aroramage |
...okay, so it's NOT otaku's #1,
but it's still up there. Pokemon Ranger is a pretty good
Supporter in its own right, and it's time to take a look
at why it tied with Special Charge!
...aside from I voted Special
Charge my #1.
Pokemon Ranger is a Supporter with
a single effect: remove all effects of attacks on each
player and each Pokemon. Now that's gotta just be plain
confusing, cause what exactly does that all entail?
First of all, it's not including the effects of attacks
that increase the damage output of an attack - those
don't affect the Pokemon or player so much as the damage
dealt, so those are right out. It also doesn't affect
the infliction of Status Conditions, I believe, since
those aren't really the "effects of an attack"...well, I
guess technically they are, but uh...well what does it
mean?
Basically, I think it's simply
refer to any non-Status non-damage effect on a card that
affects any Pokemon in play and/or either player. That
seems like a small number of cards that do that, but off
the top of my head, there's Seismitoad-EX which
prevented players from playing Item cards. Giratina-EX
similarly falls in line with this, as he prevents
players from playing a few different kinds of cards.
Then there's some of the less obvious cards, like Regice,
Jolteon-EX, and Glaceon-EX. These guys all have
protection effects on themselves that prevent the
opponent from inflicting damage onto them with a certain
kind of Pokemon. One Pokemon Ranger later, and those
effects are null and void.
So that's essentially what the
"effects of attacks" are, and with that in mind, it's
easy to see why Pokemon Ranger will see play. After all,
getting rid of your opponent's wall or removing a
detrimental effect from yourself is a pretty good usage
of your Supporter for the turn, so at the least you'll
see it teched into some decks as a counter for those
kinds of cards. At worst, well it'll have its time in
the sun and then head to Alola for a relaxing vacation.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (as long as lock
decks in some form are around, Pokemon Ranger will be
there to unlock things)
Expanded: 4/5 (and that's a pretty
powerful promise)
Limited: 2/5 (I don't recall too
many effects in this set, but come to think of it...)
Arora Notealus: There is one card
in this set at least that I can think of that it might
be okay to use Pokemon Ranger with. Though that really
depends on if it would work on effects that prevent
Pokemon from attacking...probably, but if it prevents
itself? Hmmm...
Weekend Thought: Thoughts on this
week's cards? Excited for the new set, or are you not so
excited for it? I dunno about you, but there are some
interesting cards at least showing up in this set. It's
exciting enough, trust me, you'll see what all this set
has to offer if you haven't already.
Next Time: Breaking into the new
form is...
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Otaku |
We finish the first
week of our top 10 with our number six selection,
Pokémon Ranger (XY: Steam Siege 104/114,
113). Before I get into that, you should be able
to read my reviews for
Tuesday,
Wednesday,
and
Thursday
now; apologies for the delay. Pokémon Ranger is
a brand new Supporter, which means it will face stiff
competition from all existing Supporters; only so much
space in a deck and all other Supporters are dead in
hand until your next turn after you use one. For
most if not all of their entire existence in the TCG,
the primary purpose of the Supporter card has been set
up and field maintenance, but thanks to Battle
Compressor, VS Seeker, and Shaymin-EX
(XY: Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108) we have a lot
more wiggle room than we otherwise would have based on
recent, previous years of the game. Battle
Compressor alone allows you to ditch specialized
Supporters you won’t need for a particular game,
avoiding wasted draws, VS Seeker allows you to
reuse either core or niche Supporters so that either can
make a difference with lower counts, and Shaymin-EX
can often provide enough draw that you won’t always need
to focus your Supporter on draw or search effect; all
three together combo nicely allowing you to search out
needed Supporters while still decreasing the odds you’ll
need to devote that Supporter to setting up (sometimes
even on your first turn). Playing in the Legacy
Format has reminded me of how different this really is
from where we came, and also how nice it is that there
are few anti-Supporter effects but still some great
Supporter support like Jirachi-EX and the
aforementioned VS Seeker.
