I'm getting sick and tired of coming to the Pojo and reading all about how
Nightly Garbage Run (NGR) is this amazing card that will solve all of your
TCG problems.  NGR is far from amazing and is no real gamebreaker.  People
who think that NGR is a great card are either using it in the wrong way or
are not seeing the fact that other trainers would service them better.  It is
my hope that this article will expose the true problems with the NGR card and
encourage you to use other trainers in its place that are much better
alternatives.  Here's the text for NGR:

Nightly Garbage Run (Rocket's Secret Machine)
Choose up to 3 Basic Pokémon cards, Evolution cards, and/or basic Energy
cards from your discard pile.  Show them to your opponent and shuffle them
into your deck. (Uncommon, 77/82)

If you've come to the Pojo before or read their magazine at least once then
you must realize by now that trainers are the most important cards in the
Pokémon TCG.  Trainers can either make or break the game for you.  NGR
however cannot return those important trainers to your deck.  In his article
on the so-called NGR+Slowbro combo on 5/22,
DragonMaster45 tells us that NGR retrieves trainers.  He says, "Now, use the
2nd Nightly Garbage Run Trainer, and pick up the first Nightly Garbage Run,
F, and one other card of your choice."  NGR is not recursive.  It cannot
retrieve itself nor can it put other trainers like Oak back into your deck. 
Since trainers are such a valuable resource, if NGR could reuse them it would
be a pretty good card.  This substantial limitation is part of what makes
this card bad.  In my opinion, Item Finder is a much better trainer than NGR.
 Item Finder gives you any trainer on demand and can really turn the tide in
your favor by giving you an important card like SER or Oak.  Plus, you can
use that trainer right away.  Even if NGR could retrieve trainers, they would
go back into your deck and you would be forced to topdeck them or search for
them.

Some people believe that NGR is a good way of retrieving energy.  I tend to
disagree with those people.  So for argument's sake let's say you're low on
energy and you use NGR to get three energy cards and put them back into your
deck.  Now you have to pray to God that you draw that energy or you have to
use some kind of searching utility to get that energy into your hand.  This
is going to either cost you valuable time or make you discard several cards
to get that energy out of your deck.  I think that a card that accomplishes
this better has been out since the original Base Set.  Energy Retrieval is a
much better way of reusing energy.  You discard one card to put two energy
cards into your hand.  You now have the energy in your hand and you can play
it onto one of your Pokémon this turn (provided you haven't already played an
energy) allowing you to attack, retreat, or do whatever you need to at the
time.  This will save you time and as we all know speed is a key element in
the Pokémon TCG.  Why would you use a slower card when a much quicker card is
available?  I don't really know, maybe its because you think the italic
capital R on the bottom of the card looks cool.

Many players think that NGR will let them run a sickeningly low amount of
Basic Pokémon in a deck.  This was never a good idea and it still isn't now
that NGR is out.  Even though NGR can put basics back into your deck, it
still won't help you on the opening draw.  Decks with less than 10 basics are
still going to have a tough time avoiding mulligan in the opening hand.  If
you enjoy watching your opponent grin as he/she draws an extra two (or maybe
more if you mulligan multiple times) cards and get what they needed, than
please go ahead and play a deck like this.  Also, NGR is still not going to
put basics into your hand or onto your bench.  They will go into your deck
and then you'll still have to extract them with trainers or sit around
picking your nose until you draw them.  If you need a card that replenishes
your basic count efficiently, you'll have to wait for the gym series with the
Crystal of Wellness card to come out.

I'm not saying, however, that NGR is a useless card because all cards have
some uses.  If you're running one of those Rocket Raindance decks with 4
Squirtle and about 16 evolutions of Squirtle I guess you could use it to put
some Squirtles back into your deck for later use.  The best and only truly
justified use of this card, however, is in Stall Decks.  By putting three
cards back into your deck for free you give yourself a better chance of
decking the opponent and it can be the only way to win if you go first in a
Stall vs. Stall match.  Outside of those uses, however, I don't see much hope
for NGR.

Nightly Garbage Run is not the miracle trainer that some players make it out
to be.  Sure it puts energy back into your deck, but wouldn't you rather have
it in your hand?  Yes, it can retrieve basic Pokémon but you'll still risk a
mulligan in your opening hand and have trouble surviving with a low basic
count.  NGR cannot put itself or any of the other trainers that make decks
what they are back into your deck.  And don't forget, anything you put back
into your deck with NGR still has to be drawn or searched for which takes
away valuable time and resources.  So stay away from Nightly Garbage Run and
use some of the game's better trainer cards.

-Jim T.
I know I'm asking for some hate mail from the many people who love NGR so
send it and any other mail to my new address: <A HREF="mailto:MrRK9@aol.com">M
rRK9@aol.com</A>