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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Top 10 Sun & Moon

#8 - Nest Ball
- Sun & Moon

Date Reviewed:
Feb. 8, 2017

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 3.88
Expanded: 3.75
Limited: 4.00

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

Sometimes it's the simplest of cards that make our list, due in part to their simplicity and how effective their text is. Nest Ball is just such a card, so it shouldn't be a surprise that it's tied with our previous two picks. 

The only thing Nest Ball does is grab a Basic Pokemon from the deck and places it on the Bench. Immediately combining this with Pokemon-EX is going to be one major use for this card, and any Basic-centric strategy is going to be running 4 copies - I'm looking at you, Volcanion. So what a surprise, it makes our list! But what about when those Pokemon-EX gradually rotate out? If it's anything to go by, chances are strong within the next couple of years, we're going to see a gradual decline in EX in Standard (Expanded will still have them all to itself).

Well that's where the GX come in. There's a wide variety of them around and about - Primarina-GX and Espeon-GX merely represent the Stage 2 and Stage 1 variations that come up. Yes, we even have Basic GX Pokemon to take a look at, which means Nest Ball can snag a copy of them and put them right onto the Bench! It speeds up the strategies and decks of anything it's in, making Nest Ball a big necessity in most decks. 

...MOST decks. 

Some decks that probably won't want to or need to run Nest Ball are ones like Greninja BREAK that can amass a quick field of evolution potentials - Frogadier can instantly summon out every other copy of himself throughout the deck, and once a Greninja's down, they're practically set-up. There's also the possibility that people avoid Nest Ball in their decks because they don't want to put down an evolving Basic which their opponent can snipe or Lysandre out for an easy KO, which would be very inconvenient. 

Nest Ball's another variation on the "Poke Ball" series, and it will probably end up in a load of decks to come. 

Rating 

Standard: 4/5 (a great search option to make evolving easier) 

Expanded: 4/5 (...with some mild risks) 

Limited: 4/5 (but always a great card to have!) 

Arora Notealus: Nest Ball's gonna be more impactful in a Basic-centric format, which I expect this to last for a good long while. Once Pokemon-EX have had their time in the sun, Nest Ball may see some decline in usage, or it'll end up being used instead on Pokemon-GX or to aid in those Evolution strategies. As long as Basics are relevant, so too is Nest Ball. 

Next Time: HUT HUT HIKE!!


Otaku

At last, it is time to countdown the top 10 cards of Sun & Moon, as determined by the aggregate efforts of aroramage, Zach, and myself!  As usual, each reviewer submitted his own personal top 10 list, and the results were averaged out to produce the list we are actually using.  Reprints were not permitted for the list; we already know a card like Ultra Ball is good (and actually pretty hard to top)! 

Eighth place goes to Nest Ball (Sun & Moon 123/149; 158/149).  Trainers may not make the world go round, but usually, they make decks flow.  There haven’t been any effective general Trainer counters in years, which I consider a very good thing as it is usually quite frustrating when there it.  There are a few pieces of general Trainer support, like Skyla and Trainers’ Mail, so that’s a good thing.  As an Item, the only cost to play Nest Ball is having Nest Ball in hand; this is why it is important that Items not be especially strong because they are the easiest cards to spam in the TCG.  The only drawback to using Items is external; Item lock is a potent strategy, and there are multiple cards that can inflict it upon both players or even just against one’s opponent.  With that out of the way, Nest Ball has a simple effect; search your deck for a Basic Pokémon and Bench it, directly from your deck.  No flips.  No discard costs.  Restricted only to the most important Stage in the game: even decks focused on Evolutions start with the appropriate Basic Pokémon.  By never landing in your hand, the Basic can avoid certain effects, which can be good but mostly keeps this from being used to fetch Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108) and still activate its “Set Up” Ability. 

So should you use Nest Ball?  Not in every deck, but in many.  This provides an alternative search to Ultra Ball.  Again, even decks that focus on Evolutions will (usually) need to begin with the Basic from which those cards Evolve.  Ultra Ball is still king (I use it as an example in the top 10 introductory blurb for a reason), but for as useful as the discard cost can be for setting up plays like thinning your hand while simultaneously snagging Shaymin-EX in order to draw with Set Up, there are times when you just cannot afford the discard cost.  While not for every deck, it is far from uncommon to see a deck running three Ultra Ball and then two of a less costly, more restrictive search option.  Basic swarm decks, in particular, benefit from Nest Ball.  We’ll actually be covering one such card tomorrow, so I won’t get into specifics.  This card has both general deck usage potential in Expanded and Standard play as well as a prominent place in more specialized decks and is amazing in Limited mostly because any search is welcome there.  My experience with this card mostly comes from other people using it, as well as Theme Deck battles on the PTCGO.  If it is so good, then why haven’t I used it?  It doesn’t fit the decks I’m currently running.  In Theme Deck mode, it is as great as it is in Limited. 

Ratings 

Standard: 3.75/5 

Expanded: 3.5/5 

Limited: 4/5 

Theme: 4/5 

Summary: Nest Ball is a new search Item that plays the Basic Pokémon you choose from your deck directly to your Bench.  I probably could have just written that before giving the ratings as my entire review, and if we didn’t have Ultra Ball and/or Shaymin-EX wasn’t such an integral part of so many decks, I’d have scored it at least a quarter point higher. 

I had Nest Ball as my ninth place pick, but I don’t object to it clocking in one place higher.  Collectively, it garnered nine voting points, tying with our 9th and 10th place finishers, but winning the tie because it appeared on all three personal top 10 lists.  Just one less voting point, and we’d have had a tie for 10th and 11th place for Nest Ball to try and win.  For the sake of reference, we are still in the middle of some tightly packed picks.  One more voting point would have moved the three-way tie from between 8th, 9th, and 10th place and instead been between 6th, 7th, and 8th.


Zach Carmichael
Had this at #10 on his Top 10 List


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