Cyrus [Prism Star] #7 – Top 10 Cards of SM Ultra Prism – Pokemon COTD

Vince

Before I go any further, an errata has been issued to match the original intention of this card’s purpose.

“You can play this card if your Active Pokémon is a Water or Metal type.

Your opponent chooses 2 benched Pokémon and shuffle the others, and all cards attached to them, into their deck”

What impact will this have?

Well, while having said type of Pokémon to be on the Active is a inconvenience, this is still an potent effect, being capable of crippling your opponent’s board position. Still, you won’t be able to control which Pokémon goes into the deck, but your opponent has to think very hard as to which Pokémon he or she would want to remain in play and make other Pokémon leave play.

Some situations can hinder your opponent if they have too many useful bench sitters. However, your opponent may be relieved to put damaged Pokémon in their deck, denying your ability to take a prize; Pokémon who has coming into play would like to go back into the deck, ready to be used again!

Which means that Cyrus Prism Star is marginally helping your opponent then you trying to disrupt your opponent’s setup.

Standard: 1.5/5

Expanded: 2/5 (You could potentially perform a Bench wipe by having Vaporeon Ancient Origins and an Active Sylveon-GX using Plea GX after you played Cyrus Prism Star)

Limited: 3/5

aroramage

What better way to talk about the new mechanic of <Prism> cards than with what is probably the best <Prism> card in the whole set? So good of a card, in fact, that it’s already been errata’d just to keep it in line with its original intentions. Figures that a bad guy would try and cheat his way through the system.

Cyrus <Prism> is a Supporter Prism card. Being a <Prism> card basically means that you can only run one copy of Cyrus <Prism>, similar to ACE SPEC cards, but you can run other <Prism> cards in the deck as well. The challenge then in figuring what <Prism> cards to run is if it’s worth it to run the one you’re allowed. For instance, say that Guzma was a <Prism> card – would it be worth running only one copy of Guzma based on his effect of switching your opponent’s Pokemon and your own? Probably yeah, since that effect of switching your opponent’s Pokemon is undoubtedly worth it – remember that it wasn’t that long ago when Lysandre was being run in most decks even as a one-of.

But Cyrus <Prism> doesn’t bother with switching things around, so what does he do? Well the text would have you believe you can have any Water or Metal Pokemon in play to use him, but the errata and the original Japanese card both make it clear that said Water or Metal Pokemon needs to be in the Active slot to be used. Cyrus <Prism> then lets your opponent select 2 Benched Pokemon and forces them to shuffle the rest back into the deck with all cards attached to them.

Against decks that don’t run that many Bench-sitters, Cyrus <Prism> being a one-of isn’t that detrimental – even if you do draw your one copy, you don’t have to play it against the opponent, and you’re likely to win off of that alone. But when your opponent has a lot of Benched Pokemon – either because they’ve got room for a lot of Abilities or they’re working on evolutions – Cyrus <Prism> can disrupt them fairly easily. It puts your opponent into a decision where they’ll have to figure on whether or not it’s worth keeping certain Pokemon around knowing that if they don’t pick them, they’ll be sent back to their deck – and that makes it more difficult to draw other cards as well.

Now I know the big concern with a powerful Supporter like this is its likelihood of abuse, but that’s where the other important aspect of <Prism> cards comes into play: if a <Prism> card would go to the discard pile – note there’s no particular how about it, just any way it gets there – it is instead put into the Lost Zone. Long time fans of the game will recall the Lost Zone is essentially a “removed from the game” area that few cards have interacted with in the past. In this case, it’s to prevent you from using Cyrus <Prism> with cards like Pal Pad.

Cyrus <Prism> is probably the best <Prism> card in this set, though we’ll have to see if other <Prism> cards in future sets can give it a run for its money on the best <Prism> card to date. For now though, if you’ve got a Water or Metal deck, rejoice! Cause this card is all about you guys.

Rating

Standard: 4/5 (great boost for Water/Metal decks)

Expanded: 4/5 (and a great boon to have against Bench-sitters)

Limited: 4/5 (really it’s just a solid card overall)

Arora Notealus: I wonder if the reintroduction of the Gen 4 characters with the Prism mechanic is meant to allude to anything? Obviously there’s the Gen 4 remakes that could possibly come about, get some Megas and Z-moves in Sinnoh and all that, but maybe there’s additional content within that Crystal thing? Who knows?

Next Time: Time to get fabulous with Metal!

21times
PokeDeck
Central

Cyrus (UP 120) explodes into the meta from the Ultra Prism expansion set.  This card forces your opponent to choose two of his or her benched Pokemon.  The remainder of their benched Pokemon are returned back into their deck.

Not the discard.  Not the hand.  Back in the deck.  That’s what makes this card so sick.  As in make your opponent sick to their stomach nauseous when you put eight non draw support cards back in their deck.  Good luck top decking a Cynthia after playing that!  Especially if you get them around turn three or four, when they’ve got a couple Zoroark GX’s, or Decidueye GX’s, or Gardevoir GX’s (well nobody’s going to be playing Gardy anymore but you know what I mean), and they’ve already burned a couple of their draw support cards.  It’s just nasty.  You want to get some angry red faces on PTCGO?  Drop a Cyrus on your opponent.

When various pre reviews of UP came out, nobody gave this card any love.  One review of the seven prism star cards had this listed as the lowest of the seven (I’m pretty sure he’d like to take a mulligan on that).  However, the card was printed with an inaccurate translation… or at least an inconsistent translation … with the Japanese version of Cyrus.  The non Japanese version stated that you could play this card as long as you had a Metal or Water Pokemon in play, whereas the Japanese version stated that the Water or Metal Pokemon would have to be in the active position to activate this card.

