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Full Heal (Black and White)
Ahhh
. . . Full Heal . . . one of the original Base Set cards
that has seen pretty frequent
reprinting throughout the history of the Pokémon TCG
(sometimes in the form of Double Full Heal in the days
when they referenced Double Battle mechanics on the
cards). It’s a bit like Potion in that it is a card that
every player has a stack of, but none would actually use
in a competitive deck.
Unlike Potion, which got a bit of an upgrade recently,
Full Heal still does the same old same old. It’s a
Trainer card that removes all Special Conditions from
your active Pokémon.
Is this any good? Well, it sort of is. Special
Conditions, though not a focus of many decks in the
metagame, can be annoying.
Having a Pokémon dragged active and left Confused and
Poisoned by Muk’s Sludge
Drag can be a real pain; your opponent hitting Paralysis
flips can really set you back; and sometimes it hurts
YOU when your Sleeping
Cleffa just won’t wake up at
the start of your turn.
So, why hasn’t this card ever been played?
Simply because of its very low
utility. The number of times it will come in
handy simply does not justify giving it a space it your
deck, and besides there are other ways of dealing with
Status effects. Special Conditions bar Paralysis and
Sleep can be Retreated out
of, and if this isn’t an option (due to high Retreat
costs), then there is always Switch: a card which is
much, much more useful in many more situations.
Full Heal is something that will likely always be around
(it’s a fairly obvious thing to have in the game), but
it almost certainly will never be played except in the
unlikely event that all switching cards are rotated out,
and Status Condition decks become massively powerful. To
be honest, I don’t see either of those things happening
(mind you, who would have thought that Gust of Wind
would be reprinted?), so Full Heal seems destined to
stay as the shoebox/theme deck/very new player card that
it has pretty much always been.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (deck space is too precious for cards like
Full Heal)
Limited: 3 (it’s a Trainer, so you likely play it. It
might even come in handy)
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