Today we look at Battle Reporter
(XY: Furious Fists 88/111,
109/111). This a Supporter, and
specifically a “draw” based Supporter;
such cards tend to be integral to
setting up and maintaining your deck,
keeping resources flowing into your
hand. While we have many draw
supporters, much like with the rest of
the format, the best define the rest.
Which group will Battle Reporter
join?
No.
Battle Reporter
has many flaws and especially given the
current environment, it is nearly the
worst draw option available; it isn’t
Cedric Juniper or Team Plasma
Grunt level bad, but its close. It
allows you to draw until you have cards
in hand equal to your opponent’s hand
size. Most players get their hands down
to three to five cards heading into the
opponent’s turn; unless you’ve got a
means of forcing your opponent to add to
his or her hand, that means even with
just a Battle Reporter in hand,
you’re not likely to be any better off
than if you had run a Bianca.
You might as well accept the reliable
but small draw power of Cheren or
Tierno, and while there are many
other draw Supporters that aren’t so
great, most of what I left out has some
niche to make them worthwhile.
Battle Reporter
is only really good if you’ve got a
small hand (preferably just one copy of
Battle Reporter) and your
opponent has a large hand. If your own
hand is larger, you can’t play it.
There are always three possibilities;
your hand is larger, your hand is the
same or your hand is smaller than your
opponent’s, and while you’re more
concerned with the relative difference
in size, the smaller the hands are the
less you draw as well.
There are two similar older Supporters
that at least had some periods of use
that are similar to Battle Reporter,
and the differences help illustrate
where Battle Reporter went wrong.
Copycat was one of the first
Supporters ever released, and it had you
shuffle before drawing until you had as
many cards in hand as your opponent;
this meant as long as your opponent had
a hand, you could try for at least one
new card. Holon Scientist
required you discard a card before
drawing, as a cost of playing the
Supporter, and then had you draw until
your hand was the same size as your
opponent’s: the discard helped increase
the likelihood of being able to draw
more cards, but the main benefit was
tapping into the “Holon Trainer
Engine”, a term referencing how there
were many related pieces of Trainer
support for the Holon cards.
Holon Transceiver was the key one,
allowing you to add a Supporter with
Holon in its name from your deck
or your discard pile and add it to
hand.
In Expanded, I am unaware of any combos
that will make Battle Reporter
any better. In Limited, if you pull it
you run it, barring the improbable
chance you pull enough better cards to
build a deck. Due to their scarcity,
both draw power and Supporters are near
automatic must-runs in this format… and
yet that shouldn’t mislead you into
thinking the card is a lot better here.
This is a literal case of being better
than nothing; my own testing in theme
deck battles via the PTCGO had me hating
Battle Reporter for existing as
even here it was constantly getting
“stuck” in hand or miniscule draws when
it could work. Human opponent’s quickly
figured out they needed to mind their
hand size. The Enchanted Echo Theme
Deck which contained it even has
Tornadus (XY: Furious Fists
86/111), which has an attack that hits
harder if both players hands are the
same size. While it sometimes worked,
many times I couldn’t even pull of that
simple a combo, though I suppose if we
get some future cards that reward
players well enough for having the same
hand size in the future, Battle
Reporter might find its niche. Just
remember that, as it means not using
anything you draw that doesn’t replace
itself (keeping your hand size the same)
in addition to your Supporter for the
turn, making it probably better to just
rely on naturally “synching” up.
Ratings
Standard:
1.5/5 - It isn’t worthless, but its
really bad.
Expanded:
1.5/5 - The fact that I don’t see it as
being much worse may actually be viewed
as a small triumph for this card.
Limited:
3/5 - Technically a must run, but I
can’t bring myself to label it higher
because you might not even be able to
use it here! Run it, but not use it; if
you’re playing in a Limited event using
XY: Furious Fists, you have a
good reason to keep your hand synched up
with your opponent’s (unless Tornadus
is already in play). If you somehow
manage to pull enough cards that you
don’t have room for it, gladly drop it.
Summary:
Battle Reporter was really
disappointing; I was so excited at first
glance because I forgot what made
Copycat and Holon Scientist
actually work. If there was a way to
force your opponent to draw or some
spectacular effect that required your
hand size match your opponent’s (and was
worth that you’d be burning your
Supporter just to synch up), it could be
good, but that’s a pretty specific niche
that still overlaps with other cards
like Hugh.
