Looker's Investigation a new Staple

[Everwind]

During the pre-release I snagged this supporter Looker's Investigation. This card allows you to look at your opponent's hand and chose on whether you want to shuffle your opponen'ts or you hand and draw 5 cards.

This card was incredibly useful. Just knowing what was in my opponent's hand was great, but the new hands helped me get rid of the non-useful cards I was holding. I immediately thought how great this would be in a Gengar deck

One of my first order's of buisness will be to get at least 4 of these. 5 cards for 1 is a great deal and knowledge of your opponen't hand.

 

[ryanvergel]

Yeah, it's good in Gengar.

That's about it though. Looking at the opponent's hand is useful. Shuffling their hand to have them redraw FIVE is not. You getting a new hand of five is pretty good, especially for current draw cards, but I still value Cynthia as better. A timely CYnthia is vastly superior to a timely Handsome.

 

[WinkWinkNudgeNudge]

Lumineon likes looker too.

 

[Regis_Neo]

Yeah, it's good in Gengar.

That's about it though. Looking at the opponent's hand is useful. Shuffling their hand to have them redraw FIVE is not. You getting a new hand of five is pretty good, especially for current draw cards, but I still value Cynthia as better. A timely CYnthia is vastly superior to a timely Handsome.

How is making your opponent shuffle and redraw 5 not good? I mean, this to me is Rocket's Admin or TG Wager on steroids; there's no negative effect on you (you having to reshuffle as well), forces disruption of their hand (especially if they have a good one), etc.

Other than that, still a great card. I plan on playing a few if I can.

 

[machampX]

i do not like looker at all
its just a really good card at prereleases lol
this card will never go competive with many decks but machamp and lumineon
soo
thats why

 

[Ignatious]

The card won't fit into many speed decks, if any. That much I can say for sure, however I'd have to test in in other decks to see exactly how effective the card is in terms of disruption.

 

[ryanvergel]

How is making your opponent shuffle and redraw 5 not good? I mean, this to me is Rocket's Admin or TG Wager on steroids; there's no negative effect on you (you having to reshuffle as well), forces disruption of their hand (especially if they have a good one), etc.

Other than that, still a great card. I plan on playing a few if I can.

Um, giving them a hand of 5 is actually usually beneficial. 5 is a high number. I'll take a new hand of five quite often, and it is a lot less crippling than a hand of 3 (of course) or even a giratina hand of four. 5 is just a lot and usually isn't even disruptive. Sure, you get rid of the claydol, but with a hand of 5 they can probably get it back haha.

 

[octillery49]

It has it's uses. The problem is just like with Wager, in this format, there are just too many ways to jump back.

You shuffle away my Kingdra I'll probably draw into a Bebe's or Roseanne's and either get another Kingdra or grab an Uxie and draw into it.

It does combo with Gengar though.

 

[Charizardian]

When I first saw this card I thought it was good, but the thing is you'd never actually play it unless you yourself have a bad hand, though I do kinda prefer it's automatic 5 card draw than Cynthia's 4 card draw an occasionaly 8 card draw.

 

[Regis_Neo]

Um, giving them a hand of 5 is actually usually beneficial. 5 is a high number. I'll take a new hand of five quite often, and it is a lot less crippling than a hand of 3 (of course) or even a giratina hand of four. 5 is just a lot and usually isn't even disruptive. Sure, you get rid of the claydol, but with a hand of 5 they can probably get it back haha.

Well, yes 5 is a rather high number, but it's still the disruption that counts; I mean, would you rather take your chance with an opponent who's holding 2 Rare Candies and the corresponding evolutions in their hand (or means to get them), or force them to shuffle and take a chance that they won't get them again? Along these lines, so long as your opponent has over 5 cards in their hand, you are forcing their hand down in size (unless they do have Claydol out, in which case I would agree it' be pointless as it'd help them). I mean, it's not the greatest form out there, but another main thing is that there is no drawback on you, letting you keep your hand just fine (or shuffle it if you don't like yours). And of course, pure speculation here, but if Claydol gets rotated next format, this card gets even better since Uxie then becomes the primary draw Pokemon, and it's a one-shot deal most of the time.

 

[Articjedi]

And if you have a great hand and them a bad one, which do you pick?

 

[Ariadosman]

How is making your opponent shuffle and redraw 5 not good? I mean, this to me is Rocket's Admin or TG Wager on steroids; there's no negative effect on you (you having to reshuffle as well), forces disruption of their hand (especially if they have a good one), etc.

Other than that, still a great card. I plan on playing a few if I can.

Thing is that TGW and Rocket's Admin could actually put your opponent in a bad situation. What can Handsomes do? Give them 5 cards. That is not in the LEAST disruptive. It is a nice card in Gengar, though. But not as helpful as people might think - remember you DID see your opponent's hand last turn if you Poltergeist'd.

5 cards is just too many - it's that simple.

 

[Chairman Kaga]

Thing is that TGW and Rocket's Admin could actually put your opponent in a bad situation. What can Handsomes do? Give them 5 cards. That is not in the LEAST disruptive. It is a nice card in Gengar, though. But not as helpful as people might think - remember you DID see your opponent's hand last turn if you Poltergeist'd.

