Name: Rain Castform

Set: Hidden Legends

Card#: 22/101

Type: Water

Stage: Basic

HP: 60

Weakness: Electric

Resistance: None

Retreat: C

Poké-Power: Temperamental Weather

Once during your turn (before your attack), you may search your deck for Castform, Sunny Castform, or Snow-cloud Castform and switch it with Rain Castform.  (Any cards attached to Rain Castform, damage counters, Special Conditions, and effects on it are now on the new Pokémon.)  Shuffle Rain Castform back into your deck.  You can’t use more than 1 Temperamental Weather Poké-Power each turn.

Attack#1: (W) Scattered Shower

Shuffle your hand into your deck.  Draw up to 5 cards.

 

Attributes: Being a basic is always nice-you get to just drop it into play.  Being a Water Pokémon is solid in Unlimited (chance to combo with Blastoise, just a little more Weakness seeing play than Resistance).  In Modified, it means it might be useful against the Firestarter based decks, and again, Resistance to Water is scarcely seen, at least being played.  60 HP is pretty solid for a Basic, even one that doesn’t evolve.  70 would have been better, but 60 will stand up to most non-heavies.  Weakness to Electric Pokémon can be a problem, but is fairly typical.  Resistance is lacking, which really hurts card like this.  The retreat is just one, which is pretty affordable.  It also can be dropped to zero by High Pressure System.

 

Abilities: Rainy Day Blues is the only offensive attack possessed by this card.  It does a solid 20 for (CC), which is fair.  It gets a slight bonus too-if Low Pressure System (the one that boosts Grass/Electric HP by 10) is in play, you also get auto-Confusion.  This won’t probably be a common occurrence, but it’s still a slight benefit.  Now, in either format, you would only use the attack if you absolutely had to.

 

Scattered Shower is the other attack on this card, and it’s a toned-down version of Neo Genesis Cleffa’s Eeeeeeek.  Unlike Eeeeeeek, it requires a specific Energy type to use (Water), and instead of acting akin to a Professor Elm, this one is like a second Professor Oak’s Research to end your turn.  This is a pretty solid attack, but is upstaged by Cleffa in Unlimited, and isn’t allowed time to function in Modified.

 

Now that I have covered what is specific to the card, let me cover the Poké-Power: Temperamental Weather.  This is shared by all other Castform cards, currently.  Simply put, once per turn, you get to swap the Castform in play for one from the deck.  All attached cards, damage counters, Special Conditions, and other miscellaneous effects that are attached to/afflicting the Castform you sent away are transferred to the one you bring out.  This can be a pretty snazzy trick-Rainbow Energy can meet the diverse needs of the other Castform, and it allows you to keep an opponent guessing.

 

So we have one “okay” attack, one good one, and one good Poke-Power.  Not too shabby.

 

Uses/Combinations: In Unlimited, there is no real use for it, unless someone thinks the Castform can become a viable deck on their own.  Even then, it’s still inferior to Cleffa.  In Modified, a Castform deck might have a tiny chance (type matching and pray for great set-ups).  Otherwise, most Water decks will want it for extra draw-power, though they could use Corsola and/or Luvdisc as well.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 1.25/5-Castform deck is the only thing that might actually need it-it’s just for “flavor” elsewhere.

 

Modified: 3/5-It’s not the new Cleffa, but it is something Water decks should probably run.  Non-Water decks should think about it if they want some extra draw power: the new rulings allowing first turn Evolution hurts and helps-it gives more incentive to search out your deck, but also means Rain Castform has a harder time surviving.  The no Supporter-first-turn rule, on the other hand, definitely makes this something to consider.

 

Limited: 4.5/5-It’s a great set-up Pokémon, though not perfect.  Still, a top pick.

 

Summary

Not a bad card, but it must rely heavily on combos to achieve anything truly special.