Old PC – Darkness Ablaze Pokemon Review

Otaku

We begin this week with the flippy Old PC (SW – Darkness Ablaze 164/189).  This Trainer-Item possesses an amazing pay off… when it works.  You flip two coins, and if both are “heads”, you add the card of your choice from your discard pile to your hand.  Any other result does nothing.  That means three out of four possible outcomes are clearly bad.  Does universal, direct-to-your-hand recycling from an Item balance that out?  The majority of the time, the answer is a resounding “No!”.  There may be some combo decks in Standard where this could pan out, but even if you use Will so that you only have to flip one “heads”, Old PC would have a 50% chance of failing and burning a Supporter compromises the appeal of Old PC being an Item card.

In Expanded, you have a lot more options.  There are various non-generic recycling cards, whether you take that as being specific to a particular kind of card or deck-build or both.  They often return their targets to the deck and not the hand, but the Pokémon TCG is great about draw and search so that’s often still a good deal.  If you do want to add any one card to your hand, you could risk Milotic (XY – Primal Clash 44/160), but that means evolving it from a Feebas or Ditto {*} and having to sweat anti-Ability effects.  For a simple combo, there’s the vintage – but still legal for Expanded – Recycle.  Yes, Recycle places the selected card on top of your deck, not into your hand, and “tails” still fails completely.  It is only one coin toss instead of two, and any draw power that doesn’t alter the top card of your deck gets your Recycled card into your hand.  The one place where Old PC can really shine is the Limited Format.  Simply put, you likely have no better options for recycling, but still have ample room in your deck.

Ratings

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

Old PC is really tempting. To put this into perspective, Dowsing Machine is an Ace Spec Trainer-Item which can only add a Trainer of your choice from your discard pile to your hand, and requires a two-card discard cost from your hand to use.  It went on to become one of the few Ace Specs to rival Computer Search.  Even losing the discard cost, the Ace Spec Status, and the restriction to only snag Trainer cards does not outweigh that double coin toss!  There is still the potential, however, that something will someday come along where the chance to reuse it is worth running four Old PC because, because it would turn the double coin flip into an “I win!” button.

Vince

Old PC from SS Darkness Ablaze is another one of those cards where it might work…once in a while. This is an item that makes you flip 2 coins, and if both of them are heads, you get to grab a card from your discard pile and put it onto your hand. This effect is amazing when it works and I don’t recall any other cards that can retrieve anything from the discard pile. But because it works only 25% of the time, I don’t think this card will be worth a deck slot for you…let alone running 4 copies of Old PC. It also fails to retrieve Prism Star cards whatsoever because it went to the Lost Zone.

Despite being dismissive about Old PC, I still think it is a decent card, as far as the Standard format goes. The most important thing is to not place expectations of this card, but to think of it as a bonus. If your 25% chance actually goes through, then you would most likely play that card right away, whether it be a Basic Pokémon, Energy cards (if you haven’t attached to them yet), and Trainer cards (if you haven’t used up your Supporter or Stadium cards for the turn). If you fail the coin flips, well, that’s less card in your hand that probably wouldn’t matter…because you would be discarding your entire hand by playing Professor’s Research anyways or use Marnie for a better draw yield.

Yes, there are reliable cards out there that doesn’t require a coin flip, but nothing comes close to what Old PC does. Energy Retrieval grabs you 2 Basic Energies; Ordinary Rod gets you 2 Pokemon & 2 Basic Energies from your discard pile onto your deck. Even Expanded card pool has reliable cards, even at the cost of a Supporter. Fisherman, Brock’s Grit, Special Charge, etc., but there’s always something that your missing from those reliable cards. Even VS Seeker and Ace Spec Dowsing Machine falls short of “grab anything” although it does reliably fetch for a Supporter….or the ladder, any Trainer card. The closest rival to Old PC will have to be Recycle. For only one heads coin flip, you get to put 1 card from your discard pile onto the top of your deck, ready to be drawn with any draw based cards.

Ratings:

Standard: 2/5

Expanded: 2/5

Limited: 3/5

Old PC is a pretty tempting card, but there are other better reliable options out there that’s worth your deck slot. If some deck really have room to spare, then I guess Old PC will eventually fill up your deck to 60 cards. If not, then it’s not too big of a deal. It’s one of the few cards that can retrieve bygone mechanics like Ace Spec cards, so it could be useful in a speedy aggressive deck style that wants to dig through your deck faster and not care if Old PC fails.