Our initial version of this card has been “errated” (not sure if I can really use that as a verb, I’m sure my college English professors would have a cow if they saw me deform the language like that.  But heck I start like every other sentence with a coordinating conjunction anyways) so that it is now in line with the Japanese card.  

*** SO REALIZE – if your card says:

You can’t play this card if you don’t have any Water or Metal Pokemon in play.

Realize that the actual printing of this card has been overruled and is not accurate.  You can still use this card; however, if you play Cyrus at Collinsville and you only have a Water or Metal Pokemon on the bench and not in the active, your opponent could call over a judge and you could potentially get a penalty.  I don’t think that will happen, but just be aware that even though your card says “in play” you actually have to have a Pokemon in the active.

It’s interesting to me that if this card had not been printed inconsistently with the Japanese version, would people have realized how good it is, whether or not the Water or Metal Pokemon has to be in the active?  Suddenly, it became clear to everyone that this was actually a pretty potent card and was worth teching into a deck with Water or Metal Pokemon.

And if the new Solgaleo GX would have come out this month like it was supposed to, then everyone would have the perfect card to splash into their decks with Cyrus … btw in case you didn’t know that Solgaleo GX had the ability of eliminating the weakness of all of your Pokemon and its main attack did like 120 damage and attached two Basic energy to your benched Pokemon.  It would have freaking been the best card in UP, now we’re not even getting it until after rotation.

For those of you running non Water or Metal decks, my best suggestions for tech in Water and Metal Pokemon are Octillery (BKT 33), Staryu (BKP 25) and Magearna (UP 91).  Sorry, that’s the best I can come up with.

Rating

Standard: 4.5 out of 5

Conclusion

One of the most devastating cards in the game today.  I’m pairing it specifically with Ninetales GX and Milotic (CIN 27), and the Cyrus TLC combo can be devastating.  I’m 5 W 4 L with it.  Unfortunately, there are just too many holes in this list right now – Ninetales has Metal weakness, it’s sometimes just too slow, and many people are starting to tech in Mr. Mime thanks to Glaceon GX and Buzzwole GX.  Good ol’ Protein Shake now has everybody adding in Mr. Mime to protect from the overmuscled misquito’s bench sniping.  I went to NAIC last June just hoping to enjoy the experience and win a few games, and I did that with quad Sylveon.  I really want to do well this time, though, and I just think this is a little too rogue / novelty to accomplish that for me.  I did the rogue deck thing last time, I think I’ll go with something more conventional for Collinsville (Typhlosion here I come!).

Otaku

Cyrus [Prism Star] is the first of the new Prism Cards we’ve reviewed; I explain the mechanic here.  The short version is you may run only one copy of this card, but you may run other [Prism Star] cards alongside it, unlike the old Ace Spec cards that were restricted to one of any of them in your deck.  Also, it means Cyrus [Prism Star] goes to the Lost Zone instead of the discard pile.  So it really is a “one and done” card, because we currently have no way of pulling it off more than one in Standard or Expanded Format play.  So, what does it actually do?  You have to have a [M] or a [Y] Pokémon in your Active position in order to use Cyrus [Prism Star].  You may have a version that only says you have to have one in play, but an errata has officially been issued for it.  So, if you qualify, the rest of the effect states your opponent chooses two of his or her Benched Pokémon, then shuffles all the other Pokémon on his or her Bench into his or her deck (all attached cards go with the Pokémon to which they are attached).

This is one of those effects that are highly, highly variable.  If your opponent has less than three Pokémon on his or her Bench, I’m not sure if you can even play Cyrus [Prism Star] from your hand.  You opponent may also have Pokémon (or even attached cards) he or she wishes to send to the deck, like spent Tapu Lele-GX, injured Pokémon, etc.  Between this, the Prism Star rules, and needing either a [W] or a [M] Pokémon Active, there is a lot that can go wrong.  When it all (or at least, mostly) goes right, it is pretty amazing.  Flush away a hearty field worth of setup, wasting turns of their setup and maybe even sending them so far back they can’t hope to catch up again before the game is over.  If you’ve got raw offensive might, if you’ve got supplementary combo shenanigans, or if you’ve even just got some luck, this can effectively end the game, even if it isn’t actually going to end it.

Cyrus [Prism Star] isn’t quite as difficult to use as one might think.  While you do need a [W] or [M] Pokémon Active, there are quite a few floating around alongside various cards that can get them into and out of the Active position.  Effects like Escape Board, Float Stone, etc. can zero out Retreat costs while Acerola, Guzma, Escape Rope, Switch, etc. allow you to go from Active A to [M] or [W] Type to Active B (or back to Active A).  A TecH Kartana-GX, Bench-sitting Octillery (XY – BREAKthrough 33/162), or surprise Jirachi-EX (in Expanded) can pop up front before scooting back to the Bench.  Of course, decks already built around [M] or [W] Types should include Cyrus [Prism Star], and remember that Volcanion-EX is both [W] and [R].  In fact, you can get very sneaky with Stage 1 Pokémon in the Expanded Format; Vaporeon (XY – Ancient Origins 22/98) can turn all of your Stage 1 Pokémon into [W] Types.  This would allow something like your Active, attacking Zoroark-GX to fulfull the requirements of Cyrus [Prism Star].

While not the unversal stape it would have been with the misprint, Cyrus [Prism Star] fills a lot more than just a niche with what it can do.  At the same time, you do have to think and plan to use it well, and certain matchups (or just luck on your opponent’s part) can make Cyrus [Prism Star] backfire (at least a little bit).  Cyrus [Prism Star] secured seventh place by appearing on three out of five of our individual lists, earning 49 voting points.  For my personal list,I awarded him… seventh place.  Huh.  Neat.

Ratings

Standard: 3.5/5

Expanded: 3.75/5

Limited: 3.5/5