Ditto [Prism Star] #5 – Top 11 Cards of Lost Thunder

aroramage

You know what’s better than having 4 copies of a card you need for another? Having a 5TH copy of the card ready at any time! And that’s what today’s card promises to be!

Ditto <Prism> is a Basic Colorless Pokemon, 40 HP, with a Fighting Weakness, no Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of 1. He has no attacks and only 1 Ability – Evolve Into Anything. Although technically Ditto <Prism> can’t evolve into everything, but the Ability does allow him to evolve into any Stage 1 Pokemon, treating Ditto <Prism> as though it were the Basic that Stage 1 evolves from. Naturally, it can’t be used during your first turn or the turn in which Ditto <Prism> enters play.

You’ll note that that does include every Stage 1 Pokemon out there – anything that evolves from a Basic, anything that can evolve into a Stage 2, and most importantly of all anything that’s a Pokemon-GX! This versatility effectively makes Ditto <Prism> a fifth copy of the Basic Pokemon you need for evolving into your bigger Pokemon. It’s the only real reason to play it, and there is that glaring flaw of being vulnerable to attacks during that one turn of being on the Bench, but if you get past that point, there’s a very good chance of evolving into exactly what you need for the situation!

Consider Ditto <Prism> for any deck you have with Stage 1s, it’s gonna do well!

Rating

Standard: 4/5 (looking pretty good, given the options it can evolve into)

Expanded: 4/5 (and generally a solid addition to decks that have critical Stage 1s to set-up)

Limited: 4/5 (depends on the Stage 1s you get, but it can be useful regardless to help build up to your stronger Pokemon)

Arora Notealus: Kinda weird that Ditto, a Pokemon that can transform into anything, is now given the Ability to evolve into anything.Can you imagine if Ditto could do that in the video games too? Oh look, Ditto’s evolving! Congratulations, it’s a Mewtwo! Would make Ditto just a bit too powerful…or at least too complicated to code.

Next Time: Graceful radiance across the icy winds of Alola!

Vince

Ditto Prism Star comes in with just an ability. Unfortunately, I’m short on time, so I’ll just get to the bottom line. Ditto acts as your potential fifth copy of an evolving Basic to be evolved into a Stage 1. Except that you have to use the ability in order to play it from your hand, not manually evolving it. Cards that provide shortcuts such as Diancie’s Sparkling Wish or Evosoda in Expanded will not work. It also has other shortcomings such as having 40 HP, to the point where it would be easily KOed regardless of weakness AND gets sent to the Lost Zone. Weakness aside, if you don’t get rid of Ditto quickly, it will evolve into any Stage 1 in any ways imaginable.

• Standard: 3.5/5
• Expanded: 3.5/5
• Limited: 3.5/5

21times
PokeDeck
Central

Ditto Prism (LOT 154) morphs into the Pokemon TCG from the Lost Thunder expansion set.  This Basic Colorless Pokemon has given us something that we’ve never had since I’ve been playing the game: a fifth Basic Pokemon!  We all know that one of the basic rules of the game is that you can only have a maximum count of four of any specific type of card.

Ditto Prism breaks that rule and essentially allows you to carry a fifth Basic Pokemon.  Now you have five Zoruas.  Five Alolan Vulpixes.  Five Magicarps.  Five Pikachus.  You get the picture.  Ever have two Basic Pokemon prized?  How about three?  Yeah my Greninja (BKP 40) decks were awful for having multiple Froakies prized.  Now if you have two Basics prized, you still have three Basics available.  Now you could potentially have two Baby Metagross and three Metagross GX’s on the field all at the same time.  This card helps with consistency so much because you don’t have to worry about being short handed at the base of your evolutionary chains.  Rare Candy helps if we are missing Stage 1’s – now we have the perfect card to help if we’re missing Basic Pokemon.

And even better: you can tech in multiple different Stage 1 Pokemon to help you out in certain matchups.  Worried about Shuckle GX?  Just add a copy of Alolan Muk (SUM 58).  Need some card draw?  Add Zebstrika.  Maybe run a Magcargo.  Or Ribombee BUS.  The list goes on – it allows for a creativity that we’ve never been able to explore before and adds a different dimension to the game.  Here’s a list of Stage 1 Pokemon with abilities you might want to think about teching into your deck:

• Alolan Ninetales GX LOT
• Blissey LOT
• Delcatty CES
• Alolan Ninetales BUS
• Raichu BUS
• Machoke GRI
• Blissey GRI
• Bewear GRI
• Lycanroc GX GRI
• Herdier SUM
• Gumshoos GX SUM
• Alolan Sandslash SM18

This may be the coolest part of this card – that you could potentially add two or three of these cards into any given decklist that you’d never even have remotely considered before and pick the one you need to help you in a given situation.  Going up against Espeon GX?  Go get Blissey LOT.  Need to heal a Pokemon?  Go get Blissey GRI.  Lycanroc GX goes without saying.  Now you don’t even need to run a Rockruff to take advantage of Bloodthirsty Eyes.  You don’t have to run an Alolan Vulpix to take advantage of Fairy Ninetales (LOT) or Baby Ninetales (BUS).  There are a lot of cool ways to try to take advantage of Ditto beyond just having it serve as a fifth Basic.

Rating

Standard: 4.5 out of 5

Conclusion

If you need a litmus test to quantify the value of Ditto Prism, in the sixteen games where I tracked every card I played in my Cofagrigus Giratina deck, Ditto Prism hit the bench in eleven of those eighteen matches.  In the six games where I tracked every card I played in my Solgaleo Ninetales deck, Ditto was placed into play in five out of six of those matches.

