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Rocky Helmet (Noble Victories)
Today we get to review what I think is one of the most
interesting and underrated cards from Noble Victories:
Rocky Helmet. This card also has a very weird and
literal illustration. Seriously?
A safety hat with rocks stuck on it? I don’t see anyone
(apart from maybe Lady Gaga) wearing something like
that.
Rocky Helmet is a Pokémon Tool that is sort of like the
counterpart to Eviolite.
Except any Pokémon can use it, not
just Basics. When it is attached to an Active
Pokémon, if that Pokémon is damaged by an attack, then
you get to put two damage counters on the attacking
Pokémon.
Just to clear some things up, Rocky Helmet does not work
on the Bench (so it’s not activated against snipe or
spread); it doesn’t work with damage counter placement
(like Gengar Prime’s Cursed
Drop); it doesn’t work against
PokéPowers, Bodies, or Abilities (like
Absol Prime’s Eye of
Disaster or Kingdra Prime’s
Spray Splash) and it doesn’t work against Status
Condition damage (Burn or Poison). Now that’s sorted,
let’s look at what it
can do.
The most important thing Rocky Helmet can do is to put
Pokémon that attack into it within range of
a OHKO. Imagine an undamaged
Reshiram with
Eviolite attached. It would
take three PlusPowers to
OHKO it with another Reshiram,
Zekrom, or
Zoroark. If it attacks into
Rocky Helmet, however, it then only takes a single
PlusPower to KO it on your
next turn. If a Magnezone
Prime attacks into Rocky Helmet, it can be KO’d using
Bolt Strike or Blue Flare without the need for a
PlusPower. If a
Gothitelle attacks into a
Rocky Helmet that was played before the Trainer Lock, it
leaves itself with 110 HP – an easy OHKO for the Dragon
decks that often struggle to beat her.
As you can see from those examples, Rocky Helmet can be
a powerful tool for shifting damage calculations in your
favour . . . especially with
Eviolite around. I’ve found it to be especially
effective in Reshiram/Typhlosion
decks, where the damage from Afterburner makes
Eviolite less worthwhile. It
can also be useful in decks like
Cinccino that are prone to falling short of the
damage they need to OHKO high HP Pokémon. It could also
find a place in a slow/passive deck like
Gothitelle/Reuniclus
which invite attacks, knowing they can spread the damage
they take around and heal it off, but don’t exactly have
stellar damage output themselves.
It’s definitely a card which can give good results in a
lot of decks. Try it out: you may be pleasantly
surprised.
Rating
Modified: 3.5 (That 20 damage
is more useful than you think)
Limited: 4.5 (in a low damage/low HP environment this
card . . . ummmm . . .
rocks. (Sorry))
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