Review is too long? Skip straight to the Ratings and
Summary!
Name :
Holon Researcher
Set :
EX Delta Species
Card# :
95/113
Rarity :
Uncommon
Type :
Trainer
Sub-type:
Supporter
Effect Text:
You can play only one Supporter card each turn. When you
play this card, put it next to your Active Pokémon. When
your turn ends, discard this card.
Discard a card from your hand. If you can’t discard a card
from your hand, you can’t play this card.
Search your deck for a (M) Energy card or a Basic Pokémon
(or Evolution card) that has δ on its card, show it to your
opponent, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your deck
afterward.
Attributes:
The third and final card this week is another
Holon
Supporter. In case you missed my previous CotDs this week (they
were late), I classify
Holon
Supporters as its own subtype due to their two common traits.
First,
Holon
is in their name (making them legal to search via the
non-Supporter Trainer card, Holon Transceiver), and they
all share the common “discard a card to play” clause.
All
this means is that this card needs a really, really good effect
to offset the cost of playing it, especially for Unlimited.
Abilities:
You can get a Metal Energy or Pokémon δ from your deck.
Since you’re discarding a card from your hand to do this, it’s
pretty pricey: two cards and your Supporter use for the turn for
either a Metal Energy (just the actual card; Dark
Metal Energy, Multi Energy, etc. aren’t legal
targets), or Pokémon δ. While Metal Energy can only be
searched easily via Poké-Powers (Holon Lass is good, but
doesn’t search the entire deck normally), Pokémon can be sought
via Celio’s Network, and there are even more restrictive
but non-Supporter options, like Great Ball, Master
Ball, etc. All in all, this seems a bit disappointing to
me.
Uses
and
Combinations:
It’s not horrid for decks using actual Metal Energy along
with Pokémon δ. You can use it for either, separately, but I
think better options exist (see above). If this was an “and”
statement, it’d be a lot more exciting.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5-You might as well stick with the superior draw and search
options of this format. If I have to discard one card for a
Supporter, I might as well discard two cards for a Computer
Search and still have my Supporter for the turn, or use
Bill after using Oracle to topdeck the two cards I
needed.
Modified:
3/5-This is for decks utilizing both Metal Energy and
Pokémon δ in reasonable amounts. If a deck uses just one,
reduce the rating by one point. If a deck uses neither, or
very, very few copies of one or both, then just use the
traditional search and draw options.
Limited:
4/5-As usual, Holon Researcher is strong here. Metal
Energy is in this set. Metal Energy is incredibly
valuable here, provided you have a Metal-Type Pokémon to use it
(and especially if that Pokémon needs to fill a Metal Energy
requirement to attack). You also have to work hard to not
have several Pokémon δ in your deck.
Summary
A good
attempt spoiled perhaps by overcompensation. The ability to
search out Special Energy is quite rare in Modified, and has
been through most of its iterations. Understandably, that means
that relaxing those restraints requires, slow, deliberate
steps. This first one may not go far enough (assuming there is
a way to do this without accidentally breaking the game).