5 cards is just too many - it's that simple.

And half the time, Wager will give your opponent 6. Wager and Admin also force you to shuffle your own hand -- disrupting your opponent when you know his hand is good isn't always worth disrupting yourself.

Looker reveals your opponent's hand and then allows you to make a very strategic choice -- either force him to redraw, or redraw yourself and proceed while now knowing your opponent's hand. Making your opponent shuffle is huge if that key card is already in their hand. Even if they redraw some supporter to get to it, you've forced them to burn their supporter on that next turn, which wasn't necessarily their plan. It's disruptive, plain and simple.

I really don't see the negatives you seem to be hunting for.

 

[vanderbilt_grad]

How many times have folks lost the wager and gotten exactly what they needed to win? It's not just the number of cards you get that matters, but what you draw as well. Yes drawing 5 increases the odds of a good draw for them, but that's better than leaving them with a sure thing.

Things become more iffy if you play Looker while you have a good hand and they have a bad or small one, but then again you shouldn't really play Looker if you can't take the option of refreshing your own hand.

I don't really get the Rocket's Admin conversation here. That card is gone. Yes it might have been better, but a LOT of past trainers were better. We have what we have.

 

[ryanvergel]

And half the time, Wager will give your opponent 6. Wager and Admin also force you to shuffle your own hand -- disrupting your opponent when you know his hand is good isn't always worth disrupting yourself.

Looker reveals your opponent's hand and then allows you to make a very strategic choice -- either force him to redraw, or redraw yourself and proceed while now knowing your opponent's hand. Making your opponent shuffle is huge if that key card is already in their hand. Even if they redraw some supporter to get to it, you've forced them to burn their supporter on that next turn, which wasn't necessarily their plan. It's disruptive, plain and simple.

I really don't see the negatives you seem to be hunting for.

You forced them to burn a supporter as you yourself have burned your supporter use on Looker. Nullifying the effect.

5 cards is too many.

Nothing we have will ever compare to Admin's disruptive ability. Wager is still more disruptive than this card. At least there's a fifty percent option of giving them 3 cards (which will actually hurt if you're power locking- unlike 5) or to give them 6 is barely worse than giving them 5.


Negatives:
1. Only hurts opponent when they have a god hand. Any other time it probably doesn't really affect it or it improves it.
2. The redraw of 5 for yourself isn't as good as Cynthia's for 8, or guaranteed 4 no matter what.
3. Giving your opponent a new hand of 5 is only slightly disruptive. If you plan to power lock, giving a new hand of 5 is often enough for them to bypass the lock.


I'll almost always want to play Cynthia in a deck over Looker. There are a few decks that really benefit from him, though.

Going off of Chin's comment:
If you have a bad hand and they have a god hand, who do you give the redraw?

So you enter gambling situations when your opponent and your hand ratings are severely different, which happens often. You also can't get the benefit of double redraw, like if you have claydol out and also want to disrupt. Wager is so good for this, because if you lose you still get to draw a virtually new hand of 8-9 easily. And worst case the opponent gets a new six, but you still got a lot of new cards to see.

There are a lot of times when Looker will be really bad.

 

[Ra2xse]

I'd like Looker. Even if you doesn't want to suffle your opponent's hand, at least you know what's coming before making decicions. It's like Mew ex HP power + nice suffle draw of 5 and even gives you oppotunity to suffle the PP on opponent's deck in the critical point and give you some chance that he won't draw it back.

 

[Ariadosman]

And half the time, Wager will give your opponent 6. Wager and Admin also force you to shuffle your own hand -- disrupting your opponent when you know his hand is good isn't always worth disrupting yourself.

Looker reveals your opponent's hand and then allows you to make a very strategic choice -- either force him to redraw, or redraw yourself and proceed while now knowing your opponent's hand. Making your opponent shuffle is huge if that key card is already in their hand. Even if they redraw some supporter to get to it, you've forced them to burn their supporter on that next turn, which wasn't necessarily their plan. It's disruptive, plain and simple.

I really don't see the negatives you seem to be hunting for.

But Looker is NEVER disruptive, is my point. Wager is disruptive half the time. I guess shuffling a key card away is nice, but Wager/Admin will always do that, even if you don't know what happened.

 

[Regis_Neo]

But Looker is NEVER disruptive, is my point. Wager is disruptive half the time. I guess shuffling a key card away is nice, but Wager/Admin will always do that, even if you don't know what happened.

But once again, you're all missing the point of Looker's other benefit: IT DOES'NT AFFECT YOUR HAND! Unlike Wager and Admin, you aren't having to put up your hand as collateral to affect their hand. This in itself I think is big, as I can't count the number of times I wouldn't mind laying down a Wager, yet didn't want to give up my current hand because I had cards in it needed down the next turn.

 

[octillery49]

I could see this card working well in decks that mess up Claydol. For example Amphytric.

 

[Scipio]

Oh yes, I play Wager, having a not so hot hand. My opponent loses the wager but suddenly has a god hand regardless with only 3 cards, while his previous 6 card hand was junk. Happened to me just once too often.
That's the whole thing with Looker. Just check, and then decide on what to do. Its pretty simple. Usually though, you will use it for your own refreshment.