Megalo Cannon

[Slowbro]

Is anyone else really excited for Caitlin? I'm thinking like 4 of in stage two decks, and maybe even others depending on rotation. Thoughts?

 

[Dork Void]

I personally feel that Caitlin is terrible, especially any more than 1-2. If you're running 4 in any deck you're going to have so many times where you have Caitlin in your hand and a really small hand and/or you want to keep nearly your entire hand, making it useless and making you wish you ran an actual draw supporter. Maybe if you have a lot of cards that discard stuff from your hand you can get rid of your Caitlin before that happens? That's like running Celebi EX just so you don't feel bad about having to discard something to Juniper.

 

[Slowbro]

I personally feel that Caitlin is terrible, especially any more than 1-2. If you're running 4 in any deck you're going to have so many times where you have Caitlin in your hand and a really small hand and/or you want to keep nearly your entire hand, making it useless and making you wish you ran an actual draw supporter. Maybe if you have a lot of cards that discard stuff from your hand you can get rid of your Caitlin before that happens? That's like running Celebi EX just so you don't feel bad about having to discard something to Juniper.

How is this close to Celebi EX in any way? I think this is really good in stage 2 decks, as they should be running tropical beach anyways, so you'll have a large hand during the setup turns. If you want to keep nearly your entire hand (that doesn't even happen often lol), Caitlin is great, because you can just keep the resources you need right now, but also keep the resources you need later, as opposed to Juniper discarding them or something. It's obviously not useful in every situation, but the way you're sounding, it sounds like you think N is terrible because it will get you a low amount of cards late game, or Juniper is terrible because you'll have situations where you don't want to discard your entire hand, or Skyla is terrible because you sometimes need more than one card for a combo, or Colress is terrible because you won't always have a big bench. Every supporter has its merits and disadvantages based on the situation.

 

[Dork Void]

How is this close to Celebi EX in any way? I think this is really good in stage 2 decks, as they should be running tropical beach anyways, so you'll have a large hand during the setup turns. If you want to keep nearly your entire hand (that doesn't even happen often lol), Caitlin is great, because you can just keep the resources you need right now, but also keep the resources you need later, as opposed to Juniper discarding them or something. It's obviously not useful in every situation, but the way you're sounding, it sounds like you think N is terrible because it will get you a low amount of cards late game, or Juniper is terrible because you'll have situations where you don't want to discard your entire hand, or Skyla is terrible because you sometimes need more than one card for a combo, or Colress is terrible because you won't always have a big bench. Every supporter has its merits and disadvantages based on the situation.

First of all, Colress is pretty bad because when you want to set up it doesn't do anything and when it does do something you don't need to set up as much. Secondly, of course every Supporter has its bad points and its good points. That doesn't mean that every Supporter is worth running! Caitlin can never give you hand advantage. Most of the time you use your Supporters for hand advantage (aka you'd rather have Cheren, Bianca, N, or Juniper) or you use your Supporters to dig for a specific card (Skyla).

Think of when Caitlin is useful: You have a large hand (considering its your Supporter for the turn, not that likely; but sure lets say you used Tropical Beach) you have lots of cards in your hand that you don't want in your hand (if you did want them, you'd rather have Cheren or Skyla), yet the same cards you don't want in your hand you don't want in your discard pile either (or else you'd want Juniper), yet these same cards you don't want in your discard pile you're fine with never drawing until you shuffle your deck (I mean, you're putting them on the bottom...they're more accessible in the discard pile than there!) you want to keep at least 1 of the cards in your hand or its late game (or else you'd rather use N) you want to dig for more than 1 card (otherwise you'd rather use Skyla) but you can only use them with a card already in your hand (because otherwise you'd want Juniper, that digs through your deck a LOT faster). So considering that you need all of those to hold true for Caitlin to be better than another supporter, I think I'm justified in saying that Caitlin's uses are far too narrow to run more than 1 of, let alone 4 of.

Also, what are you going to take out for Caitlin? Decks are already tight on space. Please don't tell me other supporters. Please.

 

[Slowbro]

How is this close to Celebi EX in any way? I think this is really good in stage 2 decks, as they should be running tropical beach anyways, so you'll have a large hand during the setup turns. If you want to keep nearly your entire hand (that doesn't even happen often lol), Caitlin is great, because you can just keep the resources you need right now, but also keep the resources you need later, as opposed to Juniper discarding them or something. It's obviously not useful in every situation, but the way you're sounding, it sounds like you think N is terrible because it will get you a low amount of cards late game, or Juniper is terrible because you'll have situations where you don't want to discard your entire hand, or Skyla is terrible because you sometimes need more than one card for a combo, or Colress is terrible because you won't always have a big bench. Every supporter has its merits and disadvantages based on the situation.

First of all, Colress is pretty bad because when you want to set up it doesn't do anything and when it does do something you don't need to set up as much. Secondly, of course every Supporter has its bad points and its good points. That doesn't mean that every Supporter is worth running! Caitlin can never give you hand advantage. Most of the time you use your Supporters for hand advantage (aka you'd rather have Cheren, Bianca, N, or Juniper) or you use your Supporters to dig for a specific card (Skyla).

