aroramage |
Boy does Pokemon love its coin
flips! And Gym Badge is an excellent example of a trait
that's been around since the earliest days.
Gym Badge is a simple Item that
says, "Hey flip a coin. Draw a card for every heads you
get in a row!" It's a chancy card that could end up
being as profitable as often as it can be useless.
Chances are that you'll average around 1-2 cards per
use, and that just makes it worse than a lot of the
other draw cards out there. There are Pokemon whose
attacks are better than this, but there's also Professor
Sycamore, N, Colress, Bianca, Cheren - FREAKING CHEREN
DRAWS 3 CARDS, A ND
THAT'S GONNA BE BETTER THAN THIS!!
At the very least though, it's a
highly collectible card! I mean there's like upwards of
16 different prints of this card, each featuring
different badges and Gym Leaders! So I guess there's
that much. Have fun collecting them all!
Rating
Standard: 1.5/5 (but if your plan
is to use em...ehhhh)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (I wouldn't hold my
breath)
Limited: N/A (promos can only go so
far)
Arora Notealus: Gym Badges are a
proof of a Trainer's hard work and determination...which
is why it's great to give it away as a promotional item?
I guess so.
Weekend Thought: So how about dem
promos! Or those last couple of cards in 2016? Feel like
we oughta move on? Well we're almost to the new set,
just a couple more weeks! You excited for that yet? Or
maybe you're just waiting to hear our thoughts on some
other cards? Feel free to suggest more, I thought it was
really cool last week to hear about Salamence-EX!
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Otaku |
We end the week with Gym Badge (XY: Black Star
Promos XY203, XY204, XY205, XY206, XY207, XY208,
XY209, XY210). Sadly the developers didn’t think
of doing this with cards like Professor Juniper
and Professor Sycamore, or with Cheren,
Tierno, and Hau, at least they finally
realized “Hey, why not take a generic element of the TCG
that shows up generation after generation and create
multiple versions with the same effect but different
art?” I mean in the case of Professor Juniper
and Professor Sycamore we wouldn’t need a
special ruling that prevents us using them in the same
deck, and unless somehow third time’s the charm, it
isn’t like people run four each of Cheren,
Tierno, and Hau (in fact it’s rare for a
non-beginner to even run any one of those as even a
single). Gym Badge could be reprinted even more
times, since all core series games have eight badges,
there are a lot to work into the TCG! If
you don’t have scans handy, each Gym Badge promo
depicts the Gym Leader and the badge he or she awards,
and the numerical order follows th e
standard order for beating the Gyms from Gen I: Brock
from Pewter City with the Boulder Badge, Misty from
Cerulean City with the Cascade Badge, Lt. Surge from
from Vermillion City with the Thunder Badge, Erika from
Celadon City with the Rainbow Badge, Koga from Fuchsia
City with the Soul Badge, Sabrina from Saffron City with
the Marsh Badge, Blaine from the Seafoam Islands with
the Volcano Badge, and Giovanni from Viridian City with
the Earth Badge.
So with all of that out of the way, what does the card
Gym Badge actually do? It is an Item card
that allows you to flip a coin until you get “tails”,
then draw a card for each “heads” you flipped. So
assuming all the usual factors with Pokémon TCG legal
randomizers, there should be a 50% chance the card does
nothing other than use itself up, and a 50%
chance that it at least replaces itself. Each coin
flip always has that 50:50 split and calculating
probability gets messy, so I’m not even going to attempt
calculations for the probability of drawing two cards,
three cards, etc. We really don’t need it; that
50% failure rate already means that this is a card for
decks that have an incredibly rare, precious commodity
in the Pokémon TCG, or an all-too-common need worth the
risk. That’s right: empty space or the need for
extreme speed! If your deck is otherwise perfect
at 56 to 59 cards, the only direct rival to Gym Badge
is Unown (XY: Ancient Origins 30/98).
It is a Basic Pokémon, and its Ability allows it to
discard itself from your Bench in order for you to draw
a card. That means a reliable one card draw, and
for effects that worry about Pokémon it counts, but it
can get stuck in your Active slot or have its Ability
negated. Gym Badge can be blocked by Item lock
effects, and of course it can simply fail, but it
has a chance of drawing extra cards!
Even the downside of Gym Badge has a silver
lining. There are many effects, usually those with
a “Draw until you have…” clause for a certain amount of
cards in hand, where whiffing on Gym Badge isn’t
so bad. The obvious example is Shaymin-EX (XY:
Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108): if you get “tails”
while trying to use up your hand, then the “Set Up”
Ability on Shaymin-EX will draw another card.
If Gym Badge draws another card you’re really no
better or worse off; that’s the same card you would have
gotten if Gym Badge hadn’t drawn anything but you
still used Set Up. If you draw two or more cards,
you drew two or more cards! Slight chance a big
draw could backfire, but now we are getting into the
extremes of luck. So are there any decks that can
really use Gym Badge right now? Not that I
know of, but it can function in most decks, just not in
an optimal manner. It is something to remember
because it is really only an additional combo element
away from having a good use… and it could be as simple
as enough combos that require additional draw Trainers
using it because it becomes another card that is
“‘Tails’ fails but ‘heads’ wins!”. I think it
might be a be better in Standard play than Expanded;
less Item lock as well as fewer cards fighting for deck
space. This would be great for Limited play, but
it isn’t in a set so no Pre-Releases or other Limited
Formats for Gym Badge.
Ratings
Standard:
2.5/5
Expanded:
2/5
Limited:
N/A
Summary:
I don’t expect Gym Badge to become the next
must-run promo card. At first glance I thought it
looked kind of bad. I still cannot call it good,
but it might just be adequate. In fact, Pokémon
can be so fickle it is possible (just improbable) that a
future metagame shift or combo will turn this into a
must run. I do recommend getting one of each
because unless prices are outrageous… why not? It
is the kind of collectible most Pokémon fans can
appreciate, even if never makes a profit on the
secondary market, and should you actually need them for
a deck, you’ve got them!
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