21times |
Super Scoop Up
(Burning Shadows, 124/147) returns to the meta in
the Burning Shadows expansion set.
This card allows you to put one of your Pokemon
and all cards attached to it back into your hand (if you
flip heads).
None of the top eight decks in the Masters
division at worlds this past weekend played even a
single copy of this card.
It’s my
suspicion that this is because of
Acerola (Burning
Shadows, 112/147) and the fear of running up the
item count against
Garbodor (Guardians
Rising, 51/145)
especially
when it involves a coin flip.
Many players are thinking, “There’s no way I’m
adding twenty damage to
Trashalanche
knowing there’s a fifty fifty chance that it’s going to
do nothing for me.”
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times over the past week
or so, it seems that the meta is moving towards
frequently employing strategies that completely wipe out
all of the damage on one of your Pokemon.
Between
Acerola (Burning Shadows, 112/147),
Super Scoop Up
(Burning Shadows, 124/147),
Max Potion (Sun
& Moon, 128/145),
Tapu Cure GX,
Tapu Wilderness GX, and Ice Path GX, there is a
growing premium for Pokemon that actually have OHKO
potential at the highest HP levels.
It may not happen instantly, but I think we’ll
see an increase in cards like
Solgaleo GX (Sun
& Moon, 89/149),
Necrozma GX (Burning
Shadows, 63/147),
Ho-Oh GX (Burning
Shadows, 21/147), and other Pokemon that can
repeatedly do 230, 240, or even 250 damage.
Honestly, I’d bet that if it weren’t for
Trashalanche,
Super Scooper
would probably be a four of in many decks.
Again, it has the same limitation as
Acerola: if
you used Rare
Candy (Sun & Moon, 129/149) to evolve a Stage
2 Pokemon or if it takes four energy to power up a
Pokemon, Super
Scooper probably isn’t the right card for your deck.
But, for instance, I’m planning on running at
least two in my post-rotation
Sylveon GX (Guardians
Rising, 92/145) decks that I’m putting together, at
least initially.
I’m also going to try to pair it with
Bodybuilding
Dumbells (Burning Shadows, 113/147) as well.
I don’t know how well it will work, but I’m going
to try it.
When I did my damage analysis back in April (analysis
can be found here:
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1264581),
only about 1% of attacks did 240 or more damage.
It’s my guess that there’s been some serious
damage creep – meaning, the amounts of damage being done
are significantly higher than they were back in April
when I initially did this study.
I’m going to track damage again in September, and
I’m betting the median and average will be a lot higher
than they were six months ago.
We know that there are a lot of Pokemon out there
today that can easily hit very high numbers but weren’t
in the meta when I did this study.
Rating
Standard: 2.5 out of 5
Conclusion
Like I said, if it weren’t for
Trashalanche,
I think this card would be seeing a lot more usage and
having a non-item alternative in
Acerola has
also worked against
SSU.
However, this is a very good card and will
see play, even if it is dependent on a coin flip.
|
Otaku |
As it is Throwback Thursday, we are not looking
at a runner-up from our last Top 10 countdown, but we
are still looking at a card that was seriously
considered for the top 10. How? Reprints are
normally ineligible for the top 10’s because TPCi has
done a reasonably good job of getting certain staples
and potent cards printed multiple times, and those would
be eating up space in our Top 10’s. In SM:
Burning Shadows alone we have Choice Band,
Escape Rope, Multi Switch, Rescue
Stretcher, Super Scoop Up, and Weakness
Policy plus this set’s Lycanroc-GX -
SM: Burning Shadows 136/147 and 155/147 - are the
No Background and Rainbow Rare versions (respectively)
of Lycanroc-GX (SM: Black Star Promos
SM14). This is not me saying that each of these
reprints is Top 10 worthy, but at least one clearly is:
Choice Band was our
fourth place pick
from the SM: Guardians Rising Top 15, and it
hasn’t become any weaker since then. Choice Band
as a Secret Rare does little to affect its availability
and probably won’t mean a thing in terms of its long
term legality as I strongly doubt we’ll ever have an
SM: Burning Shadows-On Standard Format.
