Bianca or Cheren??

DeckSpecialist

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hello fellow pokebeach members,

Im playing my hydreigon deck for a while now and im wondering which supporter is better. Most times supporters are pretty standard in a deck right?

My line is
4 juniper
4 N
2 bianca
2 cheren

Many times i have that cheren in hand when a bianca would have give me more cards, sometimes I have bianca in a 6 card hand with no other supporters.
Im considering taking out each 1 of them for 2 RR.

General: whats the best supporter; Bianca or Cheren?
 
I think you meant 4 N, not 4 Cheren :p.

Truthfully, it's really personal preference. I think Cheren is better because it's less situational though, and is helpful no matter when you get it. I would take the Bianca out of that supporter line of yours and add 2 Random Reciever in place. It's searchable via Sableye, so you can get out of some nasty supporter droughts if you have RR in your discard.
 
I think answering that question depends on whether or not you run a lot of Ultra Balls. If you're running 3-4 in order to get your Pokemon out, PLUS Level Balls in order to get Deino and Zweilous out, you should use Bianca, since the discard cost will lower your hand size, and make Bianca give you great Draw Support!
 
It is a personal preference like said above. Bianca can sometimes get more but generally I prefer cheren because I am generally having big hands.
 
Depends how you play the deck.

Personally, when I played Darkrai EX/Hydreigon, I was always playing Ultra Ball and keeping my hand size very small. In my testing, Bianca proved to be much better than Cheren because I was getting 4-5 cards the vast majority of the time. In those cases where Bianca isn't the best option, you still have Professor Juniper and N to try and get the cards you need. Honestly, I think Bianca is better overall, but Cheren is a lot less situational and doesn't require good timing.
 
For me personally, I hate Bianca, period. Even if I can play down my hand enough to get more then 3 cards, well, then I've just played a bunch of resources and I may have just wasted a card I will probably need later.

Another situation I find popping up a lot when playing Bianca is I can play X, but I need Y to make it worth while using it, and using X without having Y is worse then just not playing X at all. But I don't have Y, so I have to use Bianca to get it, but I play down X so I have a better chance of drawing it. But if I use Cheren, then I can decide if I should use X after I know if I'll have Y or not. And this is assuming I even have the option to play down my hand enough.

But this is with Eels. In Hydreigon, playing down those cards may not be as bad, since you can use Sableye to get the Items back. But I have played Hydreigon a bit, and I still hate Bianca. There are those times were it gets you 5 or 6 cards with pretty much no drawback, but that's just too rare for how awful it is in the early game.

I will probably never play Bianca, even with 4 Ultra Ball, and even if it's the speediest deck out there. But the others here seem to be about even with the card, so I might just be too conservative a player.
 
I've found in Hydreigon it depends on
a) how many ultra ball you are running
b) your playstyle

I run 3 Sableye and 4 Ultra ball, so I can really get my hand sizes low to bianca, then junk hunt whatever I discarded to get a really good bianca. I think your supporter line should like something like this
4 N
4 Juniper
3 Cheren/Bianca
2 RR

Hope I helped!
 
In most of my decks, I play 3 bianca 4 cheren 2 juniper and 3 N & 2 RR.

i don't use bianca or juniper until late game, when i get N'd down to 1 or 2 cards and NEED to pull that switch or catcher to seal the game.
 
My advice would be to do this.

4 N
4 Juniper
4 Random Receiver

That way, it's like you are playing 12 useful Supporters. Cheren and Bianca don't get much done. With this Supporter line, you are guaranteed to hit a helpful hand refresh Supporter off of all your Random Receiver. In a way, you are playing 12 Supporters, so dead draws are rare.
 
Vulpix Yolk said:
My advice would be to do this.

