Name:  Rare Candy

Text: Choose 1 of you Basic Pokémon in play.  If you have a Stage 1 or Stage 2 card that evolves from that Pokémon in your hand, put that card on the Basic Pokémon.  (This counts as evolving that Pokémon.

 

We once again take a look at Rare Candy.  Why?  Because we’ve had some significant ruling changes since it was first evaluated.  First, Rare Candy can now be used first turn.  Second, the player who goes first no longer can play a Supporter.  These two things make the card even more useful now.  First turn Slowkings are a huge pain.  First turn Dark Vileplume’s are fun though. Aaah, my lovely black rose. @};- Or for the more faint hearted, try a first turn Vileplume ex, though since it has to be active, it isn’t going to be able to attack too soon.

 

In Modified, it means some people may risk burning one on their Delcatty for more precious first turn draw power.  It also may make a new archetype: Armulligan.  Simply put, Armulligan uses no “true” basics, just the various fossils, plus assorted TecH, and mulligans until the player can start with a Claw Fossil, Rare Candy, one normal energy, and a Double Rainbow.  Imagine, even if you go first, your opponent can still completely shut off your access to supporters, and be slamming your for 50 a turn.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 4.5/5-The only efficient way to play most Stage 2 Pokémon in this format, as you can now skip straight to the big guys on the first turn. 

 

Modified: 4.95/5- This may be perfect at what it does, and what it does is game breaking.  I took off one twentieth of a point because it makes you weak to Devolution attacks.  However, this is mostly for balance, so it may indeed be a “perfect” card.

 

Limited: 3.5/5-It can act as a sort of a “variable” stage 1 if you draft multiple Stage 2s.  So you can run guys whom you either didn’t pull the Stage 1 for, or didn’t pull a lot of for it, as well as running multiple stage 2 evolution lines in the same draft deck.