Rescue Carrier – Evolving Skies
Date Reviewed: October 23, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.75
Expanded: 2.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
In hindsight, Rescue Carrier (SW – Evolving Skies 154/203) has been a long time in coming. How so? This Trainer-Item lets you put up to two Pokémon into your hand, from your discard pile, provided that neither has more than 90 HP. Which seems like a counterpart to Level Ball, which lets you search your deck for one Pokémon with 90 or less HP, then add it to your hand. Level Ball only recently returned to the Standard Format, but its original printing dates all the way back to BW – Next Destinies. That set officially released back in February of 2012, and was the first set (at least, outside of Japan) to contain Pokémon-EX! So… yeah, it almost seems like a Pokémon recycling counterpart should have shown up years ago.
Not that I’m complaining about Rescue Carrier. Obviously, this is pretty useless if your deck only contains Pokémon with 100+ HP, but pretty much any deck using Evolutions excluding Pokémon VMAX is likely to have a lower Stage that Rescue Carrier can… well… rescue from the discard pile. Given how we often focus on what the final Stage of Evolution can do for a Pokémon, it can be easy to forget how important having a lower Stage, ready and waiting to evolve, can be. I don’t think this will reduce how many copies you’ll need to play of these lower Stages for decks that could include Rescue Carrier, but it still might be worth a slot as insurance. There are also decks that make use of the those low HP Pokémon with good effects. Even some Stage 1 Pokémon with 90 or less HP qualify in that regard. Doubly so if the Pokémon (Basic or Stage 1) discards itself as part of a non-attack effect. See Marshadow (SM – Unbroken Bonds 81/214) for an example of that last one.
After all, the only other Standard-legal Trainer that can add Pokémon directly from your discard pile to your hand is Klara, a Supporter. Klara, of course, does have the better effect (adding any two Pokémon or any two basic Energy cards), but she’s a Supporter so she needs to have a stronger effect. Ordinary Rod is better for most decks, though, as it shuffles up to two Pokémon and/or basic Energy cards from your discard pile, into your deck and is still an Item card. Expanded also has Rescue Stretcher, letting you add any one Pokémon from your discard pile to your hand or letting you shuffle three Pokémon from your discard pile to your deck. Even though there are better “general use” cards, I like having options such as Rescue Carrier. Again, see what Level Ball has accomplished! So I’ll round up and award a three-out-of-five for each Format. Expanded has more competition, but also more options like reusing a Jirachi-EX, helping out Night March, etc.
Ratings
- Standard: 3/5
- Expanded: 3/5
Vince
Rescue Carrier from SS Evolving Skies is a Item card which lets you put two Pokemon with 90 HP or less from the discard pile into your hand. There’s not many Pokemon that would be legal targets of being retrieved, let alone Pokemon-V and Pokemon VMAX. There are a handful of targets that you could retrieve, such as part of the Jumpluff evolutionary line, Mad Party, Dynamotor Flaaffy, and certain Pokemon like Jirachi or Mew, so I guess Rescue Carrier isn’t totally worthless. But it’s going to be useful in a select few decks; others would be using Ordinary Rod despite not being able for cards to be put into your hand.
Ratings:
Standard: 2.5/5
Expanded: 2.5/5
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