21times |
Altar of the Moone
(Guardians Rising, 117/145) comes from the
Guardians Rising expansion set.
It reduces the retreat cost of any Pokemon with
Psychic or Dark energy attached to it by two energy.
This can significantly aid many Dark and Psychic
Pokemon (for example,
Darkrai EX (Breakpoint,
118/122), Toxapex
GX (Guardians Rising, 57/145),
Lunala GX (Sun
& Moon, 66/149),
Yveltal EX (XY
Promo 150)), but could also work for other Pokemon as
well (Tauros GX
(Sun & Moon, 100/149),
Drampa GX (Guardians
Rising, 115/145),
Oranguru (Sun
& Moon, 113/149) as the card favorably refers to
needing Dark or Psychic
energy as
opposed to Dark or Psychic Pokemon types.
This opens up a world of viability and
significantly increases the population of Pokemon this
could benefit.
Furthermore, it does not
function as a defensive stadium, meaning that if you
save it until you need it, you will get the opportunity
to use it at least once.
In that way, it compares similarly to
Float Stone (Breakthrough, 137/162) in that unless your
opponent can remove it from play, you will get multiple
uses out of it.
Better than
Float Stone, you can potentially use it for multiple Pokemon,
whereas Float
Stone will only benefit the Pokemon attached to it.
Having said that, virtually
every deck in the meta now runs multiple stadium cards.
Also, Field
Blower (Guardians Rising, 125/145) and
Delinquent (Breakpoint,
98/122), very commonly found in today’s game, will
dislodge your stadiums as well.
Stadium cards in general have lost viability
since the advent of
Field Blower,
and you would almost certainly have to run four
Altars to
ensure that they would stick.
However, if you run a deck that currently has a
number of switching cards, you could certainly use this
intead of them.
There’s no question that
Altar would
definitely be better than running four
Switch (Sun
& Moon, 160/149) and probably better than
Float Stone
(unless you’re playing
Garbodor (Breakpoint,
57/122)). I
would prefer it over
Olympia (Generations,
66/83) as well since it doesn’t use your supporter for
that turn.
Basically, if you’re running a deck with Dark and / or
Psychic energy and you already have three or four switch
cards, Altar of
the Moone would probably work best for you.
Rating
Standard: 3 out of 5
Conclusion
As it won’t benefit the
majority of decks in the format, I can only give it a 3
out of 5, but it definitely is worth considering if
you’re playing a deck with Dark or Psychic energy.
You’ll probably have to run four of them to
ensure you’ll always have it, but even if you do only
run two, it’s probably not going to be worse than
Switch,
Float Stone,
or Olympia.
Altar also has
the added benefit of NOT being an item, so it doesn’t
add to the kindling of
Trashalanche fuel. I
will say that occasionally you might have to attach an
energy to a tech Pokemon you’d normally prefer not to,
but overall I think this is a good card that will be an
asset to any Dark or Psychic deck.
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Otaku |
Altar of the Moone
(SM: Guardians Rising 117/145) is today’s
runner-up from the top 15 countdown we did for SM:
Guardians Rising; had the countdown been large
enough, this card would have taken 25th place. Altar
of the Moone is a Stadium card, which means it is
also a Trainer card; you can search it out with Skyla,
snag it with Trainers’ Mail, etc. but you have to
worry about anti-Trainer effects like… like… the
Venomoth (XY: Phantom Forces 2/119).
Don’t worry if you don’t remember that card even exists;
I only do because it is one of the few examples of
all-purpose anti-Trainer effects in the modern TCG.
Thankfully, those are pretty rare and haven’t been
worthwhile since Slowking (Neo Genesis
14/111) was “mistranslated” by Wizards of the Coast way
back in 2000, unless I’m forgetting something (which is
possible). So what about the specifics of being a
Stadium card? You may only play one from your hand
per turn, just like with Supporters, and you cannot play
a Stadium card that has the same name as a Stadium
already in play. As someone who was around back
then, let us note that these two rules were added after
Stadium cards had been around for a bit. As they
stick around, a Stadium can generate a tremendous amount
of advantage, being used over and over again. The
only piece of Stadium-specific support I recollect is
Gothitelle (XY: Furious Fists 41/111), and
again it isn’t something that saw successful competitive
play. Stadium counters are easier to come by:
Delinquent, Field Blower, and Paint Roller,
with the first two being good-to-great cards. Any
Stadium can also discard another Stadium already in
play, so long as the name is different.
Most
Stadium cards apply the same effect to both
players and Altar of the Moone is no exception.
Combined with how they stick around (barring those
counters), you have to be careful not to help your
opponent more than you’re helping yourself. The
effect of Altar of the Moone is that Pokémon with
a source of [P] and/or [D] Energy have their Retreat
Costs decreased by [CC]. How useful is this?
