Wait and See Hammer – Lost Thunder Pokemon Review

Vince

Wait and See Hammer is one of those cards where it is best to go second, or you won’t be able to use this card at all. Based on the wording, you can only use this card if you choose to go second AND only in that turn, no other turn. So, if you can’t get any of them out, then they’re just discard fodders. Trying to draw into that card is pretty card unless you’re lucky with coin flips in order for Order Pad to work. It might make sense to run a full four in hopes to drawing it on your opening hand when you have a Basic Pokémon. What’s the payoff for frantically getting a specific card on your second turn.

Discard an Energy from 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon.

Now that’s something that’s guaranteed to happen and not reliant on a coin flip, unlike Crushing Hammer. This could undo some of the setup your opponent has made on their first turn. First turn rules has affected what they could do. No Supporter means no Bede for extra attachment. No attack means no extra attachment either from whatever attack like Energy Assist. Expanded related cards like Max Elixir may let you attach more energy if the contents of the top six cards has one of them. Most of the time, players on the first turn can do, at most, a manual attachment, and Wait & See Hammer makes it seemed like it never happened!

Ratings:

Standard: 3/5

Expanded: 1.5/5

Limited: 4.5/5

Otaku

Though not intentional, it may seem as if I took a “wait and see” attitude with writing today’s review, as it is going up four hours late!  Of course, even then this review seems a bit late as Wait and See Hammer (SM – Lost Thunder 192/214, 236/214) officially released back on November 2, 2018.

Wait and See Hammer is a Trainer-Item, so apart from its own built-in restrictions, it is an easy card to play.  It is its own effect that states you can only use Wait and See Hammer on your first turn when going second.  Using overall turn counts, that means Wait and See Hammer is dead every turn except Turn 2.  If you’re the player going first, that means you would never be able to use it (Player 1’s first turn is Turn 1.  Player 2’s first turn is Turn 2.  Etc.).  Does it have that strong of an effect to warrant such a restriction?

Almost.  The rest of the card’s effect states you get to discard an Energy from one of your opponent’s Pokémon.  In other words, this is Energy Removal but only good Turn 2!  If you only run one of this card, you’ll need compatible search or else you’re probably not hitting it Turn 2 without maxing it out… and maxing it out means up to three dead cards the rest of the game.  You can play more than one copy of Wait and See Hammer during Turn 2 but unless your opponent used Energy acceleration, they’ll only have one Energy (maybe none!) to target.

Another concern is how a decent number of competitive decks aren’t as bothered by this as you might expect.  That is because enough of them have some form of Energy acceleration that might be able to pick up the slack next turn.  So color me surprised when this showed up in the third place Zacian ADP deck at Perth.  I’ve seen it in other decks, on and off since its release as well.  Without something to reliably fetch it from your deck, or it being maxed out, or that Alolan Meowth promo we… never… received?

Guess I’m not the only one falling behind.  Alolan Meowth – actually アローラニャース or “Alolan Nyarth” – is 255/SM-P, their equivalent to our SM – Black Star Promotional series.  It is a 60 HP, Basic [D] Type Pokémon with [F] Weakness, [P] Resistance -20, a Retreat Cost of [C].  For [0] it can do 10 damage using “Scratch”.  Even when free, that’s pure filler.  It has the Ability “Dismissal” which is a once-per-turn, once-per-copy and before-you-attack Ability.  Using it lets you discard a Wait and See Hammer from your hand, then draw two cards.  It’s a nifty little trick that we’re probably never getting at this point.

Ratings

Standard: 2/5

Expanded: 2/5

Limited: 3/5

If I hadn’t seen competitive decks placing while running it, I wouldn’t even be rating Wait and See Hammer this highly for Standard and Expanded.  Apparently, it works!  In the Limited Format, where you have space to play around with potentially dead cards, its better.  I’d love to see what a deck could do with it and that promo Alolan Meowth…