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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Top 10 Plasma Storm
#5 - Colress Machine
 

- Plasma Storm

Date Reviewed:
February 11, 2013

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 4.00
Limited: 3.90

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: See Below

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

#5 Colress Machine 

Hello and welcome to the second half of our countdown of the top 10 cards from Plasma Storm. This is (perhaps) where we get to see what will really be making a big impact in the upcoming tournaments. 

At #5 we have another Trainer-Item, Colress Machine. Like Ether, which we reviewed last week, this is an Item that can provide Energy acceleration and though it isn’t as universal as Ether, it does come with a much higher chance of success. When you play this card, you get to search your deck for a Plasma Energy and attach it to a Team Plasma Pokémon. 

Sounds fantastic, right? Well, for the right Pokémon it is. Acceleration from the deck is just brilliant, and when all you have to do to get it is play an Item . . . well, it doesn’t get much better than that. Plasma Energy may only provide one Colourless, but hey . . . pretty much all Pokémon have that in their costs. The real limitation right now is the lack of playable Plasma Pokémon for it to work with. The two obvious candidates which benefit hugely from it are Lugia-EX (which needs to discard a Plasma Energy in order to use its attack) and Articuno-EX (which can auto-Paralyse with a Plasma Energy). I guess you could also try it with Snorlax PLS (which has a decent but hugely expensive attack) and Infernape PLS (which discards its Energy and could use the acceleration). 

Seeing as we are only one set into the Plasma mechanic, it’s not surprising that this card can’t be used to its full potential just yet. Looking ahead, it seems we will be getting more and more cards that will turn Plasma into a viable archetype (seek out spoilers for Deoxys-EX, Thundurus-EX and Plasma Ball if you want). When that happens, you can bet that 3-4 Colress Machine will become staple in one of the most powerful decks in the format. For now though, its use will be mostly confined to decks centred around trying to win in 2-3 turns with Lugia-EX, or maybe using Articuno-EX with Blastoise BCR to try and set up a Status Condition lock. I can’t see either of those being quite top tier right now, but they certainly shouldn’t be dismissed. 

There’s no denying that Colress Machine is very good indeed, but we may have to wait to discover just how good. 

Rating 

Modified: 4 (we’re one set away from a Plasma format . . . get yourself a playset now is my advice)

Limited: 3.75 (if you pull Plasma Pokémon and Plasma Energy, it’s great . . . but there’s a good chance you won’t) 

virusyosh

Welcome back, Pojo readers! Today we are continuing our Top 10 cards of Plasma Storm, and today's entry (at #5) is a new Item that is quite likely to see some play in Team Plasma decks. Today's Card of the Day is Colress Machine.

Colress Machine is an Item card, meaning you can play as many of them as you'd like during your turn. Colress Machine's effect, like many other Items, is simple, yet powerful: you may search your deck for a Plasma Energy and attach it to one of your Team Plasma Pokemon, shuffling your deck afterward. Much like I mentioned in my Ether review last week, Energy acceleration is almost always good, and Colress Machine is no exception. While it can only retrieve Plasma Energy, the fact that the Energy comes out of your deck and directly attaches is incredibly powerful, especially at Item speed. Expect to see a lot of this card in builds utilizing Lugia-EX and other Plasma Pokemon, as this kind of Energy acceleration is both unique and powerful.

Modified: 4/5 Plasma Storm seems to be the set of very good situational Trainers, as many of them are incredibly powerful but don't fit nicely into every deck. Colress Machine continues this trend, as Colress Machine provides excellent Energy acceleration for Team Plasma decks. While you can only grab Plasma Energy, the ability to thin your deck while getting an extra Energy attachment is probably too good for those decks to pass up.

Limited: 5/5 There are tons of Plasma Pokemon in Plasma Storm, and you shouldn't have a problem pulling any Plasma Energy, either. Energy acceleration wins games in every format, and Limited is no different. Therefore, if you manage to pull a Colress Machine (or two) with some Plasma Energy, you should definitely run them.

Jebulous Maryland Player

Colress Machine

Colress Machine is an Item that lets you search your deck for a Plasma Energy and attach it to one of your Pokemon.

What to say...? Well first of all it's a decent energy acceleration. It is a bit limited in the fact that you can only do it 4 times at most, since there isn't a vast array of options to put Plasma Energy back into the deck. It's really good in getting that extra colorless energy on your Pokemon for the attack. For example, turn 1 Tornadus with a DCE and Colress Machine means you can do 100. Same goes for Lugia and one more Colress Machine. If used correctly a swift attack can be made.

So it's definitely good with PLasma Pokemon (or rather the ones that gain effects from having the Plasma Energy). Enhanced Hammer makes it hard to run Plasma Energy as well as other special energies.

Modified: 4.5/5
Limited: 4.5/5
Combos With: Plasma Energy

Questions, comments, concerns: jebulousthemighty@yahoo.com


Otaku

Welcome to our second week of the Top 10 Promising Picks of Plasma Storm!  We open with Colress Machine (BW: Plasma Storm 119/135), which snagged the number five slot in the countdown.

 

Stats

Colress Machine is a Team Plasma card; as I mentioned in my side article, Team Plasma cards are spread out across all three card types (Pokémon, Trainers, and Energy).    As a Trainer, specifically an Item, Colress Machine is easy to play and can get away with a lesser effect than a Supporter.  This combination of stats will become more important as we get more Team Plasma cards due to how they support each other.  Right now, it would only be significant for Team Plasma Grunt, and thus isn’t a huge concern.

