StormFront
New Member
9.9/10, while I question the rerelease of this card. It will force players to think more about their opponents strategy and not just SpraySprayRushLoLBrightLookFlashImpactSprayRushGameLol.
2011-08-22 EP Pokemon Catcher 095
- Thread starter waynegg
- Start date
- Status
hahahaha. i agree but also:
i got caught by some idiot card in the projects...
10/10
way over powered card. can be used in about any deck. great card. 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000/00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010
That is wrong....ill just play straight Wailord Rush w/ Defenders....if your not playing Magnezone lets see you cather that up and OHKO it.
The card is great and it will make people think twice about running high retreat cards like Emboar
10/10
dialga master
Member
I'll just bring up the wailord without defenders/energy. ;P
10/10
Bringing pokes from the bench to the active is really good. And you getting to chose is even better. And being able to run 4 plus 4 junk arms makes this a vary potent one of a kind card.
10/10
Bringing pokes from the bench to the active is really good. And you getting to chose is even better. And being able to run 4 plus 4 junk arms makes this a vary potent one of a kind card.
Shishio
New Member
Hi, my name is zekrom
DPrimalHoundoom
New Member
Wow.
Hi, I run Zekrom.
Is this the first COTD thread to get over 25 posts in one day?
This card will change the format. And my wallet.
I will run 2+ in every deck, so...
Another 10/10!
Hi, I run Zekrom.
Is this the first COTD thread to get over 25 posts in one day?
This card will change the format. And my wallet.
I will run 2+ in every deck, so...
Another 10/10!
Regis_Neo
Moderator
Finally caught up somewhat...yesterday's CotD was Pokemon Catcher from EP, or as many of us old(er) players like to think of it, the second coming of Gust of Wind (or if you're a relatively new player, think of it as a Pokemon Reversal without the need to flip). And it's pretty much just like it as well, switching out the opponent's Active for one of their Bench of your choice; this is extremely powerful as it can create favorable matchups, net easy KOs, etc etc.
Modified - 10/10 (You'd better have a good reason for not using at least a few of these, it's that powerful)
Limited - 10/10 (No reason not to run it)
Unlimited - 10/10 (Feel free to run this and GoW together for extreme madness)
Modified - 10/10 (You'd better have a good reason for not using at least a few of these, it's that powerful)
Limited - 10/10 (No reason not to run it)
Unlimited - 10/10 (Feel free to run this and GoW together for extreme madness)
Darksanctuary
New Member
and here we go again. another card that can bring forward bench'd pokemon without requiring a flip.
comparisons:
luxray gl lv x -reuse with poketurn without flip
gust of win
and now we have catcher we can junk arm if we need to.
10/10 for what it does
2/10 for how good the move was printing this card. i would give it a 1 but vileplume is still around
comparisons:
luxray gl lv x -reuse with poketurn without flip
gust of win
and now we have catcher we can junk arm if we need to.
10/10 for what it does
2/10 for how good the move was printing this card. i would give it a 1 but vileplume is still around
TheDoctor
New Member
Actually, this was a smart move, our format was horribly luck based due to Pokemon Reversal, but now everyone has a chance to win without it being decided over a coin flip.
Otaku
Active Member
Pokémon Catcher: a Trainer-Item card and is just a renamed Gust of Wind. Hard to believe but the game has been around long enough that some new players don’t actually know the Gust of Wind does: it wins games.
…
In all seriousness, Gust of Wind (whether inspired by a typo or not) was nicknamed “Gust of WIN!” by players of the pre-Modified days for a reason. The effect of Pokémon Catcher, like Gust of Wind, is simple: it forces your opponent not only to Bench their Active Pokémon, but then allows you to choose the replacement. You know, like Pokémon Reversal, except without the coin flip! This is brutal as it allows fast decks to force Active whatever a player tries to build on the Bench. The most likely target is a Basic Pokémon being prepped to Evolve the next turn, since that is usually the Pokémon with the lowest HP and but also with a significant investment going. Bench-sitters with excellent powers are next on the list because they too are usually on the puny side. This makes Pokémon Catcher an incredibly powerful card and staple in almost every deck. The only decks I can think of that legitimately have a reason to play few or no copies of it would have to be the best, fastest Lost World or Vileplume. Even then it still might be good to include at least a copy or two, especially if you get creative with the combos (like using Seeker on your only copy of Vileplume so that you can push for the win).
