So, we move into the exciting(ish)
top 3 of our countdown of the best cards of 2013, and
taking third place is the only ACE SPEC to make the
list.
A lot of players will remember the days of abusing
the you-know-what out of Junk
Arm’s ability to recycle Trainers. A few older ones
might remember similar shenanigans with Item Finder.
Both of those cards were bordering on the ridiculous at
times, so it’s no surprise that when the concept was
re-introduced, the game designers attempted to control
its power by making it a one-per-deck ACE SPEC.
Of course, it is still incredibly good: turning your
discard pile into a searchable toolbox of Trainers (and
yes, unlike Junk Arm, it also works on Supporters). Need
some big draw, then grab a
Juniper. Want to evolve fast, then
choose Rare Candy. Fancy having another go at flipping
heads on a Pokémon Catcher? Then use Dowsing Machine and
go ahead. It can be the ‘fifth copy’ of a staple
Trainer, or it can let you run slightly lighter on those
Trainers that are not always useful but can turn
particular match ups (such as Tool Scrapper or Enhanced
Hammer).
Not quite as versatile or as good early game as Computer
Search, Dowsing Machine comes into its own after the
first few turns and can stretch your deck that little
bit further. Unless you run a deck which requires a more
specialist ACE SPEC like G Booster or Scramble Switch,
then you have a very tough decision to make between the
two. Speed decks and those which demand a quick set up
will most likely go for Computer Search, but if you are
going for a longer game, then Dowsing Machine is likely
to be your best option.
Rating
Modified: 4.5 (fully justifies being an ACE SPEC and a
top 3 card of 2013)
Happy New Year to everyone: may all your favourite
Pokémon become playable in 2014!
Otaku
We end the year with the third place pick for our Top 10
Cards of 2013,
Dowsing Machine, originally reviewed
here as our sixth place pick for our Top 10 cards of
BW: Plasma Storm.Were the cards we rated higher back then that
much better?
Well if you have basic math skills, you know we have an
issue: we have five “better” cards for our BW: Plasma
Storm countdown but right now have only two places
left in this countdown.BW: Plasma Storm did have several great
cards, but we have already covered some of the cards we
initially rated above
Dowsing Machine:
Colress and
Lugia EX.This tells you that either we overrated them or
that at that time they were indeed more promising at
that time.
After all, Lugia
EX was one of the few Team Plasma Pokémon-EX we had
at the time, so it represented the “early” Team Plasma
decks; so an entire archetype or family of archetypes
rested upon it.
It also helps to remember what
Dowsing Machine
is; for a more conventional review our old ones still
stand as Dowsing
Machine is one of the few Ace Spec cards that rival
Computer Search.It still boils down to getting any card whenever
you need it versus getting a spare copy of a Trainer
from your discard pile; maybe the exact one you need,
maybe not, but always a “spare” copy (sometimes to the
surprise of your opponent).Continued play has shown that sometimes this is
indeed a little more valuable than that universal
search.
My thoughts on Unlimited also still stand; even without
play testing or hard data, how can you make
Dowsing Machine
sound like a good deal when you could be running four
Item Finder
(with other options if that still isn’t enough)?You can’t; save your Ace Spec for something more
important.
For Limited Play, you just need another Trainer worth
using.If
you don’t have one, it’s a dead card.If you read the previous review, I scored it on
the assumption you had at least one Trainer worth
running e.g. not
Colress
Machine when you lacked
Plasma Energy.This time I will attempt to average it out a bit.The set has a decent assortment of Trainers so
odds of only getting
Dowsing Machine
seem low.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
4.5/5
Limited:
4.8/5
Summary
A relatively short review for me;
Dowsing Machine
is a great Ace Spec because access to a spare copy of a
Trainer is amazing when competitive decks rarely if ever
lack a Trainer that isn’t at least “good”.I view it as being just as good as
Computer Search,
where the differences ultimately balance out, such as
Dowsing Machine
being weak if not a dead card first turn.
