Wondrous Labyrinth Prism Star – Team Up Pokemon Review

Vince

When determining which Prism Card card improved the most out of the four, I decided that Wondrous Labyrinth is the most improved out of the other three Prism Star cards for the Standard Format. When the changes were made for the TCG was announced somewhere last year, I was a little shocked. Sure, there were some type matchup changes and certain card changes that I’ll get used to when dealing with such cards from a particular series, but the biggest change is that the Fairy type in the Pokémon TCG is discontinued and is no longer supported by future cards! I felt like that is the TCG equivalent of Pokémon Sword & Shield excluding hundreds of Pokémon from the core-series game. Things come and go, I suppose, might as well make the most out of it before they’re gone.

Anyways, Wondrous Labyrinth (*) is a Stadium card which, just like other (*) Stadium cards, have a built-in protection from effects from Item or Supporter cards. Some of the Pokémon attacks can discard Stadiums, as well as replacing that Stadium with your own Stadium, making Wondrous Labyrinth gone for good, at least for the match. The attacks of non-Fairy Pokemon cost one Colorless Energy more! Looking at the leftover Sun & Moon sets (from Team Up to Cosmic Eclipse), there are not many Fairy type fully evolved options left.

SM Team Up:

-Alolan Ninetales (protects from Pokémon-EX/GX but not Pokemon-V)

-Mimikyu (Filch draws two cards while Copycat copies an attack and uses it)

SM Unbroken Bonds

-Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX (a deck that used to be good, but rotation and future cards hurt its viability)

-Clefable (…)

-Wigglytuff (…)

-Togekiss (might heal a decent amount to shift from 2HKOs to 3HKOs, but is a Stage 2)

-Whimsicott-GX (a very trolly card, 50% chance to not take damage, also has an attack that does 10+30x for each energy attached to it. Porygon-ax’s Crazy Code and 4 Triple Acceleration Energy can help reach OHKO levels, even if the energies discard itself at the end of your turn)

-Aromatisse (…)

SM Unified Minds

-Whimsicott (…)

-Dedenne (…)

SM Hidden Fates

-Clefable (…)

-Wigglytuff-GX (…)

-Mr. Mime (…)

SM Cosmic Eclipse

-Togepi, Cleffa, & Igglybuff-GX (some decks were able to get SIXTEEN energies on this for wiping out your opponent’s entire Bench!)

-Alolan Ninetales (does 10x for each Tool in your discard pile. Way too underpowered)

-Whimsicott (…)

-Florges (…)

-Slurpuff (…)

-Sylveon (one of my favorite cards, and it can do 160 damage if I played a Tag Team Supporter card).

Out of the entire roster, I can see GardEon-GX, Whimsicott-GX, and the baby trio benefitting from this effect, but Wondrous Labyrinth isn’t just for Fairy decks. Control decks might like it too, since the user doesn’t care about the cost increase and just sits and tanks attacks…like Wailord-V for instance.

The situation is kinda bittersweet, as even though the Fairy type has discontinued, every single Pokémon from the Sword & Shield series will suffer the effects Wondrous Labyrinth has placed because nobody is a Fairy type (even the ones that used to be as they’re now Psychic types still weak to Metal). Each and every attacks they possess will have their cost increase by a single colorless energy, and unless you have a Pokémon like Frosmoth to accelerate energy, it may be enough to make certain Pokémon’s attacks unusable (who wants to pay seven energy for Tag Bolt…or Double Blaze, etc?). They will pay an extra energy…only for them to be damaged harder by certain attacks that punish you for having too many energies attached to it. However, if they still meet the attack cost, then the cost increase doesn’t matter and you might be on the receiving end of hindering your own Pokémon due to the very same stadium that you’ve played.

