Wondrous Labyrinth Prism Star – Pokemon Team Up Review

Vince

Wondrous Labyrinth Prism Star is a Stadium Card which increases the attack cost of non-Fairy Pokémon by a Colorless Energy, making either player pay more for their attack costs. The wording suggests that it can be useful for Fairy or stall decks, as other decks may be hindered by this effect. The remote use I can think of are Gardevoir-GX decks, as increasing the attack cost by one means infinite Force gets to add 30 more damage. Another use is for stall decks like Magikarp & Wailord-GX, since increasing attack costs mean that you get to delay your opponent’s attack for a turn. And you can facilitate disruption cards regarding Energy to set back your opponent even more. Overall, Wondrous Labyrinth has some applications, but not something that you should get ASAP.

• Standard: 2.5/5
• Expanded: 2.5/5
• Limited: 3.5/5

aroramage

Sometimes you gotta wonder where they come up with some of these locations for Stadiums. I mean some of them make sense, being based off of Gyms and the like, but lately we’ve gotten, what, cloudy fields? Fields surrounded by lightning? And now labyrinthine magical ruins? Somebody needs to get over to the Pokemon Commission and get them to actually enforce their regulations on where Trainers can conduct battles.

Wondrous Labyrinth <Prism> is a Stadium card that makes the attacks of all Pokemon cost 1 more Energy, with the exception being Fairy Pokemon. Also being a <Prism> Stadium, it remains unaffected by Items and Supporters, similar to Thunder Mountain <Prism> and Heat Factory <Prism> from the last set. Course in this time frame, this card can be very useful.

These days, Thunder Mountain <Prism> sees play to get Zapdos a free attack at no Energy cost, something which Wondrous Labyrinth <Prism> could counteract in its own way. The problem is getting to the Labyrinth to counter the Mountain, though it should probably be mentioned that any Stadium will get rid of these cards, since their rules text doesn’t prevent more Stadiums from coming into play, and they are subject to the normal Stadium rules. With only a few Stadiums in Standard though, they’ll be particularly valuable against the solo-copy <Prism> Stadiums, not to mention certain Pokemon can get rid of these Stadiums easily.

Back to Wondrous Labyrinth <Prism>. It’s good if you’re not going up against a Fairy deck, meaning anything outside of a Granbull deck, which I don’t think sees that much play these days due to Zapdos’s speedy entry, would be able to take advantage of this card. It’s one of those things where while the card itself is good, the environment isn’t great for it. If a Fairy deck has some competitive viability, then you can bet Wondrous Labyrinth <Prism> will show up in it.

Unless it becomes too popular. Then it’s not a great pick for the mirror.

Rating

Standard: 3/5 (good against a majority of decks, but the one it fits into doesn’t work out as well)

Expanded: 3/5 (not from anything the card does, just more of what other decks do better)

Limited: 3.5/5 (at least it’s got a lot of great usage)

Arora Notealus: Seriously, where is this labyrinth? I mean that’s probably the point, especially if you’re already in the labyrinth, but come on. Where am I in Pokemon world??

Next Time: Flashbacks to when Pokemon that gained power weren’t always as powerful…but nevertheless useful

Otaku

Wondrous Labyrinth {*} (SM – Team Up 158/181) today’s card, for two reasons. It was my ninth-place pick for my personal Top 11 but that was only good enough to make it a runner-up in 22nd place after winning a roll-off between it and the card that ended up in 23rd. What fast-tracked it for review is that it has already begun showing up in the competitive scene. Prism Star cards are once-per-deck and send themselves to the Lost Zone instead of going to the discard pile, so they aren’t good things upon which to rely, but they can make for nasty limited-time plays. Nothing in the game explicitly counters Prism Star Stadium cards, though Lisia can snag any two Prism Star cards from your deck at the cost of your Supporter for the turn. With Jirachi (SM – Team Up 99/181, SM – Black Star Promos SM161) being such a frequent play right now, being a Trainer (as opposed to Item, Stadium, etc.) is starting to matter even in Standard, with none of the anti-Trainer effects currently mattering, though I’d keep my eye on Gengar & Mimikyu-GX.

