Rosa #7 – Top 11 Pokemon Cards in Cosmic Eclipse

Otaku

No Throwback as we’re in the middle of a countdown, though our 7th-place finisher is a bit nostalgic. Rosa (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 204/236, 236/236) is a Trainer-Supporter that states she may only be played if one of your Pokémon was Knocked Out during your opponent’s last turn. Rosa then lets you search your deck for a Pokémon, a Trainer card, and a basic Energy card. There are no restrictions on the Pokémon or Trainer you fetch, though Special Energy cards are not on the menu, just basic Energy cards.

Let’s start with the activation condition; it clearly states that one of your Pokémon needed to be KO’d during your opponent’s previous turn but I’m going to assume that you can still use Rosa if more than one of your Pokémon is KO’d at a time. We’ve already received a ruling so we know that Lillie’s Poké Doll – assuming your opponent KO’d it the turn before – does count for Rosa. There is nothing about your Pokémon having been KO’d by damage, either; damage counter placement and Knock Outs via effect will also satisfy the condition.

What will not are KO’d taken between turns or on your turn, regardless of the source. There are many smaller exceptions, but the major ones are Burn, Poison, and Confusion; the first two place damage counters (and thus score KO’s) between turns, while the Confusion check happens on your turn. Another (potentially) common exception is Pokémon leaving the field but not having been KO’d; even if it is “sent to the discard pile” it doesn’t work unless it also counts as a KO’d. Whether Prizes are taken or not is also irrelevant.

So, is the triple search Rosa offers worth dealing with the conditional search and restrictions on what can be searched? Yes, for many (most?) decks. It isn’t like we suddenly got a reprint of Ultra Ball or Professor’s Letter, so the Pokémon and basic Energy search are handy, and while we have some Supporter-based Trainer search, a little more than gets those other two things is most welcome! Rosa lets you easily fetch a Basic, slap a basic Energy onto it, and then a Trainer card to help it get into the Active position, or a Tool to attach to the Pokémon you just grabbed.

Or you can snag the corresponding Stage 2 and a Rare Candy you need for a Basic, plus the Energy (if you needed one). As with all search effects that are not completely generic, you have the option of failing all three searches provided by Rosa. There are many other uses, I’m sure; the two I just named seemed the obvious (mostly) generic plays to make.

While you can use Rosa in any deck save those where the goal is to rarely or never let any of your Pokémon be KO’d, she’ll work better in some than others. A deck without one of the three cards you can search is an issue, and some decks run on no Energy or only Special Energy. Decks with all or mostly single-Prize Pokémon should have more chances to use Rosa than those built around Pokémon-GX (especially TAG TEAMs).

The Expanded Format, as always, offers more competition and combo opportunities. It is also where we see a bit of the nostalgia I mentioned. If someone of yours was KO’d on your opponent’s previous turn, you could use Teammates; Teammates lets you add any two cards to your hand from your deck, but has the same activation requirement as Rosa. Are three cards with some search restrictions better than a double search for any two cards?

Hard to say, unless we have something obvious, like those decks with no Energy or only Special Energy cards in them. We could go even further back, to cards like Cyrus’s Conspiracy, but we’re not worried about past Standard or the Unlimited Format. For Limited Format play, you start at four Prizes instead of six, so they’ll potentially be fewer chances to use Rosa, but her search is even more valuable here. Unless you’re running a Mulligan build, run any Rosa you pull here.

Ratings

• Standard: 4/5
• Expanded: 3.2/5
• Limited: 4.5/5

I keep dwelling on the activation requirement and being unable to snag Special Energy because Rosa would have been too good without those; maybe still okay sans the latter but not without the former. As is, she’s great and I’m glad Vince helped me realize that, as I initially left Rosa off my top 11. I ended up putting her in as 9th-place, but 7th is also reasonable.

