Brawly – Chilling Reigns
Date Reviewed: July 18, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.00
Expanded: 1.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
First, a reminder: this CotD is being written when I have zero idea of how this weekend’s tournaments went. I may miss something that will soon be obvious because of this. Brawly (SW – Chilling Reign 131/198, 188/198, 212/198) is a nerfed Pokémon Collector. Pokémon Collector was an amazing (broken?) Supporter when it was legal, though with timing stipulations. You wanted to use Pokémon Collector on your first turn, maybe also on your second if you had a really demanding setup. Maybe you were grabbing three evolving Basics, or maybe you were grabbing three big Basics that fed into a big combo. For example, Pachirisu (Call of Legends 18/95), Shaymin (HS – Unleashed 8/95), and Zekrom (Black & White 47/114, 114114; BW – Black Star Promos BW005, BW24; BW – Next Destinies 50/99; BW – Legendary Treasures 51/113, 115/113).
Brawly would be the same if he had the right targets. He gains the benefit of being a Rapid Strike card himself, but he grabs Basic Rapid Strike Pokémon in a metagame where we have Quick Ball and not too that many Basic Rapid Strike Pokémon. I’m not saying Brawly is useless, but he specializes in an area where I don’t think he has tremendous value. Some value, though. Unfortunately, I don’t think he benefits much from Welcoming Lantern because… well… you shouldn’t really need to recycle him, because he isn’t a Single Strike card but a Rapid Strike. You could fetch it with the Ability found on Octillery (SW – Battle Styles 037/163, 178/163; SW – Black Star Promos SWSH089), but sounds like you’ve got a decent setup going by that point, so would you need it?
That said, you probably only need him Turn 1. You cannot play Supporters Turn 1. What I meant to say is that maybe Brawly is useful for a strong Turn 2 or even Turn 3. Especially if a Rapid Strike focused deck like those built around Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX. I could be wrong, as there’s one deck that might gladly grab three Basic Rapid Strike Pokémon over and over again: Malamar (SW – Chilling Reign 070/198). It has an attack that hits harder the more Rapid Strike Pokémon you reveal and shuffle away from your hand. Brawly doesn’t fair better in Expanded, I think. Again, I could be wrong; maybe slapping down three Rapid Strike Basic Pokémon Turn 2/3 is a good way to begin setting up, and you have both Ultra Ball and Quick Ball to fetch Dedenne-GX and/or Crobat V to compensate for not using your Supporter on draw power. Seems better to cut out the middle man and use a better Supporter than Brawly, then use the Balls to fetch your Basics… or still grab Dedenne-XG and/or Crobat V.
Ratings
- Standard: 2/5
- Expanded: 1/5
Edit 20210719: Corrected a spot where, for some reason, I temporarily thought of Brawly as a Single Strike card, because I referenced Welcoming Lantern. As well as where I talked about Turn 1 Supporter usage; that doesn’t happen as I prefer overall Turn Counts. Since I changed so much, I revised the last half of the review. I left strikeouts to call attention to the first two changes, but it made the last bit of revision too awkward to read.
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