Bigbowlr1037
New Member
Pokemon Catcher is being reprinted in Plasma Blast. #83/101 Enjoy it for a few more years. 
Pokemon Catcher
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King Piplup
Active Member
Along with Rare Candy, Ultra Ball, Energy Retrieval, Prof. Juniper and what appears to be Energy Switch.
Destiny Warrior
New Member
Source?
I mean, I believe you, I just want to see it
Also, this kinda makes me sad. Will be ever get rid of Catcher?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fkqZ7aSDgew is your source.
Vegeta ss4
Iron Chef Leader
Everyone is complaining about this and saying Catcher takes away skill. Did I want a reprint? No, I didn't want it but catcher IS needed in the format. It brings a bit of balance, cards like N and the change of Rare Candy is why the formats suck these days, NOT catcher.
I think I see a Cheren, Colress reprint maybe (very, very hard to make out those two words), and Energy Retrieval is definite. No Energy Switch, no N.
Those Cover Fossil and Plume Fossil reprints though, dannnng so sweeet.
edit: okay Cheren and Colress might be Chatot and Caitlin so I will stop trying to guess
Those Cover Fossil and Plume Fossil reprints though, dannnng so sweeet.
edit: okay Cheren and Colress might be Chatot and Caitlin so I will stop trying to guess
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Shino Bug Master
Front Page News Editor
Can't blame N, Rocket's Admin format wasn't anywhere near this bad. Even the chance to rare candy cant be blamed. Nobody wants to deal with T1 Gothitelle or Blastoise. Maybe Flygon and Empoleon would be a bit more playable as they become harder to donk, but it wouldn't suddenly open up a whole new format by any means.
I will agree though that as long as Blastoise and Emboar exist (And i'd argue Dusknoir and Mr. Mime to an extent) with our current card pool to abuse them, we need Catcher as bad for the rest of the format as it may be.
Honestly, as much as I don't like Catcher being reprinted, i'm just tired or reprints in general. So much space in the BLW block has been fanservicing its own best cards. I'm just glad we avoided the shiny Eelektrik/Durant i've been expecting since NXD...
The thing is, Catcher would have been in the format regardless. My problem is that this potentially means we are stuck with Catcher for 4-5 years rather than just 3. That's really terrible. I hate having the same cards forever and ever like we have been lately. This rotation is almost totally irrelevant; We are, essentially, losing nothing important at all. It's really, really disappointing.
rivershock
Member
I doubt we'll be "stuck" with Catcher for that long if TPCi/whoever doesn't want it to stick. (Though I think there's a good chance it will remain in the format.) The next year's format will almost definitely be XY-on, IMO.
Otaku
Active Member
Where as I detest Creatures, Inc. reinventing the wheel by releasing "same card, new name". I understand it when it owes to a shift in game design e.g. Gust of Wind is an aspect of weather and ill suited to being thought of as an "Item", so we got Pokémon Catcher.
For cards that work as is, let's let Switch remain Switch and so on and so fourth. Besides, Pokémon Catcher really isn't a problem - its the pace of the game. If we didn't have fast, hard-hitting attacks you'd be thanking your opponent for wasting a Pokémon Catcher forcing something up... that you can Bench and maybe even heal later while ignoring your current attacker.
King Piplup
Active Member
N, with the lack of usable Pokemon-based draw and the general lack of good supporters we have, is absolutely the real criminal; not Catcher.
Swordfish1989
New Member
Agree with this. I'm not a Catcher hater by any means, but it is nice to see cards come and go because it gives a breath of fresh air into game. I don't mind having Catcher in this coming format, but for ANOTHER 1-2 years? Are we running out of ideas for cards that we need to re-print stuff? If anything, reprint cards from like 10 years ago if you're set on reprinting. At least that's a little newer.
I think reprinting catcher is a great decision. It's a card that is overpriced and it's an entry barrier for players who want to enter the game. This should alleviate that problem.
Aside from that, like many have said before, catcher is a necessary card as long as overpowered benchsitters exist.
That is because the benchsitters are balanced around the fact you can catcher ~60 HP Squirtles/Gothitas/Klinks/whatever before they set up. You get an early advantage, but if they set up, you are in trouble.
But the catcher balance only works in cases of certain ability-using evolution cards. However, it also punishes cards that don't need to be punished, rather, cards that would quite likely be overpowered by big basics regardless of catcher, but now the situation is completely loopsided.