By now I am pretty sure I underrated
Dowsing Machine
when we first looked at it, and I might have this time
as well.I
had this card ranked #3… but most of our Top 10 list
this year is odd in that if I removed a card from the
format, for most the format would adjust without being
significantly difference, and the exceptions are cards
like Genesect EX
whose absence would eliminated an entire deck… but its
presence still isn’t as significant as the generic “we
could get by without it” cards like
Dowsing Machine.Being an Ace Spec especially dilutes this cards
potency, though I certainly wouldn’t want something this
powerful available at a higher count; I just mean that
when you’re in direct competition with the likes of
Computer Search,
Scramble Switch,
etc. and aren’t usually the focus of a deck, your
absence can only change the format so much.
HEZ
3 - Dowsing Machine (Plasma Storm)
Modified.
For many years Item Finder was deemed so powerful it wasn't printed
again. Then suddenly during the Heart Gold Soul Silver
season it was back as Junk Arm! With the power-creep (or
return to power) of Trainer cards during Black and
White, Junk Arm was quite overpowered, being able to
recover another Base set revival, Pokemon Catcher.
Now with Junk Arm rotated we have a new mechanic to help balance
otherwise overpowered Trainer cards in Ace Specs. For
the most part, a deck's choice of Ace Spec would be
Dowsing Machine or Computer Search. But people figured
out between Skyla and a Ball engine, Dowsing Machine
fulfilled a more unique role. The star user of Dowsing
Machine has to be the infamous Darkrai/Sableye/Hammer
deck in its various forms. Energy removal effects have
always been powerful, even the risk of flipping tails is
worth it on Crushing Hammer to render a whole turn's
Energy attachment null. Sableye can restock 2 such Item
cards at the cost of an attack but Dowsing Machine can
help take off the crucial extra Energy when you can't
afford to give up an attack or prize.
It'd be ridiculous to suggest only Darkrai decks use this card though,
every deck plays Items! As the Black and White series
comes to a close and we see the dawn of XY there's only
even more powerful Item cards to recycle. Dowsing
Machine essentially lets you play 5 of an essential Item
or turns your 1 of techs into 2 just when you need it.
The abundance of discard/shuffle and draw effects around
means the drawback of discarding 2 cards often isn't an
issue. With so much utility it's no surprise this is the
most widely selected option for that precious Ace Spec
slot.
Limited.
After such a sparkling review for Modified, it seems like a let down to
review it for Limited. When you open your sealed packs
and see that shiny border... you really want it to be a
nice, big Pokemon EX. There are a few good Items in the
set, if you pull 1 Hypnotoxic Laser you'll surely want
to play it twice! If you don't open a lots of Items
though, it will often be a dead card which is quite
likely considering the lowest rarity for Items in this
set is Uncommon.
Unlimited 150.
You thought this card was good in Modified? That's nothing compared to
how good it is in U150. Recycling is the name of the
game in this format, when you can only have 1 of a card
it pays to be able to reuse it! This is a format where
Marley's Request, previously almost unused is a staple
for reusing cards. And just check out the cards
available to recycle: Energy Removal, Super Energy
Removal, Gust of Wind, Hypnotoxic Laser. Just when your
opponent thinks you've crippled their Pokemon as much as
you can with Trainer cards, out comes the Dowsing
Machine. The choice of Ace Spec between Computer Search
and Dowsing Machine is a bit more complicated here,
being able to find any 1 card in a 100 card deck clearly
has its advantages. It will often come down to deck
style, do you need to set up combos, find several Stage
2 Pokemon or get awkward-to-find cards like Stadiums?
Computer Search is probably the right choice here. But
if your deck wants to make the most of the horribly
disruptive Items available then Dowsing Machine is the
way to go. Even though it's effectively Item Finder #3
it is often preferable to having Computer Search #2.
Always fighting for supremacy with Computer Search Ace Spec, these 2
cards are certain staples of the format.
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