I wonder if this means TPC also realizes they should have made
Persian a Darkness-Type Pokemon once they introduced that Type in the second generation?
Persian is too small at 80 HP, making it easy for most decks to OHKO. Being Colorless does it no real favors: to get the most out of its attacks you'll need to run some form of
Darkness Energy (or an alternative like
Rainbow Energy) and there is no true Colorless support right now. Fighting Weakness means
Donphan Prime can save on the
PlusPower, and after some sneak peaks of the next sets cards, might come back to haunt it. No Resistance feels lazy, as always, but probably wouldn't have been much help to this card. The single Energy Retreat is technically good but I have to repeat myself from other reviews: when the HP is so bad it might as well be free.
The first attack is very flippy but can be nice... too bad
it is an attack. If it were an Ability (I know, it'd technically have been a Poke-Power due to the card's age), whether once per turn or even a "once-when-played-from-the-hand" effect, it'd be great in the case of the former and replace
Weavile (
HS: Undaunted 25/90) in the case of the latter. I know some fancy using it with
Victini (pending card release), but what is protecting either Pokemon?
Victini has just 60 HP (even the spoilers can't have that wrong) and
Pokemon Catcher does arrive in
BW: Emerging Powers. It also re-flips
all the coins of the
attack. Pity it affects nothing else: it'd be wonderful to stack all the coin based effects together. Perhaps
too wonderful.
While revising this CotD I realized I should run the numbers. When flipping three coins, there are eight possible results. One in eight of them (12.5%) is all "tails", three in eight result in one "heads" with two "tails" (37.5%), three in eight result in two "heads" with one "tails" (37.5), and finally the last results in three "heads" one in eight times again (12.5%). If your method of randomization is truly random each time you flip the likelihood of a result is equal the the percentage of possible results. That is to say each coin has the same probability of getting "heads" or "tails" each time: 50%. The coin isn't any more or less likely to get the opposite result that occurred last time. If you flip enough coins long enough, you expect the results to average out and be approximately 50% heads and 50% tails, but nothing says you can't have a string of 15 heads. What this does mean, though, is that half your results will be unfavorable enough (all or mostly "tails") that it is probably worth risking the re-flip provided by
Victini.
Moving onto the none-too-creatively named Sneaky Attack, it is also a case of cool idea, flawed execution. If you don't trigger the effect, it is 30 for
colorless::colorless
which would be fine it it were Persians
supporting attack and not its only way to do damage. I guess since
Persian is a Stage 1 it isn't as bad as I first thought: you'll usually be able to drop an Energy on a
Meowth and attack if you need to for a turn, then attach a :dark: Energy the next turn an Evolve, making is
dark::colorless
for 60. Of course this means that despite its typing, it isn't really
Double Colorless Energy compatible: odds are you wouldn't use the second attack right away unless your opponent's hand were empty, or you were going for the KO. If you absolutely had to drop a
Double Colorless Energy or two non-:dark: Energy cards you'll be annoyed that you'll have to invest another Energy to do much good later on. Of course,
Persian probably won't survive that long anyway.
It is almost ironic:
Meowth has 60 HP, which is almost right for a Basic that can Evolve once more. I'd still prefer a threshold of 70 HP for such cards, but coming up 10 short with only one card invested beats coming up 20 short for two! The attacks aren't great, and if it had a better opening draw move (and perhaps the second attack were a twice as powerful Pay Day for that Price), we might have had a good opener.
I want to like this card, I am a cat person. =^v^= Hand control decks are a horrible thing, though hand disruption can make the game more fun and challenging (but not frustrating). They are on opposite sides of the same, thin line and it is easily crossed. If you did design a hand disruption deck, you're in for a hard fight: you're using the attack on a Stage 1 Pokemon for disruption, not damage. Say you manage to actually obliterate my hand on your second turn between card's like
Judge,
Weavile, and
Persian... now what? If I can get a single solid beatstick out I probably won't turn the entire game around, but I will rack up a KO or two and buy myself enough time to restore my hand. If we still had
Team Galactic's Mars, strange as that may sound, I might be more keen on the idea: once you've decimated your opponent's hand, drawing two while randomly discarding one would keep your opponent on the ropes. Of course
Team Galactic's Wager would be ideal, if you're any good at Rock-Paper-Scissors. We do have
Team Rocket's Trickery, but the way it is worded your opponent chooses the card to discard. The pecking order is "Your Choice > Random Discard > Opponent's Choice" from either player's point of view: the first is the most powerful, the last is the least effective. If you have managed to keep your opponent's hand down to one card, then of course
Team Rocket's Trickery and
Team Galactic's Mars are equally good. I suppose if your opponent has two equally useful cards, and the usefulness is "okay" at best, again you're fine. If your opponent has a draw card to replenish their hand and a Basic Energy or random unneeded Pokemon, guess what's going to be discarded with
Team Rocket's Trickery.
In Unlimited you have access to many better options, even if you want to try something unusual. Limited can be fun for this card: the HP becomes acceptable, the damage good, and hand disruption... well that is still iffy. You might luck out, get at least one "heads" and take down their only Stage 2 they were finally about to play. The thing is, Limited play in my experience tends to have players with low or no hands or huge hands, all depending on how useful of cards are being drawn.
Ratings
Unlimited: 1/10
Modified: 4/10
Limited: 6.5/10
Summary
I consider this close but no cigar: you're taking way to big a risk you can quickly Evolve and hit enough heads to cripple your opponent's offense, because if you don't the odds are good they'll just turn around and crush you with their own attacks.