Let's compare two cases. 1) Your only benched Squirtle gets catchered. Well, that's a setback, another turn without blastoise, but you can come back if you evolve at least one of the squirtles you bench the next turn. Also, the Energy you manually attached to Black Kyurem /Keldeo is still there in play (if any).
2) But if they catcher a Axew that has a Blend FMLW on it, that is supposed to start destroying plasma the next turn once it gets to become a Haxorus. Well... if it gets catchered, the blend and the Pokémon are in the discard and you are back on square one, with no method of a comeback.
The difference there is that one is a benchsitter and the other is an attacker. Haxorus has amazing attacks, 40 for each energy is great and OHKO against Plasma has good coverage in this format. But you can't set it up with Energy!
Compare that to Empoleon or Garchomp. Empoleon is sort of playable because it attacks for one energy, so when piplups get catcher KO'd, you can still get the surviving one to attack for one energy after it evolves. Garchomp, disregarding the good search engine built into the evolution chain, also has an 1 Energy attack that punishes Prism/Blend energy use and deals nice 60 for 1 even if you can't get that other attack going. But even those can't compete because they lack raw strength compared to the resources and risk. But that's another matter altogether. I only focus on the issue of how catcher affects the ability of getting evolved attackers attack-ready.
There are two options I can think of to approach this problem:
1: Energy acceleration exclusively to evolved Pokémon. Example 1) Supporter: "Search your deck for 2 basic Energy cards and attach it to a Stage 2 Pokémon on your bench." 2) Item: "Attach a basic Energy card from hand to a Stage 2 Pokémon you have in play". These cards would generally make evolved Pokémon more playable, for example that Haxorus I just used in that example has a much better chance, and you can set up Strike of the Champion or 2 Energy Dragonaxe in 1 turn instead of hitting futilely for a laughable 40 if you miss an attachment/energy goes away from the field. Example 2: Double Rainbow Energy/Scramble Energy. Same logic.
2: Evolving Pokémon need to have more HP. They simply haven't kept up with the power creep. 30-60HP is nowhere near enough. 70 is alraedy much safer, and I feel 80+ HP would be reasonable on most basics that evolve into attackers. But to put things into perspective, even that 90 HP Sigilyph with its Safeguard is not very safe. But with every little improvement, your opponent needs a little bit more setup to disrupt you and it's an improvement. Particularly if Stage 1 of a 3 stage chain also get buffed to 110+ HP.
And remember, I don't want 80 HP Squirtles, that would be too beefy. Blastoise has the necessary mechanism to catch up that is equal to the risk of running those frail squirtles. Such an ability needs to be balanced by being disruptable with catcher. So I mean that only the pre-evolutions of non-benchsitter Pokémon need a HP buff in general. The current Squirtle with 60 HP is fine, and would be even without that protective ability because it evolves into something really terrifying and doesn't require energy on its own to have an effect, But that Axew would be just fine with 70+ HP (the attacks could be buffed too.. nah, I won't be that greedy now)
I think doing both of these solutions together in moderation would be the ideal solution. While it's weird that I claim we need power creep, it can be done right if the developers just playtest the numbers. Actually, the numbers are quite intuitive; benchmark against plasma Kyurem or some other big basic. If an evolution has worse offensive/defensive stats and no special utility, it's useless. If it's only barely as strong as Kyurem when fully set up, it's not efficient enough. If it's only barely stronger when properly set up, it's most likely not efficient enough. If it's stronger when fully set up, it might be efficient enough.
In other words, power creep just needs to spread to pre-evolutions and fully evolved Pokémon (but mostly pre-evos) for once, that type of cards that has been neglected and remained about as weak for like 10 years; In the meantime, big basics have doubled or even tripled their HP and damage.
Oh, and all this was just a surface scratch that disregards the fact how some evolved Pokémon that are plain attackers are objectively inferior to basic Pokémon in terms of overall stats and attacks.
I rambled on a fair bit so..
tl;dr: Catcher is a well designed card when it comes to disrupting powerful setup decks, but because of poor overall card design, it has turned out to be even more painful towards evolved attackers than the bench-sitters it's meant to target, and consequently practically pushes the former out of the game.
ps. BTS and old candy would be absolutely broken with some of the current ability users, and I dislike them since there are better ways to make evolutions playable than bending the rules.
Aside from that, like many have said before, catcher is a necessary card as long as overpowered benchsitters exist.
That is because the benchsitters are balanced around the fact you can catcher ~60 HP Squirtles/Gothitas/Klinks/whatever before they set up. You get an early advantage, but if they set up, you are in trouble.
