Computer Search is the best Ace Spec card we have right now. Universal search is a poweful, powerful thing, and yet I question how long this will remain the best Ace Spec card. Those that have paid attention to me know I am fairly hard on
Gold Potion, but it has shown more promise than I anticipated.
The thing to remember is that when your deck can't spam
Computer Search, it is a great benefit but not game breaking. Those who played with the original, non-Ace Spec
Computer Search likely have a better appreciation for this. Having a single pseudo-wild card is better than having none, but it isn't always the best choice.
The best example of this I have is an interesting
Excadrill (
BW: Dark Explorers 56/108) deck; if you had a deck that functioned similar to this one (but hopefully a bit stronger, though my own limited testing is encouraging) where you're able to reclaim any one card while attacking with something that is a hard OHKO but needs more than one Energy (e.g.
Max Potion isn't a suitable alternative) then
Gold Potion is pretty snazzy.
Computer Search is tempting but eats up so much of your hand in such situations it can backfire easily.
Pretty narrow example of with what we have for an Ace Spec that is better than
Computer Search, but every set we'll get more and more, so I assume that at the very least
Computer Search will see its "margin of superiority" diminish each set. We saw this happen with
Mewtwo EX; still one of, if not the best Pokemon-EX (and perhaps cards released this year), it isn't as dominant as it once was because we simply keep getting more and more Pokemon-EX that are nearly as good.
I am eagerly anticipating
Scramble Search myself. In short it is an Ace Spec Item with the effect lets of moving all the Energy from your Active Pokemon to one of your Benched Pokemon (your choice), then promoting that Pokemon to be your new Active. Unless
Max Potion usage almost totally falls off, it seems like a power play for almost any deck. A single universal search card improves your deck's consistency, but only by so much; still
Computer Search is the top pick right now and will remain amongst them for the forseeable future.
Computer Search receives a 10/10 for Modified play because it is a powerful effect and for now, there are no better Ace Spec cards (or 60 must play non-Ace Spec cards) to bump it from deck lists. In Unlimited, there actually are more than 60 "must play" cards, so its score drops to 9/10; you'll probably use it, but there might be something more important and you have
Item Finder, for example, to spam another Ace Spec card (more of an issue later, I think). For Limited play, it gets an 10/10*, where the asterisk calls attention that in the unlikely event you pull both
Computer Search and
Gold Potion, the latter might be the better choice.
then again it was a listing fail because I accidentally had it set to Canada for some reason.