Some reprints, however, do affect card
availability and/or legality while also being
promising or even proven cards. So we
amended our “No Reprints” rule to allow such cards to
sneak in if enough of the review team thinks them
worthwhile. Super Scoop Up is one such card and
the subject of today’s Throwback Thursday. It has
seen many printings over its nearly 17 year lifespan.
Information on official release dates, official
legality dates, and transition dates for the Standard
Format can get a bit sketchy because no one thought to
preserve them and - even now - the previous
official announcements are taken down from Pokemon.com
around the time the current one is made, but here is a
rough history of the card’s releases and legality:
-
Neo Genesis
98/111, which officially released on
December 16, 2000. This means the card
was legal for the entirety of the
2001-2002 and 2002-2003 Standard
Formats.
-
Expedition
151/165, which officially released on
September 15, 2002. This means the card
remained legal for the entirety of the
2003-2004 Standard Format.
-
EX: FireRed/LeafGreen
99/112, which officially released on
August 30, 2004. This means the card
remained legal for the entirety of the
2004-2005 and 2005-2006 Standard
Formats.
-
EX: Delta Species
100/113, which officially released on
October 31, 2005. This means the card
remained legal for the entirety of the
2006-2007 Standard Format.
-
Diamond & Pearl
115/130, which officially released on
May 23, 2007. This means the card
remained legal for the entirety of the
2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009
Standard Formats.
-
DP: Majestic Dawn
87/100, which officially released on May
21, 2008. This means the card remained
legal for the entirety of the 2010-2011
Standard Format.
-
HS: Unleashed
83/95, which officially released on May
12, 2010. This means the card remained
legal for the entirety of the 2011-2012
Standard Format.
-
Black & White
103/114, which officially released on
April 25, 2011. This means the card
remained legal for the entirety of the
2012-2013 Standard Format.
-
XY: Furious Fists
100/111, which officially released on
August 13, 2014. This means the card
returned to Standard Format play for the
last two weeks of the 2013-2014 Standard
Format, and remained legal or the
entirety of the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016
Standard Formats.
-
SM: Burning Shadows
124/147 and 166/147, which both
officially released on August 4, 2017,
and became legal for Organized Play on
August 18, 2017. This means the card
returned to Standard Format play for the
last two weeks of the 2016-2017 Standard
Format, and will now most likely remain
legal for the entirety of the 2017-2018
and 2018-2019 Standard Formats.
Again, barring mistakes with the dates - taken
from
Bulbapedia
- or hiccups caused by the fluctuating rules for when a
card becomes legal for Organized play, Super Scoop Up
has been legal for every Standard Format, even
back when it was called “Modified”. Some of those,
however, were near misses, with the final major release
of that Season sneaking Super Scoop Up back into
the card pool.
Let’s look at what this card is, does, and how it has
fared over the years. Super Scoop Up originally
released as a “Normal Trainer”, what we now call a
Trainer-Item. The good news? Trainer cards
supply effects regardless of your Pokémon, Energy, or
other Trainer cards unless the card’s specific
effect text states otherwise. Super Scoop Up is
not one of the exceptions, so it can transcend
your usual deck requirements, functioning nearly
anywhere. Both counters and support for Trainers
(in general) or Items (specifically) get pretty crazy
over the years… so crazy, in fact, that even I am not
going to list them all out, or even the highlights. If
you’ve got a lot of time to kill or would like to write
a helpful article, I’d love for you to take a crack at
it. Remember, though, that you’ll need to not only
find the cards but research (or remember) how often they
were used plus how well they actually worked (the
two are not always the same). Right now Super
Scoop Up can tap some very few pieces of general
Trainer or Item-specific support, with the amount of
Standard-legal options shrinking tomorrow, when
the 2017-2018 Standard Format officially goes into
effect. There aren’t any current, competitive
anti-Trainer effect, but Item counters definitely
exist that have proven strong. The Standard Format
is losing its current, notable example to rotation -
Vileplume (XY: Ancient Origins 3/98).
While it will remain an Expanded Format option,
Forest of Giant Plants is officially banned there as
of tomorrow, so Items are actually in a better
spot in both formats in less than 24 hours.
The actual effect of Super Scoop Up is an
all or nothing bit of bounce for one of your
Pokémon; you get to pick which it is, regardless of
whether it is your Active or one from your Bench.