 

Effects

Colress Machine joins the list of cards with one of the most potent effects in the game: Energy acceleration.  In this case, Colress Machine attaches a Plasma Energy from your deck to one of your Team Plasma Pokémon.  When it comes to Energy acceleration, from the deck is usually only second to from the discard pile in terms of overall potency; you only give up one resource from hand to add a resource into play, and your deck is thinned by one card.

 

Only being able to affect Plasma Energy is a significant restriction: that means at most you can have four targets in your deck, and you’ll always need to run at least one more card than just Colress Machine for real benefit.  It has no effect on Plasma Energy in your hand, discard pile, in play, etc. so once your deck has no more Plasma Energy it becomes nearly a dead card.  The game allows you to fail a “search” effect, so as long as you have a Team Plasma Pokémon in play, you can use Colress Machine to sneak a peak and then shuffle your deck, at least.

 

Only targeting Team Plasma Pokémon seems obvious, but is still a notable drawback: no attaching to lower Stages of Team Plasma Evolutions (as the lower Stages are unaffiliated), improving your odds of a T1 Tornadus EX (BW: Dark Explorers 90/108, 108) or the countless other would-be applications.  This turns the effect into a potentially powerful trick for Team Plasma Pokémon, provided they can make use of Plasma Energy and fit it all into a suitable deck… but no where else.

 

Usage

 

Card Family: For a list of all Team Plasma cards with some basic details, click here.  Colorless Machine is all but useless without Plasma Energy, and I almost suggested the staff make this a double review because Plasma Energy… provides (C) and is a Team Plasma Card.  That’s it; the effect text just states that it provides (C), which the Energy symbol in the upper right-hand corner indicates.

 

The article also lists the 35 different Team Plasma cards we have, and how certain effects that reference their status as Team Plasma cards play out.  All Team Plasma Pokémon released so far have at least one attack that has Colorless Energy requirements and all with two attacks except Beheeyem (BW: Plasma Storm 70/135) can use Plasma Energy to pay for at least part of both attacks.  Many Team Plasma Pokémon can go from no Energy to using an attack with a manual Energy attachment and successful Colress Machine.

 

Five other cards have effects requiring or enhanced by Plasma Energy.  Three of the five are Team Plasma Pokémon that each have an attack with an effect triggered by Plasma Energy: Articuno EX (BW: Plasma Storm 25/135, 132/135), Moltres EX (BW: Plasma Storm 14/135), and Zapdos EX (BW: Plasma Storm 48/135); if they prove to be any good, they’ll be natural partners for Colress Machine.  A fourth Team Plasma Pokémon actually requires Plasma Energy in order to use its attack: Lugia EX (BW: Plasma Storm 108/135, 134/135); Colress Machine could technically be left out, but that would be quite strange.

 

There is also some additional synergy with two other Trainers.  The final card requiring Plasma Energy is Plasma Frigate, a Stadium with a Weakness neutralizing effect dependant upon a Pokémon having a Plasma Energy attached: accelerating Energy while simultaneously nixing Weakness isn’t bad for a three card combo.  Plus Plasma Frigate itself works regardless of the affiliation of the Pokémon; you couldn’t use Colress Machine but manually attaching a Plasma Energy still provides protection with Plasma Frigate.

 

Team Plasma Grunt requires you discard a Team Plasma card in order to draw four cards.  That is the entire effect, so with no discard fodder it is completely dead… but if you know you’ve got spare copies of Colress Machine, you can get a quick burst of draw power with no other effects or restrictions.  This is not a thrilling strategy, and was saved for last because it likely is the least.

 

Modified: Colress Machine will be the card that Team Plasma decks will always consider, but not necessarily run.  Pure Team Plasma decks will rarely go without it, but with only 35 total, unique Team Plasma cards (and Evolutions not having affiliated lower Stages), for now a Team Plasma deck will almost always contain unaffiliated Pokémon.  If another form of acceleration is more appropriate, only those with large costs compatible with both (or with triggered effects) will need Colress Machine and Plasma Energy.

 

This is a combo that when maxed out is going to take eight total slots from your deck, and at minimum two, and that forces it to be important to the deck or skipped.  Despite all these concerns, as stated you should always consider this card if your deck runs more than a few Team Plasma Pokémon.  It allows several Team Plasma Pokémon to access an attack in a single turn that would normally require other acceleration, and if you do force it into a Team Plasma deck when you shouldn’t, you’ll just have an overall suboptimal build, able to do something useful in place of something more useful.

 

Unlimited: For now I don’t really see the use here; there are too many other Energy acceleration options that are general purpose, and of course you have to get by the First Turn Win decks.  Once you get past those and the various lock decks, you might find some interesting tricks but only a few are really worth experimenting with... and that really reflects those cards more than Colress Machine itself.

 

Limited: This is a must run so long as you have a few Team Plasma Pokémon; it lets you see and shuffle your deck!  Actually having Plasma Energy just becomes a bonus.  Only skip it is you have next-to-no or no Team Plasma Pokémon in your deck.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 1/5

 

Modified: 3.5/5

 

Limited: 4.5/5 

 

Summary

Colress Machine is an amazingly potent card, but only in the right deck.  It is also somewhat luck dependent; fairly reliable early game but as time goes on and you use other copies or draw into Plasma Energy, you may run out of targets in your deck.  In the decks should that use it, it would effectively have a perfect score.  In decks that absolutely shouldn’t (or simply can’t) use Colress Machine, it would receive a minimum score.  Together with the decks that can run it but not well enough to be worth it, we get an above average score that can be misleading.

 

I had Colress Machine as my number four pick, and once again after writing a thorough review to help organize my thought and clarify my own results, I believe I overrated it.  Not as bad as Ether, but of what we have reviewed so far, Dowsing Machine probably should have clocked in above Colress Machine, not below it.


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