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Welcome to our Top 10 list for XY: Primal Clash! I’m not
sure how to specifically describe this Top 10 list; as
usual cards can’t be a reprint but other than reviewer
has a lot of leeway over what criteria to consider. A
popular, powerful card worth running in every deck
should be the pinnacle of picks… but thankfully few
cards like that are released and thus it becomes our job
to weigh the different aspects of the card, even when it
can feel like comparing apples to oranges. I looked at
how strong a card was in general, how strong it was in a
particular deck and how popular I expected it to be
regardless; that last bit is important because sometimes
a card sees disproportionate play relative to how “good”
it actually is simply because its easier to obtain than
better cards (re: the budget deck) or because people
don’t care how good it is, they just love that Pokémon
and insist on running it. Then I ran out of time so I
kind of had to eyeball my own list in the end anyway, so
unsurprisingly my picks didn’t match-up very well to
those of my fellow reviewers.
Today we are covering not one but two cards: Archie’s Ace in the
Hole (XY: Primal Clash 124/160, 157/160) and
Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick (XY: Primal Clash
133/160, 158/160). Why? Though they have different
names, their effect text has one single but important
difference: an Energy symbol. Before that there is
something I want to clear up quick about the names
themselves; I’ve heard some people complaining about how
bizarre these names. While a bit eccentric, they didn’t
seem that odd to me. “Ace in the hole” originated as a
poker expression: apparently cards that are dealt face
down in poker are referred to as being “in the hole”.
It now also serves as an English idiom
used to denote an
advantage or a resource kept back until the proper
opportunity presents itself. “Hidden ball trick” did
confuse me but a quick search informed me it is from
baseball; it denotes the team on defense trying to
mislead the runners on base about who has the ball so it
is easier to tag said runners out. I am not familiar
with this being used as a general expression, but given
the whole “Pokéball” angle, even if it isn’t used
outside of baseball, it works for me.
With that cleared up, let’s get back to the actual review: each
card states that it must be the only card in your hand.
If you meet such a difficult and risky requirement not
only do you get to select a Pokémon from your discard
pile (a Water-Type for Archie’s Ace in the Hole
or Fighting-Type for Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick)
and put it on your Bench, you also draw five cards. The
Pokémon that you select and put on the Bench can be any
Stage of Evolution; it will be its printed Stage even if
it is normally a Stage that must be played on something
else, but it will be an “unevolved Pokémon”… at least
that is the ruling from Ask The Masters over on Pokégym.
I’d provide clarifying examples but I’m not completely
sure I understand the ruling myself . I also do not yet
know if Benching a Pokémon from the discard and then
drawing five cards are worded so that you must do the
former to do the latter or if it would fall under “Do as
much as you can.” If you don’t need a target in the
discard pile at all and/or don’t need an open Bench
space (with that part of the effect just “fizzling”) but
you can still draw five, it makes both of these cards
into great top decks. If you do need that space, it
isn’t crippling but you’ll want to try and keep an open
slot on your Bench for it while it is in your deck, just
in case you’re forced into top decking.
Putting a Basic Pokémon from the discard pile onto the Bench isn’t
a big deal; notice how Max Revive doesn’t see a
lot of play. Putting a non-Basic Pokémon on the Bench
varies from simply useful to potentially broken; not
only do you reduce the direct resource cost for a Stage
2 Pokémon to one card instead of two but if you use it
on a Mega Evolution, your turn won’t end because you
aren’t Evolving one of your Pokémon in play (by the same
note, “coming into play” Abilities wouldn’t trigger for
anything either). The five card draw seems like a good
way to manage the consequences of the “You can play this
card only when it is the last card in your hand.”
clause. It will likely be very hard to set-up and use
either of these cards reliably. Multiple copies of
either card in hand renders the others useless so not
only is it foolhardy to try and run them together but
even running too many copies of just one, in a deck
focused on the effect, is cumbersome. So how should one
use this card? I don’t think it is something to rely
heavily upon; I know some are hoping to use Archie’s
Ace in the Hole with cards like Blastoise (BW:
Boundaries Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma Storm
137/135; BW: Plasma Blast 16/101) or Empoleon
(BW: Dark Explorers 29/108; BW: Plasma Freeze
117/116) or yesterday’s Swampert (XY: Primal
Clash 36/160) but I just don’t think it wise to rely
solely on one of these Supporters as the primary method
of getting anything key to a deck’s set-up into play.
Instead I think its a nifty trick or optional approach. Basic or
Stage 1 Pokémon can use this as targeted revival and a
source of emergency draw power but if they do, its with
a lone copy of Archie’s Ace in the Hole (or
Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick). As the relevant
Supporter is only useful when you’re topdecking or can
eliminate the rest of your hand and (again presumably)
have a legal target you can revive, there are a lot of
times when it will be a dead draw and that can get
pretty dangerous; there are plenty of times when I need
a draw Supporter but instead I get my Lysandre or
Lysandre’s Trump Card. The latter is something
that some people (like myself) favor running in most
decks but I get the impression that many more
competitive players don’t, but we needed to discuss it
anyway; Lysandre’s Trump Card naturally removes
any targets you set-up for Archie’s Ace in the Hole/Maxie’s
Hidden Ball Trick and if you are someone that favors
running Lysandre’s Trump Card then you hit the
second problem; fitting in one non-draw/search Supporter
is pretty much a given now. Fitting in two isn’t too
bad. Fitting in more involves a significant difficulty
spike. Even if you’re just running Lysandre (and
not a lesser used alternative Supporter), just running
one of it and one of today’s subjects brings you to that
threshold. So now you know why I only recommend this if
you’re trying to get a Stage 2 or Mega Evolution into
play without Evolving.
