Black Market Prism Star- Pokemon Team Up Review

Vince

This week, we’re going to look at some cards that I’ve have selected for this week, and in this case, it’s the four remaining survivors of a retired mechanic: Prism Star cards! Four prism star cards are in Sun & Moon Team Up expansion. The four cards that are still in Standard format is Shaymin (*), Tapu Koko (*), Black Market (*), and Wondrous Labyrinth (*). The strange thing is that in Japan, those four specific cards are in Japan’s GX Ultra Shiny and Dark Order expansion which are not part of the TAG TEAM era, but rather part of the group that is equivalent of the range between SM Ultra Prism to SM Lost Thunder. So all Prism Star cards are supposed to leave rotation, but the way international companies manage how a specific card is assigned to a set differs from Japan, so looks like we have four of the Prism Star cards still standard legal (even though it should’ve left as well). Gotta make as much use as you can since the duration has extended.

Back to today’s COTD, we’re looking at Black Market (*), which is a Stadium card that has a built in protection from being discarded by Items or Supporter cards, except that it can be replaced with another stadium or be discarded by a Pokémon’s attack, and consequently goes to the Lost Zone, never to be retrieved again. When a Dark Pokemon with any Dark energies attached to it is knocked out by damage from an opponent’s attack, they take one fewer prize cards. Naturally it is a staple for Dark decks since reducing the amount of prize cards they take can help you prolong the match. Your opponent won’t get anything from any single-prize non-EX/GX/V; your opponent can only take one prize instead of two from most EX/GX/V Pokémon while your opponent takes two prizes instead of three against TAG TEAMs and VMAX Pokémon. I think the unfortunate part is that if your opponent’s runs Dark Pokemon, then you could feel the sting of not getting any prizes, though that doesn’t change the fact that if any player doesn’t have any Benched Pokemon to replace the Active that was KOed, then the prize count doesn’t matter; you still win the game.

We’ve looked at this card on February 19, 2019, and looking at it now I realized how much I lowballed this card because of being demanding. This is a potent effect that can hinder your opponent if they can’t replace it with their own stadium. Perhaps the decks that benefit from Black Market is Eternatus V-MAX, as it becomes liable for two prizes instead of three, but still has 340 HP! But that’s not the only deck that can benefit. Galarian Obstagoon is another example, as it has two versions both with abilities: one that places damage counters and one that reduces your opponent’s hand size to 4 cards in their hand. Their attacks are colorless friendly, but it doesn’t hurt to attach even one dark energy to trigger Black Market’s effect. Crobat-V is only there to provide draw power and usually doesn’t have energies attached to it, but if you can spare a manual attachment, then Crobat is only liable for one prize instead of two.

Ratings:

• Standard: 3.5/5
• Expanded: 3.5/5
• Limited: 4/5

Otaku

Black Market {*} (SM – Team Up 134/181) is one of the few remaining Prism Star cards in the Standard Format.  Prism Star cards has a special symbol in their name, as well as rule text.  The symbol is pronounced as “Prism Star” when reading card names, and I will represent the symbol as “{*}” because that I what I saw in official ruling documents.  Prism Star cards do not follow the usual 4 Copy rule; while you can have multiple Prism Star cards in the same deck, any specific Prism Star card is capped at one.  If a Prism Star card would go to the discard pile, it is instead sent to the Lost Zone.  This can make them unreliable, as that single copy could be Prized, discarded prematurely, etc.

Black Market {*} is a Stadium card.  You’re only allowed to play a single Stadium card from your hand during your turn, and if a Stadium with the same name is already in play, you cannot play another copy.  When you do play a Stadium to the field, any existing Stadium card is discarded, meaning Stadium cards naturally counter other Stadium cards.  Most Stadium cards have a single effect that applies equally to both players, though that doesn’t mean that effect applies to both players at the exact same time, or will be equally relevant as it may apply to cards or effects that not every deck contains.  Prism Star Stadium cards come with a bonus: they ignore the effects of Item and Supporter cards which would otherwise apply to them.

The effect specific to Black Star {*} is a doozy, though it also comes with many requirements.  When

• A Darkness Pokémon…
• with a source of [D] Energy attached…
• is KO’d…
• by damage…
• from an opponent’s attack…

…then that player takes 1 fewer Prizes.  All these conditions that must be met, and that creates several ways for your opponent to get around the effect of Black Market {*}.  As it isn’t going to matter during your turn, your opponent can just use their own Stadium, or a Pokémon-based effect, to discard Black Market {*}.  If they can discard all the [D] Energy attached to a Pokémon, or force a Pokémon with no [D] Energy attached, that’s another way to avoid the Prize reduction.  A little more specialized, but if the KO comes from anything except attack damage (attack effects, Abilities, etc.) then Black Market {*} won’t do you any good.

Fortunately, even with all those caveats, this really is still a good effect.  Most decks win on Prizes, and denying an opponent Prizes can give you the time you need to win.  Not a staple, but a probable inclusion for Darkness decks.  The same goes for Expanded.  In the Limited Format, its probably a must-run even if you have no Darkness Pokémon or Darkness Energy.  It is clearly better if you do, but as long as your opponent isn’t running such a deck, then it’s a “neutral” Stadium you can use to discard other Stadium cards.  There are three other Stadium cards in this set, so it might be very important to have a way of discarding them.

Ratings

• Standard: 3/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: 4/5

We originally looked at Black Market {*} back on February 19, 2019.  It’s a good card, but not for every Darkness deck and certainly not worth running anyplace else.