If the review is too long, skip straight to the Ratings
and Summary!
Name :
Battle Frontier
Set :
EX Emerald
Card# :
75/106
Rarity :
Uncommon
Type :
Trainer
Sub-type:
Stadium
Effect Text:
This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this
card if another Stadium card comes into play.
Each Players (C) Evolved Pokémon, (D) Evolved Pokémon,
and (M) Evolved Pokémon can’t use any Poké-Powers or
Poké-Bodies.
Attributes
:
Battle Frontier
is a Stadium Card, a sub-type of Trainer. Stadiums are a
Special kind of Trainer that remains in play until discarded
by another card effect. Nearly all Stadiums have a global
effect that affects both players equally, and said effect
remains until the Stadium is discarded. This makes Stadiums
fairly powerful tools, in that the easiest way to get rid of
one Stadium is to play another. Remember that you may only
play a single Stadium on your turn, and while they are hard
to get rid of, you shouldn’t play one unless it benefits you
in some way before your opponent’s next turn to make sure
you get something out of it.
Abilities
:
Battle Stadium
prevents each player’s Colorless-, Darkness-, and Metal-Type
Pokémon from using any Poké-Powers or Poké-Bodies.
To describe this, one word immediately comes to mind:
incredible. One third of the Pokémon-Types, and he ones
most rewarding to “splash” into other decks (Colorless being
easy to run with another Type, and both Darkness and Metal
usually needing a second type plus their own Special
Energies)… and Darkness-Type Pokémon are more common since
they’ve chosen to use it to represent a “corruptive”
influence on Pokémon… e.g. the big “gangs” in Pokémon, Team
Aqua, Team Magma, and Team Rocket. Several Pokémon from
those sets belonging to those teams get shutdown. True, it
affects any Pokémon you have of that type as well;
obviously, this is a bane if your decks normally involve an
Evolved Pokémon of those three Types, unless they have a
“restrictive” Poké-Power or Poké-Body.
Uses and Combinations
:
Battle Frontier
looks to be a card that many will either over- or
underestimate. Why do I say that? Like Desert Ruins
before it this card hurts Pokémon found in most competitive
decks, and takes the top two and really hammers them.
Pidgeot from Fire Red/Leaf Green has become a commonly
played supporting Evolution line. Liberal use of Rare
Candy allows people to toss in two Pidgeot, two
Pidgey, and sometimes a Pidgeotto so that it’s
not only dependant upon Rare Candy to Evolve.
Obviously, Pidgeot is shut down by this card.
Normally, Pidgeot renders Stadiums fairly moot: you
include one or two so you can counter your opponent’s
Stadium, and just Quick Search them out of your deck.
Obviously, that doesn’t work when an opponent has Battle
Frontier already in play. Now, many, many decks need
Pidgeot (or another affected Pokémon) to work. Those two
top decks it hammers are of course Dark Ampharos/Dark
Tyranitar and Dark Dragonite/Dark Electrode,
where most or all major Pokémon in those decks rely heavily
on Poké-Power/Body use. Said decks will still be played and
likely heavily: they appear to win frequently. What will
change is that the decks will require more skill to win
with: net-decking is not advised.
Those decks shouldn’t run this card. Decks that can get by
without Pidgeot, and don’t have anything else that
would be needed, should strongly consider it, much like
decks that don’t either run or rely heavily upon Pokémon-ex
that have 100 or more HP should strongly consider running
Desert Ruins unless they have something more useful to
their deck. There are two decks I can think of that should
strongly consider running this deck: Vileplume ex,
whose power will prevent it from being removed, thus forcing
an opponent to rely only on Supporters for setting up and
manipulation. No Pokémon Reversal. No Rare Candy.
No other Stadiums. The other deck is SAM: Sableye/Armaldo/Magcargo.
Never heard of it? Not surprised. I tried its predecessor,
SAP (Sableye/Armaldo/Pidgeot), and
opposing Pidgeot just killed me. I could lock down
Supporters, but Pidgeot kept helping people set up.
SAM is untested, at least by me; I hope to soon though. I
figure that by mentioning it, it should inspire all people
named SAM to help me. ;)
Ratings
Unlimited :
2/5-This isn’t a bad card here, just not much for it to
affect, at least at the moment. Pidgeot is seeing
some play here, and it is rather nasty; once it does set up,
it is big enough that it is hard to OHKO and prevents
Mind Games from shutting you down.
Modified :
4/5-It doesn’t belong in every deck, but those that should
use it, it is a life saver.
Limited :
1.5/5-Filler, for the most part, unless you expect
Altaria ex to be a big problem.
Summary
I
believe this card will cause a split similar to that caused
by Desert Ruins: at first, every deck that isn’t hurt
(or hurt badly by) Battle Frontier will be running
four, but as time progresses it will be less important to
those decks and decks that are hurt by it will adjust.
-Otaku
