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'Draw 2 Cards' - From Bill to Uxie!
Name: Draw 2 Cards - From Bill to Uxie!
Article By: PKMN Trainer Andrew
Format: Majestic Dawn - Triumphant
Date: February 12th, 2011
It's a really straight forward concept that started way back with Bill in the original base set of Pokémon. The more cards you can draw from your deck each turn means the more cards you are capable of playing during that turn. This increases the speed of your deck and allows you to reach your victory condition a lot faster than your opponent can. As fundamental and basic as this may sound, with all the various techs and Pokémon out there today, it is often times something that can be forgotten or overlooked in the deck making process. In this article, I'll take some time to look over the history of the draw card, how it helped in speed decks, and go over the draw cards you could play today!
The history of the draw card
Today's Bill shares very little in common with the original Bill that came out years ago. Because Bill is now a Supporter, you can no longer play multiple copies of that card each turn. Back in the day when Base Set ruled, you could play four Bill cards in a row, allowing you to grab onto eight cards at once if you had all four Bill cards in your hand. By the end of your turn, in addition to the card you draw at the start of the turn, you already had nine extra cards in your hand. These kinds of scenarios made it very likely that the cards needed to pull off a victory would all be in your hand - and there were still other draw cards that you could use in combination with Bill! After you got done using what you needed from your hand, you could play a Professor Oak card, discard what was left of your hand, and then draw seven new cards giving you even more to reach for. Talk about a broken system!
Of course it didn't end there. There were still other cards you could play in combination with Bill. Pokedex was one of them. The text on the Pokedex card reads as follows: 'Look at the top five cards of your deck. Rearrange them as you like.' So imagine, you're about to play a Bill card, but you want to make sure your draw is what you need and not garbage. You play Pokedex, put the cards you want up front, and then play Bill. So not only could you play as many Bill cards as you'd like a turn, but in the chance you were only able to play one that turn, you could pretty much guarantee that you draw cards you needed with Pokedex.
Between Base Set and Neo Genesis, there weren't too many useful cards printed that let you draw more cards. At least, none that could rival those that came before. This left Bill in most decks despite new sets and expansions. Gambler was kind of like Professor Oak on a coin flip. If heads you shuffled your hand into your deck and then got eight cards. If tails, you only got one. Most players opted to use Oak instead; very rarely did an extra card constitute the risk or being stuck with only one card in your hand. If you did need that extra card, odds were you had Bill in your hand to draw them freely without the risk. Erika came out with the release of 'Gym Heroes,' allowing both players to draw three cards. Erika was similar to Cheerleaders Cheer today, only in Trainer form since Supporters didn't exist then. Giving your opponent three cards as well as yourself isn't a good strategy today and it certainly wasn't a good one then. Why should I risk giving my opponent something they could use against me? Bill was still a much safer and better choice for one less card.
This isn't to say all cards assisting in draw following Base Set were bad. During Gym Heroes, 'Secret Mission' and 'Blaine's Last Resort' were printed. Secret Mission allowed you to look at your opponents hand and then discard as many cards from your own hand as you'd like. Afterwards, you would draw that many cards from your deck into your hand. This allowed you to see what your opponent could play, get rid of cards from your hand that weren't useful at the moment, and then draw new cards. Blaine's Last Resort was a risky card that required you to show your hand to your opponent. In return, you were able to draw five cards from your deck. This might have worked well in hands that only consisted of only one or two cards at the moment. The setbacks were you couldn't use this card if it was the only card in your hand and now your opponent knew what you might play next turn.
When Pokémon Gold and Silver came out, a new set of cards came with it. Those cards included the original Cleffa. Today's Cleffa and the old Cleffa may look similar at first glance, but the original has it beat. Cleffa's attack, 'Eeeeeeek' (correct number of e's and everything), lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and then draw 7 new cards. That’s right; it was Professor Oak in Pokémon form! Because it was a Pokémon, there was the drawback that it could be attacked and knocked out, giving you opponent a prize. With only 30 HP, that was a dangerous possibility, but Cleffa had one thing going for it. Back in the day, baby Pokémon were protected by a special Pokémon Power that made your opponent flip a coin before they attacked. If they got tails, their turn ended without a single attack. Today, after baby Pokémon attack, they are usually put under a sleep condition. As long as they're asleep, they can't be attacked. However, this means that you need to successfully flip tails at the end of the turn it attacks and then flip heads again next turn to wake it up. Additionally, even though the baby Pokémon can't be attacked while asleep, there's nothing stopping someone from sniping your bench with a Garchomp C, Honchkrow G, Crobat Prime, etc. Back then, only one coin flip was required, giving you better odds for success. Not only did it stop attacks on the baby Pokémon, but your opponent had to end their turn without an attack at all.
