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We come to Thursday and the number seven choice for our
Top 10 Promising Picks of Plasma Storm…
Ether (BW:
Plasma Storm 121/135)!
This is another expected by many (including
myself) in BW: Boundaries Crossed due its
Japanese release.
The nature of this card doesn’t lend itself to my
current structuring of reviews, so for better or worse
I’ll be reviewing this in a more freestyle form.
Do not expect that to make the review any
shorter.
Ether
enjoys speed as it is an Item, and right now the
countermeasures for Items (and Trainers in general)
aren’t seeing play.
Its effect is the coveted Energy acceleration; in
this case the card reveals the top card of your deck,
and if it is a Basic Energy card you get to attach it to
one of your Pokémon.
If it isn’t, the revealed card simply goes back
to the top of the deck.
That last bit can be somewhat useful; you get an
idea of what is coming next turn, or this turn if you’ve
got some non-shuffling form of draw power available.
In a different format, this card would be a maxed out
staple in all decks.
Unfortunately it comes out when Special Energy
usage seems to be on the rise, and if it isn’t then low
Energy count decks are still the norm.
Even with combos to help it,
Ether really
prefers a deck weigh in with at least 10 basic Energy
cards, preferably 15 or more.
If it did work on Special Energy, it would still
not be an automatic inclusion in decks due to the sheer
volume of important cards, though I suspect most decks
would make room.
All is not lost, however.
There is one very simple combo to help decks make
good use of
Ether, and that is by running
Pokédex with
it. Five
cards is 1/12th of your full deck, and as the
game goes on it just becomes a bigger and bigger chunk.
Pokédex
can be mildly useful on its own, just not enough to
bother running it that way.
When the combo works, you’ll be able to
accelerate a Basic Energy card plus know the next four
cards of your deck, at least until you draw them or an
effect forces you to shuffle.
There are other options as well;
Lunatone (BW:
Plasma Storm 73/135) allows you to see the top two
cards of your deck via its Ability and rearrange them if
you wish.
It isn’t a huge improvement, but it is reusable.
Musharna
(BW: Next Destinies 59/99) is a Stage 1 and none
too big, but its Ability allows you to look at the next
two cards and then add one to hand.
I still prefer
Pokédex, but
these two might have a place in the right deck; before
the delay I saw donk decks trying out a TecH
Lunatone
accompanied by
Level Ball or
Heavy Ball;
being a legal target for both it gave better odds of
successfully using
Ether first
turn, but the decks would still run
Pokédex as
well.
Sticking with the
Pokédex
strategy, I believe you need to remember that
Ether is
always going to be unreliable and can’t be thought of
like most other Energy acceleration.
Instead, think
of it a bit like
Crushing Hammer; great when it works, terrible when
it whiffs. You
can’t rely on it, but when it does work the benefit is
usually immense.
It is important as well to remember you don’t
need to max out on either card, and actually need less
Pokédex than
Ether;
besides a lucky
Ether use on its own, if you can get the cards in
hand at the right time and hit enough Energy off of
Pokédex, you
can use multiple
Ether with it.
I haven’t painted a very bright picture of
Ether, and
that is because I believe the current metagame won’t be
friendly to it.
Find a deck that can and should use it and
Ether will
be pretty amazing, but we also received Team Plasma
Pokémon and their own Energy acceleration in the form of
Colress Machine
and Plasma
Energy, as well as all the other established
accelerators in the format.
People can’t really afford to drop
Pokémon Catcher
for Ether.
It also doesn’t mesh well with most other Energy
acceleration. About
the only established Energy acceleration that works with
Ether might
be Dark Patch
and Double
Colorless Energy. In
the case of the former, it is because both target Basic
Energy cards and you likely have enough of either to
have adequate targets for both
Dark Patch
and Ether.
The latter is because
Double Colorless
Energy, while not a legal target, is “self-contained
acceleration”.
In both cases, it is mostly a matter of having
room.
In Unlimited, there are better options: if a deck really
needs extra Energy attachments, it should probably run
something more easily used and re-used.
The format also runs heavily on Special Energy.
On the other hand, in Limited play it is a must
run: just knowing your next card is worth it and
actually hitting a basic Energy is more likely (decks
tend to run higher Energy counts, both in actuality and
proportionately).
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
3.5/5
Limited:
5/5
Combos:
Pokédex,
Lunatone (BW:
Plasma Storm 73/135),
Musharna (BW:
Next Destinies 59/99)
Summary
I was so exited for
Ether when
it was supposed to be debuting in BW: Boundaries
Crossed, but now it feels like I have to choose
between it and several other important Trainer
strategies… most of which are much more reliable.
There will be decks using this, and using it for
scary tricks, but have to go light on Special Energy
(maybe avoid it altogether).
I see why it made the number seven slot for our
overall list… and why the others likely ranked it lower.
On my own list, I placed it in the number three
slot, but am now having a serious case of buyer’s
remorse.
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