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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Top 10 Plasma Blast Cards

#2 - Silver Mirror  

- Plasma Blast

Date Reviewed:
Aug 29, 2013

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 4.13
Limited: 4.47

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

Back to the main COTD Page

Combos With:

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

#2 Silver Mirror 

If it took Pokémon a long time to do something about EX Pokémon, it only took them one set to come up with a serious counter to Plasma decks. Plasma is probably the deck to beat at the moment: it appeared in all three finals at Worlds 2013 and lost absolutely nothing in the rotation. 

Silver Mirror is a Pokémon Tool that works with any non-EX Pokémon to give it almost complete immunity from Plasma Pokémon (I say ‘almost’ because G Booster + Genesect-EX will bypass it). Considering that most Plasma decks do not run any non-Plasma Pokémon, except for the occasional Keldeo-EX, Silver Mirror can create a total lock which would only be broken by Tool Scrapper. This means that if Silver Mirror was combined with a Trainer Lock (Zebstrika NEX or Dragonite PLF), the Plasma deck would be left helpless. Or simply run a playset of Silver Mirror and use them carefully to run the Plasma deck out of Scrappers.

As an anti-Plasma card, this is about as good as anything you could reasonably expect. Of course, it is dead weight against a non-Plasma deck and even Plasma can adjust by upping the Tool Scrapper count. Nevertheless, it is a very hard counter that works especially well with Trainer lock and Drifblim PLB. If you play Plasma, be sure you have some answers for it; if you are expecting to play against Plasma, then this card is your best friend. 

Rating 

Modified: 4 (really a niche card . . . but it is a very significant niche right now)

Limited: 4 (there’s a reasonable number of Plasma Pokémon in the set . . . and this makes them useless) 


Jason Klaczynski
"Ness"
Three-Time World Champion
Check out The Klaczynski Open. August 31, 2013

Silver Mirror

Oh, how I can’t wait to attach this to my Zebstrika (Next Destinies), where it can’t even be Tool Scrappered away after using Disconnect.


Otaku

Hurray for more shiny objects!  The runner up for the most Promising Pick of Plasma Blast is Silver Mirror (BW: Plasma Blast 89/101).

 

Stats

Silver Mirror is a Pokémon Tool (the third to make the list), meaning it is also an Item and a Trainer: Skyla can snag it from your deck for the Price of a Supporter, Sableye (BW: Dark Explorers 62/108) can reclaim it (and another Item) for the cost of its “Junk Hunt” attack, and one Tool Scrapper can send both Silver Mirror and up to one more Pokémon Tool in play (if there is one) to the discard pile. 

 

Pokémon Tools can only be equipped to most Pokémon one-at-a-time and are more prone to being a dead draw than Items in general as you need a Pokémon in play to use them (and often not just any Pokémon as even those without a targeting restriction are situational).  They are not as prone to being a dead draw as a Stadium, nor are they the extreme exclusivists that are Ace Spec cards.

 

Effects

Silver Mirror, like Silver Bangle has an effect that won’t work for Pokémon-EX even if they have it attached, and that effect is, in a word, amazing.  As long as Silver Mirror is attached it blocks both the effects and attacks of Team Plasma Pokémon done to the equipped Pokémon.  There is a slight chink in this armor… you can find an attack like that provided by G Booster which itself ignores effects on the Defending Pokémon, and that will trump the protection offered by Silver Mirror.  Hypnotoxic Laser isn’t a Pokémon, so its effects go through as well.  There might be more work-arounds I am unaware of, but even with such exceptions, Silver Mirror is staggeringly powerful.

 

Even Pokémon Tool discarding effects like that of Chatot (BW: Plasma Blast 77/101) are blocked, though only for the Pokémon with a Silver Mirror attached; an Active Pokémon protected by Silver Mirror remains protected by it, but if a Pokémon on the Bench had no Silver Mirror but instead had Silver Bangle, Silver Bangle goes bye-bye, and vice versa.  Again, this is amazing as Team Plasma focused decks are among the strongest if not the strongest right now, having lost little to nothing from the rotation.  If there are no Pokémon to attack “around” the Silver Mirror protected specimen, then they will need a card like Tool Scrapper or an unaffiliated Pokémon to attack with, or face being shut out.

 

Usage

Silver Mirror is not the perfect example of “TecH” you need another card in your deck to make it work (a non-Pokémon-EX), and making it work might not do much good for some decks, you just need a solid attacker that isn’t a Pokémon-EX or a situation where stalling with Silver Mirror is beneficial.  I won’t bore you with concocting some hypothetical scenario that will be more farfetched than something you would actually stumble upon, but just forcing your opponent to use a less efficient attacker or fish for a Pokémon Catcher or similar work around is handy.

 

Completely shutting them down is as I said earlier; amazing.  The other reason this card may not be the perfect example of TecH is that it might just be too useful to run as only a single!  With its set (and name) mate Silver Bangle you have two Pokémon Tools that, for all their vulnerabilities, are clearly designed to smash the established metagame.  I don’t know if they will succeed, but it is hard to fathom them not having a significant impact.  Four slots is a lot to ask, but two each of Silver Mirror and Silver Bangle will allow enhanced offense and defense for any deck with something that isn’t a Pokémon-EX and can attack well.  Tool Scrapper (which I am thinking should see a spike in play again) is also as much partner as it is threat to these, as you can use it to switch on the fly between them, ideally while still nailing something “good” the opponent has in play.

 

That is all just in general; what about specifics.  Sigilyph (BW: Plasma Blast 41/101) can have four Pokémon Tools attached to it at a time thanks to its Ability; this allows it to use both Silver Mirror and Silver Bangle at once… plus up to two more Pokémon Tools!  The older Sigilyph (BW: Dragons Exalted 52/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 118/116) won’t mind being functionally immune to both Pokémon-EX and Team Plasma Pokémon.  Garbodor (BW: Dragons Exalted 54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 119/116) has no complaints about suddenly being safe from Team Plasma Pokémon.  Item blocking Pokémon like Zebstrika (BW: Next Destinies 48/99) or Dragonite (BW: Plasma Freeze 83/116) won’t even need fear Tool Scrapper or Hypnotoxic Laser, and if they aren’t taking damage themselves, the fact they don’t hit as hard won’t be a problem.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: This doesn’t really help FTW, and the vast card pool may make it hard to justify a slot for lock decks.  When trying something more straightforward and both space in deck and on Pokémon being limited, the older, powerhouses like Expert Belt, Solid Rage, Cessation Crystal, and Focus Band seem like better deals. 1/5

 

Modified: Unless a strategy simply has no room for it or requires different Pokémon Tools in play and/or is solely dependent upon Pokémon-EX, this is worth at least one slot in your deck.  Even Team Plasma decks should want it for the appropriately termed “mirror” matches! 4.25/5

 

Limited: The only realistic decks I can think of that should skip this are of the  Pokémon-EX+39; for everything else this is a must run. 4.95/5

 

Summary

Silver Mirror is the new must run Pokémon Tool, unless your deck legitimately can’t make good use of it; as the high score indicates I don’t think a lot of decks fall into that category.  It has one other drawback, though; like Tool Scrapper it may create a cyclical pattern as Team Plasma decks may wax and wane in popularity (and potency) opposite it.

 

I had this as my number three pick, below Silver Bangle – I scored Silver Bangle lower, but I believe it to be a more stable card, so I don’t know if I would reverse the two were I to compose a new list or leave them as is.  I will end by saying that this is exactly the kind of card that proves a Side Board/Deck would be a terrible idea for Pokémon and reduce the skill required, not increase it.

 


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