There were also a bunch of new Trainers as well. Professor Elm was the exact same thing as Professor Oak, a card that let you shuffle your hand and then draw seven new cards. Mary was a downgraded Bill, allowing you to draw two cards at the cost of shuffling two other cards into your deck. Bill's Transporter let you flip a coin. If heads, you got to draw four cards from your deck. It wasn't a bad card, but there was some risk in playing it that the coin flips would fail. Pokedex also returned in the form of 'New Pokedex,' allowing you to rearrange the first five cards of your deck in any way you'd like.
These cards set a standard for years to come. Since then, every new format and set to be released would include a Pokémon, Trainer, and Supporter cards that assisted in draw power. One card that saw a lot of use was the Delcatty from EX Ruby Sapphire and EX Power Keepers. Its Poke-Power, 'Energy Draw,' let you discard one Energy card from your hand in order to draw three cards from you deck. This basically allowed players to go through their decks quickly as long as they had Energy in their hands. Even though the card has long since been rotated out, players recently had a chance to use that old Poke-Power under slightly different conditions. Delcatty's Poke-Power recently was replicated in the HeartGold - SoulSilver Ninetales, a Pokémon that works great in modern fire decks. I'll get to that later in the article.
Most of the cards I mentioned at one point found themselves as critical pieces in very important decks. The old Blastoise from Base Set and Base Set 2 was a great card and a lot of decks were based around it. What made it so great was its 'Rain Dance' Poke-Power, which allowed you to attach as many Water Energy as you'd like during that turn to as many water Pokémon as you'd like. Just imagine your opening hand for a game involving that deck. You have one or two Squirtles, there's Pokémon Breeder, Blastoise is present; all you need are more Water Energy. Play a few Bill cards, maybe a Professor Oak if you needed a better hand, and in one or two turns, your hand would be full of Energy you needed to use Blastoise. Then use the Poke-Power 'Rain Dance,' attach them all, and use Hydro Pump to deliver early knock outs and high damage.
Draw power still holds just as much importance today as it did back then. It can come in the strangest forms as well – Team Galactic’s Wager from 'Mysterious Treasures' forced you to play ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ to draw cards. The winner drew six cards, the loser only got three! (I was never any good at that game…) Next, I'll go over what kinds of draw cards can be added to increase the speed of your current deck.
Tech Pokémon
While there isn't as much draw power in our current format when compared to the base set, there are a few cards worth talking about that will help speed up your game. The first card I'm going to talk about is Uxie from 'Legends Awakened.' This card is one of the most popular and useful cards in our format since it can work in just about any deck. Uxie’s Poke-Power ‘Set up’ can be used to draw cards until you have seven in your hand. Each game, you start with seven cards. This becomes eight after you draw your first card. However, after playing Pokémon, Trainers, Supporters, and Energy for the turn, you generally have fewer cards in your hand and remain consistent at that number of cards for most of the game. Uxie allows you refill your hand to seven cards every time you play it to the bench and use 'Set Up.' This works great in combination with Seeker and Super Scoop Up, which allow you to pick up Uxie and play it to your bench again for another full hand.
Adding additional support to Uxie is it’s leveled up form, Uxie Level X. Uxie Level X has a Poke-Power called 'Trade Off,' which allows you to look at the top two cards of your deck. You pick your favorite, put it in your hand, and then put the other card at the bottom of your deck. This instantly promises your a free card to draw each turn if you so choose. Its attack is pretty good too. For two Energy or a Double Colorless, you can use Zen Blade. This attack does sixty damage and then you can’t use the same attack next turn. This can be used to donk by winning on the first turn or to help knock out Pokémon with psychic weakness such as Machamp. While the price of a normal Uxie isn't too bad, Uxie Level X has become one of the most expensive cards in our format because of its draw ability and Machamp-stopping power, so don't feel too bad if you can't afford one - a lot of people can't. Remember; there are always multiple ways around a single problem, you just need to be creative.
