aroramage |
You may recall this card from the
last time we reviewed it back July as the #7 pick for
our "Top 10 Cards Lost to Rotation." The actual rotation
happened somewhere in August or September, but it didn't
take long for the card to come back - and there's a
pretty good reason why!
I talked about how Float Stone essentially removed the
"tax" that is a Pokemon's Retreat Cost, and that remains
the case - it's not like Float Stone's effect changed
between now and then. So what's changed? Well, aside
from the renewed card pool for the most part, there are
also more Pokemon that can take advantage of this Tool
and utilize it even further. We've obviously got guys
you wanna switch around freely like Wobbuffet, as well
as the big Megas that have reasonably hefty costs, but
then there's also a whole new thing that's come up: the
Ancient Traits.
To be fair, the first Ancient Traits showed up in Primal
Clash, which came out in English back in February, but
the one I'll be referring to came out a bit more
recently in August in the Ancient Origins set: Theta
Double. Now it could be the case that several people
were able to play-test Float Stone with stuff that
operated on Theta Double, such as the Vespiquen no one's
playing around, Gyarados, Entei, Metagross, or perhaps
more notably M Tyranitar-EX, a behemoth who can also
latch onto a Spirit Link card for a free evo in one
turn!
That's pretty crazy!
Course, don't think that Float Stone taking up an Item
slot is limiting - there are dozens of Pokemon that will
greatly benefit from seeing its return to Standard! For
instance, Ariados is a Pokemon you'd like to have on the
Bench - a free Retreat Cost as opposed to the 1 Energy
he costs already will make things much easier on you! So
try Float Stone out in your deck today! The results may
surprise you!
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (as always, a great utility card)
Expanded: 4/5 (you guys already have this, LET US HAVE
IT BACK)
Limited: 5/5 (no contest here, of course you're gonna
run it!)
Arora Notealus: On the subject of returning cards...YAY
SKYLA'S BACK
Next Time: Oh hey, and then there's this card!
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Otaku |
Sometimes we look at a card not because you really need
an explanation for how or why you should use it, but to
make sure you know it’s has been recently reprinted!
Today we look at Float Stone (XY: BREAKthrough
137/162; BW: Plasma Freeze 99/116). The
card text hasn’t changed and of course Float Stone
is still one of the most used Pokémon Tools in Expanded…
but maybe some of our readers are quite new to playing
the game so I’ll (relatively) quickly cover the
fundamentals of Float Stone.
This is our fourth Trainer card this week; Trainers are
usually the most numerous of the three major card
divisions (Pokémon, Trainers and Energy) in competitive
decks. They’ve got a few pieces of support like
Skyla and Trainer’s Mail while the cards that
counter Trainers (as opposed to Items or Pokémon Tools)
haven’t proven to be worth the effort. Being an
Item means there is no cost to using an Item unless
that specific Item includes it in its text, such as
Ultra Ball and its two card discard cost to play.
There are several Pokémon with attacks that affect
Items, but the notable Seismitoad-EX and its
Quaking Punch, which prevents your opponent from playing
Items. Abilities that affect Items and only affect
Items similarly block them from being played; being an
Item is usually great until you run into Item lock. Float
Stone is also a Pokémon Tool and there are cards
that specifically affect those as well; most relevant
would be Startling Megaphone, an Item that
discards all Pokémon Tools on your opponent’s side of
the field, though there are a few others Pokémon Tool
counters that see regular play as well as some support.
Pokémon Tools also suffer a bit because under normal
circumstances a Pokémon can only use one at a time,
forcing each to compete with the others; running more
than six is rare and two to four seems to be the typical
amount.
Float Stone
specifically zeroes out the Retreat Cost of the Pokémon
to which it is attached. Please note that if
another effect increases Retreat Costs, Float Stone
is worded to override it as it perpetually drops the
Retreat Cost of the equipped Pokémon to nothing.
Retreating for free can vary from a small bonus to
something incredibly potent; it depends on what Pokémon
is enjoying it. This kind of effect can be
achieved through a few other means, most commonly
Darkrai-EX and it’s “Dark Cloak” Ability: said
Ability creates a blanket effect on your in play
Pokémon, zeroing out their Retreat Cost if they have a
source of [D] Energy attached. Abilities have
their own counters and sometimes they are a major
influence in the game while Energy cards also face
counters and your opponent could also just KO Darkrai-EX
to be rid of Dark Cloak; Dark Cloak does more but you
pay for it. When you just want any single Pokémon
to have a free Retreat Cost, you can just slap a
Float Stone on it. Of course that brings up
another rival; the Item Switch allows you to
promote one of your Benched Pokémon (your choice) while
your former Active goes to the Bench. This doesn’t
count as retreating, so it is more difficult for your
opponent to prevent and preserves your actual retreat
for the turn to use later. It is a one time deal,
though.
Float Stone
is probably most famous for comboing with two particular
Pokémon and their Abilities, but both are Expanded only
options. Garbodor (BW: Dragons Exalted
54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 119/116; BW:
Legendary Treasures 68/113) has the potent Ability (Garbotoxin)
to shut down all other Abilities, but it only
works while it has a Pokémon Tool attached.
Although any Pokémon Tool can trigger Garbotoxin,
Float Stone removes it troublesome Retreat Cost of
[CCC] which can otherwise be used to strand it up front,
giving a struggling deck time to build up its offense
even if said deck is normally dependent upon Abilities.
The other major combo also involves an Ability;
Keldeo-EX can use “Rush In” to force itself into the
Active slot (and force the previous Active to the
Bench). Combining this with Float Stone
allows you to effectively sacrifice your manual retreat
for the turn for a free switch. Of course it
Float Stone, Rush In or retreating is blocked, it
won’t work, but most of the time that isn’t an issue and
it enables some brilliant general plays (usually shaking
Special Conditions or attack effects) while helping out
certain specific combos that involve sending something
to the Bench only so it can be promoted to the Active
slot once again.
Why is this worth revisiting now? Even if someone
didn’t know about Float Stone it already has been
the subject of three prior CotDs: a
fourth place
finish in the Top 10 of BW: Plasma Freeze, a
second place
finish in the Top 10 list for 2013 and a
seventh place
finish in the Top 10 cards lost to Standard play in the
most recent set rotation. Although its favorite
dance partners are Expanded only, it still has its
general use plus a new partner with a familiar trick:
Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162) has the
Ability “Stand In” that is Rush In by a new name.
Working a Stage 1 Pokémon into a deck isn’t as easy as
working in a Basic and Keldeo-EX is often just a
single or double even in decks that really want to take
advantage of the Rush In/Float Stone combo;
Zoroark needs at least two more card slots.
Fortunately you are only giving up one Prize instead of
two should your opponent take it out but Zoroark
has a better attack to randomly splash into non-Water
decks as Mind Jack only requires [CC] and hits for 10
plus 30 per Pokémon on your opponent’s Bench. As
for Limited play, it is only useless when you’re running
a +39 deck (as with only one Basic you’re not going to
be retreating). Although you only have a 40 card
deck here, you are building it from whatever you pull in
six booster packs so you’ll have plenty of room for
Float Stone, inflating its Limited score quite a
bit.
Ratings
Standard:
3.8/5
Expanded:
4/5
Limited:
5/5
Summary:
Float Stone probably didn’t need a review, but I
was just so excited to have it back I wanted to
celebrate a little by giving it another quick look.
This is not the best Pokémon Tool in the game right now,
but it is one of the best in part because of some potent
combos on top of solid general use.
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