Holon Lass – Pokemon Throwback Thursday (2005)

Otaku

Holon Lass (Delta Species 92/113) is today’s Throwback, and part of our series covering the cards that made up what was once known as the “Holon Trainer Engine”… or just “Holon Engine”.  These Supporters are united by Holon Transceiver, a Trainer-Item that gives you a choice; search your deck for a Supporter with “Holon” in the name or add a Supporter with “Holon” in the name from your discard pile to your hand.  All Holon Supporters mention you put them into play but that is old reminder text, from back when all Supporters worked that way. 

Another thing they all share in common is that they require you discard a card from your hand in order to actually play them.  Holon Lass’s personal effect requires you count how many Prizes are in play.  Not just your Prizes or your opponent’s, but all Prizes left in play.  You then look at a number of cards from the top of your deck equal to the amount of Prizes.  Any Energy cards you find among these cards, you may reveal to your opponent and add to your hand.  Whatever doesn’t get added to your hand is shuffled back into your deck.  You can select Special Energy cards.  You can also ignore Energy you don’t actually wish to add to your hand, even if it means you take nothing from those top cards.

The vast majority of the time, Holon Lass looks at two to 12 cards from the top of your deck, and can thus add between zero and 12 Energy cards… or two to eight and zero to eight, respectively, in the Limited Format.  As you only get one manual Energy attachment per turn, this can seem odd, but there are forms of Energy acceleration that attach from your hand, there are discard costs, and some strategies do want to plan ahead.  The first and last time we reviewed Holon Lass was on November 22, 2005.  Overall, we thought quite highly of it in the Unlimited Format, because Blastoise (Base Set 2/102; Base Set 2 2/130).  It is also an option for digging deep – at least, early game – to try and find a Special Energy card.

…

Yeah, I can’t say that I remember a lot of lists using Holon Lass, or at least, using her well, back in the day.  I was far too optimistic in my old review, I think.  I suspect part of my optimism was because Blastoise-ex was a pretty big deal back then, and so I expected the two to work well together, but once again, I don’t recall that actually being the case.  When I checked the World Championship decks for 2006 and 2007 (when Holon Lass was Standard-legal), I didn’t see any that included her.  There were cards to provide reliable, but far smaller, amounts of basic Energy.  In the Limited Format, Holon Lass is a nice pull but that is because you should have had room for a Supporter, even a weaker one.  Holon Lass’s maximum range is less here, but it is also more important to thin your deck of its basic Energy.

Ratings

• Standard: N/A
• Expanded: N/A
• Limited: 3/5

What if Holon Lass was reprinted?  Even without the rest of the Holon Trainer Engine, she may have niche use.  The same for a modern card with the same effects.  I do mean niche, though; even though Holon Lass can potentially grab a lot of Energy, and even snag Special Energy cards, you’re better of with a lower yield from much more reliable card picks.  It is also most definitely an early game card… and in the modern game, you cannot even use it Turn 1 anymore.