Special Comparison: Escape Rope (Freeze Bolt # 54) VS Switch (BW # 104) {10/12/12}

[Vulpix Yolk]

Card of the Day: Special Comparison: Switch VS Escape Rope​

Escape Rope – Trainer
Item

Your opponent switches his or her Active Pokemon with 1 of his or her Benched Pokemon, if any. You switch your Active Pokemon with 1 of your Benched Pokemon, if any.

You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn (before your attack).

This is an age old question. Which card is the better play? Almost every deck plays Switch nowadays, will Escape Rope replace Switch? Which card is more viable? Will people play a split of the two cards in their decks? Discuss!

 

[Vulpix Yolk]

I'm going to leave this review up for another day...

 

[Keeper of Night]

I would play Switch over Escape Rope, just so there's no chance of me being in the position where I accidently help my opponet.
But Escape Rope is interesting and probally will be played, since it could help you because your opponet switches their pokemon first.
Escape Rope is like N, you play it to help you and hurt your opponet, but sometimes it works the other way aorund...

 

[Mora]

It could be used as a Catcher early game when your opponent has a very small bench (Active Rayquaza and two Benched Tynamos). Play Warp Point Escape Rope, Switch into Emolga, and free retreat back into your previous Active. I can't see this being used to disrupt your opponent while you get something out of Active spot. Darkrai has free retreat on everything (unless Garbodor), Eels already has Skyarrow Bridge and a high count of Switch, and you can't really Catcher stall Garchomp anyways.

 

[Keeper of Night]

I can't see this being used to disrupt your opponent while you get something out of Active spot. Darkrai has free retreat on everything (unless Garbodor), Eels already has Skyarrow Bridge and a high count of Switch, and you can't really Catcher stall Garchomp anyways.

It could be used against Terrakion though, even though they use Switch. It would at least force them to use all their Switches early.

 

[Celebi23]

Anybody who says Switch obviously never played when Warp Point was legal. Escape Rope is Switch with an additional positive effect. Enough said.

 

[Mora]

Yes, but in this format, we have Catcher. Catcher is pretty much a four-of in most decks. Making your opponent switch out isn't as appealing to me, especially since they get to chose who to retreat into. Another Darkrai? That doesn't hurt anything. Most everything in Eels has a low retreat except for the Eels themselves, which, since your opponent has a choice, no one would actually send to the Active spot. Maybe in something like Terrakion or Ho-OH, but they'll probably just send up one of their other attackers, because, except for Terrakion/Garbodor, they don't typically run any Bench-sitting techs like Hydreigon. And if they did, again, the only way to force it up is if that's the only thing your opponent has Benched. Escape Rope is a good card; it's just in this format, we have Catcher. It's more accurate, if you will. I like what Keeper of Night said about it being like N. If you play Escape Rope, it's the equivalent of playing Switch for you as well as for your opponent. I'm not sure if that is something I would like to commit to doing every time I need to switch in this format. I might. I think what I may do is look at the instances I play Switch and see what the repercusions would be if any.

 

[Celebi23]

Nothing has changed between this format and last time we had this card. Warp Point always had the potential to benefit your opponent, but for the love of god man, just don't play it if it will benefit your opponent more than you! Hopefully that isn't too hard.

Have you ever had a situation where you wanted more than 4 Catcher of whiffed on a Catcher but hit a Switch off a Supporter? If so, Warp Point has the potential to benefit you in those situations. You have to run Switch anyway, so it doesn't take up any extra space. You're acting like a mini-Catcher is worse than no Catcher.

 

[kroatia]

Don't think escape rope is going to be replacing switch, but both have their uses.

Mini catcher like Celebi23 said is nice to have as an extra effect if you'd just looking to switch out your active.

However, there are situations where you'd rather keep the opponent's active in place, either for a revenge kill or you're dropping a surprise mewtwo in the mewtwo war. Also, sometimes forcing a pokemon out of the active spot gives it advantages (Zeels and Dark Patch can both only attach to benched pokemon for example, and they could power up, retreat their active and smack you)

 

[Mora]

Nothing has changed between this format and last time we had this card.

Catcher

but for the love of god man, just don't play it if it will benefit your opponent more than you! Hopefully that isn't too hard.

Oh, don't worry; I won't... Because I'll being playing Switch instead

 

[PumpedAaron]

I'm finding 23's argument rather convincing. More often than not, Escape Rope will benefit you AND disrupt your opponent, because chances are, he'll have whoever he wants to have Active whenever its your turn. Escape Rope will most likely force him to bring up a crucial support Pokemon (Think about Altaria, Hydreigon, Electrik and others) and then you can KO it and slow your opponent down!

