Name :
Drake’s Stadium
Set :
EX Power Keepers
Card# :
72/108
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. If another card with this name is in
play, you can’t play this card.
Any damage done to (C) Active Pokémon (both
yours and your opponent’s) by an opponent’s
attack is reduced by 10 (after applying Weakness
and Resistance).
Drake’s Stadium
is one of the Elite Four themed Stadiums in this
latest set. Drake favors Dragons in the video
games, so his Stadium aids Colorless Pokémon. While
in play, any damage done to Active Colorless Pokémon
is decreased by 10 after Weakness/Resistance. This
is a fairly trivial effect and one that can backfire
given that Colorless Pokémon are fairly common in
decks, so while a mono-Colorless deck can always get
that protection, many decks will have their own
potential attacker that can be sheltered by the
effect. This is further hurt by the relative
weakness of the effect: it’s only going to be
advantageous if you have some other form of
protection (so that the -10 eliminates the last bit
of damage) or you are setting up a large Colorless
Pokémon very, very fast (so that the attacks of your
opponent’s Pokémon are small and weak and your HP so
large it creates a large savings after several
turns). Obviously, while your opponent can only hit
for 10 points of damage, it makes your Pokémon
immortal. It doubles your Colorless Pokémon’s
lifespan if the opponent can only hit for 20 points
of damage, a 50% increase if they hit for 30 points
of damage, etc. If you have a 100+ HP Colorless
Pokémon, those first few are pretty impressive.
Otherwise, it’s pretty minor even if you have 120 HP
Pokémon and they are hitting for 70 points of damage
per turn.
Given the low amount of damage blocked and potential
for it to help the opponent as well, I must
recommend against using this card unless you
actually can figure out a good combo for it: I
haven’t been very active in the game so its possible
I missed something. The new Altaria has a
decent Poké-Body enabled by having Drake’s
Stadium in play, and I suppose it could be a
decent card in its own deck, but that’s the only
reason to play this, and its still not a given since
there are many other useful Stadiums.
Ratings
Unlimited :
1/5 – We have champs like Chaos Gym and still
stellar cards like Healing Fields for this to
compete against.
Modified :
1.75/5 – If it blocked even 20 points of damage, it
could have been a solid option for Colorless decks.
Limited :
4/5 – Much better here due to there being several
other Stadiums you might need to counter as well as
the likelihood that you’ll have some Colorless
Pokémon to make use of it.
-Otaku
