Adapted from my Pojo review
Black Belt is another Supporter you can only use when you have more Prize cards remaining than your opponent. You then get a massive 40 extra points of damage for your attack this turn (as long as it is an attack that already deals damage). Twins is designed to give you a strategic boost, Black Belt is about raw power. This is literally like dropping all four copies of Plus Power at once, but actually using it reminds me more of Scramble Energy. While clearly not in the same league, in the end both will allow you to hit harder than you “should” be able to with the resources you have invested in a particular Pokémon. Fast, hard-hitting attacks designed to take out one level of Pokémon will advance to OHKOing the next level: Basic-thumping attacks will threaten Stage 1 Pokémon, Stage 1 slamming attacks will threaten Stage 2 Pokémon, and the uppermost echelon of attacks will handle “enhanced” Pokémon: Stage 2 Level X Pokémon, “protected” Pokémon by Special Energy or built in effects, etc.
You won’t want to use the exact same combos as you would with Twins, but you will use many similar ones. Things like running a sacrificial opening Pokémon, running a Pokémon that KO’s itself or another of your Pokémon for at least minor gain, or the easiest, just packing it as insurance. Only the last is a potential universal use, but when you really look at what decks fall where, you start to see almost universal coverage. The real reason not to use this card is simple: Twins benefits you more and you can’t make room for both. The biggest usage difference I can see is that the aggressive decks that don’t use Twins may still consider this: a single quick KO is often all they need to turn the tempo of the game back in their favor, while they should already excel at setting up (theoretically making Twins redundant).
A key point is to remember the existence of Vs Seeker, especially if you happen to run a card that could easily pitch a "dead" Black Belt. My own recent attempts at deck building adhere far to much to the "old standards" I am used to, so I don't pretend this is some super secret weapon for every, most, or even many decks. I really do think that for at least a few, it should be a useful tool. I've been meaning to experiment with decks that involve self-KOing effects just to see what I can do with something so simple as a few Vs Seeker, one or two Twins and one or two Black Belt. If one can reliably fall back a Prize while maintaining field control and leaving the opponent with no strong fallback plans, it sounds like a fun and effective strategy. Yeah, I know, pure "Theorymon" right now. :lol:
In Limited play, this is another “must run”. If you are never able to use Black Belt and yet manage to lose, either you made a massive mistake or your opponent is both brilliant and lucky. It’s annoying that it might be a dead draw, but I’d rather have it sitting in my hand in case my opponent drops something massive and pulls ahead. Rare will someone have more than one “big thing” in their Limited decks.
Ratings
Modified: 7.5/10
Limited: 10/10
Summary
Black Belt may play second string to Twins, but it is an excellent card. Any competent player should be able to turn it into a revenge KO to even the Prize count back up, and with some planning and basic combos you can easily pull ahead in Prizes or in “true” advantage (taking out a resource intensive Pokémon). If Twins didn't exist, I think we would see it in a lot more decks.
