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Pojo's Shaman King TCG Card of the Day

Rail Bird

Type - Strike
Card Number - REI125

Card Ratings
Tournament- 3.50
Casual- 3.50
Sealed- 3.17

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst. 3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.

Date Reviewed - 05.12.05

 
 


Dan The
Timid

DanTheTimid

Rail Bird
Strike
Type: Ranged
Cost: 2/1/0
Stats: 6/3
Effect: -2 Intercept --> If you counterattack with Rail Bird, add a yellow furyoku.
Flavor: "This slide is filthy, y'all! You got nothin'!"

We continue Lola week with one of the more versatile eco cards in the opening set. I personally see it alot ranged decks whether lola or not, so apparently there are a decent amount of people who appreciate its versatility. But how good is it really, lets look:

Pros:
- Solid Intercept
- Potentially Furyoku conserving effect
- Effect not limited to once per turn

Cons:
- Low punishable Force
- Only Ranged shaman can use it
- A little expensive for those stats if you don't use the effect

Overview: Much like dark ascedance Rail Bird is an eco card with non-eco stats. 2/1/0 is about an average cost, not horribly expensive, but eco cards are all about being cheap allowing you to build up furyoku for more expensive cards later. What makes it eco like DA, is that effect. If your opponent sends a force of 3 or 4 at you, you can gain a yellow furyoku, assuming you has atleast 2 green and a yellow to begin with you've effectively decreased the cost down to 2 green. If they send a 2 or 1 force you can actually end up with a net gain of a yellow, and since a yellow is about worth 2 green its almost a free strike. And if by some rare occurence you should face a 0 force you can end up actually gaining a yellow to counter attack, thats sweet (in theory).

Deeper Analysis: But again its the theory part that makes or breaks the effect, your not going to be facing really low strikes very often, usually at best your going to make it a 2 green cost, but there are plenty of other 4/3 for 2 green cards you could be using that also come with a nifty effect. So why use this one? Its the versatility, aside from the potential to gain more yellow back if your facing a 5 or a 6 this card can still block it. It will no longer be an eco strike but if you had flipped an eco strike you would have been forced to focus, especially in yellor or red thats never something you want happening. I guess the best way to think of this card is an eco strike with out the liability of normal eco strikes. Maybe consider it a 4/3 for 2 green with the effect "yellow--> +2 intercept, use only once".

Combos/Uses: Well to be honest I don't see this card combo'd very often. You could use big bill to make that effect go off a little more often I guess but I certaintly wouldn't include a big bill just for such a minor combo. It should be mainly used in a ranged deck that feels its in need of a little eco boost, often too low on yellows. But don't be too aggressive with it, that 3 force can and will be punished.

Final Stat Breakdown:
Constructed: 3.9/5 (eco with out liability is very nice but not every deck really needs it)
Sealed: 4.5/5 (The biggest attacks you usually run into in this format are 6s so that intercept is great, and your more likely to run into small stuff like fetish frenzy so its effect can be even more useful. Theres also less really nasty punishers. I wouldn't run ranged just to run this card but if you are already defiantly grab them)

andys
island

We continue to look into the life of Lola. In today's card, "Rail Bird," we see that her oversoul(spirit control, for the dub watchers) medium is a skateboard. I think it's a Horohoro (Trey Racer, for the dub watchers) spin-off if I ever saw one. Anyways, let's take a closer look at this rebel's card.

Ranged Trait limitation for "Rail Bird." Happens to be the same trait for Trey. Next is what I see as an "average cost." 2 green and 1 yellow furyoku. It's not the best payment, but that's what strike costs average around.

Next is her base stats, with 6 intercept and 3 force. A 2:1 ratio, which is good with her effect. 6 can block the opening attack and the Golden 5 force of a normal strike. The force of 3 is not very good. It's not going to get you a point. Your opponent will counter this, so watch out for a powerful return.

Her effect is stated that "-2 intercept -> If you counterattack with Rail Bird add a yellow furyoku." I believe that at the end of that card should be "Use only once." If an errata list ever comes out, we shall find out. I don't think it really matters anyways since you will most likely won't be countering 2 forces from your opponent very often. Of course, you should play with the card as is, but I am pretty sure "use only once" will be added. Anyways, when using her effect, make sure you can still counterattack. If for some reason you miscount your opponent's force, you can't bring you intercept back to 6.

Her effect makes this card cost much cheaper. If you replenish a green and use her effect then this card only costs 1 green. This makes the "average cost" nice and cheap. What you can get done with 3 intercept is very limited, so basically this is a stall strike. You can counter 4 forces from your opponent (or the opening attack), and then you let your opponent counter your easy 3 force. It's a balanced card, but I am not seeing too much of a "wow" factor.

Casual: 3.5/5
Tournament: 3.5/5
Sealed: 3.5/5

BlankZero

text
Name: Rail Bird
Number: REI_125
Cost: (G/Y/R): 2/1/0
Type: Strike
Rarity: Uncommon
Text: " -2 Intercept => If you counterattack with Rail Bird, add a yellow furyoku."

This card rocks because:

-In the right situation, you can essentially play it for free
-Even though it's a bit expensive, 6 intercept still makes it playable more often than not.

Meh, that's about all I can think of. If your opponent's sending like 0-2 force at you, you can drop the intercept really low and recover two or three yellows. And the 6 intercept means that more often than not, you'll be able to counter with it, even though the ability may not kick in. That's about where the good stuff ends.

This card sucks because:
 
-The stats are a bit sub-par for the cost.
-You won't always be able to pull off the ability
-It's traited to Ranged shaman
 
But that brings us to the bad part of the card. The intercept is only one more than the standard force of five, meaning that without a boost in intercept, you might not even be able to use the ability once. And a force of 3 is really not worth paying 2 greens and a yellow for if you aren't getting anything else out of it.
 
Additionally, you're only able to use it with Ranged-trait shaman. This is sort of a bummer with this set because there aren't any shaman with Ranged attack type that share the Body advantage trait, which this card would benefit a lot from.
 
DANGER! Kids, don't try these combos at home:

Well, if there were any Ranged/Body shaman, this would go well with the intercept enhancing cards, but there are no shaman with those traits as of now, so...
 
The good thing is that of the ranged shaman, Lola, Trey and Lyserg, two of them (Lola and Lyserg) have access to teamworks that will let them abuse the ability.
 
Lola can use Big Bill, Football Fanatic to bolster the intercept, putting it at a solid 2 intercept over 5. This will ensure that you're almost always able to pull off the ability at least once.
 
Lyserg has Venster, Tactician; since you normally aren't trying to score with this card, dropping the force isn't really that important, and it essentially adds a free yellow furyoku.
 
Both Lola and Lyserg have access to Fateful Choice, which can also help out with the ability, since you probably aren't too concerned about the force on this strike. Trey sort of gets short-changed on this one.

Summary:

This card can be sort of expensive to play if you aren't in the right situation. But it has a solid intercept of 6, which can be somewhat useful; on the offside of the intercept is the low, punishable force of 3. If it's in the right deck, and the right situation, this can be a nice furyoku advantage card; in the wrong deck, or in the wrong situation, it's pretty miserable.

Rating:

Constructed: 3/5
Sealed: 1.5/5

 


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