Discussion Barbaracle: The Death of Night March?

TeamAustin

TeamAustin

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I just went through all the cards on the Japanese side of the upcoming Fates Collide set and saw some interesting additions, as well as the return of N. But what caught my interest most almost slipped by me - Barbaracle ( Stage 1 Water).

Ability - Hand Block:
If you have a Stadium card in play, you may use this Ability. As long as this Pokémon is in play, your opponent can't attach any Special Energy cards from his or her hand to his or her Pokémon.

Now, of course my first thought went to Night March suffering hardest here, but Dragons beware, and others. A not-impossible turn 1 Archie and Stadium could spell disaster for many unprepared decks I think. Yes, there are many ways to destroy a Stadium (not least of all a Delinquent to be punished with for your brazen behavior), but the damage could well be done by the time that's pulled off. Perhaps a sweet complement to Darkrai/Hypno/All Night Party? Or Toads?
 
There is a discussion thread somewhere for the whole set, but yes, this card deserves it's own.

TeamAustin said:
Ability - Hand Block:
If you have a Stadium card in play, you may use this Ability. As long as this Pokémon is in play, your opponent can't attach any Special Energy cards from his or her hand to his or her Pokémon.
Click to expand...

I am most concerned with the emphasised piece of this line. It does not say "if there is a stadium", it reads (acc to the translation so far anyway), if you have a stadium. Meaning all of a sudden this card is only half as powerful as the initial assessment.

That is still very powerful though. Any deck that relies on special energies and no other is going to need to rethink itself.
 
It's a bummer the same set is offering mew to allow them to easily keep on marching even without special energy (one basic energy and dimension valley). I think we would see a rise of delinquent/paint roller in Night March which can already deal with this with hex maniac. It will surely make things tougher for them, and I'm all for that!
 
It all comes down to the translation to be honest. If it's "THERE IS a stadium" it's a million times better than "if YOU HAVE a stadium". The difference being, yes you can tech against it if it's "there is" but if it's "you have" then any deck that runs stadiums is a counter. All Nightmarch has to do is play dimension valley, all vespiquen has to do is play giant plant forest, all toad has to do is play either rough seas or team aquas secret base.

The decks it counters have trouble finding more space for anything, let alone one of techs. But if it can be countered by playing any stadium then those decks already have all the counters they need.
 
You could try and play it with either ninetales to stop stadiums from being played, or giratina. But if you play giratina, the ability would be redundant.
 
If you want to do damage to it, then you'd need a combination of Silent Lab + Barbarcle + Ninetales. It's important to note though, Hex Maniac, Delinquent, and a Bronzong variant could all very easily get around it. It'd be a lot more effective if Mew weren't coming out in the exact same set.
 
There are a lot of easy ways to erase a Stadium card, from Paint Roller (it's not even a Supporter) to Delinquent... Night March will die naturally after August's rotation.
 
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