Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Island Hermit...Why aren't you playing it?

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Muk Man

Muk Man

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So after 4 cities ive noticed not many people are playing this card....WHY NOT!!!! How could you not love this card

Strait Draw
Flip 2 prizes
and will work for any deck
YOU GET TO SEE YOUR PRIZES!!!!

Im not saying to run 4 in every deck, but 2 will let you flip 4 prizes and draw 4 cards. so you opponent gets to see your prizes, so what!!!!if you're getting ready to draw a prize its okay remember you play it on your turn.....


Why Isn't anyone playing it?
 
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Personally, I don't like the card that much because:

1). You're opponent seeing your prizes helps them know what is in your deck, and what is in your hand if you take them.

2). Field Worker, etc. get you one more card, which is a difference.

There's no reason to not use the card though but since so many people run the Holon Engine, their draw is already covered. But I do agree with you. Running two would be helpful for more draw and seeing your prizes so you know what you are getting, but then again, so does your opponent. THe only getting two cards and your opponent seeing your prize cards is what really turns people away from it.
 
Because it's inferior to almost any other draw in the format. Unless you run a star pokemon that's crucial to your success, you really don't need to know which prizes are which. Most players run at least 2 of every card to ensure they can function with something prized.

2<3+
 
well if you are running bills or tv reporter...lets do the math

bills shuffle 1 then draw 3....-1+3=2 cards
TV reporter draw 3 discard 1...3-1=2 cards
holon adventurer discard 1 draw 3(4) -1+3(4)=2(3) cards
request... draw 1 then if no stage 2 draw 2 more...


And with oak/copycat unless you are going to end up with 3 more cards in your hand than you started with, then you are still averaging 2 cards per draw


The fact is you still average 2 cards for every strait draw trainer in the format.....but i guess with everyone running the holon engine... well i run 2 hermits in all my decks, and i LOVE THEM!

for the record, if you run the holon engine in a non delta deck...you're only averaging +2 cards with adventurer. so bills and hermit would be better because you dont lose the card from the game, just your hand...
 
I'd rather trash a singularly unneeded card than keep it in my hand if it means I get to draw an extra card or two by discarding/shuffling it..
 
yeah but what happens most the time is you discard cards you need later. the same whay people use to do stevens. EVERYONE who runs the holon engine in one game or another has had to spend 2-3 minutes trying to decide what card to discard....
keep the candy discard the energy?
discard the candy keep the basic...
discard the supporter and hope to get another one by next turn...
island hermit flip two draw two and keep it moving, and if you play it right before you are about to take a prize, it is the best card in the format
 
imo considering that most drawing cards are a net +2 anyway, Island Hermit's drawing 2 really isn't that bad. Also, unlike Adventurer, it can be used with no hand. Being able to reveal two prizes is pretty useful in practice. Even with the opponent seeing them, it's VERY helpful a lot of the time. Yall should try playing a couple in decks (2 is more than sufficient) before dismissing the card outright.

Even without an OMG STAR! or some such other tech, it's real nice to see prizes. I've had (ridiculous!) games where the prize situation almost made the game hopeless (one time while I was playing Metanite, all four of my Metal Energy were prized against a Steelix ex deck. I managed to KO one, somehow, but the two prizes I drew... weren't the Metal Energy. Autoloss). Island Hermit is VERY helpful in practice.
 
Then again, in other situations, one would be upset at the fact that he only gets to draw two cards, when he needs all the cards he can get.
 
It really depends on the deck you're playing, but revealing two prize cards can be gamebreaking. Drawing 1 more card probably won't be quite so gamebreaking. Also nice that you don't have to dump something out of your hand to play the Hermit.

It's still a net +2. The only straight drawing cards that beat that in the current Modified format are

Adventurer if you discard a Delta pokemon
Cozmo's on a Heads flip
Mary's Request if you have no stage 2s

In theory Cozmo and Mary's are the two best straight draw cards we have, followed closely by the incredibly ubiquitous TV Reporter (discarding after drawing > discarding before drawing). Cozmo being either a net +2 (equal to the standard draw 3, drop 1 we have many of at all times) or a net +3 with no discard.... but flipping coins sucks, and with no other effect than +2 on tails it isn't worth the 50% chance of that happening. Island Hermit is about the same but you get to see the future and adjust your prize drawing accordingly.

Or do you never pick up a prize after an important KO and go "aw, crap, I totally didn't need that/those cards!"? I end up saying that a lot of the time.

Now, if Steven's Advice would just GET REPRINTED ALREADY then there'd be no argument here, but... well... yeah.
 
Card advantage is almost always better. You want immediate access to those cards as oppose to just getting to view your prizes, which doesn't pose any immediate advantage to you. Here comes team rocket was legal for almost two years, did you ever see anyone playing that, even in decks like BLS where certain cards were crucial?
 
it doesnt matter if the average is 2 for all draw cards, you get ACCESS to one more card than Hermint with Mary's, Reporter, Bill's etc. and its the access to thate xtra card that will help you win games, don't compare cards by what they average, if we got something like draw 4 then discard two it'd be even better as you get ACCESS to MORE cards and thats what wins you game,s getting access quick enough to all your cards so you can procceed to own the opponent.
 
