Survival Cast from “Crimson Haze!”

JustInBasil

JustInBasil

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Survival Cast was just revealed from S5a Crimson Haze! The set will release in Japan on March 22nd. It should combine with April’s Mask of Change to form our Twilight Masquerade set in May.
Survival Cast – Trainer
Pokémon Tool (ACE SPEC)
If the Pokémon this card is attached to has full HP and would be Knocked Out by damage from an attack from your opponent’s Pokémon, that Pokémon is not Knocked Out, and its remaining HP becomes 10. Then, discard this card.
ACE SPEC: You can’t have...
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I feel like they missed an opportunity to balance ace-spec tools a bit more. They could have easily made it so that they can not be targeted by other trainer cards. As such, it would be much harder to remove them, but also tutor them or loop them from discard. Printing them in a format with rampart vacuums and not give them any way to protect themselves seems a bit weird.
 
There is some form of protection of Pokémon tool Ace-Specs. Roseanne's Backup can be used to reshuffle Pokémon Tool Ace-Specs back into the deck to reuse them. Item Ace-Specs do not have this option outside of Cyllene which is a 75% chance to succeed and can be used to retrieve other cards too.
 
Dark Espeon said:
There is some form of protection of Pokémon tool Ace-Specs. Roseanne's Backup can be used to reshuffle Pokémon Tool Ace-Specs back into the deck to reuse them. Item Ace-Specs do not have this option outside of Cyllene which is a 75% chance to succeed and can be used to retrieve other cards too.
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you cant recover them from the lost zone after they have been vacuumed though which is probably a bigger problem than wanting to use them twice
 
I think this one is pretty good, because as long as they don’t have vacuum, you’re guaranteed to last another turn. Hero’s cape is better for big guys, but this is for sure better for small guys
 
Tayohem said:
you cant recover them from the lost zone after they have been vacuumed though which is probably a bigger problem than wanting to use them twice
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There will eventually be someone who picks up a control deck that aims to get rid of the opponent's tool removal early, probably using Eri; and then try to finish the game on looping a way of continually healing a pokemon and attaching Survival Cast to it, checkmating certain decks. Ursaluna control could achieve this, but Luna might have too high of HP to get the job done with looping a focus sash, and at that point it'd be better to aim for Hero's Cape and a different way of looping with Luna.

As for the more conventional use of Survival Cast, yeah this is gonna be a meta call on whether or not you are expecting to go against opponents who prioritize Lost Vacuum. Devastating if you get use out of it. Glady enough, offense decks that can use Focus Sash do have other Ace Specs to pick from if they want, so they aren't completely out of luck if the meta favors playing Lost Vacuum.
 
The design of the tool is very off-putting for some reason, I think it's the collar and orange tubes ahaha
 
This could be good for Basic pokemons which can easily be ohkoed or support pokemons like Baxcalibur but sadly there is Lost Vacuum in format. And in most cases Prime Catcher is much more broken
 
This actually looks pretty good if your opponent doesn't have the Lost Vacuum right away. One of the biggest counterplay options to big HP juggernauts like Charizard ex are 1HKOing them back with something like Chien-Pao. Even surviving 1 extra turn and being able to get another attack off can be game-winning.

From a more rogue perspective, this seems like a natural fit for tanky healing decks like Torterra ex. If they hit you and don't proc the Focus Bondage, you heal back to full with Whimsicott and preserve the tool for another use. If you would get KOed by something like Chien-Pao or Raichu, you make them use up more resources without giving them any prize cards.

Assuming they don't reprint it, I could see this Ace seeing a lot more play once Lost Vacuum rotates.
 
Dark Espeon said:
There is some form of protection of Pokémon tool Ace-Specs. Roseanne's Backup can be used to reshuffle Pokémon Tool Ace-Specs back into the deck to reuse them. Item Ace-Specs do not have this option outside of Cyllene which is a 75% chance to succeed and can be used to retrieve other cards too.
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There are a couple of attacks that can reshuffle cards too, for what it's worth.
 
Not good for a one of. They REALLY should have put on the card that its unaffected by other card effects on the card just so it doesnt get sent to the grave by any of the effects that would remove it. Really not a fan of how they design cards that need to survive an opponents turn to work when no cross turn play exist. Looks cool though but if side decks exist, then maybe. I suppose it can keep Pidgeot alive for a turn or my Charizard I guess but it needs to survive.
 
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