Hurray for more shiny objects!
The runner up for the most
Promising Pick of Plasma Blast is
Silver
Mirror (BW: Plasma Blast
89/101).
Stats
Silver Mirror
is a Pokémon Tool (the third to make the
list), meaning it is also an Item and a
Trainer:
Skyla can snag it from your deck for
the Price of a Supporter,
Sableye (BW: Dark Explorers
62/108) can reclaim it (and another
Item) for the cost of its “Junk Hunt”
attack, and one
Tool Scrapper can send both
Silver Mirror and up to one more
Pokémon Tool in play (if there is one)
to the discard pile.
Pokémon Tools can only be equipped to
most Pokémon one-at-a-time and are more
prone to being a dead draw than Items in
general as you need a Pokémon in play to
use them (and often not just any Pokémon
as even those without a targeting
restriction are situational).
They
are not as prone to being a dead draw as
a Stadium, nor are they the extreme
exclusivists that are Ace Spec cards.
Effects
Silver Mirror,
like
Silver Bangle has an effect that
won’t work for Pokémon-EX even if they
have it attached, and that effect is, in
a word, amazing.
As long as
Silver Mirror is attached it blocks
both the effects and attacks of Team
Plasma Pokémon done to the equipped
Pokémon.
There is a slight chink in this
armor… you can find an attack like that
provided by
G Booster which itself ignores
effects on the Defending Pokémon, and
that will trump the protection offered
by
Silver Mirror.
Hypnotoxic Laser isn’t a Pokémon, so
its effects go through as well.
There might be more work-arounds
I am unaware of, but even with such
exceptions,
Silver Mirror is staggeringly
powerful.
Even Pokémon Tool discarding effects
like that of
Chatot (BW: Plasma Blast
77/101) are blocked, though only for the
Pokémon with a
Silver Mirror attached; an Active
Pokémon protected by
Silver Mirror remains protected by
it, but if a Pokémon on the Bench had no
Silver Mirror but instead had
Silver Bangle,
Silver Bangle goes bye-bye, and vice
versa.
Again, this is amazing as Team
Plasma focused decks are among the
strongest if not the strongest right
now, having lost little to nothing from
the rotation.
If
there are no Pokémon to attack “around”
the
Silver Mirror protected specimen,
then they will need a card like
Tool Scrapper or an unaffiliated
Pokémon to attack with, or face being
shut out.
Usage
Silver Mirror
is not the perfect example of “TecH” you
need another card in your deck to make
it work (a non-Pokémon-EX), and making
it work might not do much good for some
decks, you just need a solid attacker
that isn’t a Pokémon-EX
or a situation where stalling with
Silver Mirror is beneficial.
I won’t bore you with concocting
some hypothetical scenario that will be
more farfetched than something you would
actually stumble upon, but just forcing
your opponent to use a less efficient
attacker or fish for a
Pokémon Catcher or similar work
around is handy.
Completely shutting them down is as I
said earlier; amazing.
The other reason this card may
not be the perfect example of TecH is
that it might just be too useful to run
as only a single!
With its set (and name) mate
Silver Bangle you have two Pokémon
Tools that, for all their
vulnerabilities, are clearly designed to
smash the established metagame.
I don’t know if they will
succeed, but it is hard to fathom them
not having a significant impact.
Four slots is a lot to ask, but
two each of
Silver Mirror and
Silver Bangle will allow enhanced
offense and defense for any deck with
something that isn’t a Pokémon-EX and
can attack well.
Tool Scrapper (which I am thinking
should see a spike in play again) is
also as much partner as it is threat to
these, as you can use it to switch on
the fly between them, ideally while
still nailing something “good” the
opponent has in play.
That is all just in general; what about
specifics.
Sigilyph (BW: Plasma Blast
41/101) can have four Pokémon Tools
attached to it at a time thanks to its
Ability; this allows it to use both
Silver Mirror and
Silver Bangle at once… plus up to
two more Pokémon Tools!
The older
Sigilyph (BW: Dragons Exalted
52/124; BW: Plasma Freeze
118/116) won’t mind being functionally
immune to both Pokémon-EX and Team
Plasma Pokémon.
Garbodor
(BW: Dragons Exalted 54/124;
BW: Plasma Freeze 119/116) has no
complaints about suddenly being safe
from Team Plasma Pokémon.
Item blocking Pokémon like
Zebstrika (BW: Next Destinies
48/99) or
Dragonite (BW: Plasma Freeze
83/116) won’t even need fear
Tool Scrapper or
Hypnotoxic Laser, and if they aren’t
taking damage themselves, the fact they
don’t hit as hard won’t be a problem.
Ratings
Unlimited:
This doesn’t really help FTW, and the
vast card pool may make it hard to
justify a slot for lock decks.
When trying something more
straightforward and both space in deck
and on Pokémon being limited, the older,
powerhouses like
Expert Belt,
Solid Rage,
Cessation Crystal, and
Focus Band seem like better deals.
1/5
Modified:
Unless a strategy simply has no room for
it or requires different Pokémon Tools
in play and/or is solely dependent upon
Pokémon-EX, this is worth at least one
slot in your deck.
Even Team Plasma decks should
want it for the appropriately termed
“mirror” matches!
4.25/5
Limited:
The only realistic decks I can think of
that should skip this are of the
Pokémon-EX+39; for everything
else this is a must run.
4.95/5
Summary
Silver Mirror
is the new must run Pokémon Tool, unless
your deck legitimately can’t make good
use of it; as the high score indicates I
don’t think a lot of decks fall into
that category.
It has one other drawback,
though; like
Tool Scrapper it may create a
cyclical pattern as Team Plasma decks
may wax and wane in popularity (and
potency) opposite it.
I had this as my number three pick,
below
Silver Bangle – I scored
Silver Bangle lower, but I believe
it to be a more stable card, so I don’t
know if I would reverse the two were I
to compose a new list or leave them as
is.
I will end by saying that this is
exactly the kind of card that proves a
Side Board/Deck would be a terrible idea
for Pokémon and reduce the skill
required, not increase it.
