
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HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150 |
Shadow Circle.
Standard.
In the struggle between Dark and Fairy, Yveltal won the
EX battle, but Xerneas has the best Stadium. Whereas the
Fairy Stadium is relevant in any matchup, Shadow Circle
is almost a dead card against a deck not using a Dark
deck’s Weaknesses. That said, if Dark decks continue to
be so popular, people will play more and more anti-Dark
techs or decks. In that case the Dark player will
probably want to include 1 or 2 of these that can easily
be searched for with Skyla to counter the counters.
Unlimited 150.
In this format Dark decks already have 2 useful
Stadiums, Sidney’s Stadium (Dark Pokémon
can't be Asleep. Confused, or Paralyzed) and Moonlight
Stadium (Free Retreat). Like in Standard there’s the
problem that it’s quite a narrow effect that depends on
what your opponent’s deck is but on the upside, the
format is more unpredictable and decks often splash
unexpected Types to deal with certain threats. Having
plenty of counter Stadiums is important too, especially
for Dark decks which really don’t appreciate a Battle
Frontier on the field. Overall, Shadow Circle is a solid
but narrow card, if you can’t get hold of one of the
other 2 Dark supporting Stadiums then it’s well worth
the slot in the deck.
Ratings.
Standard: 2.5
Unlimited 150: 3
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