Uxie doesn’t work in all decks. There are a few exceptions – namely, fire decks with Charizard. The one I have in mind is a deck that revolves around Arceus’s Charizard. Charizard’s ‘Fire Formation’ Poke-Body allows you to do ten extra damage for every fire Pokémon you have in play. If you played Uxie to your bench, you could end up hurting his ability to deal more damage. To make up for this is Ninetales from ‘HeartGold – SoulSilver.’ What makes Ninetales so unique is its ability to use a Poke-Power called ‘Roast Reveal.’ I had mentioned this card earlier when talking about Delcatty. During your turn, you can discard Fire Energy from your hand in order to draw three cards. This comes with some positives and negatives when compared to Uxie. The positive is that you can use Roast Reveal as often as you’d like to draw three cards while Uxie needs to be played from your hand. The negative is that you’re discarding Fire Energy – the more you use it, the more Fire Energy you need to discard. A couple of cards that can help make up for this are Typhlosion Prime and Fisherman. Typhlosion’s Poke-Power ‘Afterburner’ lets you attach Fire Energy from your discard pile directly to one of your Pokémon. Afterwards, you place one damage counter on Typhlosion. This can actually make discarding Fire Energy a good thing, as you can essentially attach two Energy cards per turn. Fisherman lets you recover up to four Energy from your discard pile and put them into your hand. While it works in recovering Energy, I don't recommend it over Typhlosion Prime. Its an option, but not the best one.
Another interesting tech Pokémon to play that might help a bit in draw is Noctowl from HeartGold - SoulSilver. I recommend two Uxie's over this card in just about any deck since you'll need to run a Hoot-Hoot with it, but its Poke-Power 'Night Sight' is worth mentioning. Its basically a free draw every turn in addition to your first draw. This lets you stream through a deck a little faster then normal and may help when a card like Uxie isn't available to you. It's also worth remembering since in a few months Uxie will be rotated out of our format along with a lot of other key cards. While we don't know entirely what the next format will hold, so its worth remembering that Noctowl will double your draw and allow you to maintain some speed going into the new format.
Techs to stay away from
Time for the Pokémon I would not play to help in draw power. Keep in mind that his is all opinionated and situated around current competitive play. If you enjoy playing these cards or find a way to make them work, then go ahead and keep playing them :smile:.
One draw card I would avoid using is Plusle. The cards Minun and Plusle from 'Unleashed' were made to work together and to their credit, it’s a pretty interesting idea to try in an electric deck. Too bad they really aren’t that good. Plusle’s Collect is basically the same as using Bill. You draw two cards. The downside is that it’s your attack for the turn. That means you can’t do any damage to your opponents Pokémon that turn and you can’t use those cards until your next turn. To top it off, Plusle can’t take a hit and there’s nothing preventing you from taking damage next turn. With only sixty HP, a hit from most of our competitive game’s top decks will knock you out every time. If it’s your only Pokémon, you lose the game right there. At best, your opponent draws a prize card. This kind of risk just isn’t worth it for two cards. It’s an interesting idea and might be fun to try in a casual deck, but it was not built for competitive play.
The next Pokémon is the Dunsparce from 'Unleashed' once again. It suffers from the same weaknesses as Plusle. Its draw ability is an attack and it only has sixty HP – frail enough to make it a one hit knock out for some the best cards in the game. The only difference is that it does ten damage and lets you draw up until you have six cards in your hand – potentially giving you more cards then Plusle could and potentially doing nothing at all for your draw if you have six cards already. Like Plusle, Dunsparce could cost you the game if it’s your only Pokémon at the time and at best give your opponent a prize card.
It’s really sad to see that Cleffa is just a mere shadow of its former self. When I first saw that it was going to be re-printed, I got a little excited. Then I read the attack and Poke-Body and slowly became disappointed. The new ‘Eeeeeeek’ lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and then draw six cards, similar to the Neo Genesis Cleffa. The difference is, like I mentioned before, you get put to sleep. While asleep, you can’t be attacked, which is great if you flip a successful tails at the end of your turn. The downside – your bench is still open to attack and if you flip tails again, Cleffa remains asleep that turn. After using it once, it basically takes up space in the active spot. While this card may find a spot in some decks, I don’t recommend using it at all.
Supporters
There are a few Supporters that go great in helping to speed up decks through draw power. Keep in mind that these are Supporters – you can only play ONE per turn. This means you’ll need to find a balance for them with cards like Bebe’s Search, Pokémon Collector, Cyris’s Initiative, etc. The first one worth mentioning is Professor Oak’s New Theory, or 'PONT' as some people refer to it. After reading the text, something becomes very apparent. This is a near re-print of the original Professor Oak Trainer that came out in the base set. The only difference is that instead of getting seven cards, you get six. This is a useful Supporter to keep in most decks since it lets you draw into a new hand. A bad first hand could potentially cripple your game. Professor Oak’s New Theory could solve that problem by giving you a second chance at a better hand. It also helps in simply increasing hand size. After going a few rounds and playing out your hand, you could play Professor Oak’s New Theory and start over with new tools and resources.
