Arceus Prism Star – SM Forbidden Light
Ratings:
Standard: 2.5/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 2/5
Full details:
Hello readers! Vince here with another card review. This time, I’m taking a look at Arceus Prism Star from Sun & Moon a Forbidden Light. Consider what already happened regarding the COTD schedule, after doing top 10 cards lost to rotation, 5 runner-up cards, and SM Promos, that’s like one month’s worth of missed opportunities when trying to look at cards from a certain set. Better late than never, I suppose. As a Prism Star Card, you can’t have more than one Prism Star of the same name, though you can still have different Prism Star cards in your deck. If such a card were to try and get into the discard pile, it gets sent to the Lost Zone, rendering it unable to recover.
Being a Basic is still the best due to being easily put into play while saving deck space. There are lots of Basic support, though there are also counters to Basic Pokémon, but not frequent enough that you should worry about them. 160 HP is a lot for a Basic Pokémon, though not the highest. With Fighting weakness, however, 160 HP won’t be enough to tank hits from Fighting Pokemon. For a Sun & Moon Format, it takes a Jet Punch boosted by Beast Energy Prism Star and Diancie Prism Star to secure the OHKO. And with Buzzwole GX still being a popular deck to continue using, this might turn off from using Arceus Prism Star, mainly because you might not have a chance to setup. And a retreat cost of one means that it could be easy to pay, and the cost can be reduced to zero if Escape Board is attached to this Pokémon.
Arceus Prism Star has an ability and an attack. First Law Ability prevent all effects from the opponent’s attacks, but not damage, to this Pokemon. Effects that happen to the player still happens, so Quacking Punch will still prevent you from playing items. Trinity Star does 30 for C. However, you can only use this attack if you have a Grass, Water, and Lightning Pokemon in your Bench. Once you do have those, then you search your deck for up to 3 Basic Energy cards and attach them to your Pokemon in any way you like. This attack is good as it thins your deck and accelerates energy to your Pokemon, but is offset by having to use three different types of Pokémon while, at the same time, wasting three bench slots that could’ve been used for other Pokémon. And it is not often that you’ll see a deck that contains those types. You can easily say that you can simply add those types in your deck. Ideally, we would look for splashable Pokémon under a specific type that is frequently used in any deck.
For Water types, I can think of Alolan Vulpix (SM Guardians Rising) as it has a free attack called Beacon which fetches two Pokémon from you deck into your hand. For Lightning types, I can think of Tapu Koko (SM Promo) as it has a splashable attack. Flying Flip costs CC and does 20 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokemon. For Grass types, I can’t think of a splashable Grass Type im Standard, but for Expanded, you might try Exeggcute (BW Plasma Freeze) as its ability, Propagation, puts itself into your hand from the discard pile. Overall, those three Pokémon would be your ideal choices when trying to meet the condition of Trinity Star. You can also add Rotom Forms from SM Ultra Prism since it might have free attacks if you had nine Pokémon Tool cards in the discard pile due to its Roto Motor Abilities. In this case, it would strictly be Rotom (Lightning), Mow Rotom, and either Frost Rotom or Wash Rotom. It doesn’t have to be exactly those Pokémon, but if your other choices are just sitting there and not helping you (outside of meeting the attack’s requirement), then you would have something better to replace.
Consistency will be its biggest issue, even if you have the pieces. You’ll need multiple different types of Basic Pokémon to get into play as soon as possible AND you have to hope that Arceus Prism Star isn’t prized. This card would’ve been helped a lot if Lanette’s Net Search was reprinted, but it isn’t, so you might have to resort to Pokémon Fan Club and Nest Ball. Still, if you can accommodate this attack’s requirement, then you’ll have an awesome setup Pokemon that can get one of your attackers ready to swing after one turn’s worth of setup. In Limited, I don’t think Arceus Prism Star does well. 30 damage hits too soft, let alone trying to get three different types of Pokémon in play.
Ratings:
Standard: 2.5/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 2/5
Conclusion: Arceus Prism Star is too demanding, but energy acceleration for any Pokemon is reeking of potential, and fortunately, the examples that I’ve mentioned about ideal partners that can actually do something besides sitting on the bench is available. Give this a try!