Ratings:

Standard: 4/5 (with the current card pool, Wondrous Labyrinth just got powerful…)

Expanded: 3.5/5 (…but it offsets the fact that it affects some of your Pokemon…)

Limited: 3/5 (…and there’s only two Fairies in the Team Up set, only worth using if you also pulled 1-1 Alolan Ninetales)

Otaku

Today we’ll look at the last of the remaining Standard-legal Prism Star cards, Wondrous Labyrinth {*}.  As a Prism Star card, you may only have a single copy of Wondrous Labyrinth {*} in your deck, though you may run other Prism Star cards alongside it.  If it would be sent to the discard pile for any reason, Wondrous Labyrinth {*} goes instead to the Lost Zone.  As a Stadium Prism Star, it enjoys a bonus; it is unaffected by Item or Supporter cards, regardless of which player is using them.  As for being a Stadium card, the usual applies; you may only play one Stadium card from hand during your turn, it discards any existing Stadium card from play when you do, and you cannot play a Stadium card if one with the same name is already in play.

Most Stadium cards apply the same effect equally to both players; the effect may only “work” during a specific player’s turn, or it may be something that is always on or can be triggered.  In the case of Wondrous Labyrinth {*}, it is an “always on” effect, that applies to all non-Fairy Pokémon: their attacks cost [C] more.  Just in case you’re a recent returning or knew play, when I say “Fairy Pokémon”, I mean the [Y] type – pink colored – Pokémon cards introduced in the XY series and continued into the Sun & Moon series.  The type was discontinued as of the Sword & Shield (current) series, though the cards already released are still legal unless specifically banned.

As with the other Prism Star cards we’ve looked at this week, this is actually a re-review.  We originally covered Wondrous Labyrinth {*} here, back in February of 2019.  It hadn’t made our final countdown for the top cards of SM – Team Up, but it was a runner-up, which meant it made at least one individual reviewer’s list.  It was reviewed a bit earlier than originally planned because it had already begun to see competitive success, not long after the set first became tournament legal.  While not always a major player in the Formats that followed, it was definitely a success overall… and I may not be giving it enough credit as I don’t have time to check the top cuts for all the tournaments between then and now.

In the present, this may be one of the strongest remaining Prism Star cards, however, that doesn’t mean it is seeing much play.  Fairy – as an independent type – were discontinued and their Weakness – Metal types – have been strong for a while.  I don’t expect the residual Fairy cards to see a return to prominence in Standard.  Fortunately for Wondrous Labyrinth {*}, it has other uses.  Namely, any deck that can afford to overpay for its attacks – or isn’t attacking at all – is a great candidate for Wondrous Labyrinth {*}.    For example, at the Players Cup Finals, Daniel Hugar ran one in his 13th-place finishing Centiskorch VMAX deck.  Centiskorch VMAX has an attack that hits harder the more Fire Energy it attached to it, and it is likely to have an extra Energy attached right away… so there’s no harm in dropping Wondrous Labyrinth {*}.  Peeking at the results from a relatively recent Japanese event, at least a few decks are still running the Stadium as well… and none are Fairy decks!

The Expanded Format isn’t losing its Fairy types, but I haven’t got a clue about its current metagame.  I do remember that it wasn’t seeing much use back in February – the last time we had a major Expanded Format event – but there’s so much going right for it in the Expanded Format cardpool, I think its prospects are still good.  As for the Limited Format, it is a must-run.  You may hobble your own deck, but this set has other Stadiums, and sometimes you need to discard them, even if it means sabotaging yourself.  Plus, there’s a good chance Wondrous Labyrinth {*} sticks around; if you are able to better handle its effect, that’s a big deal for you.

Ratings

• Standard: 4/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: 4/5

Once again, I’m being generous, because Wondrous Labyrinth {*} is powerful but niche.  It isn’t as small of a niche as I initially thought; the fact that Fairy decks seem to all have gone extinct may have actually helped it out.  So many decks will struggle if they suddenly have to pay an extra [C] to attack, so if your deck can handle it, enjoy the advantage!  Even if you have a different, preferred Stadium, make room for Wondrous Labyrinth {*}, as it is a great distraction to force your opponent to burn a Stadium counter.