Turffield Stadium – Rebel Clash Pokemon Review

Otaku

Turffield Stadium (SSH – Rebel Clash 170/192) gives me hope the powers-that-be are learning.  Mostly.  Why?  This Trainer-Stadium let’s the turn player search their deck for an Evolution [G] Pokémon.  You’ve got to reveal the card you snagged and shuffle your deck afterward, which should go without saying.  At least, not on the individual card; the rule book should just explain how

• You always have to reveal a card you searched out from your deck, unless it was universal search, to prove you grabbed a legal target.
• You always have to shuffle a player’s deck after messing with it, unless the effect states otherwise.  That way you can’t intentionally order your deck when you’re only supposed to be searching out a card.

Okay, so how is this an example of the powers-that-be learning?  Nothing really needs help searching out Basic Pokémon right now.  We’ve got Quick Ball.  Until August 28th, though, Grass also has Net Ball.  So, instead of providing more Basic Pokémon search, Turffield Stadium gets [G] Evolution cards.  Would it be better if Turffield could grab any [G] Pokémon, or any Evolution?  Sure, but that might be a little too good.  Sticking with what we actually got, though, it reminds me of a nerfed Forest of Giant Plants.

Say what?

Turrfield Stadium does not cause you to evolve any of your Pokémon; it is only searches your deck for [G] Evolutions.  Which means it doesn’t do mono-Basic decks any good, even Grass ones.  It doesn’t care about the typing (or anything else) of the Pokémon from which that [G] evolution evolves.  It sends the card to your hand, where it could be used to pay a cost, can still be played from hand to Activate an effect, and it provides no evolution acceleration so it will not be obviously broken, like Forest of Giant Plants.

Turffield Stadium seems like a good option if your deck revolves around [G] evolutions.  Even in Expanded, where you have some strong [G] decks that like to run Vileplume (XY – Ancient Origins 3/98), among other [G] evolutions.  Vileplume locks down both players Item cards, so while you have Ultra Ball in this Format, you’re not able to freely play it.  In both Constructed Formats, however, there are other strong Stadium cards that may be better plays, like Power Plant.  In the Limited Format, run this even if you have no legal search targets; it still functions as a counter-Stadium (this set has two others) and lets you look at your deck.  If you do have some [G] evolutions – decent odds of that – then this is a great card.

Ratings

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

Turffield Stadium seems like a Stadium with a solid effect; such search would be too weak for an Item, but becomes handy when you can do it over and over again.  Your opponent can make use of it as well… if they’re running [G] Types; not too likely in the present Standard metagame.  Thematically, this is a good way to represent how many generations have some really common Bug (sometimes Grass) Pokémon that also evolve very quickly… without the headaches caused by actual evolution acceleration, I hope.