Think of when Caitlin is useful: You have a large hand (considering its your Supporter for the turn, not that likely; but sure lets say you used Tropical Beach) you have lots of cards in your hand that you don't want in your hand (if you did want them, you'd rather have Cheren or Skyla), yet the same cards you don't want in your hand you don't want in your discard pile either (or else you'd want Juniper), yet these same cards you don't want in your discard pile you're fine with never drawing until you shuffle your deck (I mean, you're putting them on the bottom...they're more accessible in the discard pile than there!) you want to keep at least 1 of the cards in your hand or its late game (or else you'd rather use N) you want to dig for more than 1 card (otherwise you'd rather use Skyla) but you can only use them with a card already in your hand (because otherwise you'd want Juniper, that digs through your deck a LOT faster). So considering that you need all of those to hold true for Caitlin to be better than another supporter, I think I'm justified in saying that Caitlin's uses are far too narrow to run more than 1 of, let alone 4 of.

Also, what are you going to take out for Caitlin? Decks are already tight on space. Please don't tell me other supporters. Please.

You're making it seem like that's the only time Caitlin is useful, which its not. It's almost perfect hand refresh, supposing you have a decent sized hand (which is more than likely). You get rid of what you don't want, and get what you do. Also, just because Juniper may be better in a certain situation, you won't always have Caitlin in your hand when you Juniper or vice versa. I'm not really in the mood to get into a big argument right now, and this is all theorymon, but I guess we'll find out next format.

 

[petertclo]

First off, Silver Bangle will make a LOT of Rogue Pokemon quite stronger.

Assuming the new Solosis can prevent all attacks and effects (such as Trainer Cards aimed at it) then Reuniclus can finally make a big comeback! More Max Potion healing without any Energy Discard! More technical excellence with "revenge" attacks!

Sawk's Square Kick OHKO's Absol (Plasma) PFZ, and since his attack costs (C) he can be teched into any Deck. He ALSO OHKO's Thundurus EX (Plasma) PFZ when coupled with Silver Bangle + Pluspower or Hypnotoxic Laser.

Machamp can give (F) Decks an advantage in type matchups, especially if Tornadus EX (Plasma) PFZ gains prominence, or Shaymin EX NXD paired with Cofagrigus (Plasma) PFZ. I could also see Machamp paired with Landorus EX pestering the opponent with a dillema: Whether to target Landorus EX, or Machamp for the KO. With Machamp, you could move 4 Energies to him with Energy Switch/ Scramble Switch, and then you could deal big 150 damage with Silver Bangle, and finish off Pokemon Landorus EX's Hammerhead weakened.

One more thing, though! Another Pokemon website translated the Machamp scan, and said that its Ability prevents resistance for any Pokemon with a (F) Energy attached, not just (F) Pokemon. This means that (W) types, like Kyurem EX could bypass Virizion EX's resistance, as long as you gave Kyurem EX an (F) Energy. Mewtwo EX can now attack Darkrai EX without the -20 protection that Darkrai EX normally would have.

Driftblim can defeat Deoxys EX easily.


Of course, there's the titular Genesect EX: If Catcher is kicked out of the next format, then Genesect EX will be a Pokemon with a reliable Catcher effect in his Red Signal Ability! His inherent attack, Megalo Cannon OHKO's Keldeo EX due to weakness, and his own Ace Spec, G-Booster will OHKO just about any Pokemon!


Caitlin offers another Draw Supporter, and so far, she is the most consistent, and conservative, at the same time: You don't have to discard the rest of your hand, you don't have to "lighten" your hand load deliberately, you don't have to depend on board state.

Iris, is another Supporter that doesn't draw cards. This already makes her less popular since Supporters are the primary method of getting fresh cards into the hand. I think we'll only see her in Decks using Magnezone (Plasma) PLS with his Dual Brains Ability.

Another new Ace Spec, Scoop-Up Cyclone, offers healing, and, in Decks that accelerate Energy from the hand, Energy Switching.

Kyurem EX offers devoted Blastoise/Keldeo Decks, to net 180 damage when coupled with Hypnotoxic and Virbank, as well as only requiring (W) and (C) in its attacks!

The Blastoise/Kyurem half (theme?) Deck also includes a marvelous Trainer line! Ultra Ball, Rare, Candy, Catcher, Skyla, Juniper, Bianca, Cheren, Master Ball? Yes, please!

And finally, we'll get Virizion EX, offering Energy acceleration, and protection from Special Conditions! No more Hypnotic combos, no more Deck and Cover Paralysis.

Hmm, that's a lot to think about!

1. The Japanese text on Solosis says that if you flip heads prevent all effects, including damage, done to Solosis by attacks. So lasers would still kill it.
2. I don't really see Machamp being that good. There aren't really many Pokemon that resist Fighting (only Tornadus and Lugia come into mind for EX) and it isn't worth a stage 2 just to remove resistance.
3. Drifblim is an evolution and is weak to Darkness. Assuming you can fire off an attack for no energy, it's too easy to kill off afterwards.
4. Caitlin is good, but only good if you actually have cards in your hand. Not much use if you don't have anything.
5. Scoop up cyclone...Blastoise decks will probably appreciate Comp. Search or Dowsing more, other decks don't have the insta-acceleration that is needed for it to really be effective. Scramble switch would probably still be the play in Plasma.
6. Why would you for for 150 damage on Kyurem EX when you could go for 200 with BK EX.
7. Virizion EX is powerful but probably will be limited to Genesect decks.