Trainers can now have 8 Item cards that will switch their Active Pokemon. Whoa, talk about consistency! They probably wouldn't want to use THAT many slots, though. Gotta make room for Catcher and other cards that are the crux of a strategy, after all.

I'd give it a 8.5 for playability, and really shaking up the metagame with a subtle but intriguing difference!

 

[o0Flint0o]

More often than not, Escape Rope will benefit you AND disrupt your opponent, because chances are, he'll have whoever he wants to have Active whenever its your turn. Escape Rope will most likely force him to bring up a crucial support Pokemon (Think about Altaria, Hydreigon, Electrik and others) and then you can KO it and slow your opponent down!

This exactly.

 

[Keeper of Night]

More often than not, Escape Rope will benefit you AND disrupt your opponent, because chances are, he'll have whoever he wants to have Active whenever its your turn. Escape Rope will most likely force him to bring up a crucial support Pokemon (Think about Altaria, Hydreigon, Electrik and others) and then you can KO it and slow your opponent down!

This exactly.

Why would your opponet choose to bring up an Altaria, Hydriegon, or Eelekrik?

 

[Mora]

This exactly.

Why would your opponet choose to bring up an Altaria, Hydriegon, or Eelekrik?

Ikr! They're bound to have another attacker set up that they could send in.

I will say that I'll probably choose Escape Rope over Switch in Garchomp (if I'm stil playing that when it comes out) only because the only time you REALLY need Switch would be T1 when you need Call for Family out of a Swablu start. And at that point, it could only disrupt your opponent. Later in the game, if you need to get out of the Active spot, you don't have to play it if it would help your opponent. You could just pay the Retreat Cost. You aren't relying on it as much.

 

[Celebi23]

Why do people like Catcher? Because it switches the opponent's active with one of their benched guys. If you're playing the game right, then you'll always try to have the card active that your opponent wants active the least. So, if people play Catcher OR WARP POINT, that card the opponent intentionally put active is switched. It might not actually be relevant to the outcome of the game, but it's also very likely that it will be. It was for the past for EIGHT YEARS, EVEN WHEN WE HAD POW! HAND EXTENSION AND DOUBLE GUST!!! It will be again and anybody who says otherwise is wrong.

Mora- You ignored half of my argument and conveniently cropped it out of my post in your quote.

 

[Keeper of Night]

Why do people like Catcher?

Because you get to decide who they bring up as active.

If you're playing the game right, then you'll always try to have the card active that your opponent wants active the least.

If you are really playing the game right, you'll have multiple pokemon in play that you want active, have only 1 good attacker in play and it's like asking your opponet to win the game.

So, if people play Catcher OR WARP POINT, that card the opponent intentionally put active is switched.

Yep, then they just bring up another attacker, because bringing up anything else is just plain dumb (unless they have no other choice, but then they were losing anyway).

It might not actually be relevant to the outcome of the game, but it's also very likely that it will be.

It will be relevant to the out come of the game, because Escape Rope was a wasted spot in your deck that could have been something that was actually useful.

 

[Smeargle]

Anybody who says Switch obviously never played when Warp Point was legal. Escape Rope is Switch with an additional positive effect. Enough said.

Switch over escape rope IMO. I played back when there was warp points, but now that we have catcher, It is worse, because it can actually end up negating your catcher.
Here's an example from my testing:
I have 2 eelektriks (dynamoter) out, one on my bench (with 60 damage on it) and one stuck active, 2 rayquaza EX on my bench, both with a fire energy, 2 lightning energy in my discard pile and a skyarrow bridge in play. My opponent has a fully powered darkrai EX active with an eviolite attached, a hydriegon (dark trance) and another eviolited Darkrai EX on his bench. I have 1 prize left, my opponent has 2 left. I have just been N'd to 1, and my hand is (including my topdeck) a Pokemon Catcher and a Professor Juniper. I have 2 switch/escape rope left in my deck, so statistically I should draw it off of the Juniper because I only have 11 cards left in my deck. The Pokemon Catcher is my last one. I have 0 tool scrappers left in my deck.

Scenario 1 (with switch over escape rope): I Pokemon catcher my opponents hydriegon, and use my Professor Juniper. I draw the switch and use dynamoter twice onto a rayquaza EX and switch to dragon burst and win the game.