Ice'Cold said:
Card advantage is almost always better. You want immediate access to those cards as oppose to just getting to view your prizes, which doesn't pose any immediate advantage to you. Here comes team rocket was legal for almost two years, did you ever see anyone playing that, even in decks like BLS where certain cards were crucial?
Click to expand...

HCTR doesn't draw ANY cards, and reveals the opponent's cards at the same time (which is a HUGE negative as you're basically giving your opponent a free HCTR at the same time).


Edit:

Pablo said:
it doesnt matter if the average is 2 for all draw cards, you get ACCESS to one more card than Hermint with Mary's, Reporter, Bill's etc. and its the access to thate xtra card that will help you win games, don't compare cards by what they average, if we got something like draw 4 then discard two it'd be even better as you get ACCESS to MORE cards and thats what wins you game,s getting access quick enough to all your cards so you can procceed to own the opponent.
Click to expand...

While Island Hermit doesn't give you *immediate* access to the prize cards it reveals, it DOES significantly improve your odds of picking up a prize worth using. Card advantage is usually the most important factor in a card game, but Prize cards, a mechanic unique to pokemon, are a little like getting free draws when you KO. Island Hermit is like partially stacking your future "free draws" on your next KO.

It improves the quality of future prize pickups. Quality, quantity, which do you prefer?
 
quantity as the more cards I hace access to it will be easier to draw prizes PLUS your deck should be built around NOT being hurt by prizes, the situations where KNOWING 2 of your prizes will be game winning are really too scarce to warrant it's use in my opinion, I would NEVER consider it in a deck over TV R, or even Bill's. But be my guest and play it, the more info I have on your deck the better for me, same goes for all Field Worker lovers :thumb:
 
Tagrineth said:
HCTR doesn't draw ANY cards, and reveals the opponent's cards at the same time (which is a HUGE negative as you're basically giving your opponent a free HCTR at the same time).


Edit:



While Island Hermit doesn't give you *immediate* access to the prize cards it reveals, it DOES significantly improve your odds of picking up a prize worth using. Card advantage is usually the most important factor in a card game, but Prize cards, a mechanic unique to pokemon, are a little like getting free draws when you KO. Island Hermit is like partially stacking your future "free draws" on your next KO.

It improves the quality of future prize pickups. Quality, quantity, which do you prefer?
Click to expand...
Quantity!
It's what wins games!

I'd rather have more cards now because I need them than to see what prize cards I *might* get.
It IS about access. TVR isn't that bad since it's often losing a bad card anyway, and H-ADV is so good because it's able to be searched for, which Hermit can't be.

They might equate to the same net draw, but adv is searchable, TVR is dumping afterward (and sometimes cleans your hand up a bit) and hermit is usually useless.

Like I said, most people run at least 2 of most cards. The chances of having those two prized and needing them reveleased is about 1%. 1% of the time I will really need to see my prizes, and a Hermit will reveal 33% of my prizes, which means there's still a good chance I won't get what I need even when it is prized (2/3 chance it won't be revealed, and a 50% chance of picking it in the unrevealed cards). The fact is that in most games having one card prized isn't killer, at least not enough to warrant the use of the card. Sure, everyone's had the games where all three dark dragonair are prized, or the 2 pidgey are prized... but those chances are slim, and picking an inferior draw to alleviate situations that rarely come up at all is bad play.

Copycat and Holon Adventurer are better plays.
 
all im saying is island hermit is not useless, it is a very useful card. games where that holon farmer is prized... or 2 nidoqueens. or say i ko'ed a 40 hp basic and the other is prized. flip 2 prizes over, if its not in one of those prizes you flipped over then you have increased your chance of getting that card you need. Id rather have an opening hand with island hermit over tv reporter as i HATE to discard anything
 
At least in my League games, by the time Island Hermit actually does get played, we've already drawn 1-2 prizes anyway, which puts it to 50% revealed. Even without that, though, revealing two of the six gives you a better chance of drawing what you need out of those four if the two revealed are meaningless.

I dunno. I've actually been, you know, playtesting Island Hermit as well as contemplating its benefits, and I've found in practice that it can make a difference, especially late game or when played during a turn which ends with a KO.

Edit: And discarding is incredibly abused right now with Holon Engines in practically everything. Most people do pair additional draw with their Transceiver/Adventurers, what's wrong with supplementing that with Island Hermit? Especially in a stage 2 deck which can't play Mary's. Or are you going to have every single supporter in your deck (save Copycat) force you to discard?
 
i guess they will discard everything in their deck. but as for me, i love everything in my deck, so my stage 2's run bills maintence and copycat as well as oaks...but that my style of play
 
Some decks use cards like Chimecho d which nullifies the discard factor if you discard a correct energy.
Or decks like Metanite discard energy and it helps them.

I can think of very few decks where the use of Hermit would be better than adventurer. Unless you're not using the Holon Engine, which few decks can say, Hermit is almost always inferior.
 
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