Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Defender
I don’t know about you, but I always
think of Defender and
PlusPower as
a pair: the offensive and the defensive
counterparts. Even the artwork tends to
be very similar, with
PlusPower as
a red capsule and Defender as a blue
one. (I feel like I should mention
something about The Matrix here). Unlike
PlusPower,
which has had several reprints, Defender
recently appeared in Undaunted for the
first time since Base Set 2.
The change to Defender seems small but
it is very important and it’s one that
all players need to know. It seems that
there have been a few cases recently
where someone not knowing this
errata has
caused arguments and this shouldn’t
really be happening. Keep up with the
official errata, make sure you know your
own cards, and call a judge in the event
of a dispute at a tournament . . .
that’s my advice.
Errata
The wording of Defender is now as
follows, "Attach Defender to 1 of your
Pokémon. Discard this card at the end of
your opponent’s next turn. Any damage
done to the Pokémon Defender is attached
to by attacks is reduced by 20 (after
applying Weakness and Resistance)."
Defender now protects against all
attacks, even ones not made by the
opponent.
Why was it changed?
The actual wording of the Defender on
the Undaunted
version specified damage from the
opponent’s attacks, meaning that the
card did not protect against
self-damaging attacks. I suspect that
this was a case of the English
translation not following accurately the
intention of the Japanese card,
especially as the original Base set
version worked the same way.
What effect will it have?
Defender is already a good card in a lot
of decks. Just reducing the damage by 20
could prevent a
OHKO and leave your Pokémon standing to
take another Prize. At the very least it
could force your opponent to Lost Zone
an extra Energy with
Magnezone or
burn through some
PlusPowers and Junk Arms.
The new text preventing self-damage
obviously makes no difference to the
vast majority of playable Pokémon, but
the one huge exception is
Zekrom.
Attach a Defender to that card and not
only do you reduce the damage from its
own Bolt Strike by 20, but you also
require the opponent to hit for 130 if
they want to KO it on their turn: even a
Reshiram or
a Donphan
Prime hitting for Weakness will need a
PlusPower to
get the job done. There are a couple
more cards Defender can work with such
as Drifblim
UD, but the main beneficiary here are
the Zekrom
decks. If you play one, make sure you’re
running Defenders; if you play against
one, make sure you know this ruling.
Rating
Modified: 2.75 (not quite as universal
as PlusPower,
but a good card in a lot of decks, and
brilliant with
Zekrom)
|
Otaku |
Defender
is the card that really made me believe we needed an
Errata Week. I
was bemoaning how I wished they hadn’t nerfed it when
they reprinted it and… found out they had issued an
erratum that undid the power down.
The official announcement of the errata is as
follows:
-
The wording of Defender is now as
follows, "Attach Defender to 1 of your
Pokémon. Discard this card at the end of
your opponent’s next turn. Any damage
done to the Pokémon Defender is attached
to by attacks is reduced by 20 (after
applying Weakness and Resistance)."
Defender now protects against all
attacks, even ones not made by the
opponent. (Apr
11, 2011
TPCi Announcements;
May 5, 2011
PUI Rules Team)
When Defender
was first released, that is how it worked.
While it wasn’t heavily played except for a few
decks, it was quite useful in those decks because it was
usually included to reduce self-inflicted damage and
then just enjoy the benefits of blunting whatever the
opposing player would do as well.
Defender
was not available for Modified play until it returned in
HS: Undaunted.
When it first returned,
Defender
faced a format full of nasty ‘tricks’ and high damage
coming from Basic and Stage 1 Pokémon.
Even if they were Level Up forms, it still was
more efficient to worry about recycling Knocked Out
Pokémon than protecting them with
Defender.
Now the format has slowed, and for the most part
damage has been dialed back a little.
HP scores are higher, but barring one or two
exceptions that is because we are back to using large
Stage 2 Pokémon.
Aggressive decks can still OHKO these cards, but have to
spend extra resources to do it.
This means most decks have a practical general
use for Defender:
either my deck focus is safe from being KO’d or my
opponent has to burn through multiple copies of
PlusPower or
extra Energy (for cards like
Magnezone
Prime). Obviously
I am assuming a completely or at least mostly uninjured
Pokémon, and you rarely will be able to drop
Defender to
save something already almost KO’d.
Like PlusPower,
it comes down to math and mind games: the best players
plan things out
several turns in advance.
I’ve explained above the math aspect: a single
extra turn can equal a half a Prize to a Prize’s worth
of advantage.