The effect requires a coin flip, with “heads” returning
the selected Pokémon and all cards attached to
your hand, while “tails” does absolutely nothing,
beyond using up Super Scoop Up. Bounce
effects allow you to reuse resources that are already in
play, though sometimes this can be costly and
time-consuming if the target in question took a long
time to prepare. It can be worth it, though, as
this also can deny an opponent a Prize or two as
the bounced Pokémon sheds all attack effects, Special
Conditions, and damage counters. It may be worth
rebuilding, either because it was strong, is easy to
rebuild, or both. It may also be worth playing
again because you’re just exploiting a coming-into-play
Ability, or because it was a Bench-sitter stuck in the
Active position, or some other reasons I’m probably
forgetting. If you’re a regular reader, we’ve
discussed this recently as the latest addition to
bounce Trainers was the
second place finisher
from our SM: Burning Shadows Top 10, Acerola.
Yes, exactly one week ago I detailed a list of bounce
providing Trainers throughout the years, but I won’t be
surprised if I missed one or two. We will not
be revisiting that entire list, but a few are worth
looking at to help evaluate Super Scoop Up.
Acerola
herself is a Supporter, so she doesn’t have to worry
about any competitive counters, at least those based on
her specific card subclass. She provides the same
total bounce, meaning the Pokémon and all cards attached
are returned to hand. The catch here, besides
costing you your Supporter for the turn, is the Pokémon
you bounce must have at least one damage counter
on it. A slightly older Supporter that also
provides useful bounce is AZ, and while he does
not require a Pokémon have damage on it, he
does not return attached cards to your hand.
He does return all Stages of Evolution - and odd
things like Level-Up cards if used in the Unlimited
Format - but he will not return, Tools, Energy,
etc. that are attached to the Pokémon in question.
He’s been a loose staple in the Expanded Format since he
was lost to the Standard Format, and he was a loose
staple there before being lost to rotation. The
card that most closely matches up with Super
Scoop Up in stats and attributes is Scoop Up
Cyclone; it is a Trainer-Item that provides the same
total bounce effect as Super Scoop Up but without
a coin flip or other cost. The catch is that is
is an Ace Spec, so you’re only allowed to run one copy
of it and it means you cannot run another Ace
Spec like Computer Search, Dowsing Machine,
etc. Even facing such competition for deck space,
there were a few competitive decks that demonstrated
Scoop Up Cyclone was worth your Ace Spec usage.
So, what do all of those mean for Super Scoop Up?
All have helped show how useful bounce has been in
recent years, or looks to still be in the immediate
future. Whether you’ve got a massive tank your
deck can re-ready with surprising speed or something
small that you just need to get off the field, bounce
effects are usually good. Failing half the time is
not, but the tradeoff is saving your Supporter usage
for the turn or not having to burn up your Ace
Spec slot. In the Expanded Format, even decks that
use Scoop Up Cyclone are likely to include an
AZ or two and a few copies of Super Scoop
Up; when bounce is important, it seems like you can
never have enough bounce cards. The “tails fails”
drawback is not so bad as long as your deck is good at
replenishing your hand; for years this was not
the case and it made Super Scoop Up a scary
proposition. My first-hand knowledge from this
time period is sketchy; besides memories from up to 17
years ago having faded, reliable information on the
competitive metagame wasn’t as easy to come by back then
and may have been lost to time by now. When
Super Scoop Up first released, we still had the
original bounce Trainer, Scoop Up. It
was a “normal Trainer”, what we’d now classify as a
Trainer-Item, and it allowed you to return the Basic
Stage of a Pokémon from your Active position or the
Bench to your hand; everything else attached was
discarded, including Evolutions. Which
sounds terrible except this was a time of not
only amazing draw, search, and though they seem puny
compared to modern Basic Pokémon-GX and Pokémon-EX,
“big” Basics that were hard to OHKO but had good
low-cost attacks. Those decks just stuck to
Scoop Up for the Unlimited Format and didn’t really
exist in the original Standard Format.
