aroramage |
Repel: it's like Lysandre but
without you choosing or being a Supporter.
It's an Item.
That's it.
...
No seriously, that's all I've got.
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (I don't know what
else you want)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (I mean you should
really just run Lysandre)
Limited: 3/5 (...GO HOME ALREADY)
Arora Notealus: Repel's got some
minimal usage, but it's outclassed by better stuff
available. Maybe once Lysandre rotates out with Ancient
Origins, Repel could see some usage, but until then,
it's Lysandre or bust.
Next Time: A wild GX appears! Could
the Totem Pokemon become GX?!
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Otaku |
Our second subject
this week is Repel (Sun & Moon 130/149), a
new Item but not one with a new effect; it forces your
opponent to change out his or her Active Pokémon with
one from his or her Bench (opponent’s choice if he or
she has more than one Pokémon on the Bench). Being
a Trainer means you can snag a Repel with
Skyla or Trainers’ Mail (among less common
effects), but you won’t have to worry about anti-Trainer
effects because nothing still legal is particularly good
at it. I’m drawing a blank on noteworthy Item
support, at least for Standard play; in Expanded you
have Korrina and Sableye (BW: Dark
Explorers 62/108), but those are a bit deck
specific. Anti-Item effects are not uncommon and
have proven quite successful, from Ghetsis with
its combination of hand disruption and draw to multiple
Item lock effects. Other than that, however, Items
may be the easiest kind of card to play in the game.
Besides costs specific to the text of a subclass of
Items or particular Item, all you need to use one is for
it to be in your hand and for it to have at least a
partial effect on the game. In this case, that
means you cannot play Repel if your opponent has
no Bench. As your opponent gets to choose, this is
a somewhat weak effect, but thanks to the mild cost it
may still prove useful if you just need an inexpensive
way to force your opponent into a different Active
Pokémon.
I said this wasn’t
a new effect because this is basically a reprint of
Pokémon Circulator under a new name. If you
look at a scan of that card, know that at the time a
Trainer with the subclass of “Trainer” was an Item, and
in fact counts as such if used with modern cards.
The only other change is, besides that and the name, is
it states “his or her” instead of “their”. This
doesn’t change the effect at all, just annoy some folks
due to rules of grammar. The staff of the time
reviewed Pokémon Circulator
here,
back when it was new, but were split over it. Just
like now, there were alternatives to using it, so you
needed that deck that specifically expected
situations where forcing the opponent to change his or
her Active was worth it more than paying a bit more (or
relying on a coin flip) to control which Pokémon was
brought up front… or using a card that also changed out
your own Active, which brings us to the current
alternatives to Repel.
The big gun is
Lysandre, as he allows you to pick your opponent’s
new Active from said opponent’s Bench. He is a
Supporter, so he’s unlikely to be blocked or negated by
an opponent’s card effect, but you just used your
Supporter for the turn. Plus Lysandre is a
common enough target of VS Seeker when it is
used, as you will often draw into it at a point where
you won’t need its effects; VS Seeker is an Item
so Item lock can still be an issue even for this
Supporter. Pokémon Catcher originally had the
same effect as Lysandre but was released before
him. It received an erratum so that it now
requires a coin flip to work, but that is still enough
to rival Pokémon Catcher. I won’t be
listing non-Trainers or cards that aren’t Expanded or
Standard legal, so the final alternative is Escape
Rope. This is another example of an older card
effect given a new name, as its predecessor Warp
Point was one of the rivals to Pokémon Circulator
(and Warp Point was seen as an older card back
then!). Escape Rope and Warp Point
include the effect of Repel and Pokémon
Circulator but also includes the effect of Switch
as you must change out your own Active with your choice
of your Benched Pokémon after your opponent does
likewise. This is the biggest reason, I think,
that Repel has little shot of being played; not
that the other two don’t matter, it is just that
Escape Rope occupies what would be the most viable
niche for Repel. There will be times when
you won’t want to change your Active at all, but in your
typical deck, this is handled by including a pivot
Pokémon, something that can retreat for free (either
naturally or via combo). As long as that is the
case, there is no drawback to Escape Rope and its
added effect, and instead, you enjoy shaking most attack
effects (including Special Conditions) as you just
Retreat into your original Active.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5
Expanded:
1.75/5
Limited:
3.25/5
Summary
Repel
isn’t useless, it is just outclassed as nearly all decks
will prefer to give up a Supporter to use Lysandre,
chance a coin flip to use Pokémon Catcher or
change out their own Active at the same time via
Escape Rope. Enjoy it in Limited play, where
it doesn’t face the competition and where it may
be harder for the opponent to cope with the forced
change. It makes me wonder if we’ll see something
like a Max Repel in the future, with a similar
effect; it could be Pokémon Catcher by another
name.
I didn’t expect
Repel to be a meaty review and choose it for a few
reasons. I like to keep track of “Old cards name
new again” like it and Escape Rope. I
really am curious as to whether or not the Repel line of
Items from the video game will make the jump to the TCG
along with its most basic member. I was worried
I’d be running behind in my reviews, so I wanted
something relatively short and easy (and I did).
Finally, this was an Item that earned an initial grade
of “C+” which dropped to a “D” after review, filling
those slots for the week. Of course, its score
above corresponds to an “F”; I realized even its future
usage was in doubt as Pokémon Catcher was
reprinted in Sun & Moon. No one had this on
their top 10 list.
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