While it can work with two Energy Types, it doesn’t care
about Pokémon, so as long as you have a source of the
appropriate Energy you can benefit. The good news
is this allows more decks to make use of the effect, but
the bad news is that this allows more decks to make use
of the effect; it is good when you’re building decks but
bad when you’re thinking about potential match-ups.
Totally off-Type decks that use Rainbow Energy
can also benefit. Now, what about the actual
reward? There are five printed Retreat Costs on
currently legal cards: free, [C], [CC], [CCC], and
[CCCC]. Free-retreaters only benefit if something
else is raising their Retreat Cost. [C] and [CC]
retreaters gain that perfect free Retreat Cost, which is
great. [CCC] retreaters have their cost dropped to [C],
which is a lot nicer and since you have to have
an Energy of the appropriate Type attached for Altar
of the Moone to work, you know you can retreat.
Of course, if you really need that Energy card, you’re
still out of luck. [CCCC] retreaters also still gain a
hefty benefit, but their new Retreat Cost of [CC] may
still be too much.
So am I saying
Altar of the Moone is bad? No, I think it is
useful but I want to put that usefulness into
perspective, by looking at two similar cards.
First is Fairy Garden, a Stadium that zeroes out
the Retreat Cost of Pokémon with [Y] Energy attached.
You still have some leeway with what can tap the effect,
as an off-Type Pokémon just needs a Fairy Energy
or something like Rainbow Energy attached; though
Snorlax-GX decks never proved competitive, they
adequately demonstrated how this kind of effect can be
used off-Type. Zeroing out the Retreat Cost means
everything that qualifies for the reduction
suddenly has a perfect free Retreat Cost, including the
chunkier retreaters that need it most. Something
that can’t stand parting with its source of [Y] Energy
won’t ever have to discard it as part of retreating, at
least. True, this means all of this could benefit
your opponent as well, and we have the trade-off of your
opponent is less likely to have the right Energy
versus you having to focus on a single Energy Type
yourself.
Next is
Hydreigon-EX; its “Dragon Road” Ability reduces the
Retreat Cost of Dragon-Type Pokémon by [CC] as long a
Stadium card is in play. As this is an Ability,
you may use more than one copy at the same time; two
means that everything retreats for free unless
your opponent is increasing Retreat Costs. It also
is restricted to one specific Pokémon-Type; while good
for game balance, this (obviously) weaker than if it
provided a reduced retreat cost for everything
you’ve got in play. Being an Ability on your side
of the field, it does not apply to your
opponent’s Pokémon. Both Fairy Garden and
Hydreigon-EX are good cards, maybe even very good
cards. Altar of the Moone is a “good enough”
card, I think. This changes if we get something
that really capitalizes on its effect, or even if
something already established makes a comeback, like
Yveltal-EX. Unfortunately, what might be the
most obvious partner - Zoroark (XY:
BREAKthrough 91/162) - is usually being used without
a source of [D] or [P] Energy, so this won’t often be an
alternative for Float Stone in comboing with its
“Stand In” Ability. Perhaps the biggest problem,
though, is the timing; we just got Field Blower.
Altar of the Moone isn’t wrecked by it, but
you’ll want to save it in hand (if you’re able) until a
turn when you’re going to benefit from the effect.
This might have been true even without Delinquent,
Field Blower, and/or Paint Roller as your
opponent could use his or her own Stadium to discard
Altar of the Moone, it is just now it is even easier
and might be part of a bigger net loss for you (Delinquent
and Field Blower).
So do
remember this card in Standard and Expanded play; if
your deck is using [D] and/or [P] Energy, try it out.
I think it is a tiny bit better in Standard just due to
the lack of competition. For Limited play,
definitely include it, if only to help discard your
opponent’s Stadium. Yes, Field Blower is
from this set, but you may as well have the option as
you’ll probably have the spare deck space.
Besides, you probably can work in at least a few
basic Darkness Energy or Psychic Energy
cards, in which case you’re actually making use of the
effect.
Ratings
Standard:
3.1/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Conclusion
Altar of the Moone
provides a nice little trick, but I’m not seeing some
mind-blowing use that will make me want to run it over a
couple other good Stadium cards, even if decks that
already use the appropriate Energy. It also comes
at a time when I’m not certain players should be running
as many Stadium cards.
Altar of the Moone
earned six voting points, losing to last Friday’s
Absol (SM: Guardians Rising 81/145) by one
voting point. It tied with yesterday’s Sableye
(SM: Guardians Rising 80/145) in voting points;
the tie was decided by rolling off, and Altar of the
Moone got a “3” while Sableye rolled a “5”.
Both beat the next three runners-up by one voting
point. Yes, there were many ties by this point in
the list.
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