Giant Cape – Space-Time Smackdown
Date Reviewed: February 5, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The second best Trainer of Space-Time Smackdown is Giant Cape (A2 147)! It’s a Trainer, specifically a Pokémon Tool. While attached to a Pokémon, Giant Cape grants it +20 HP. Giant Cape is currently only available as at the ♦♦ rarity. Like many desirable Trainer cards, I found it felts much rarer when I was trying to pull two copies!
For those that missed the first one we covered, Pokémon Tools are a new kind of Trainer card in the Pokémon TCG Pocket. They’ve been around since Neo Genesis, the first Gen 2 set, released back in 2000 for the full Pokémon TCG. In the Scarlet & Violet series, Pokémon Tools work the same as they do in Pocket. If you go any further back, you’ll find some differences in how they were classified, but they functioned almost exactly the same as they do now.
To use a Pokémon Tool, you must first attach them to one of your Pokémon who are already in play. A Pokémon may only have one Tool attached at a time. A Tool can only be discarded by a card effect (including its own) saying to discard it, or when the Pokémon to which it is attached leaves play. If a Pokémon with a Tool attached to it has that Tool discarded, you can attach another Tool to it during one of your turns, following the usual rules.
Currently, all Pokémon Tools in Pocket can be attached to any Pokémon, provided you’re following the above guidelines. In the full TCG, Tools will sometimes have text that restrict to what Pokémon they can be attached, based on one or more things that Pokémon may have or lack, be it stats or effects. Or they can be attached to anything, but their effect will only work if the appropriate stats/effects are (or aren’t) present. While it doesn’t mean anything now, this could become a strength of Giant Cape in the future.
For as simple as it seems, the effect of Giant Cape could also use some explaining. After all, so many different games use the Hit Point (HP) mechanic, but do so at least a little differently. Giant Cape increases both the equipped Pokémon’s current HP, and its maximum HP. Both also go away the instant Giant Cape is no longer attached to that Pokémon. A Pokémon equipped with Giant Cape loses the bonus HP last. If something with Giant Cape equipped is reduced to 10 or 20 HP, and another card effect discards Giant Cape from that Pokémon, the Pokémon will be KO’d as its HP becomes zero.
Giant Cape is a better Potion, usually. Potion can only be used once a Pokémon is already damaged; unless the Pokémon in question already has another Tool attached, you can use Giant Cape to raise its current and maximum HP by 20 even if it is fully healthy. This is most relevant with OHKOs: Potion can do nothing to prevent a OHKO, but Giant Cape can allow you to survive, unless the OHKO does 20+ points of overkill.1 Yet Giant Cape can still be used any time you could use Potion… again, barring the target Pokémon already having a Tool equipped.
Giant Cape is another Trainer that first debuted in the full Pokémon TCG. Unlike more recent examples, this one has not been reprinted recently. Its only release was back in 2012, and while it is still legal in some of the PTCG Formats, it hasn’t been legal for Standard (the main Format) since 2014. It was at least somewhat good at first, but Tools released after it proved much better. For some reason, I could have sworn they had reprinted this card at least once. It would have been pretty well balanced in many other cardpools.
Rating: 3.5/5
Generally speaking, the best defense is a good offense. Even in Pokémon! However, it is easier to predict how Giant Cape will help you, versus Rocky Helmet. You’ll already know that Giant Cape is moving you out of OHKO range, OHKO (w/Giovanni) range, 2HKO range, etc. Which at least stops you from losing immediately, and can buy a meatshield, an attacker, an evolving Pokémon, etc. time to do their thing. Which can include offense! So, while I scored them (and Dawn) the same, Giant Cape comes out on top.
Yet one Trainer clearly outclassed all the others…
1“Overkill” relative to your Pokémon’s HP prior to attaching Giant Cape.
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