Discussion Cynthia or Professor’s Research in Combo Zacian V

[Jake Coolman]

Professor’s Research is an amazing card, but does it really belong in Combo Zacian V? If you play Professor’s Research in your deck, most games you are going to be discarding valuable resources that you may be needing later on in the game. Cynthia, on the other hand, gives you only one less card than Professor’s Research while also conserving valuable resources. It also saves your Oranguru’s ‘Primate Wisdom’ ability for a metal energy on top for Zacian V’s ‘Intrepid Sword’. If you decide to play Cynthia, you will most likely want more consistency cards to make up for the one less card.

Thoughts?

 

[snoopy369]

The reason Professor's Research is better for _most_ decks (but not all!) is precisely because of this discarding mechanism. Getting rid of cards that you don't need _now_ is probably a net benefit, especially to quick set up decks.

Obviously, in decks with a lot of parts that are needed later and not now, you're right: it's a bad idea, and so Cynthia is the answer (or other options). But for the most part Pokémon has tended towards quick set up, or high multiple inclusions - not very many 'one of' decks anymore, in part thanks to the efforts of a few deck designers in the last few years and in part simply due to simplicity.

Having that one extra card in your hand early means you're more likely to be able to set up quickly, and that's very important; PikaRom, ZacianADP, and several others are basically races to set up turn 1. If they get to that end, then they win - if they don't, they more often lose.

 

[The Almighty Bidoof]

Combo Zacian is to some extent a turbo deck. You want to start attacking ASAP. Research lets you play aggro. While you may end up discarding something useful, you can save stuff with Oranguru so it never hurts you too much