What does this mean for the game? The only thing I am confident in is that cards protected by Sweet Sleeping Face are going to see a significant drop in play. Pokémon Catcher basically just says “forget about it” and let’s you take the fight to something else, or even worse (or better if you’re the aggressor) bring up a different “Baby” Pokémon for an easy OHKO. Given the grumbling I’ve heard about coin flips post-Nationals, I get the impression this is more the last draw than the start of anything surprising. Expect a lot of decks to struggle now that the Bench is guaranteed not safe… well, unless you do already have Vileplume down or Gothitelle Active. The question is how will decks handle this? In the “bad old days” you just learned to drop two of whatever Basic you wanted to Evolve, and accept that one was a goner. Can a classical Haymaker strategy dominate once again, or will the lack of old, non-Supporter draw/search/recycle cards as well as the lack of Energy Removal/Super Energy Removal result in a simple deck building shift favoring more Pokémon and/or ways to recycle them?
There is a downside to the common Pokémon Catcher tactic and that can be hard to believe at first. We have a format where most cards power-up relatively fast and hit relatively hard. Compared to last format? No, things are slower and even the bigger attacks seem weaker because the average HP scores are climbing. Right now if you choose to take something out that is sitting on the Bench, you’re ignoring the current Defending Pokémon. The old nickname was very descriptive, because “Gust of Win” means that whatever is weak is often saved for the last Prize. If you just try to go on autopilot and use Pokémon Catcher to go for the easiest Prize each turn, your opponent is going to build something huge and start trading Prizes. The difference being they’ll keep taking out your attacking Pokémon while you’re focusing on stuff they’d like to keep, but can get by without. Ninetales is a good example: early game it is a high priority since it can help a Typhlosion focused deck build through extra draw power and getting Fire Energy into the discard pile. Taking out Ninetales becomes lower priority if Typhlosion and Reshiram are already in play. The extra draw power is certainly useful, but try going to extremes: if you’re not going to win the game sniping Vulpix and Ninetales, you’d better start hammering on Typhlosion instead because otherwise Reshiram will just lock and reload and for each Ninetales you drop, you’re out an attacker. Naked Stage 1 versus fully powered Zekrom? Unless Zekrom is already nearly Knocked Out, the Stage 1 is actually more expendable than the Reshiram in this (admittedly cherry picked) instance.
If your whole deck is weak offensively or defensively, Pokémon Catcher will give your opponent almost total control… but some of that is because honestly players have forgotten a lot of basic lessons, even though these lessons had to have been reinforced last format. TPC seems to be trying to bring the game back to where you couldn’t run small lines so freely. If you have something useful for your deck but not vital to it, you can still risk a 1-1, 1-0-1, etc. line. You know, something that helps but that if you can’t successfully set-up, your deck is still functional (just not optimal). If it’s vital to your strategy, you’ll just have to take a step back in time and learn to run more fleshed out lines.
I am cautiously optimistic that like PlusPower, Gust of Wind (in the form of Pokémon Catcher) really is safe to bring back to the game. As stated Pokémon Catcher is the new deck staple and you’ll definitely want a full play set. Sniping attacks will become less important now that you can just force something hiding up front, at least in Modified. In Unlimited this card can just be used instead of Gust of Wind, although should TPC come up with some good Item supporting cards, Gust of Wind might finally become obsolete! It should go without saying that this is a must-run for Limited play, where the card has all its normal uses except the less common uses become common.
I should wrap this up, but I feel I must stat a few additional things not directly related to the card. Active/Bench manipulation (or disruption, same difference here) has long been powerful. There is something of a question as to whether or not it could be too powerful; it seems like whatever card(s) has (have) this kind of effect always end up causing problems. At the same time, not having this kind of effect also causes problems: the Bench is supposed to be a relatively safe place, but not an impenetrable fortress. The cost of Bench sitters is both the resources that go into them and the knowledge that you’re taking a risk of giving up an easy Prize. Many formats have had incredibly potent sniping attacks that further confused the issue, because I have regularly encountered players who make comments about how no one ran this or that Bench manipulation card during a certain format. If the dominant deck is sniping the Bench for 80 to 100 points a turn, it often doesn’t need to worry about running Pokémon Reversal or even Warp Point.