Vince

Besides Red and Blue, I think this is the first time the TCG introduced a character from older main series games, specifically player characters. In today’s case, Rosa is a player character from Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, and her latest appearance is Pokémon Masters. She’s also a Holo Rare, and trying to pull one is not easy (outside of prerelease kits). So is it worth the rarity and the excitement of finally getting her? Let’s find out.

She is a Supporter card that works only if one of your Pokemon is Knocked Out during your opponent’s last turn. That means being Knocked Out between turns doesn’t count, and neither does knocking your own Pokémon during your turn counts either. When the timing is right, you get to search your deck for a Pokémon, a Trainer card (which can be item, supporter, or Stadium), and a Basic energy card and put them onto your hand. This can help you get your setup going for either basics or Evolutions. For Basic Pokémon, you can easily get the Pokémon you searched for onto play, as well as a guaranteed manual attachment, and pretty much any trainer that gets you going. For Evolutions, you would most likely grab the Stage 2, any basic energy, and Rare Candy, assuming your evolving Basic is still in play.

As I said before, the timing to get her to work is a little bit tricky, but you don’t have to always use actual Pokémon as fodder and for your opponent to take prizes. Even Lillie’s Clefairy Doll, or even Robo Substitute, can act as placeholders to get knocked out, but your opponent cannot take a prize card for it. As such, you’re not really falling behind. This may not be a draw based effect, but the search effect is good, which is why she sits comfortably on 7th place on the top 11 cards of Cosmic Eclipse!

Ratings:

• Standard: 3.5/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: 4.5/5

aroramage

Any card that can help you out of a tough situation is usually going to be a pretty good card by default, mostly cause you have to be losing in order to play it. We’ve seen a few of these cards – I usually like to call them “catch-up” cards – before in the past, and they’ve usually got some good effects specifically because they’re for when things get rough. Hence today’s card – though this might be one of the better cards to use.

Rosa is a Supporter that lets you add a Pokemon, a Trainer, and a basic Energy card from your deck to your hand if your opponent managed to KO one of your Pokemon last turn. Compare this with Teammates, Diantha, Ace Trainer, and Morty, and you get a pretty clear idea of why this card might look a lot better by comparison. Yeah I know Rosa specifies exactly the cards she wants you to grab, but Teammates only grabs 2 cards from your deck, Diantha grabs them from your discard pile and only works in Fairy decks, Morty grabs 2 cards to put back into your opponent’s deck from their hand, and Ace Trainer is basically a more specific N.

So why does this matter with Rosa being different by comparison to all of this? Rosa getting that Energy helps decks that want to actually search out that Energy and put it into their hand (Fire, Water), grabbing a Pokemon saves you the trouble of having to fuel up the Bench again from the loss of your last Pokemon, and that Trainer card could even combine into your set-up to power up the Pokemon you put into play. “But you could do that with the other cards too you know!” Yeah, except you also get to thin out your deck by 3 cards instead of borrowing 2 cards from somewhere else.

I’m not settled on whether or not Rosa is an amazing card or not, but she is good in any deck that can run her – which is pretty much just about any deck out there. At the very least, she deserves to be tested out as a one-of in most decks, and I think that the remarkable improvement of getting to take out that extra card from the deck boosts the consistency of any deck that much more, so give her a whirl!

Rating

Standard: 3.5/5 (good support for just about any deck)

Expanded: 3.5/5 (the biggest competition might be from N, but he’s always been a staple card)

Limited: 4.5/5 (with the exception of having to get a Pokemon KO’d, this is a great card for this format!)

Arora Notealus: Rosa didn’t end up making it onto my list. Mostly due to my skepticism about the card’s potential. Maybe also due to a bias on “catch-up” cards in general. But it does offer a lot for what it can do, even if it’s specific about what it’s drawing out. I think she’ll see a lot of playtesting, and I hope that she finds her way into deck lists permanently just to prove me wrong.

Next Time: Having trouble with that old machine? Try a newer and better version!