Scoop Up Net– Rebel Clash
Date Reviewed: December 24, 2020
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 4.00
Expanded: 4.00
Limited: 5.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Scoop Up Net is our 7th-place pick. Why? It broke Shaymin-EX, finally getting it banned! I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, however. Scoop Up Net is a Trainer-Item that lets you bounce one of your Pokémon into your hand, excluding Pokémon V and Pokémon-GX. Lower Stages of evolution are considered part of the Pokémon, and go along for the ride; any attached cards do not, and head to the discard unless another card effect says otherwise. Why is bouncing your cards so good? Isn’t it something you should be wanting to do to your opponent’s Pokémon? Both can be true at once. You lose the game if you have no Pokémon left on the field, so if you could easily bounce your opponent’s Pokémon, you might score a cheeky T1 win with little to no effort. In fact, it’d be a pretty decent threat the entire game, undoing all your opponent’s hard work in setting up.
That is not how Scoop Up Net works, thankfully, as it would be utterly broken. It can only bounce yours, but think about what I just said, and what happens if you bounce something
- With a coming-into-play Ability
- Easily put back into play
- Easily KO’d if it remains in play
Not just all three together, but even separately, these can be powerful plays. Which is why Pokémon-GX and Pokémon V were excluded. Imagine having nearly KO’d a beefy TAG Team Pokémon, or Pokémon VMAX, only for your opponent to deny you the KO through just using an Item. Doing that with AZ is worthy of being a Supporter in Expanded; it’d be nuts as an Item! As is, it is still a great card in Standard, and borderline broken in Expanded. The best example was Shaymin-EX (XY – Roaring Skies 77/108, 77a/108, 106/108); it is a small (110 HP) Basic Pokémon-EX with a coming-into-play Ability called “Setup”. Setup lets you draw until you have six cards in hand: just like Crobat V except multiple instances of Setup can be used in a single turn and if you bounce a Shaymin-EX into your hand, you can even play the same copy down right away to draw again!
Just bouncing single-Prize Pokémon still makes Scoop Up Net a powerful card in Standard. It is often seen used with Jirachi, Galarian Zigzagoon and Galarian Obstagoon. In Expanded, it isn’t as good as it originally was because they banned Shaymin-EX, but it still has so much potential. I mean, Wailord-EX is still a 250 HP Basic Pokémon-EX (for example). In the Limited Format, obviously skip it in a mulligan deck. Everywhere else, run it, simple as that.
Ratings
- Standard: 4/5
- Expanded: 4/5
- Limited: 5/5
Vince
Vince had this at #7 on his Top 10 new Pokemon cards of 2020.
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