Copycat – Pokemon Card Review – COTD

aroramage

Some might say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Others would say it’s really distracting to have two of the same person in the same room. I’d have to agree more with that sentiment in all honesty.

Copycat is a Supporter that came out back in Expedition and has been printed as late as HGSS and Call of Legends. The effect’s pretty simple – shuffle your hand back into your deck, then draw cards up to the number in your opponent’s hand. The card’s flexibility also showcases its weakness, in that it’s reliant on your opponent having a good number of cards in hand to use effectively. It’s certainly not bad, just…dependent.

Copycat: she’ll take your cards. Then your identity…then your souuuuullllllll

Rating

Standard: N/A (definitely a good card, but I think that…)

Expanded: N/A (…with better draw cards, it’s ultimately better)

Limited: 4/5 (it’s a good draw card for what it does, and considering there were only so many options at the time, it’s easy to see why it saw play…until Juniper got released)

Arora Notealus: I remember those days of running into Copycat in Saffron City. Just immediately decided that she was gonna be me, ha ha…THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!

Next Time: Sauntering up to the last review of the week~

Vince

For today’s Throwback Thursdays we’re taking a look at one of the old supporter cards that was very good back in the day that Pojo.com has reviewed this card five times: Copycat! I’ll give the links here:

• (http://www.pojo.com/cotd/2002/October2002/10-18.html)
• http://www.pojo.com/cotd/2004/Nov2004/23.htm)
• (http://www.pojo.com/cotd/2005/September/06.shtml)
• (http://www.pojo.com/cotd/2006/Dec/22.shtml) 
• and (http://www.pojo.com/cotd/2010/Mar/8.shtml).

This card came out in the Expedition Expansion (I believe it’s the e-reader series, still Gen 2) and the last print was from HGSS. Opinions from other reviewers were mostly favorable. So if Copycat were to be reprinted, do I think that it will still be played?

Copycat is a shuffle-based draw, but the amount of draw depends on your opponent’s hand size. Regardless of format, opponents have several ways to lower their hand size because they got some cards that they’ll want to use in that turn; they’ll be left to zero cards to probably no more than 5 cards in his or her hand. So based on that, Copycat’s effectiveness won’t be as exciting. However, there are some scenarios in which the opponent’s hand size may be stuck there due to some card’s effect, usually when the turn ends.

Lucario’s Corkscrew Smash and other “Return” related attacks found on some Pokemon’s attacks forces a hand size of six cards, so using Copycat after the opponent uses it nets you six cards. Tropical Beach and Professor Oak’s Hint forces the hand size to seven cards, making Copycat draw seven cards. Drampa’s Big Wheel GX gives a whopping 10 cards in your hand, making Copycat generating a bigger return! These examples of such scenarios would have to occur enough to make Copycat worth using. Lucario-EX is still a solid attacker in Expanded. Drampa-GX is taking center stage in Standard as a splashable supporter. Tropical Beach is a worlds promo and thus supply is horrendously low to be frequently seen or played. And Professor Oak’s Hint is almost never played.

You can also pair it with card locking tactics like Seismitoad-EX and Vileplume shutting down items (another Vileplume also does item lock in Copycat’s time); Giratina-EX shutting down special energy, tools, and Stadium; and future Noivern-GX shutting down either item or special energy but not both. That tactic would make the opponent hang on to their locked cards until they would eventually play it, thus increasing Copycat’s effectiveness. Pokémon Ranger, however, relieves the opponent from being locked should they use it.

So that’s how Copycat would fare in the BreakThrough-on rotation. More options and scenarios makes it slightly better in Expanded. And it’s amazing in Limited! Copycat is a good card, but the hypothetical format (should Copycat be reprinted) would determine this card’s worth.

Standard:  N/A would be 3/5
Expanded: N/A would be 3.1/5
Limited: 5/5

Legacy: 3/5

Summary: Copycat is a risky card to use, relying on your opponent to have a sufficient hand size to generate a sufficient return. However, being shuffle-based draw, you can temporary changing from your bad hand to something better regardless of how many you draw.

Otaku

This is one of those reviews where I was nearly done… and then realized I needed to rewrite it because I’d gotten lost on my trip down memory lane. Today we’re looking at Copycat (Expedition 138/165; Team Rocket Returns 83/109; EX – Dragon Frontiers 73/101; HeartGold SoulSilver 90/123; Call of Legends 77/95; HS Trainer Kit – Raichu Half Deck 21/30). With so many releases, you can see why we have five different reviews for the card already:

• October 18, 2002
• November 23, 2004
• September 6, 2005
• December 23, 2006
• March 8, 2010

but it has still been six years since our last review, so I thought we’d take a look at her again. If you can’t or didn’t read the scan, Copycat is a Supporter that has you shuffle your hand into your deck and then draw a new hand equal to in size to your opponent’s hand.

In the present, this is a mediocre effect; players tend to keep their hand size modest going into the other player’s turn. Thanks to cards like N, cultivating a large hand of useful cards is actually a risky investment, while thinning your deck is often worthwhile. Other modern draw cards also clash with having a large hand, as you don’t want to discard a lot of potentially useful cards with Professor Sycamore, or have your draw from Shaymin-EX (XY – Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108) or similar effects reduced because your hand is large. If your draw off of Copycat is less than six, you’re getting less than you would off of Cynthia or Professor Oak’s New Theory. There would still be some use to Copycat were she to return to Standard/Expanded Format play; some decks do end up with large hands more often than not, both formats have effective Supporter search so cashing in on those oddball hands is plausible, letting Copycat hit the discard pile early on can mess with your opponent, and this does provide another way to synch your hand size to that of your opponent (relevant for certain other card effects).

Of course Copycat is a welcome sight in the Limited Format, not that you’re likely to have booster packs that contain her. Almost any draw is good here, and it can be harder for a player to control his or her hand size due to the lack of many staples from Constructed Format play. I haven’t seen it much in the Legacy Format; when it comes to hand size, things are similar to Expanded and Standard, plus you have Colress, N, and Professor Oak’s New Theory for shuffle-and-draw Supporters, in addition to Professor Juniper for more big draw. How about past Standard Formats? Copycat varied from mediocre to excellent. Besides being one of the first Supporters, and thus enjoying a period with almost no competition, Copycat has spent most of her existence at a time when cultivating a large, useful hand was as or more important than thinning one’s deck. At first, various draw effects of the time just made it more likely you’d end your turn with a decently sized hand – see Bill, Cleffa (Neo Genesis 20/111), and Professor Sycamore. We’ve only recently returned to a time when having a Bench-sitting Pokémon with a reusable, useful draw non-attack effect is a common occurrence, and Copycat was around for times when it wasn’t just common but almost universal. During these times, even when Copycat faced fierce competition, she could prove a solid Supporter until end game, when hands and decks were nearly exhausted. In that respect, she’s not unlike Colress – Colress is terrible early game, or when neither player has much of a field, but beyond that its a good to great shuffle-and-draw Supporter. Copycat is just more likely to have a better early game and a worse late game.

Ratings

Standard: N/A

Expanded: N/A

Limited: 3.75/5

Legacy: 2.5/5