2013-07-01 PLF Life Dew 107

[waynegg]

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[gal=54769]2013-07-01 PLF Life Dew 107[/gal]​

 

[Otaku]

Do the DEEEEEEEEEW!

Sorry, had to get that out of my system (I can't even drink Mt. Dew anymore). So, silliness aside I have a much better opinion of this card than I once did; decks are so crowded even running a single Tool Scrapper can be asking a lot for many builds. A Life Dew can then allow a deck running just Pokémon-EX or no Pokémon-EX (or at least putting only one or the other into play) to force opponent's to take a seventh Prize to win. We already know that doing this the traditional way (putting into play one non-Pokémon-EX your opponent more or less has to KO) is profitable.

So what keeps it from being a "must run" is exactly what should; there are several excellent Ace Spec cards, and the list keeps growing. Rotation could really help this card; Computer Search and Dowsing Machine are really hard to beat, though I doubt such an extreme lol rotation will happen! This is one of the Ace Spec cards that could justify giving Recycle a shot - a 50% chance of denying your opponent a Prize is pretty snazzy. Combined with something that would protect against Tool Scrapper and you could have (for example) the most obnoxious Togekiss ever! There are likely much better combos, and one last important thing to notice is that anything that KOs a Pokémon triggers this card's effect.

Addendum: One complaint I've seen about this card is even if your opponent can't spare a Tool Scrapper to take it out, they might just "play around it". Most prominent attackers either OHKO or 2HKO anything in the game, including Pokémon-EX. Ignoring your opponent's already prepared attacker because they equip it with Life Dew, even if you are savaging their supporting Pokémon, risks just trading Prizes but with the Life Dew user coming out ahead in resources ("already prepared attacker" means they are free to have their back-up attackers KOed while still keeping up a constant stream of damage).

This by no means makes the card impossibly good, and I would not recommend building a deck around it even if said deck has the Ability to reclaim it from the discard pile for reuse. If it wasn't for the existence of Sableye (Junk Hunt) I'd think it obvious they were never supposed to be easily spammed... and even that only puts certain Ace Specs "over the top". This is an amazing effect that can be bypassed with a combination of effort and luck, but still an amazing effect that is useful for almost any deck and actually "adds" something to the deck, instead of just accessing a card already in your deck a little sooner.

8/10

 

[ArceusRules]

An ACE SPEC Tool. To me, I find this to be a very useless card. Sure it saves your opponent drawing an extra prize on an EX or any prizes at all on a non EX, but it can be Tool Scrapped. I really don't like using any ACE SPEC other than Computer Search and Scramble Switch. Those are the top ACE SPECS. What's better than being able to search your deck for any ONE card being able to not only switch out your active Pokémon but to also swap as many of those energies as you like to the new active Pokémon, like a BOSS?

The only deck I could really see this played in, are Darkrai Decks, or even with Gothitelle. You can so totally hook up a Gothitelle with this card and place it in your active position. Your opponent WON'T be able to Tool Scrap it, because Gothitelle blocks your opponent from using item cards. But then that makes you have to take up an extra spot with Keldeo EX with a Float Stone in order to get your Gothitelle out of the active position. 1 extra spot that can be occupied with a Shelmet (that becomes an Accelgor later) or a Mew EX. There's no ACE SPEC that I'd rather use over Computer Search or Scramble Switch. Those are the 2 BEST ACE SPECS ever!

I'm sorry but I can't rate this ACE SPEC very high, because I'd never use it. 3/10.

 

[LunarWolf21]

I've got to say, this is my favorite card in the game right now. In an evenly matched game, denying that extra Prize will win the game. The combo potential with Sableye and Recycle is also amazing. Can combo with Cofagrigus too if you use it.

There are ways to bait out that single Tool Scrapper, and you can also play a late game N or a Ghetsis just in case. If you're playing Togekiss then you don't have to worry about this.

The only catch is if you play this card, you can't use any other ACE-SPECs, and there's some very good ones. But Life Dew is very good even taking that into account, and is perfect if you have a way of reusing it.

9/10

Unlimited: 6/10 (there's Castaway to search it, and Good Rod, Junk Arm, and Item Finder to reuse it near indefinitely here)

 

[Stealth]

Absolutely unplayable. It's one of the worst topdecks when you're behind on the board, unlike Computer Search and Dowsing Machine (with a Supporter in the 'yard). Let's say you're not horribly behind or even ahead on the board and you equip this. One of the following things can happen:

1) The opponent thinks he absolutely has to get rid of the equipped target, which happens to be in the Active spot.

This is not going to happen in most situations. I can't think of a single target in a single deck that would want this effect. If you want to protect something, you should probably not put it in the Active spot. Saying it's worth 1 less prize is not very protective. Yes, it's going to get Catcher'd, that's just what happens in the format. If the card is worth Catchering, then you probably care so much about it that the single prize difference will not win you the game.

2) Our opponent trades his Tool Scrapper for your ACE SPEC.

Not many decks need to run Tool Scrapper anymore, because Garbodor is such a garbage deck, but the decks that do will make this a very unfavourable trade for you.

3) Your opponent had a better setup because he used a useful ACE SPEC in his deck and can afford to ignore the equipped Pokemon.

I think this is one of the more likely scenarios. Most decks can just use their Catchers or bench sniping attacks to KO things for an efficient 6 prizes, regardless of what this thing is equipped to. Also it's rare for a single Pokemon to be more threatening than all the others. Why would you only play 1 of it then?

4) The extra prize wouldn't matter and the equipped Pokemon is going to get smashed regardless.

Not all matches are pure EX mirrors. You'll often end up having to take a '7th prize' anyway . Some decks can easily set up this scenario. Let's say you're facing a Darkrai deck. When you KO their Sableye, they can place only Darkrai EXes on the field so you have no choice other than smashing through 3 of them. Voila, they have successfully created the card Life Dew without putting it in their deck.

Rating: 1/10, I'd like to think of a scenario where I want this card in my deck but I can't. All ACE SPECs will get replaced by G-Booster next format though, so it's not a big deal.

 

[pokedan24]

6/10

I'm in the middle with this card. It's a neat effect and can deny an opponent victory at a crucial moment. It can also be very annoying with sableye, but unfortunately, it has it's flaws.

-It slows down their victory by prize cards, but you can just as easily die by not having a benched pokemon to replace your KOed active. This happened to me when I tried the sableye combo. It did save me in one match, but other matches, I would lose before they would even take all their prizes.

-Tool Scrapper = wasted ace spec. They can also catcher around it. This is a common flaw with any ace spec tool, especially one that don't net you an advantage until your opponent takes an action.

-But the big thing this has going against it is that it's an ACE spec. You can only put one in your deck so you can't rely on it to benefit your strategy. This isn't a problem with cards like computer search because it's effect is something that any deck can benefit from (consistency). But since life dew is a one of a kind card, it's place in decks seems kind of... random. You would be hard pressed to find an instance when you'd play this over computer search.

Has potential and I'm sure someone will find a use for it, but as of now, there are better ACE specs to choose from.