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Today we look at the 8th place pick for the
Top 10 Cards of 2013;
Silver Bangle.
This card was originally reviewed
here as it managed to secure the 4th
place spot for our Top 12 Cards of Plasma Blast.
So did we call it right?
The answer is… maybe.
For those that need the reminder,
Silver Bangle
is a Pokémon Tool that has proven quite potent because
it increases damage by attacks against Pokémon-EX by 30
points, but only if the card is attached to a
non-Pokémon-EX.
This has proven quite good for a few reasons;
some obvious, others perhaps less so.
Looking at how the actual metagame is… you see
Pokémon-EX are still a major force, which logically
means that
Silver Bangle had little or no impact, or that
Pokémon-EX would be even more dominant without
Silver Bangle
present.
Looking at actual, successful lists shows us that it is
the latter;
Silver Bangle is an important card and without it,
decks using non-Pokémon-EX attackers would be even
fewer.
Silver Bangle
was outranked in the previous Top 10 by
Silver Mirror.
Part of this was oversight; Team Plasma Pokémon
had basically become the dominant deck so the potential
to wall against them and at least protect key cards was
quite appealing… but
Tool Scrapper
is much more effective against “passive” Pokémon Tools
that wait to be triggered than those that you can drop
and generate advantage with on your own turn, before
they can be discarded, like
Silver Bangle.
Factor in the change in rules since the cards’
release and the finite, specialized increase in offense
of Silver Bangle
outpaced the specialized but infinite defense of
Silver Mirror
because offense is the best defense in Pokémon, and
Silver Mirror
proved easier to deal with than
Silver Bangle.
The other cards to outrank it were
Genesect EX
and Virizion EX,
which might actually have been legitimately better.
For Unlimited play, and this is still Theorymon, I would
assume Focus
Band is still your best bet; First Turn Win decks
win the first turn and without attacking, so they don’t
care what Pokémon Tool you play because… you don’t get
to play it.
Even if you choose not to run a FTW deck and go
first, you’ll need to block access to Trainers (or at
least Items) to really have a chance, otherwise the best
FTW decks will still work going second as they clear
your field before taking out the one Pokémon they can’t
bounce.
For Limited play, you only skip this if you’re able to
get some fantastic pulls; either the unrealistic “I have
perfect deck without it” or the one that actually
happens, pulling a good Pokémon-EX and choosing to run
it plus 39 other cards that are not Basic Pokémon.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
4/5
Limited:
4.95/5
Summary
Silver Bangle
is a great card, and one that I think is quite worthy of
its place in the Top 10 of 2013 list.
In fact, I actually think it once again shows up
too soon; it was my second place choice for the Top 12
Cards of Plasma Blast (only beat out by
Virizion EX)
and I had it in the number four slot for my Top 20 of
2013.
Yes, Top 20; I like to include extras if time allows
because of past experience with tie breakers and
collective Top 10 lists.
Now please enjoy your weekend.
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