Life Forest Prism Star- Lost Thunder
Date Reviewed: July 8 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: N/A
Expanded: 2.50
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Welcome to a reader request!
…yes, we do still get those from time to time.
Life Forest {*} (SM – Lost Thunder 180/214) is a Prism Star card. Which is pretty obvious if you know that “{*}” the text representation used for the symbol that is part of the card’s name, and both are read as “Prism Star”. Prism Star cards are a mechanic from the latter part of the Sun & Moon series. Currently, four of them are still Standard legal but Life Forest {*} is not one of them. Not an issue with today’s card, but know that Prism Star Pokémon are an example of Rule Box Pokémon. Prism Star cards do not follow the 4 Copy Rule. You’re allowed to run up to one copy of each Prism Star card. While very restrictive, it is less so than Ace Spec cards, which were one Ace Spec total per deck. The other drawback of Prism Star cards is that, once would hit the discard pile, instead they are sent to the Lost Zone.
Stadium cards are a once-per-turn affair, and they persist in play until another Stadium card or some effect says to discard them. You cannot play a copy of a Stadium that is already in play, either. Prism Star Stadium cards have a bonus effect, and it is quite a doozy: they’re immune to the effects of Item and Supporter cards! Expanded still has Field Blower, as well as some Supporter cards like Faba, so this is a nice effect to have. Pokémon and Energy-based effects still apply, as do the effects of other Stadium cards. That last bit mattering thanks to Chaotic Swell. While less relevant in modern Standard, as it lacks a card like Field Blower and only just got Flannery, back when Life Forest {*} was legal, this was quite nice.
Life Forest {*}’s effect is that, once during a player’s turn, that player may remove all Special Conditions from one of their [G] Pokémon, as well as heal 60 damage from it. If something has no Special Conditions on it, you can still heal damage. If something has no damage on it, you can still remove all Special Conditions. If something has less than 60 damage on it, you remove all that is there. Provided that “something” is the selected Grass Pokémon, of course. Another way to think of this is that it is a reusable Pokémon Center Lady for your Grass Pokémon, once per turn but not using up your Supporter. That isn’t as potent as – for example – a reusable Boss’s Order, Professor’s Research, or various other top Supporters, but it is still good!
In the right deck, it is very good indeed! Besides a deck that has a reason to keep Grass types alive, it helps if they’re not too small. After all, healing 60 damage is meaningless if all your stuff is being OHKO’d, and all but meaningless if all your stuff is still being 2HKO’d even after healing with Life Forest {*} between attacks. Removing Special Conditions is almost always a good thing, but most decks don’t inflict them. Life Forest {*} was Standard-legal for most of the 2019 and all of the 2020 Format. Since I used to do it wrong myself, remember that Formats are named after the year in which they end, not when they began. So Life Forest {*} was only legal for a single World Championship, as there were no World Championships held in 2020. None of the 2019 World Championship Theme Decks included Life Forest {*}.
That doesn’t mean it was a bad card, though. My memory is hazy, but I was indeed running one a Grass deck in Standard for at least part of this time. Specifically, a Sceptile-GX/Sceptile (SM – Celestial Storm 10/168, 10a/168) deck. It wasn’t a deck I invented or popularized, but was one I became aware of through tournaments where it placed well. In other words, not the top deck of the metagame, but a proven, winning deck. With Pokémon of a decent size and/or some form of protection, Life Forest {*} was handy for healing the bits of damage they took. I don’t remember specifics, but there were some Grass stall decks, the kind that just heal away damage on larger Pokémon before KOs can happen, that also included Life Forest {*}.
I don’t know how useful Life Forest {*} would be were it surprisingly re-released in a Standard-legal manner. Its effect is still good, I just don’t know if we have the kind of Grass Pokémon that could really take advantage of it. Or rather, that we have competitive enough Grass Pokémon, with proven decks, that could really make use of it. If we did, then it’d be a natural inclusion. As for modern Expanded, I’m still woefully behind. I’m going to hazard a good score for Life Forest {*}, because even if there isn’t a Grass deck that can really use it at present, odds are there will be another one eventually.
Ratings
- Standard: N/A
- Expanded: 3/5
Vince
I don’t think this card was being reviewed before when it came out on November 2018 but anyways…
Life Forest (*) from Sun & Moon Lost Thunder is a stadium card that lets you recover 60 damage and remove all Special Conditions from 1 of your Grass Pokémon (though your opponent can do the same thing, too, if they have any Grass types in play). Like other Prism Star Stadium cards, it is unaffected by any item or Supporter cards played from their hand (so, at the time Field Blower wouldn’t remove Prism Star Stadiums). Which means that Life Forest (*) can still be discarded by the abilities or attacks from any Pokémon and it can be replaced by another stadium. Not to mention that you can only have one Prism Star in your deck with the same name, and that it goes to the Lost Zone if it is discarded.
I don’t recall how often Life Forest (*) saw play, but it would be a nice inclusion in any Grass based decks. Healing 60 damage might not seem much, but it might change certain attacks from turning into 2HKOs into 3HKOs. Removing Special Conditions is also nice, though it seems like a timing issue; your Pokémon’s would already have taken damage between turns by Poison or Burn. The only way I can see Life Forest (*) being used is in a deck that focuses on stalling. For expanded options, other than Max Potion, there’s Gardenia ULP that can heal 80 damage from one of your Pokémon that has any Grass energies attached to it, or Herbal Energy FFI that not only provides a single Grass energy if attached to a grass Pokemon, but also healing 30 damage from it. And then you’ve got healing based abilities like Serperior BLW’s Royal Heal that can remove 1 damage counter from all of your Pokémon between turns.
While the ability to heal is a nice effect, it faces competition from other stadium cards related to Grass types, though as a prism star card, it is meant to supplement other stadium cards that has done their job, like how Turffield Stadium fetches for evolution grass Pokémon or how Forest of Giant Plants can let you evolve your Grass Pokémon on your first turn or the turn you put it into play. Even with Forest of Giant Plants banned from Expanded, Turffield Stadium still competes Life Forest with deck space, and is perhaps the only standard legal option supporting grass types.
Now, if there’s a Grass type Pokémon that can prevent itself from being knocked out at full HP (like Focus Sash for fighting types, though that’s a one time deal), then Life Forest (*) is the perfect combo. So far, when scrolling down images of some Grass Pokémon in the TCG, I have yet to see a Pokémon containing that trait, which means that Life Forest (*) potential hasn’t been realized yet.
Ratings:
Standard: N/A (though at the time of release I think it would be a 2 out of 5)
Expanded: 2/5
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