Dan – Rebel Clash Pokemon Review

Vince

“Draw 2 cards. Then play rock-paper-scissors with your opponent. If you win, draw 2 more cards.”

Oh hey, we’ve got another card after Team Galactic’s Wager that requires players to play rock-paper-Scizor (intentional spelling mistake for the puns). I remember back in that Throwback review several months ago that enforcing Rock-Paper-Scissor is actually worse than throwing coin flips. With coin flips, you can dictate when to flip the coin without your opponent interfering. Rock-Paper-Scissor, however, makes one of the players incentive to cheat because they want to really reap the bonus effects and/or maybe they couldn’t time their chant correctly when playing RPS.

But even if you win RPS every time, Dan only gets you 4 cards, which, although slightly better than Hop, is still severely underpowered when compared to Professor’s Research, which dumps your hand and draw 7 cards. Even Marnie draws more than Dan. So I can’t see him getting any play.

Ratings:

Standard: 1/5
Expanded: 1/5
Limited: 3/5 (I guess you’re still guaranteed to draw 2, so that works.)

Otaku

Dan (SSH – Rebel Clash 158/192) is a Trainer-Supporter that lets you draw two cards, then has you and your opponent play Rock-Paper-Scissors until someone wins.  If you win, you draw two more cards.  So, if you’re amazing at Rock-Paper-Scissors, this is more like a “Draw 4 cards.” effect, which is what I’ve long suspected is where Supporters like Hop need to be (instead of their actual “Draw 3 cards.” effect.  If you’re not amazing at Rock-Paper-Scissors, then Hop joins the list of much better Supporters you should run instead of Dan.  Even if you are good, it is still unreliable; your opponent may still be as good or better at Rock-Paper-Scissors!

So, why are we reviewing this card?

• I wanted an easier weekend review option.
• Rock-Paper-Scissors is fun.
• Stall

Wait, what was that last one?  I believe you could use Dan to eat up more time in a legal manner.  Just having to play Rock-Paper-Scissors takes time, so if you don’t need a lot of draw power, there you go.  Oh, and if you really are good at Rock-Paper-Scissors, to the point you may be able to intentionally tie your opponent over and over again, I think that is legal as well.  Of course, the idea that Rock-Paper-Scissors is a game of skill is somewhat debated, but based on rulings for past cards using the mechanic, the TPC sees it as a game of skill.

Ratings

• Standard: 1/5
• Expanded: 1/5
• Limited: 3/5

Even though there may be a potential exploit, I am not scoring this card high.  From a design standpoint, it is balanced with Hop… but Hop is notoriously underpowered, as have been his fellow “Draw 3 cards.” Supporters since Cheren released over nine years ago.