When Super Scoop Up first released, most
decks needed two or three turns to build their “main”
attacker… and it wasn’t much (if any) faster building up
your next attacker. Even though we have a
combo that looks like it would be awesome for
almost any deck - Focus Band plus Super Scoop
Up - I don’t recall it really being used. This
was a time when Professor Elm was the big “draw
Trainer”, and I think it discouraged us from running
decks that were Trainer heavy; Professor Elm
would let you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw
seven cards but you couldn’t play any
Trainer cards after that. Players did start
using Super Scoop Up, but not until some other
conditions were met. We
first reviewed
Super Scoop Up after it became a known, proven
quantity; not with its original release, not
with its next two printings, but with its fourth
release. By this point, cards like the original
Pokémon-ex of the Gen III (EX-series) sets were a major
force of the competitive metagame, often the dominant
factor. They could not, however, use most
of the better healing cards of the day. They
were legal targets for Super Scoop Up, which
got players looking at it again. It also helped
that we had cards like Double Rainbow Energy and
Rare Candy (back when it could be used the first
turn a Pokémon hit the field!), so a then massive 160 HP
Stage 2 could avoid giving up two Prizes, and maybe even
get back to attacking ASAP, so long as you got “heads”
on the coin flip. By this point, the Supporter
mechanic had not only been introduced but embraced, so
such decks could afford a few “tails fails” Items.
We then enter another period of silence, where I can
(somewhat) recall that Super Scoop Up remained
that risky power play. I don’t remember if players
tried to abuse it with cards like Broken Time-Space,
the infamous Stadium that allowed all Pokémon in
play to Evolve immediately, or not; at least
those with Energy acceleration or just affordable
attacks ought to have been able to use it for even
greater healing power plays than in the past. What
I do know is that we of the review crew didn’t cover it
again until
almost nine years later.
I don’t cite any specific decks, just mention that it
works well with the usual tricks. I do mention
Landorus-EX and Lucario-EX, with Korrina
and Strong Energy furthering the combo.
That is probably because this was a great trick for that
deck, but it wouldn’t become an amazing thing
until the next set gave us Golbat (XY: Phantom
Forces 32/119; Generations 31/83) and
Crobat (XY: Phantom Forces 33/119). Not
only could you use this Stage 2 line to up the already
impressive damage output from these big, Basic
Fighting-Types but they also became a regular
backer to Seismitoad-EX, upping its paltry damage
output you dealt with because you wanted its
Item-locking prowess. Which is why, a year later,
it was
the 11th place finisher
for our Top 20 Cards Lost to Rotation countdown.
So… where does that leave us at present? We’ve got
Acerola for reliable bounce if we have
something damaged and can spare our Supporter but
plenty of times when one or both won’t be a factor.
We’ve got even more massive attackers thanks to
Evolving Pokémon-GX, some decent acceleration (both
Energy and Evolution) to get them set back up if they
are bounced, and a decent amount of draw/search
power that I think most decks should consider
Super Scoop Up in Standard and Expanded play.
Consider, but probably not use; this card doesn’t
take much to be an adequate play for the average deck
but “adequate” is not “optimal” and so it’ll often
have to be left on the cutting room floor. Spiking
its score, though, are the decks that can and will
make good use of it. Its other great enemy
is Garbodor (SM: Guardians Rising 51/147),
as it makes every Item earn its place and
means relying on Super Scoop Up for bounce can
ultimately backfire, eventually enabling OHKO’s of your
big beatsticks and/or Bench-sitters. The
specifics of the two Constructed Formats do differ,
however, with Expanded offering more combo partners,
competition, and counters but as is typical, I
think the net effect evens out. Unless you’re
building a deck around a single Basic, it is a must-run
for Limited play, and even if you’re just using it for
one of its many functions, strong play for most decks.
