Otaku |
Our third place
finisher is Muscle Band (XY 121/146);
we’ve reviewed this card twice already. The
first time it was our
top pick
for the XY expansion, while the next it was our
top pick
for the year of 2014. It isn’t too hard to see why
it ranked so highly then and now: Muscle Band is
a Pokémon Tool that increases the damage done by the
attacks of the equipped Pokémon, providing a +20 damage
bonus. Being a Tool, it is also a Trainer and an
Item card.
As I’ve been
stating a lot lately, being a Trainer is a good thing;
some useful bits of general support (though not a lot)
and the few general counters aren’t worth running.
Being an Item card is great as you aren’t limited
to how many of those you may play in a turn (barring
outside effects or costs specific to that Item) but it
doesn’t come with much support and does
come with several counters. Being a Tool means
more support and counters, but also a restriction on
usage. Tools need to be attached to a Pokémon in
order to do anything, and most cards only have a single
“slot” for it. A few like Entei (XY:
Ancient Origins 15/98) are noteworthy because of
what they accomplished due to being allowed more than
one Tool (in this case, two due to its “Θ Double”
Ancient Trait). Slight upside of being a Tool
inherent to how they work is that if they do not discard
themselves, they have an effect that either constantly
applies or can be triggered multiple times should
circumstances permit. It also means that you can
get around Item lock by simply playing your Pokémon Tool
down before the Item lock hits, can block an opponent’s
Pokémon Tool F cards by simply being in their way, but
also carries the huge vulnerability of being discarded
(either due to another card effect or the Pokémon in
question being KO’d).
Damage boosts are
usually welcome, but remember that if it isn’t helping
you take KOs more quickly or - much more obscure -
clearing a certain damage threshold so that an effect
does or does not apply, the damage boost doesn’t really
matter. If I increase my damage by 20 but that
just means my 2HKO has a larger margin for error.
Again, you might have some situations where your
opponent (for example) cannot make use of a certain
effect because that Pokémon is too damaged, or some
minor bit of healing won’t buy him or her an extra turn,
but if a 3HKO doesn’t shift to a 2HKO or a 2HKO to a
OHKO, that damage boost usually won’t matter.
Normally it isn’t worth focusing on lesser shifts like
4HKO to 3HKO, but there are some reasons why it has
actually been quite important to Muscle Band:
boosting damage from effect focused attacks and/or being
stacked with other damage boosts. When Muscle
Band first released, Hypnotoxic Laser and
Virbank City Gym were still legal, and after its
release we’ve gotten tricks like Giovanni’s Scheme
or… well… the Fighting Type and its multitude of damage
buffs. Another important aspect of Muscle Band
is doesn’t care what uses it or what it is used against.
When first released, Muscle Band completely
replaced Dark Claw, which also provided +20
damage but only worked for Darkness Type Pokémon. Silver
Bangle was also available at this time, providing
+30 but only against Pokémon-EX and not when
attached to a Pokémon-EX.
When first
released, Muscle Band was pretty much a staple.
Not every Pokémon needed it, not every deck ran it, but
most did. You had exceptions for things like
Silver Bangle, later for Mega Evolutions that needed
their particular Spirit Link card, and now
sometimes Fighting Fury Belt is more important. Fighting
Fury Belt adds only 10 extra damage, but that can
still be enough to matter, and also adds +40 to your HP,
which also often matters. It doesn’t work for
everything, however, only Basic Pokémon and in
some decks, you need that +20 damage more than just +10
with +40 to HP. So in Expanded play, Muscle
Band is still a great card, though it has less of a
metagame share simply because of the many potent
Tools competing with it. In Limited play, it is a
must run. In Standard, of course it is no longer
legal, but what if it were suddenly reprinted? It
would most likely become a common deck sight, but
probably not a staple; basically it would see play about
like it does in Expanded, but with some attackers
obviously not being legal, less competition, and most
importantly, no Trainer based Tool removal.
Ratings
Standard:
N/A
Expanded:
4/5
Limited:
5/5
Summary:
Muscle Band is not as good as when it first
released, but who would have predicted Fighting Fury
Belt? Even with the competition this small,
simple damage boost remains an amazing card and the
go-to Pokémon Tool for many decks, let alone the ones
built around specific combos. Were it to be
reprinted, that’s the same role it would have in
Standard, only a bit better because of fewer Tools to
compete against it being much more difficult to discard
or block an opponent’s Pokémon Tools.
Muscle Band
secured third place with 40 voting points, only missing
second place by two points, though first place beat it
by 18! Yesterday’s
Night March trio only lost to Muscle Band by one
point. I had Muscle Band as my third place
pick, so obviously I’m pretty pleased. Muscle Band
did not place highly on all three lists though,
and I think I know why: there are still so many great
Tools that were able to replace it or least cushion to
the blow to existing and future decks.
|
Zach Carmichael |
Damage-modifying cards have always
been a big deal in the Pokémon TCG. Having played the
game since the early days of Base set, I am all too
familiar with how powerful Pluspower was, allowing
players to score quick KOs thanks to that extra damage.
Fast forward about 15 years and Muscle Band was
released. It was quickly played in almost every deck
thanks to the added damage without any drawbacks. Though
it ultimately was overshadowed by Fighting Fury Belt –
effectively a Pluspower with +40 HP boost – it will go
down as a card that took the game to another level.
Muscle Band was from the XY base
set, coinciding with the theme of introducing brand new
mechanics as Pokémon usually does. It is a Tool card
that adds +20 damage to your Pokémon’s attacks. That’s
it – no drawbacks whatsoever. Fighting Fury Belt adds
only 10 damage, but provides a +40 HP boost, so it
eventually took Muscle Band’s place. But at the time the
card was a really big deal because that damage made
certain math possible. Perhaps the best partner at the
time was Yveltal-EX, which was a better Mewtwo-EX. Its
Evil Ball attack did 20 damage plus 20 more for each
Energy on both Active Pokémon. Adding Muscle Band made
the card even stronger, allowing it to do 100+ damage
for two Energy. It was also used in a number of
Evolution decks, as Fighting Fury Belt had the drawback
of only working on Basic Pokémon.
Fighting Fury Belt is still the
go-to damage modifier in Expanded. The extra 40 HP is
absolutely necessary in a format where Night March can
otherwise obliterate its competition, doing 200+ damage
as early as the first turn. Muscle Band is often a
one-of in decks like Seismitoad-EX/Giratina-EX because
of the math to get KOs against certain Pokémon – players
will often to a 2/1 split with Fighting Fury Belt for
versatility.
Ratings
Standard: n/a
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 4.5/5
Summary: Muscle Band took
the power creep of the Pokémon-EX era to another level.
It allowed a number of cards to suddenly become playable
thanks to the ability to then hit magic numbers for KOs.
Eventually being phased out by Fighting Fury Belt, it
will continue to see slight play in Expanded, but for
the most part Muscle Band is now considered to be
outdated.
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