Professor Oak has another interesting card that could help with draw power. This one is called ‘Professor Oak’s Visit’ from the Arceus set. It’s really straight forward, it lets you draw three cards then put a card from your hand to the bottom of your deck. While it isn’t the greatest Supporter card, it is, in my opinion, one of the best Supporters that lets you freely draw cards with little to no cost, surpassing the current Bill, Emcee’s Chatter, Cheerleader’s Cheer, etc. It’s worth considering, but not the best.
Engineer’s Adjustments is another card that deserves attention. By discarding a single Energy card, you can go ahead and draw up to four cards from your deck. This is good as you can always find a way to get that Energy back later. While it isn’t a perfect system since you lose Energy, it lets you draw four cards each turn without too much worry about the Energy you’re losing. Engineer's Adjustments may go well with Fisherman if you find yourself needing Energy later. It may also go well with Ninetales in the 'Arceus' Charizard deck, allowing you to play Engineer's Adjustments in addition to Ninetales 'Roast Reveal,' giving you a whopping seven card draw for the turn.
‘Cynthia’s Feelings’ from Legend’s Awakened is a Professor Oak’s New Theory with some weird side effects. If you play it normally, you shuffle your hand into your deck and only get four cards. However, if you play it after a Pokémon of yours has just been knocked out; you shuffle your hand into your deck and get eight cards. This card fits in well with decks that purposely fall behind to win the game later. This includes most Spiritomb variants that use Darkness Grace to evolve Pokémon. Depending on your deck, this could be a great or bad choice of cards.
Another strange card is Judge from ‘HeartGold – SoulSilver Unleashed.’ After playing this card, both players shuffle their hands into their decks and draw only four cards. This could have a couple of uses. Like Professor Oak’s New Theory, it could potentially get rid of a bad hand you have. It could also at the same time get rid of a good hand your opponent has, making them draw into something that could be worse then what they had. Remember; you're only getting four cards instead of six like you would with Professor Oak's New Theory, so think it things through when you play Judge.
One card that tends to be overlooked a lot is Volkner's Philosophy from Rising Rivals. You get to draw cards until you have six in your hand and you have the option of discarding a card. This works great for depleted hands and for decks that intentionally discard cards to win. In short, its kind of like Uxie in Supporter form with the ability to discard cards from your hand as well.
Sage’s Training from ‘HeartGold – SoulSilver Undaunted’ is one of those cards that should be played carefully. I haven’t tested it myself, but I have heard some interesting results from those that have. You look at the top five cards from you deck, choose two, and then discard the rest. Having to discard three cards every time you use it could be a huge problem for decks that can’t recover those cards, so you should use it carefully. Gyrados users may find a place in their decks for this card since you need to discard Magikarp in order for Gyrados to work properly.
Last, but certainly not least, is Underground Expedition from 'Rising Rivals.' This really isn’t a draw card, but it does have an interesting effect that acts kind of like a draw card. You look at the bottom four cards of your deck and choose two cards you find there to put into your hand While this isn’t a draw card, it acts like it in the fact that it thins out your deck and adds more needed resources to your hand.
Supporters to be avoided
The Supporters I wouldn’t play should go without question. The current Bill and Mom’s Kindness are horrible remakes of the original Bill. It’s kind of disappointing, but then again, the game back then was so broken with the original Bill that it’s also understandable. You draw two cards, but you have to do it as your Supporter for the turn. That eliminates the ability to use Bebe’s Search, Pokémon Collector, or other vital Supporter that turn. The effect under the Supporter rule just isn’t worth it anymore with much better ways to draw cards.
Emcee’s Chatter is basically the same thing as Bill with a coin’s flip determining if you get a third card. With Professor Oak's Visit around, there's no need flipping a coin to see if you can draw three cards. Cheerleader’s Cheer gives you three automatically, but your opponent also gets three cards on your Supporter. Any card that helps my opponent is just something that should be avoided all together in competitive and tournament play. Team Rocket’s Trickery is the same thing as Bill only it forces your opponent to discard a card. While it isn’t as bad as the previously mentioned cards, it still isn't a great card and might even play into your opponents favor if they need to discard cards for their deck to work. Team Rocket's Trickery might find its way into some disruption decks, but other then that, it should be avoided in favor of stronger draw.
In Conclusion
While Pokémon has evolved over time, the fundamentals of the game have remained constant. In order to the win the game, you will always need a consistent draw. A lot of the cards I talked about in this article might be getting rotated soon, so only time will tell what kind of draw cards we will be seeing in competitive play in the future. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and maybe took something away from it. Good luck in future tournaments and league play!
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