Even a single oddball TecH copy played at the right time
forces that good opponent to rethink things, rendering
the last several turns of planning obsolete and forcing
said player to re-plan but with only a fraction of the
available time.
Trying to strategize quickly increases the likelihood of
mistakes. A
single copy is so unlikely to be run that an opponent is
apt to expect more.
An opponent might anticipate you having multiple
copies of
Defender ready and thus waits until they can
“overkill” cards so that it won’t matter, or they might
push to defeat you before you can draw them. If you
really are running a single copy then this becomes an
advantage since you aren’t able to do either and they
are wasting resources!
Let us talk about some specific uses for
Defender. The
first Pokémon to spring to my mind is
Zekrom.
You can drop a
Defender to
shave off some of its self-inflicted Bolt Strike damage
and increase its odds of surviving next turn.
With 130 HP, a fully healthy
Zekrom
protected by a
Defender can Bolt Strike while only doing 20 points
of damage to itself, leaving 110 HP.
As
Defender is still protecting it, it now requires 120
points of damage to finish it off instead of 80, a
significant difference.
If your opponent hits hard and fails to score a
KO, Outrage can now be used instead of Bolt Strike.
If they hid lightly (after
Defender)
then you probably have enough HP for another Bolt
Strike. In either
case your damage output is should critically wound or
OHKO most Pokémon!
This example also shows that this ideal use for
Defender
translates into 40 points worth of damage per copy: 20
points you would have done to yourself and 20 points
your opponent’s Active would have done to your Pokémon.
Two copies at once can be amazing for a
Zekrom: no
self-damage and it takes 170 points of damage (after
Weakness) to OHKO it!
Given the aggressive nature of
Zekrom you
may very well avoid taking any damage, since you can
shrug of 40 points before Weakness and you probably just
took out whatever they had powered up.
I mentioned this quite a bit when I first discussed the
card, but
Bouffalant (Black & White 91/114).
The reason
Defender is a little extra nice with this
Bouffalant is
threefold. First,
I anticipate this card to see widespread play just
because you can drop it, attach a
Double Colorless
Energy, and hit for 90 points of damage if your
opponent’s KO’d something of yours the previous turn…
like a Zekrom
that just dropped itself to 90 HP by using Bolt Strike.
If this becomes a common response than any deck
already running
PlusPower can just up it to a three card combo (Bouffalant
plus Double
Colorless Energy plus
PlusPower) to
instantly regain their advantage, OHKOing the other
Bouffalant
back.
Defender
obviously prevents that, but this is certainly not
enough reason alone to run the two together.
Second, few people expect
Bouffalant to
receive more Energy in order to use its second attack,
but Defender
makes that a realistic option.
Said second attack only needs another two Energy
to use (so two
Double Colorless Energy can cover it) and reliably
does 80 points of damage… not enough for another OHKO
but enough to be a threat.
It has a nasty little drawback of self-damage,
but a single
Defender completely negates that while forcing your
opponent to commit to an attack that does 120 points of
damage (after Weakness).
Again, not a brilliant option but a solid one.
The final reason is what makes the first two
actually matter, though it is quite deck specific:
Bouffalant
can act as a third-rate
Zekrom,
making use of its set-up.
If your opponent enabled Revenge’s secondary
effect, then
Pachirisu/Shaymin
can power
Bouffalant up in one go.
What compounds it all is adding a
Double Colorless
Energy readies the second attack, and 80 with a 50%
chance of doing 20 self damage (zero with
Defender) is
a nice fall back. If your opponent doesn’t take
Bouffalant
seriously, you can always use
Shaymin to
shunt Energy to a later
Zekrom, and
if your opponent does take
Bouffalant
seriously, better it than
Zekrom.
This card is only worth using in Unlimited for a few
specialty decks, as most of the time attacks are already
in the OHKO range, you’re packing
Focus Band to
try and stay alive, and there is quite a lot of Trainer
denial in the format.
In Limited play this is a must run as all decks
can use it quite well in a format where most Pokémon are
slowly built up instead of being fueled by fast combos.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.5/5 – A general score; the card is great in some very
obscure decks and unfortunately won’t block enough
damage to matter.
Modified:
2.75/5 – A general score; the card is great in some
decks but functional in most.
Limited:
5/5 – Usually you’re trying to build up one or two key
pulls, and this can give them an extra turn which
translates into an extra attack that translates into an
extra Prize.