Scenario 2 (with escape rope over switch): I Pokemon catcher my opponents hydriegon, and use my Professor Juniper. I draw an escape rope. The escape rope makes it so I can not actually win the game this turn, because if I play it my opponent will just switch up an eviolited darkrai EX. I am forced to play the escape rope because if I do not my opponent will dark trance to hydriegon, retreat, and use night spear to KO both of my eelektriks and win the game. First, I double dynamoter to my rayquaza EX, and then use escape rope and dragon burst. It would make my opponent have to have the max potion, blend energy, or catcher, but if they didn't they would loose. My opponent uses a Proffesor juniper and gets a blend energy, retreats, and uses dragonblast on my rayquaza EX to win.

 

[Dork Void]

Anybody who says Switch obviously never played when Warp Point was legal. Escape Rope is Switch with an additional positive effect. Enough said.

Switch over escape rope IMO. I played back when there was warp points, but now that we have catcher, It is worse, because it can actually end up negating your catcher.
Here's an example from my testing:
I have 2 eelektriks (dynamoter) out, one on my bench (with 60 damage on it) and one stuck active, 2 rayquaza EX on my bench, both with a fire energy, 2 lightning energy in my discard pile and a skyarrow bridge in play. My opponent has a fully powered darkrai EX active with an eviolite attached, a hydriegon (dark trance) and another eviolited Darkrai EX on his bench. I have 1 prize left, my opponent has 2 left. I have just been N'd to 1, and my hand is (including my topdeck) a Pokemon Catcher and a Professor Juniper. I have 2 switch/escape rope left in my deck, so statistically I should draw it off of the Juniper because I only have 11 cards left in my deck. The Pokemon Catcher is my last one. I have 0 tool scrappers left in my deck.

Scenario 1 (with switch over escape rope): I Pokemon catcher my opponents hydriegon, and use my Professor Juniper. I draw the switch and use dynamoter twice onto a rayquaza EX and switch to dragon burst and win the game.

Scenario 2 (with escape rope over switch): I Pokemon catcher my opponents hydriegon, and use my Professor Juniper. I draw an escape rope. The escape rope makes it so I can not actually win the game this turn, because if I play it my opponent will just switch up an eviolited darkrai EX. I am forced to play the escape rope because if I do not my opponent will dark trance to hydriegon, retreat, and use night spear to KO both of my eelektriks and win the game. First, I double dynamoter to my rayquaza EX, and then use escape rope and dragon burst. It would make my opponent have to have the max potion, blend energy, or catcher, but if they didn't they would loose. My opponent uses a Proffesor juniper and gets a blend energy, retreats, and uses dragonblast on my rayquaza EX to win.

In the second scenario you would catcher up the darkrai if it wasn't active, or just discard the catcher with juniper if it was. Problem solved. You can also draw into an energy off the juniper, but that's unrelated to switch vs warp point. Escape Rope is imo a higher risk higher return card; there are scenarios in which it can screw you over and scenarios in which it wins games. imo the best way to decide which is best for your deck is to test a lot with either one and make a table of how many times you wish it was switch, how many times you wish it was warp point, and how many times it didn't matter. Then you simply start using the one you wanted more (kinda like my solution to Bianca vs Cheren).

 

[Slowbro]

Why do people like Catcher?

Because you get to decide who they bring up as active.
and because it disrupts your opponent, just like escape rope

If you're playing the game right, then you'll always try to have the card active that your opponent wants active the least.

If you are really playing the game right, you'll have multiple pokemon in play that you want active, have only 1 good attacker in play and it's like asking your opponet to win the game.
That's not always going to happen, and when it doesn't, escape rope allows you to capitalize on that.

So, if people play Catcher OR WARP POINT, that card the opponent intentionally put active is switched.

Yep, then they just bring up another attacker, because bringing up anything else is just plain dumb (unless they have no other choice, but then they were losing anyway).
If they were losing anyway, why wouldn't you play a card to secure your win?

It might not actually be relevant to the outcome of the game, but it's also very likely that it will be.

It will be relevant to the out come of the game, because Escape Rope was a wasted spot in your deck that could have been something that was actually useful.
we're just talking about using it over switch, so it's not actually taking up any more spots in your deck...

edits in bold

 

[Keeper of Night]

and because it disrupts your opponent, just like escape rope

More often than not, Escape Rope will not disrupt your opponet becuase they can just bring up either another attacker or a pokemon with no retreat cost.

If they were losing anyway, why wouldn't you play a card to secure your win?

Because it wouldn't matter, would it?


I believe that over all, Switch is so much better in this format than Escape Rope/Warp Point.