Ratings
Unlimited: 10/10 – Well, at least right now it is just as good as Gust of Wind, so they score the same!
Modified: 10/10 – Possibly a true staple that all decks should run.
Limited: 10/10 – Definitely a staple here, if you can pull one!
Summary
Meet the new staple and pray that it just forces players to run more robust lines and unintentionally reduce donks while increasing the probability of FTKOs. That sounds like crazy talk but in all seriousness one does get used to facing this kind of threat even if one doesn’t especially enjoy it. Had it been up to me, I wouldn’t have re-introduced this into Modified, but its here so time to make the best of it, and who knows maybe that isn’t as hard as some players fear.
…
In all seriousness, Gust of Wind (whether inspired by a typo or not) was nicknamed “Gust of WIN!” by players of the pre-Modified days for a reason. The effect of Pokémon Catcher, like Gust of Wind, is simple: it forces your opponent not only to Bench their Active Pokémon, but then allows you to choose the replacement. You know, like Pokémon Reversal, except without the coin flip! This is brutal as it allows fast decks to force Active whatever a player tries to build on the Bench. The most likely target is a Basic Pokémon being prepped to Evolve the next turn, since that is usually the Pokémon with the lowest HP and but also with a significant investment going. Bench-sitters with excellent powers are next on the list because they too are usually on the puny side. This makes Pokémon Catcher an incredibly powerful card and staple in almost every deck. The only decks I can think of that legitimately have a reason to play few or no copies of it would have to be the best, fastest Lost World or Vileplume. Even then it still might be good to include at least a copy or two, especially if you get creative with the combos (like using Seeker on your only copy of Vileplume so that you can push for the win).
What does this mean for the game? The only thing I am confident in is that cards protected by Sweet Sleeping Face are going to see a significant drop in play. Pokémon Catcher basically just says “forget about it” and let’s you take the fight to something else, or even worse (or better if you’re the aggressor) bring up a different “Baby” Pokémon for an easy OHKO. Given the grumbling I’ve heard about coin flips post-Nationals, I get the impression this is more the last draw than the start of anything surprising. Expect a lot of decks to struggle now that the Bench is guaranteed not safe… well, unless you do already have Vileplume down or Gothitelle Active. The question is how will decks handle this? In the “bad old days” you just learned to drop two of whatever Basic you wanted to Evolve, and accept that one was a goner. Can a classical Haymaker strategy dominate once again, or will the lack of old, non-Supporter draw/search/recycle cards as well as the lack of Energy Removal/Super Energy Removal result in a simple deck building shift favoring more Pokémon and/or ways to recycle them?
There is a downside to the common Pokémon Catcher tactic and that can be hard to believe at first. We have a format where most cards power-up relatively fast and hit relatively hard. Compared to last format? No, things are slower and even the bigger attacks seem weaker because the average HP scores are climbing. Right now if you choose to take something out that is sitting on the Bench, you’re ignoring the current Defending Pokémon. The old nickname was very descriptive, because “Gust of Win” means that whatever is weak is often saved for the last Prize. If you just try to go on autopilot and use Pokémon Catcher to go for the easiest Prize each turn, your opponent is going to build something huge and start trading Prizes. The difference being they’ll keep taking out your attacking Pokémon while you’re focusing on stuff they’d like to keep, but can get by without. Ninetales is a good example: early game it is a high priority since it can help a Typhlosion focused deck build through extra draw power and getting Fire Energy into the discard pile. Taking out Ninetales becomes lower priority if Typhlosion and Reshiram are already in play. The extra draw power is certainly useful, but try going to extremes: if you’re not going to win the game sniping Vulpix and Ninetales, you’d better start hammering on Typhlosion instead because otherwise Reshiram will just lock and reload and for each Ninetales you drop, you’re out an attacker. Naked Stage 1 versus fully powered Zekrom? Unless Zekrom is already nearly Knocked Out, the Stage 1 is actually more expendable than the Reshiram in this (admittedly cherry picked) instance.