Combos With:
Zekrom (Black
& White 47/114, 114/114),
Bouffalant (Black
& White 91/114)
Summary
Defender
might finally become an important card, and it is almost
ironic how that has occurred: a format where instead of
soaking light damage you’re using
Defender to
fend off a OHKO.
Most decks can use it, and a single copy is a great way
to mess with your opponent’s mind, plus there are a few
prominent Pokémon like
Zekrom that
can really get a good return from this simple Item.
Of course I am still selling my former possessions on
eBay
here. Pojo.com is not responsible for any
transactions.
|
Mad Mattezhion
Professor Bathurst League Australia |
Defender (HS Undaunted)
Hey Pojo Readers, today we have the opposite number
of yesterday's CotD. Give a warm welcome to Defender!
First of all, the text that was in place before the
errata stated that Dfender would be attached to one of
your Poke'mon and would be discarded at the end of your
opponent's next turn. While attached, it would prevent
20 damage from any of your opponent's attacks done to
that Poke'mon (after applying weakness and resistance).
The errata leaves all of those effects in place and
adds a new one. The original Defender (again, from Base
Set, I'm sensing a theme here) allowed you to reduce
recoild damge from your own attacks by 20 as well as
reducing your opponent's damage, and that ability has
now been restored.
I was afraid that the old Technical Machines and
Poke'mon Tools would all be removed from the game, but
since Defender is an Item Card that still gets attached
I remain hopeful that new cards will be printed to
replace the Tools and Machines we have loved and lost.
Back to the main topic, the main use for Defender is
to soak incoming damage to prevent an OHKO, giving your
Poke'mon an extra turn to evolve, set up and/or attack.
This works best for Poke'mon that damage themselves as
you get the full effect to soak as much as 40 damage and
self-damaging Poke'mon are the most likely to suffer
from a nasty revenge KO (take Zekrom BW as the best
current example).
If you don't use any recoil attacks in your deck,
Defender can still be used to keep a glass cannon (Cinccino
BW is the best example) from being oneshotted after your
first attack, allowing you to pull ahead in Prizes
rather than simply trading shots until your energy
acceleration fails (you will soon run out of DCE to
power your fresh Cinccino on the bench).
A third use is to protect an essential bench sitter
against a heavy sniper(for instance, a single Defender
would stop an unassisted Blastoise UL from getting the
OHKO on Ninetales HGSS). Since there are no
spcifications about which Poke'mon Defender must be
attached to, you can use it to protect anything your
opponent may try to reach (although you can't split a
single Defender across multiple Poke'mon). In an
interesting twist, the ability to soak your own recoil
as well as an opponent's attack also applies to a
benched Poke'mon with Defender attached, so if a Zekrom
deck wants to run Entei & Raikou Legend they can protect
both Shaymin UL and Pachirisu CL from the recoil of
Thunder Fall as well as an opponent's spread attack
(although I admit that you would need more than 1
Defender to keep Pachrisu CL alive so Super Scoop Up is
probably better in this siuation).
The key to playing Defender effectively in any deck
is to predict how much damage your opponent can deal
with their next attack so you can time the drop for
maximum effect, rather than simply soaking light damage
only to be OHKOed in the turn afterwards. Both Smeargle
UD and Mr Mime TM would help you learn exactly what is
in your opponent's hand for the best timing, but for
most players you will just have to learn how to read
your opponent's intentions based on what they have in
play (always a valuable skill).
If you feel that you would do better to heal recoil
damge rather than prevent it or if you run a lot of high
HP Poke'mon, you should run Potion instead. I know that
my last review painted that old and faithful card in a
horrible light but after a recent discussion with Otaku,
it does come out as the best mix of reliable and
easy-to-play healing we have in the current format. If
you need to deal with just a small amount damage after
the fact rather than before then Potion could well help
you if you don't like to gamble. Or you could run one of
each to cover both situations, as Special Conditions
like Poison and the placement of Damage counters could
still ruin Cinccino's day even with Defender in place.
With Junk Arm currently flying the flag for Item cards,
you can get a lot of use out of a one-of tech.
Sorry that this review rambles a bit but at the end
of the day, Defender is brilliant for recoil damage and
also works well protecting anything with less than 120
HP. Better pack some of those opposing Pluspower to
negate the advantage!
Modified: 4 (it varies from useful to essential
depending upon your build but anything that buys you an
extra turn is worth playtesting at least)
Limited: 5 (you will almost always use every Trainer
you can get your hands on and the lower average damage
makes Defender more powerful than it is in Modified)
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