I only downgraded it from a 5 because you can’t Rare Candy onto it.  That’s the only thing I wished they’d done is allow for Stage 2’s to abuse this as well.  Ditto Prism serves to reinforce that Stage 1’s really are the best Pokemon in the game today, Ditto Prism really is the proof of that.

Otaku

New to our countdowns? Here is a general explanation. Wondering why we’re only on fifth place instead of fourth? That’s because special circumstances lead to a Top 11 of sorts, which should make sense after next week. With that taken care of, our fifth-place pick is Ditto {*} (SM – Lost Thunder 154/214). Yes, I have changed my notation for “Prism Star” cards; I finally saw what I just used in an official rules document, and once I got used to it, it started working much better. As a reminder, {*} cards are restricted to one copy per name per deck; you can run any or even all other {*} cards alongside Ditto {*}, but at most you may run a single Ditto {*} in your deck. No other Ditto-based card shares this name, so you can run (for example) run Ditto {*} in addition to four copies of Ditto (BW – Boundaries Crossed 108/149). We finally have an anti-{*} card now; Wobbuffet (SM – Lost Thunder 93/214) has an Ability that shuts down the Abilities of all {*} Pokémon in play for both players, though it only works while that Wobbuffet is on your Bench. Besides the copy limit and Wobbuffet, remember that {*} cards are sent to the Lost Zone instead of going to the discard pile.

Ditto {*} is a Basic Pokémon, making it easier to fit into decks, play from hand, and even search out from your deck than Pokémon of any other Stage. You can even open with Ditto {*}, though for reasons I will get to I do not think you would want to do that. Being a [C] Type means almost nothing to Ditto {*}; the Type has little to no support in Standard and what exists in Expanded is seldom used anymore, and Ditto {*} cannot attack so the lack of [C] Weakness/Resistance doesn’t mean anything to it, either. 40 HP means quite a bit, however; Ditto{*} is fragile, though not the absolute worst printed on modern Pokémon. Ditto {*} has almost no chance of surviving while Active and even being on the Bench is unsafe. Due to the low HP, its [F] Weakness is almost negligible. Almost, but not quite; cards like Buzzwole or Buzzwole-GX enjoy a OHKO even if they fail to Bench a Diancie {*}, attach a Beast Energy {*}, etc. No Resistance is typical and, again, the HP means it would almost never matter even if there was some. The Retreat Cost of {*} is very good, however; an Escape Board easily zeroes it out, and even manually paying it is usually easy for both the short and long terms.

Ditto {*} has the Ability “Almighty Evolution” and it nearly lives up to the name. “Nearly”? You can play ANY Stage 1 card onto Ditto {*} as if you were Evolving into it from that Stage 1’s appropriate Basic Pokémon counterpart. As should be obvious, this is done through the Ability so if Abilities are disabled, Ditto {*} is stuck as itself. Almighty Evolution does not allow you to Evolve immediately, whether it is your first turn of the game or not; if Ditto wasn’t in play before the turn began or it is actually is your first turn this game, Ditto {*} has to remain Ditto {*}. You cannot combine the effects of Almighty Evolution with a different Evolution effect e.g. no you cannot use Rare Candy to Evolve Ditto {*} into a Stage 2, use Evosoda to snag a Stage 1 from your deck and Evolve Ditto {*} into it, etc. If that makes this card sound unimpressive, stop thinking of them as restrictions and recognize that Ditto {*} has no right to be able to Evolve at all, so Almighty Evolution is already cheating the system big time!

So, what does that gain you? The first thing is hopefully obvious; in decks that need a fifth copy of a particular Evolving Basic Pokémon, Ditto {*} acts like one. This could be because the deck just needs to be that tiny bit more reliable, but is more likely because you’ve got a split Evolution line. With Ditto {*} you do things like have a Metagross (SM – Celestial Storm 95/168) backing up four Metagross-GX, or three Magcargo (SM – Celestial Storm 24/168) backing up two Magcargo-GX. The second thing Ditto {*} does it make it easier to run multiple separate Evolution lines in the same deck. It does this by not only allowing you to “share” a slot between the two but when you open, you need fewer Basics to ensure you have enough to Evolve. What do I mean? A Zorua, a Slugma, and a Ditto [Prism Star] all in play means your opponent has to KO two of the three to prevent you Evolving into at least one Zoroark-GX and one Magcargo on your next turn (assuming the Evolution cards show up).

The third and fourth uses are closely related but technically separate. You can use Ditto {*} to better TecH in Stage 1 Pokémon, including multiple different Stage 1 Pokémon. You could run a single Alolan Muk, a single Delcatty (SM – Celestial Storm 121/168; SM – Black Star Promos SM 132), and maybe even risk a third or a fourth such option. You couldn’t field more than one such Stage 1 in a game – less if Ditto {*} is removed from the game before it can Evolve – but you’ll have the one you need the most available. Which brings us to the final, wonderful thing Ditto {*} does; it messes with your opponent’s mind. Yet again let me stress that ANY Stage 1 is a potential Ditto {*} partner; if deck space wasn’t so tight, I’d be tempted to run it in every deck even without any Stage 1 cards, just because it is hard for an opponent to pass up KOing it (instead of something else I’d want to survive).

Ratings

Standard: 4/5

Expanded: 4/5

Limited: 4/5

Ditto {*} isn’t a new general staple, but for most decks with Evolutions, it is one! This applies as much to Expanded as Standard; Ditto {*} faces more counters in Expanded but has so many more opportunities.  This isn’t just Theorymon; I’ve been playing and facing decks doing interesting things with Ditto {*} on the PTCGO.  In the Limited Format, unless you pull a single, powerful Basic worth running solo (a +39 or “Mulligan” style deck), or somehow fail to pull a single Stage 1, you’ll be running this Ditto {*}!