But the catcher balance only works in cases of certain ability-using evolution cards. However, it also punishes cards that don't need to be punished, rather, cards that would quite likely be overpowered by big basics regardless of catcher, but now the situation is completely loopsided.
Let's compare two cases. 1) Your only benched Squirtle gets catchered. Well, that's a setback, another turn without blastoise, but you can come back if you evolve at least one of the squirtles you bench the next turn. Also, the Energy you manually attached to Black Kyurem /Keldeo is still there in play (if any).
2) But if they catcher a Axew that has a Blend FMLW on it, that is supposed to start destroying plasma the next turn once it gets to become a Haxorus. Well... if it gets catchered, the blend and the Pokémon are in the discard and you are back on square one, with no method of a comeback.
The difference there is that one is a benchsitter and the other is an attacker. Haxorus has amazing attacks, 40 for each energy is great and OHKO against Plasma has good coverage in this format. But you can't set it up with Energy!
Compare that to Empoleon or Garchomp. Empoleon is sort of playable because it attacks for one energy, so when piplups get catcher KO'd, you can still get the surviving one to attack for one energy after it evolves. Garchomp, disregarding the good search engine built into the evolution chain, also has an 1 Energy attack that punishes Prism/Blend energy use and deals nice 60 for 1 even if you can't get that other attack going. But even those can't compete because they lack raw strength compared to the resources and risk. But that's another matter altogether. I only focus on the issue of how catcher affects the ability of getting evolved attackers attack-ready.
There are two options I can think of to approach this problem:
1: Energy acceleration exclusively to evolved Pokémon. Example 1) Supporter: "Search your deck for 2 basic Energy cards and attach it to a Stage 2 Pokémon on your bench." 2) Item: "Attach a basic Energy card from hand to a Stage 2 Pokémon you have in play". These cards would generally make evolved Pokémon more playable, for example that Haxorus I just used in that example has a much better chance, and you can set up Strike of the Champion or 2 Energy Dragonaxe in 1 turn instead of hitting futilely for a laughable 40 if you miss an attachment/energy goes away from the field. Example 2: Double Rainbow Energy/Scramble Energy. Same logic.
2: Evolving Pokémon need to have more HP. They simply haven't kept up with the power creep. 30-60HP is nowhere near enough. 70 is alraedy much safer, and I feel 80+ HP would be reasonable on most basics that evolve into attackers. But to put things into perspective, even that 90 HP Sigilyph with its Safeguard is not very safe. But with every little improvement, your opponent needs a little bit more setup to disrupt you and it's an improvement. Particularly if Stage 1 of a 3 stage chain also get buffed to 110+ HP.
And remember, I don't want 80 HP Squirtles, that would be too beefy. Blastoise has the necessary mechanism to catch up that is equal to the risk of running those frail squirtles. Such an ability needs to be balanced by being disruptable with catcher. So I mean that only the pre-evolutions of non-benchsitter Pokémon need a HP buff in general. The current Squirtle with 60 HP is fine, and would be even without that protective ability because it evolves into something really terrifying and doesn't require energy on its own to have an effect, But that Axew would be just fine with 70+ HP (the attacks could be buffed too.. nah, I won't be that greedy now)
I think doing both of these solutions together in moderation would be the ideal solution. While it's weird that I claim we need power creep, it can be done right if the developers just playtest the numbers. Actually, the numbers are quite intuitive; benchmark against plasma Kyurem or some other big basic. If an evolution has worse offensive/defensive stats and no special utility, it's useless. If it's only barely as strong as Kyurem when fully set up, it's not efficient enough. If it's only barely stronger when properly set up, it's most likely not efficient enough. If it's stronger when fully set up, it might be efficient enough.
In other words, power creep just needs to spread to pre-evolutions and fully evolved Pokémon (but mostly pre-evos) for once, that type of cards that has been neglected and remained about as weak for like 10 years; In the meantime, big basics have doubled or even tripled their HP and damage.
Oh, and all this was just a surface scratch that disregards the fact how some evolved Pokémon that are plain attackers are objectively inferior to basic Pokémon in terms of overall stats and attacks.
I rambled on a fair bit so..
tl;dr: Catcher is a well designed card when it comes to disrupting powerful setup decks, but because of poor overall card design, it has turned out to be even more painful towards evolved attackers than the bench-sitters it's meant to target, and consequently practically pushes the former out of the game.
ps. BTS and old candy would be absolutely broken with some of the current ability users, and I dislike them since there are better ways to make evolutions playable than bending the rules.
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