4 N
4 Juniper
4 Random Receiver

That way, it's like you are playing 12 useful Supporters. Cheren and Bianca don't get much done. With this Supporter line, you are guaranteed to hit a helpful hand refresh Supporter off of all your Random Receiver. In a way, you are playing 12 Supporters, so dead draws are rare.

until you have 2 junipers in your hand and a random reciever and get another juniper and forced to throw away 2 supporeers.
 
ashtavakra said:
Vulpix Yolk said:
My advice would be to do this.

4 N
4 Juniper
4 Random Receiver

That way, it's like you are playing 12 useful Supporters. Cheren and Bianca don't get much done. With this Supporter line, you are guaranteed to hit a helpful hand refresh Supporter off of all your Random Receiver. In a way, you are playing 12 Supporters, so dead draws are rare.

until you have 2 junipers in your hand and a random reciever and get another juniper and forced to throw away 2 supporeers.

The alternative to that is being stuck with a six card hand with two Bianca. If I did use 4 Juniper, 4 N, and 4 Random Reciever, I might be tempted to just play Juniper without using Random Reciever. There are several factors that would have to be considered, but most often, I wouldn't mind ditching one extra Supporter. But that could be because I play more than just 4-4-4 and usually can afford to ditch them.
 
ashtavakra said:
Vulpix Yolk said:
My advice would be to do this.

4 N
4 Juniper
4 Random Receiver

That way, it's like you are playing 12 useful Supporters. Cheren and Bianca don't get much done. With this Supporter line, you are guaranteed to hit a helpful hand refresh Supporter off of all your Random Receiver. In a way, you are playing 12 Supporters, so dead draws are rare.

until you have 2 junipers in your hand and a random reciever and get another juniper and forced to throw away 2 supporeers.

In this situation you would be forced to find out how likely getting that N from the RR actually is. There's already a better chance since you have 2 Junipers in hand, but these decisions are what you need to be good at making in order to make the right choice for the late game. If you have 2 Junipers and 4 Catchers in hand, go for it. If it's just one catcher, you're probably better off not risking it and just tossing the Catcher.

Cheren, I find, is underwhelming.
Bianca is also not desirable, though in most situations better than Cheren.
I would rather play 6 Juniper and 6 N, of course we can't do that.

It's all going to depend on your playstyle and the situation. If you are playing Hydreigon I would use Bianca because at least the resources you burn for a better draw can be junk handed back.

[/sand=Ursus]
 
I don't think either cards are very good at all. I say if you need a high supporter count, play 4 N, 4 Juniper, 3 RR, and 2 Cheren.
I, however, do fine with my measly 4 N, 3 Juniper, 2 RR. It's always worked for me.

If you have to play either, I would prefer Cheren. In Stage 2 decks, Cheren is better. You'll typically have a larger hand in Empoleon and Hydreigon, which may already have more than 6 cards that you aren't easily able to drop, but with Cheren you get a guaranteed 3 cards. However, Bianca is redeemable in Eels/Darkrai/discard based type things. Basically, if you play ultra ball, play Bianca.
 
Meatheart said:
I don't think either cards are very good at all. I say if you need a high supporter count, play 4 N, 4 Juniper, 3 RR, and 2 Cheren.
I, however, do fine with my measly 4 N, 3 Juniper, 2 RR. It's always worked for me.

If you have to play either, I would prefer Cheren. In Stage 2 decks, Cheren is better. You'll typically have a larger hand in Empoleon and Hydreigon, which may already have more than 6 cards that you aren't easily able to drop, but with Cheren you get a guaranteed 3 cards. However, Bianca is redeemable in Eels/Darkrai/discard based type things. Basically, if you play ultra ball, play Bianca.
You must be pretty lucky, because I would never drop below 12 supporters (RR is included). 9 seems like a recipe for disaster.

@OP Here's what I would do if you are unsure. Instead of testing a bunch of games with one, then a bunch of games with the other, put proxies rather than the actual cards. The proxies should say Cheren/Bianca. Make a note whenever you use this of whether it being a Cheren or it being a Bianca is better. After a bunch of games, just choose whichever one you end up choosing more, as it will net you more cards in your specific deck.
 
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