Palossand – Rebel Clash Pokemon Review

Vince

Palossand from Sword and Shield Rebel Clash has one selling point, and that’s to mill as many cards as you can. It’s Sand Sink attack costs CC and you discard the top card of your opponent’s deck. If this Pokemon has a Cursed Shovel attached to it, then you discard the top three cards from your opponent’s deck instead of one. Depending on the opponent’s deck, it may or may not help them.

As for Cursed Shovel, it was the 15th best card of the set. This is a Pokémon Tool card which only works when the Pokémon is being KOed by an opponent’s attack; it then discards the top 2 cards of your opponent’s deck. So if you just used Sand Sink and eventually your opponent knocks out your Palossand, then you’ve just discarded a total of 5 cards from your opponent’s deck. If your opponent leaves it unattended, then Palossand just keeps milling for 3 cards, and it’s own 140 HP might make you able to tank an attack.

So that’s pretty much what the Palossand/Cursed Shovel combo does, and there could be a deck that focuses on milling cards.

Ratings:

• Standard: 3/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: 4/5

Otaku

Palossand (SSH – Rebel Clash 082/192) is a single-Prize Pokémon, with no specialty mechanics; right now, this is usually an advantage.  Palossand is a Psychic type, giving Palossand access to useful support like Mysterious Treasure, and giving Palossand some solid chances to exploit Weakness.  It also means Palossand will crash into Resistance pretty often.  Palossand is a Stage 1, so it is neither difficult nor easy to run.  140 HP is decent, but still a little more likely to be OHKO’d than not.  Spiritomb (SM – Unbroken Bonds 112/214) means [D] Weakness is awful.  -30 [F] Resistance is appreciated, but probably won’t matter too often.  The Retreat Cost of [CCCC] is too high to bother paying, but most decks can deal with that and some may even be able to capitalize on it (Poké Maniac?).

Palossand knows two attacks.  For [CC], it can use Sand Sink to discard the top card of your opponent’s deck, but if you have Cursed Shovel attached, Sand Sink will discard two more cards (three total).  [PCC] pays for Super Absorption, which lets Palossand do 90 damage and heal 30 damage from itself.  The Energy costs for these attacks are good, in that Twin Energy and/or Triple Acceleration Energy can cover the [CC] costs of each.  They cost is not good in the sense that… the attacks don’t do enough.  Not enough base mill for Sand Sink, and not enough damage/healing for Super Absorption.

You may recall I was very excited about Cursed Shovel, and even had it make my countdown for this set.  I was wrong.  There are too many more important Tools – even in mill decks – to use.  At least for now, you’ve got to outperform Oranguru (SM – Ultra Prism 114/156) backed by Bellelba & Brycen-Man for a mill deck to be worthwhile.  That ain’t happening here, in Standard or Expanded.  Yeah, in Expanded you even have Dimension Valley, but I don’t think that is enough.  Where Palossand might be strong is in the Limited Format.  It’s mostly [C] requirements let it work in a variety of decks, its HP ought to last longer, and your total deck size is 40 cards.  On its own, you might be better off using Super Absorption… but with Cursed Shovel?  Scary!

Ratings

• Standard: 2/5
• Expanded: 2/5
• Limited: 4/5

I’m not giving up all hope for Palossand, but it is hope, not actual results.  Palossand may be worth revisiting post-rotation, but even then, I’m not counting on it.