If your whole deck is weak offensively or defensively, Pokémon Catcher will give your opponent almost total control… but some of that is because honestly players have forgotten a lot of basic lessons, even though these lessons had to have been reinforced last format. TPC seems to be trying to bring the game back to where you couldn’t run small lines so freely. If you have something useful for your deck but not vital to it, you can still risk a 1-1, 1-0-1, etc. line. You know, something that helps but that if you can’t successfully set-up, your deck is still functional (just not optimal). If it’s vital to your strategy, you’ll just have to take a step back in time and learn to run more fleshed out lines.
I am cautiously optimistic that like PlusPower, Gust of Wind (in the form of Pokémon Catcher) really is safe to bring back to the game. As stated Pokémon Catcher is the new deck staple and you’ll definitely want a full play set. Sniping attacks will become less important now that you can just force something hiding up front, at least in Modified. In Unlimited this card can just be used instead of Gust of Wind, although should TPC come up with some good Item supporting cards, Gust of Wind might finally become obsolete! It should go without saying that this is a must-run for Limited play, where the card has all its normal uses except the less common uses become common.
I should wrap this up, but I feel I must stat a few additional things not directly related to the card. Active/Bench manipulation (or disruption, same difference here) has long been powerful. There is something of a question as to whether or not it could be too powerful; it seems like whatever card(s) has (have) this kind of effect always end up causing problems. At the same time, not having this kind of effect also causes problems: the Bench is supposed to be a relatively safe place, but not an impenetrable fortress. The cost of Bench sitters is both the resources that go into them and the knowledge that you’re taking a risk of giving up an easy Prize. Many formats have had incredibly potent sniping attacks that further confused the issue, because I have regularly encountered players who make comments about how no one ran this or that Bench manipulation card during a certain format. If the dominant deck is sniping the Bench for 80 to 100 points a turn, it often doesn’t need to worry about running Pokémon Reversal or even Warp Point.
Ratings
Unlimited: 10/10 – Well, at least right now it is just as good as Gust of Wind, so they score the same!
Modified: 10/10 – Possibly a true staple that all decks should run.
Limited: 10/10 – Definitely a staple here, if you can pull one!
Summary
Meet the new staple and pray that it just forces players to run more robust lines and unintentionally reduce donks while increasing the probability of FTKOs. That sounds like crazy talk but in all seriousness one does get used to facing this kind of threat even if one doesn’t especially enjoy it. Had it been up to me, I wouldn’t have re-introduced this into Modified, but its here so time to make the best of it, and who knows maybe that isn’t as hard as some players fear.
of course this card will receive 10/10 or 9.5/10 because of vileplume, gothitelle or a nostalgic preference for gust of wind....
Yet, I believe that effect should keep banished from the game... its way too powerful, and it ends playability... it's like, in a year or 2 we will apriciate a card with THE SAME EFFECT as energy removal, super energy removal or computer search...never mind bill as a trainer again...
decks will be encouraged (in fact, forced) to focus on speed and easy setups rather than complex but admirable strategies... this is what pokemon has been since its beginnings but it became a bit less freak since the first modified rotation appeared...last time we had to suffer from that liying SP decks with luxray... and now, again...back to basics...
I think I will play yugioh instead of pokemon, until now i enjoyed both but,,,well...pokemon catcher!??!?!?!
(karma will let "raigeki" to come back to yugioh)
Yet, I believe that effect should keep banished from the game... its way too powerful, and it ends playability... it's like, in a year or 2 we will apriciate a card with THE SAME EFFECT as energy removal, super energy removal or computer search...never mind bill as a trainer again...
decks will be encouraged (in fact, forced) to focus on speed and easy setups rather than complex but admirable strategies... this is what pokemon has been since its beginnings but it became a bit less freak since the first modified rotation appeared...last time we had to suffer from that liying SP decks with luxray... and now, again...back to basics...
I think I will play yugioh instead of pokemon, until now i enjoyed both but,,,well...pokemon catcher!??!?!?!
(karma will let "raigeki" to come back to yugioh)
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