[DEL]Full review later since I ran out of time. At first glance this seemed underwhelming, since most decks won't need the basic Energy that bad, and I would have expected most Energy acceleration decks that attach from hand to already have their tricks for it.
After some research, I still am thinking I'd rather run straight draw power and some excellent recursion cards. Still, for one specific set of decks (those running Typhlosion Prime) it might be necessary due to the low overall Energy count. Definitely don't forget what you can do with the right approach in general Energy acceleration decks: we have Energy Retrieval to snag two basic Energy cards to the hand after being discarded (like from Engineer's Adjustments, Sage's Training or Professor Juniper) or Energy Returner to throw four basic Energy back into the deck. As both are Item cards, they set up nicely for more general draw or Interviewer's Questions mid-to-late game.[/DEL]
[FONT="]Now for a full review of Cilan, and boy am I glad I asked questions and listened to people, for this shall be rather different from my initial impressions.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Stats[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]So the obvious thing is that Cilan is a Supporter, a sub-type of Trainers. There are some effects that specify Supporters, though most don’t see a lot of play. To my surprise, I didn’t see any that hurt Supporter usage, only cards that helped but didn’t seem potent enough to warrant play in most decks.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Your Supporter use for the turn is a resource most decks should seek to always use. As such, decks must balanced between having too many Supporters (and risking them all showing up at once and clogging your hand) and too few (not taking advantage of said once-per-turn use). I remind everyone one of this, because when we get to the card’s effect it put things into perspective. Whatever Cilan can do, that is going to be instead of drawing cards, recycling cards, or some more unique, useful effect like that of Seeker bouncing Pokémon back to their owner’s hand. In Unlimited or Limited, this is rarely an issue; in the former you have access to past Trainers that weren’t Supporters, so you may get by without a single Supporter in your deck, and in the latter you simply aren’t likely to get enough Supporters to ever have to worry about having too many.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Effects[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]So at last I explain what Cilan does; it grabs three basic Energy cards of your choice from your deck. This literally makes it three times as powerful as the equivalent Item, Energy Search. Energy Search is not considered a powerful card, but it has its uses, so something three times as good is likely a fair trade off for being a Supporter.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Usage[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]At first I didn’t expect this card to see much use. Then I had to eat some humble pie (and chew thoroughly). Many decks are running low amounts of Basic Energy right now, even the Energy acceleration decks that don’t recycle from the discard. This means the odds of drawing the needed Energy cards are much lower. It also means that the main rival of Cilan, Interviewer’s Questions, is less reliable. While discussing it with Jadehex over PM, it became apparent that early game, when you need the Energy the most, Cilan is more reliable, always getting you three for one (a fair trade) when compared with Interviewer’s Questions, which could get you more but in the average build is likely to snag less.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Of course, specific deck builds may make Interviewer’s Questions better, but I’ve got to admit the numbers do make sense. If you also want to snag Special Energy cards, I'd use Interviewer's Questions and risk a lower return, but if it is basic Energy (even of a single type) Cilan is more valuable, especially early on. Of course, if you aren’t that bothered about Energy concerns, Cilan is less useful, and if you’re actually running more than one kind of basic Energy, it becomes more useful.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Just not in Unlimited, where basic Energy usage is low, and you’ve got the raw draw/search/recycling power where even in a deck that does use basic Energy cards; you just won’t need a Supporter dedicated to searching them out. Conversely this is another must run in Limited play. If you’re dealing with a mono-color deck, even one with ample amounts of basic Energy, just run it to thin your deck. If you have your average Unlimited deck, you’re running at least two kinds of basic Energy card and thus getting the exact three you want coupled with still thinning your deck is fantastic![/FONT]
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[FONT="]Ratings[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
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[FONT="]Unlimited:[/FONT][FONT="] 1/10[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Modified:[/FONT][FONT="] 7.25/10[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Limited:[/FONT][FONT="] 10/10[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Summary[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]Cilan[/FONT][FONT="] did not make my top 10 promising picks for BW: Next Destinies, or the group list that appeared on Pojo, but perhaps it should have. As I realized after discussing it with others, in the average deck it is functional but not really needed. In several key decks it is amazing, so I’d say that averages out to a good card![/FONT]