Cara Liss – Vivid Voltage
Date Reviewed: January 23, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.00
Expanded: 2.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Cara Liss (SW – Vivid Voltage 149/185) is a Trainer-Supporter that lets you search your deck for up to two copies of Rare Fossil cards, then put them directly onto your Bench. As usual, you shuffle your deck afterward. This isn’t a new effect. If you go back to Relicanth (SW – Darkness Ablaze 040/189), you’ll find that its “Fossil Search” attack does the exact same thing for [C]. Cara Liss costs you your Supporter for the turn to do this, while Relicanth means giving up an Energy, an attack, and suffering a 90 HP, Basic [W] Pokémon with [L] Weakness, no Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of [C]. Relicanth’s other attack is “Surf”, doing 40 for [WC]. Normally, I tend to clearly favor using a Trainer – even your Supporter – for these kinds of things… but I’m not so sure here.
Not because Relicanth’s Fossil Search is good, but because Cara Liss is rather underwhelming. Rare Fossil itself is a Trainer-Item you may play from your hand as if it was a Basic Pokémon. If you want to run Arctozolt, Arctovish, Dracovish, or Dracozolt Pokémon, you’ve got to evolve them from Rare Fossil. If you want to get technical, there might be some workarounds, but we’re talking about Expanded only options with their own drawbacks, such as Ditto {*} or Archie’s Ace in the Hole. None of the versions of Rare Fossil Evolutions I listed have proven competitive to my knowledge, but let’s assume some future version will be. Does that then justify running Cara Liss and/or Relicanth? Barely, I think.
Rare Fossil cannot be searched out by anything else except for general Trainer or Item searching effects. As such, a deck that relies on a Pokémon which evolves from Rare Fossil has no choice. That doesn’t mean either card is good, though. Currently, we only have general Trainer and Item-recycling effects that work with Rare Fossil. Such effects tend to be rare and costly, so you use this searching effect once or twice and… that’s it. If you run only one or two copies of Cara Liss, then you risk whiffing on her early game. If you max her out, then two to three copies are going to go to waste each game. Relicanth should only attack once or twice, and it itself an easily searched out Basic Pokémon.
Ratings
- Standard: 2/5
- Expanded: 2/5
I have never run a deck featuring any of the Pokémon in question, nor have I encountered them, but I am thinking you’re best off just relying on general draw power and/or search effects capable of grabbing Trainers (or even just Item cards). That way, you can run a lot of it but still have it prove useful after you’ve gotten Rare Fossil into play. However, Cara Liss (and even Relicanth) are still easy enough to use, and their job vital enough, that I won’t give them minimal scores.
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