Siebold – Chilling Reign Pokemon Card of the Day

Siebold (SW – Chilling Reign 153/198, 198/198, 221/198) is the other new Rapid Strike Trainer-Supporter that was released in SW – Chilling Reign.  While Brawly focuses on your setup by snagging three Basic Pokémon, Siebold helps you care for your Pokémon by letting you choose up to two of your Rapid Strike Pokémon in play and healing 60 damage from them.  This is twice as much healing as you get from Pokémon Center Lady but it not only must be split between two targets, those targets must be Rapid Strike Pokémon.  While they’re still one of the “current” game mechanics, there are only so many Rapid Strike Pokémon and we have no idea if we’ll get a lot, a little, or no more.

 

As I am using Pokémon Center Lady as a point of comparison, I’ll point out that Seibold does nothing to remove Special Conditions.  Pokémon Center Lady was healing 60 damage back in the XY-era; while the difference isn’t as drastic as going back to the WotC-era of the TCG, maximum printed HP scores, average HP scores, and average damage done per turn have all gone up.  Which is not me saying Siebold is bad.  I just don’t know how badly Ra[id Strike decks need such healing right now.  A mark in its favor is that the “Rapid Strike Search” Abilty found on Octillery (SW – Battle Styles 037/163, 178/163; SW – Black Star Promos SWSH089) can snag it from your deck.  Whether you’re maxing it out or running it just as a single, that’s useful.

 

In Expanded, you still have access to some of the older, proven methods of healing… but Max Potion isn’t something for all decks.  You also gain VS Seeker, so now a single copy is not only Rapid Strike Search-bait, but can be spammed multiple times from the discard pile.  However, Rapid Strike Pokémon are an even narrower slice of the pie that is Expanded’s cardpool.

 

• Standard: 2/5
• Expanded: 2/5