Ratings
Standard:
3.5/5
Expanded:
3.5/5
Limited:
4.75/5
Conclusion & Top 10 Background
Super Scoop Up
isn’t quite a loose staple, but I’d say it’s close. Especially
with Tapu Lele-GX giving players another reason
to exploit coming-into-play Abilities and Evolved
Pokémon-GX making tanking an option again for Evolutions
and not just big, Basic Pokémon. I’m happy this
card returned, and yet, also a bit worried. Card
effects balanced out by a simple coin flip often aren’t
all that balanced. There’s a sweet spot where it works
(I think), but too often we get cards that are still
“too good” even though they fail half the time and,
of course, we have the cards that are terrible
because they fail half the time. It isn’t quite as
bad when it comes to Pokémon effects, but even there, I
don’t dig this binary split. Maybe because of my
experience with games like pen-and-paper RPGs, where you
can roll dice and thus have more variable outcomes, like
in video game RPGs. I guess I am saying that this
is still good, but won’t be everywhere, and I wish maybe
they’d taken this chance to replace it with an
alternative that wasn’t coin-flip based or a
Supporter or specialty mechanic, etc.
Super Scoop Up
is not a runner-up, but it still has some Top 10
background information worth sharing. We did
contemplate allowing it for the SM: Burning Shadows
countdown, even though it was a reprint, but ultimately
decided against it. If some of our picks don’t
start performing better, however, I’m going to think we
ought to have, after all. As is, I like to think
of it as an “Honorable Mention”.
|
Vince |
Today’s
Throwback Thursdays is Super Scoop Up (Neo Genesis
98/111, Expedition 151/165, EX Firered & Leafgreen
99/112, EX Delta Species 110/113, Diamond & Pearl
115/130, DP Majestic Dawn 87/100, HS Unleashed 83/95,
Black & White 103/114, XY Furious Fists 110/111, SM
Burning Shadows 124/147 plus secret rare)! This
card was reviewed by the crew: November 30, 2005,
October 8, 2014, and October 14, 2016 as the #11 card
lost to set rotation. It requires a coin flip: If
tails, this card does nothing; If heads, put one of your
Pokemon and all cards attached to it to your hand.
Despite
having some scenarios that may happen if you flipped
tails, players still use this card. Being an item
makes it easy to use since you can use as many item
cards as you like. Sure, there are anti-item
effects and some form of punishment for using them:
Vileplume shuts down items while Garbodor’s Trashalanche
does more damage the more items there are in the
discard. But if you don’t run items at all, then
your deck might be too slow to get going. Coin
flips does not balance the game because coins can
physically be manipulated to the extremes; they may
utilize their awkward style of flipping (whether it be
coins or six-sided die) to try to land heads every time.
There
are other bounce effects that are reliable, but have
their own setbacks. Cassius scoops up one of your
Pokemon and all cards attached to your
deck; AZ
scoops that Pokemon but
any cards
attached to it are discarded (I believe you keep the
evolutionary line, but energy cards and tool cards are
discarded); Acerola requires a
damaged
Pokemon to be scooped (which may mess up your strategy
if you are planning to reuse coming-into-play
abilities); Scoop Up Cyclone doesn’t require a coin flip
but it takes up
an Ace Spec slot in your deck (you can only have one
Ace Spec card in your deck regardless of card name).
Other characters use up your Supporter on your turn that
could’ve been used for draw power.
There
are some reasons why players would bounce their Pokemon.
It could be used as a healing card because once the
Pokemon leaves play, the damage also goes away. It
could lower the damage output of attacks that depend on
how many Pokemon in play. Attack names such as
Mind Jack, Attack Command, or Emerald Break would be
less impressive. It could bounce a Pokemon only to
be put back into play so that they can reuse
coming-into-play abilities such as Set Up Shaymin-EX or
Wonder Tag Tapu Lele-GX. You could bounce a
Pokemon whose ability you don’t wish to stay active.
So,
enjoy this card in Standard once again. It never
left Expanded and it will continue to see play because
of potential applications mentioned earlier in this
review. In limited, the only reason not to use it
is if you play one Pokemon and 39 energies. I
forgot to mention that if you flipped heads and bounced
a Pokemon but then you have no benched Pokemon to
replace the active, you just lost the game!
Ratings:
Standard: 3.5/5
Expanded: 3.5/5
Limited:
1.75 (aggregate)
Summary:
Super
Scoop Up returns in Standard, doing the same job since
day one. You now got between Acerola or Super
Scoop Up to choose from, but Super Scoop Up might have a
small niche over Acerola as it can bounce a full-HP
Pokemon back to your hand, which Acerola couldn’t do.
|