Moving onto the
effect, I’ve already telegraphed that it isn’t about
drawing, searching, or really anything pertaining to
setup or field maintenance. At least not directly,
because Pokémon Ranger is there to allow what you
already have to keep working as intended, which I
suppose does save you having to try and build up a
replacement option for the afflicted. Afflicted
with what? Pokémon Ranger removes attack effects
on both players and their respective Pokémon. This
can be amazing when your opponent has hit your Pokémon
or yourself (like your hand) with some sort of attack
effect based lock. I do have some confusion over
what all counts as the effects of attacks for the effect
of Pokémon Ranger. What happens when it
involves a mechanic that marks the change: placing
damage counters without first doing damage can be an
attack effect, as can Special Conditions. I could
see the latter possibly being affected, but the former
would be too difficult to track. For the sake of
this review, I am going to assume such things are not
removed by Pokémon Ranger.
Some how about some
examples of what can be affected? Jolteon-EX,
which can wall with its “Flash Ray” attack against Basic
Pokémon, and Seismitoad-EX, long known for
blocking the other player from using his or her Items
thanks to its “Quaking Punch” attack. Much less
important is how it can reset beneficial, lingering
attack effects like that of “Echoed Voice”, an attack
found on a couple cards but we’ll reference Sylveon
(XY: Furious Fists 72/111). Even if it was
used the turn before, Pokémon Ranger would erase
that attack’s +50 damage effect it grants to itself with
repeated usage. You could also erase self
inflicted detrimental effects; Charizard-EX (XY:
Flashfire ; XY: Black Star Promos XY121) can
use its “Combustion Attack” twice in a row if you use
Pokémon Ranger in between. The catch is all
this applies to your opponent as well; not a huge
drawback as you’ll know what you yourself are running
and you’ll even know what attacks just happened.
So the rule-of-thumb would be if an attack effect is not
in someway marked on the field, Pokémon Ranger
for sure can delete it.
Pokémon Ranger
faces some competition in this area. Effects done
to a specific Pokémon are reset by that Pokémon leaving
the field, and usually by it Evolving and/or being sent
to the Bench. Sometimes it is more beneficial to
include a workaround solution in your deck; going back
to the Jolteon-EX example, if your opponent has
anything on his or her Bench you can use Lysandre
to force it up and attack it, or you may be able to work
in an Evolved attack to just completely ignore Flash
Ray. Marowak (XY: Fates Collide 37/124)
protects your hand from the attack effects of your
opponent’s Pokémon. For many decks though, a
TecH
Supporter is the best answer, as we’ve seen with cards
like Hex Maniac and Xerosic which tend to
be used in a similar manner. This should lead
Pokémon Ranger to see at least some successful
competitive play in Standard and Expanded. For
Limited, you really ought to work it in as attack
effects are much more important here. Just be
careful not to erase an effect you want to remain.
Ratings
Standard:
3.75/5
Expanded:
3.75/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Another Supporter well worth running as a one-of in many
decks, and which you wish you could squeeze in for most
of the rest, Pokémon Ranger addresses what has
been a more and more problematic issue of overwhelming
attack effects. Not mentioned above, is that this
card feels very late to the party. Post rotation
Standard loses the big, bad Seismitoad-EX, and
while that card is still strong and competitive it was
abusively dominant several times since its release.
One of its partners, Giratina-EX (XY: Ancient
Origins 57/98, 93/98), is sticking around and also
creates a lingering attack effect you’ll want to erase,
but I think this is yet another example of Pokémon
fixing a problem they created, and long after most of us
had given up hope. At least Pokémon Ranger
should remain important for Expanded play.
Pokémon Ranger
earned 10 voting points, tying with
yesterday’s
Special Charge. Both of these cards could
have been vying for the #1 slot if they had released a
few sets sooner, but this time there wasn’t a huge
difference between where I had it and where it ended up.
It earned five voting points from both myself and
aroramage, as we each had it as our sixth place pick… so
with this it officially took sixth place on all three
lists.
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