So using this card well likely depends upon Stage 2 Pokémon and
Mega Evolutions that are useful without being the focus
of the deck or that are the focus of the deck but
this isn’t the only way to get them into play. This
means you can run just one or two copies of the relevant
Supporter and then run some Battle Compressor and
VS Seeker (in the case of the latter “some
more”). Relying on Items means that this approach still
fears Item lock, but I can’t find a happier medium; less
dead Supporter draws and only partial crippling in the
face of Item lock. With this approach, though, I’m
thinking you can do some amazing things. Yesterday’s
Swampert seems a lot more reasonable when you can
augment it with Archie’s Ace in the Hole. How do
two “iffy” cards make a solid play? I’m specifically
thinking of the proposed deck using Seismitoad-EX
and Slurpuff (BW: Phantom Forces 69/119);
without Swampert its already a real deck
that has had some success. Diving Search combos well
with Tasting, and strange though it may sound Tasting
should make it easier to manage your hand size; you can
take risks you normally wouldn’t because you can use
Tasting to get your hand size back up. If you do want
to revive a Stage 2 focused deck, you still can; I just
think you’ll want to run at least a 1-1-1 line in case
you can’t get the combo off quickly enough, reliably
enough and still run no more than three copies of
Archie’s Ace in the Hole (probably just two and that
is in case one is Prized). I wouldn’t get too excessive
on the target either unless its got an effect that calls
for multiple copies; Empoleon wants a full Bench
for its attack and its Diving Draw stacks but the only
reason for a second Blastoise is to have a spare
in case the first one gets KOed.
For Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick, there aren’t as many
compelling examples; we don’t have a lot of formerly
competitive Stage 2 Pokémon that recently took a dive;
instead we have a lot that simply never did make it.
The unusual aid here I think is Korrina; its
great search for Fighting (or mostly Fighting) decks but
without due care it can be easy to find your hand
dwindling away. Korrina can work well with
Battle Compressor and VS Seeker, so that you
now have to fear a formerly “meh” Mega Evolution or
Stage 2 or even an established Basic or Stage 1 attacker
getting played from the discard file with a good five
card draw. A card like Machamp (XY: Furious
Fists 46/111) becomes tempting for any Fighting-Type
deck that already has most of the other pieces in place
because another +20 damage for attacks by your
Fighting-Types is another +20 damage for attacks by your
Fighting-Types. The other bit of synergy is what has
been hurting Evolutions; those potent big, Basic
Fighting-Type Pokémon. If you whiff on getting your
Stage 2 or Mega Evolution out quickly with Maxie’s
Hidden Ball Trick powerhouses like Landorus-EX
and even less impressive but still potent attackers like
Landorus (XY: Furious Fists 58/111) can
carry on until you do get something larger out.
Ratings
Standard: 3/5 - Yes, for
both cards. While I will not be surprised if one proves
better than the other, I really think that the strengths
of the Water-Type versus the Fighting-Type leaves them
on even footing. This is an overall rating though;
these card’s aren’t generalists that belong in just any
deck.
Expanded: 3/5 - I’m not
seeing any other hard-to-play Pokémon that strike me as
making Archie’s Ace in the Hole or Maxie’s
Hidden Ball trick worth scoring higher, though I am
seeing a few like Archeops (BW: Noble
Victories 67/101; BW: Dark Explorers 110/108)
that will themselves be just a little bit better. Yes,
that is quite a fine distinction to draw; the cards that
get better aren’t significant enough that you’ll be
seeing a lot more of (or more successful of) use for
either Archie’s Ace in the Hole or Maxie’s
Hidden Ball Trick.
Limited: 4/5 - Probably a must run but you might fail to draw a Pokémon of
the needed Type you can get into the discard pile to
revive, and of course if you’re risking a +39 deck
there’s no point to it. It is also going to be a lot
harder to get your hand down to just this card in most
cases, as you’ll likely have extra Energy cards or
Pokémon you just can’t play down fast enough. I’d still
try to make room for it when you do have a few
worthwhile targets in your deck; drawing five (let alone
whatever you revive) is a massive feat here and your
deck probably has the space.
Summary: Archie’s Ace in the Hole and Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick
are daring cards that can fail you horribly because of
the amount of setup they require, plus the fact that the
rest of the format is still more or less the “same old
same old”. Drop a Stage 2 into play with an Ability? Garbodor
(BW: Dragons Exalted
54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 119/116; BW:
Legendary Treasures 68/113) still shuts down
Abilities. Plus if someone figures out how to pull
either of these off reliably and with little difficulty,
suddenly you’ve handed any already well performing
Pokémon of the correct Type a solid new Supporter. In
fact, even with how I’ve explained the card, I do
consider it a solid new Supporter; part of its score in
constructed formats comes from how much competition
there is in the “specialty” Supporter slot. It helps to
remember that not every Supporter (or any card) needs to
be so good that you max it out.
Neither Archie’s Ace in the Hole nor Maxie’s
Hidden Ball Trick made my Top 10 (or even Top 15)
list; I think they have potential but between the
difficulty in making them work, the fact that they are
Type specific support and my perception that most
players that could make these cards work are going to be
averse to using them due to the risk over more reliable,
established tricks kept it off the list. Well, that and
the rushing. ;)
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