Welcome to our second week of the Top 10
Promising Picks of Plasma Storm!
We open with
Colress Machine (BW: Plasma Storm
119/135), which snagged the number five
slot in the countdown.
Stats
Colress Machine
is a Team Plasma card; as I mentioned in
my side article, Team Plasma cards are
spread out across all three card types
(Pokémon, Trainers, and Energy).
As a Trainer, specifically an
Item,
Colress Machine is easy to play and
can get away with a lesser effect than a
Supporter.
This combination of stats will
become more important as we get more
Team Plasma cards due to how they
support each other.
Right now, it would only be
significant for
Team Plasma Grunt, and thus isn’t a
huge concern.
Effects
Colress Machine
joins the list of cards with one of the
most potent effects in the game: Energy
acceleration.
In this case,
Colress Machine attaches a
Plasma Energy from your deck to one
of your Team Plasma Pokémon.
When it comes to Energy
acceleration, from the deck is usually
only second to from the discard pile in
terms of overall potency; you only give
up one resource from hand to add a
resource into play, and your deck is
thinned by one card.
Only being able to affect
Plasma Energy is a significant
restriction: that means at most you can
have four targets in your deck, and
you’ll always need to run at least one
more card than just
Colress Machine for real benefit.
It has no effect on
Plasma Energy in your hand, discard
pile, in play, etc. so once your deck
has no more
Plasma Energy it becomes nearly a
dead card.
The game allows you to fail a
“search” effect, so as long as you have
a Team Plasma Pokémon in play, you can
use
Colress Machine to sneak a peak and
then shuffle your deck, at least.
Only targeting Team Plasma Pokémon seems
obvious, but is still a notable
drawback: no attaching to lower Stages
of Team Plasma Evolutions (as the lower
Stages are unaffiliated), improving your
odds of a T1
Tornadus EX (BW: Dark Explorers
90/108, 108) or the countless other
would-be applications.
This turns the effect into a
potentially powerful trick for Team
Plasma Pokémon, provided they can make
use of
Plasma Energy and fit it all into a
suitable deck… but no where else.
Usage
Card Family:
For a list of all Team Plasma cards with
some basic details, click
here.
Colorless Machine is all but useless
without
Plasma Energy, and I almost
suggested the staff make this a double
review because
Plasma Energy… provides (C) and is a
Team Plasma Card.
That’s it; the effect text just
states that it provides (C), which the
Energy symbol in the upper right-hand
corner indicates.
The article also lists the 35 different
Team Plasma cards we have, and how
certain effects that reference their
status as Team Plasma cards play out.
All Team Plasma Pokémon released
so far have at least one attack that has
Colorless Energy requirements and all
with two attacks except
Beheeyem (BW: Plasma Storm
70/135) can use
Plasma Energy to pay for at least
part of both attacks.
Many Team Plasma Pokémon can go
from no Energy to using an attack with a
manual Energy attachment and successful
Colress Machine.
Five other cards have effects requiring
or enhanced by
Plasma Energy.
Three of the five are Team Plasma
Pokémon that each have an attack with an
effect triggered by
Plasma Energy:
Articuno EX (BW: Plasma Storm
25/135, 132/135),
Moltres EX (BW: Plasma Storm
14/135), and
Zapdos EX (BW: Plasma Storm
48/135); if they prove to be any good,
they’ll be natural partners for
Colress Machine.
A fourth Team Plasma Pokémon
actually requires
Plasma Energy in order to use its
attack:
Lugia EX (BW: Plasma Storm
108/135, 134/135);
Colress Machine could technically be
left out, but that would be quite
strange.
There is also some additional synergy
with two other Trainers.
The final card requiring
Plasma Energy is
Plasma Frigate, a Stadium with a
Weakness neutralizing effect dependant
upon a Pokémon having a
Plasma Energy attached: accelerating
Energy while simultaneously nixing
Weakness isn’t bad for a three card
combo.
Plus
Plasma Frigate itself works
regardless of the affiliation of the
Pokémon; you couldn’t use
Colress Machine but manually
attaching a
Plasma Energy still provides
protection with
Plasma Frigate.
Team Plasma Grunt
requires you discard a Team Plasma card
in order to draw four cards.
That is the entire effect, so
with no discard fodder it is completely
dead… but if you know you’ve got spare
copies of
Colress Machine, you can get a quick
burst of draw power with no other
effects or restrictions.
This is not a thrilling strategy,
and was saved for last because it likely
is the least.
Modified:
Colress Machine will be the card
that Team Plasma decks will always
consider, but not necessarily run.
Pure Team Plasma decks will
rarely go without it, but with only 35
total, unique Team Plasma cards (and
Evolutions not having affiliated lower
Stages), for now a Team Plasma deck will
almost always contain unaffiliated
Pokémon.
If
another form of acceleration is more
appropriate, only those with large costs
compatible with both (or with triggered
effects) will need
Colress Machine and
Plasma Energy.
This is a combo that when maxed out is
going to take eight total slots from
your deck, and at minimum two, and that
forces it to be important to the deck or
skipped.
Despite all these concerns, as
stated you should always consider this
card if your deck runs more than a few
Team Plasma Pokémon.
It
allows several Team Plasma Pokémon to
access an attack in a single turn that
would normally require other
acceleration, and if you do force it
into a Team Plasma deck when you
shouldn’t, you’ll just have an overall
suboptimal build, able to do something
useful in place of something
more useful.
Unlimited:
For now I don’t really see the use here;
there are too many other Energy
acceleration options that are general
purpose, and of course you have to get
by the First Turn Win decks.
Once you get past those and the
various lock decks, you might find some
interesting tricks but only a few are
really worth experimenting with... and
that really reflects those cards more
than
Colress Machine itself.
Limited:
This is a must run so long as you have a
few Team Plasma Pokémon; it lets you see
and shuffle your deck!
Actually having
Plasma Energy just becomes a bonus.
Only skip it is you have
next-to-no or no Team Plasma Pokémon in
your deck.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
3.5/5
Limited:
4.5/5
Summary
Colress Machine
is an amazingly potent card, but only in
the right deck.
It is also somewhat luck
dependent; fairly reliable early game
but as time goes on and you use other
copies or draw into
Plasma Energy, you may run out of
targets in your deck.
In the decks should that use it,
it would effectively have a perfect
score.
In decks that absolutely
shouldn’t (or simply can’t) use
Colress Machine, it would receive a
minimum score.
Together with the decks that can
run it but not well enough to be worth
it, we get an above average score that
can be misleading.
I had
Colress Machine as my number four
pick, and once again after writing a
thorough review to help organize my
thought and clarify my own results, I
believe I overrated it.
Not
as bad as
Ether, but of what we have reviewed
so far,
Dowsing Machine probably should have
clocked in above
Colress Machine, not below it.