Stadium cards like Wondrous Labyrinth {*} may only be played once-per-turn and you can’t play one if a Stadium with the same name is already in play. When you DO play a Stadium card, it discards whatever Stadium is already in play, assuming there is one. Prism Star Stadium cards have all had an effect that that makes them immune to the effects of Item and Supporter cards regardless of who plays them giving them more staying power than regular Stadium cards that have to fear Faba or Field Blower. Other Stadium cards can still dislodge them, as can Pokémon-based effects (and Energy, if any affected Stadium cards). There are some bits of “Stadium support” but none really worth mentioning. Stadium cards usually apply the same effect to both players; your main source of advantage comes from how well a Stadium synergizes with the rest of your deck and the fact that you control when it hits the field. In this case, Wondrous Labyrinth {*} increases the attack cost of all Pokémon by [C] except for [Y] Types. A major aspect of competitive deck builds is that they are efficient in what they do and how they do it, so even for a deck with extra Energy attachments and extra Energy, this can get annoying. Wondrous Labirynth {*} should slow down most decks and with either luck or combos, may even cause some to grind to a halt in terms of attacking.

None of this applies to decks attacking using mostly or all [Y] Types, such as Granbull (SM – Lost Thunder 138/214), Gardevoir-GX, or Sylveon-GX decks, of course. Which is good, as those decks should absolutely make room for a copy of Wondrous Labyrinth {*}; with its Energy acceleration, Gardevoir-GX can likely keep its any non-[Y] attackers it runs flowing smoothly. However, only a handful of the lists you can find in the recent tournaments on Limitless are [Y] decks. You have many stall/control decks including it, which does make sense; I’m talking about the ones that either almost never attack or can otherwise handle the cost increase. That still leaves out a good chunk, however. I’m seeing Wondrous Labyrinth {*} in decks like Pikachu & Zekronm-GX, Zoroark-GX/Fighting and Malamar (SM – Forbidden Light 51/131; SM – Black Star Promos SM117)/Ultra Necrozma-GX. Malamar variants still make some sense, as their Energy acceleration means they have a better chance of dealing with the costs than their opponents do, but what about the other two? These decks can all have slow starts, where attacking may not even be an option… but I didn’t see anything like Lisia to ensure Wondrous Labyrinth {*} shows up early game.

Then it hit me: TCG’s can have “bait” or “pressure” cards. Bait cards are ones you run to try and trick your opponent into expending resources to deal with them, even if they barely an actual threat; far easier in a game like Yu-Gi-Oh where you can set cards face down. Ideally, they can be used for something even if your opponent doesn’t “take the bait”. Pressure cards are similar, except you’re not bluffing; they are a threat, but one your opponent can almost certainly deal with once, maybe twice. The pressure card serves its purpose by either doing something big or getting countered by a limited resource. Pikachu & Zekrom-GX decks run Thunder Mountain {*}; if it doesn’t show up for an early game powerplay, then why not force your opponent to use up one of their Stadium cards ahead of time? Assuming, of course, the deck hasn’t already gotten itself moving, in which case you might have a Pikachu & Zekrom-GX with [L] Energy to spare attached… and so it won’t care about having to pay [C] extra. Unfortunately, all of that is speculation and I’m short even that when it comes to the Zoroark-GX/Fighting lists. Maybe to ward off lower-Energy attackers, especially Buzzwole?

Ratings

• Standard: 3.5/5
• Expanded: 3.4/5
• Limited: 3.5/5

I’ve seen enough actual usage of Wondrous Labyrinth {*} first hand and through high-performing decklists to easily justify scoring it well in Standard; it isn’t good enough to even be a loose staple, but it works in enough situations and who knows, maybe someday it could be. There is no data for Expanded but opportunities seem the same even if the players are different, so I’m only docking it a little due to the increased competition from classics like Sky Field and Parallel City. If you pull it in Limited, you run it; there are three other Stadium cards in this set, and one of them is Black Market {*}!

21times

Pojo Note: Harvey is stepping away from the game for a while.  He was a COTD writer here for 2 years and did an Absol-utely amazing job.  I’ll miss you Harvey!  Good Luck! – Bill