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Hi, and welcome to a week of Trainers here on Pojo’s
Card of the Day.
We kick off the week with Bench Shield, a Pokémon Tool
with a very specific, but potentially very useful
function.
Bench Shield’s effect is simple: when it is attached to
a Benched Pokémon, it prevents all damage from attacks.
Now, when deciding whether or not you need Bench Shield,
it is important to bear in mind what it will, and will
not, protect you from. It will give your Pokémon
protection from sniping and spreading attacks such as
Honchkrow G’s Target Attack, Abomasnow SF’s Snow
Play and Flygon LV X’s Extreme Attack. What it won’t do
is protect your Pokémon from the Effects of an attack.
These include switching attacks like Trapinch SW’s
Inviting Trap and Blaziken FB’s Luring Flame, as well as
attacks which place damage counters such as Gengar SF’s
Shadow Room.
Although spread decks are not often seen these days,
thanks to Nidoqueen RR, Flygon LV X remains a huge
threat to decks which like to bench LV X’s in order to
use their Powers and Bodies. SP decks often like to keep
a Dialga G LV X on the bench to shut down opponent’s
PokeBodies, Grass decks enjoy the HP boost from Shaymin
Land Forme LV X, and some Fire decks get great benefits
from Heatran LV X. If you are building a deck that
relies on a Benched LV X, then Bench Shield is
definitely worth considering for your deck.
However, because of the lack of Effect protection (often
the bigger threat), you may find you want to attach an
Unown G to your Pokemon instead. If this is the case, an
alternative way to protect your Bench from Damage is to
tech a Manectric PL into your deck, which will prevent
attack damage to everything but itself, and still allow
you to use Unown G.
Although Bench Shield is a very effective card, very few
decks absolutely need it, or would want to run it over
Unown G. As a result, I don’t expect it to see much play
but it’s good to know that it’s there.
Rating
Modified: 2.25 (Does a good job, but not often
essential)
Limited: 3 (there are quite a few snipers in the set . .
. and if you pull a Luxray line . . . )
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