Which is better: Cheren vs. Bianca

[The Fallen One]

So I've been getting back into the TCG in the past month or so, and I have a question that I'm not quite sure results in a matter of taste. Everywhere I go and look at supporter lines, I see a lot of Bianca...but not many Cheren? Which is really that much better?

Cheren draws 3 cards consistently every single time you play it.

Bianca draws anywhere from 1-6, and might not yield as many cards in Cheren in several hand situations.

Which do you feel is better, and why?

 

[PMJ]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

Bianca is used more because smaller hand sizes are typically more common, so it yields more cards drawn.

Cheren has its uses, though. Decks like Keldeo which won't always have a small hand can appreciate a straight three-card draw at any time.

 

[Blah]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

Bianca is used more because smaller hand sizes are typically more common, so it yields more cards drawn.

Cheren has its uses, though. Decks like Keldeo which won't always have a small hand can appreciate a straight three-card draw at any time.

Actually, Keldeo is one of the decks doesn't particularly like Cheren (based on my testing, at least). Since you're spamming energy, Ultra Ball, and Pokemon down on the field at all times, it often has extremely small hand sizes (unless you play Tropical Beach.)

Anyway, as mentioned, Bianca tends to be better because 99% of decks run 3-4 Ultra Ball and are playing a lot of cards every turn. Even fighting decks that don't have huge combos they can pull off every turn seem to benefit more from Bianca. The only main example I can think of that really can't make use of Bianca at all is Empoleon because you almost always have a huge hand from Diving Draw.

Overall, the best answer to this is to test out each for yourself and find out which really benefits the deck you play more.

 

[Zarco]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

Bianca is generally better. Some decks kind of like Cheren but even RR is a superior choice to Cheren most of the time.

 

[Machamp The Champion]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

I hate Bianca, Cheren wins, 'nuff said. OK, I'm actually going to try to be helpful here, but I may be overly biased occasionally.

With Bianca, drawing it early game is almost always the worst. You usually have a hand full of resources, like Catcher, Switches, Energies, Computer Search, evolutions, and stuff you really don't want to get rid of. If you have Bianca in your hand, you have 2 choices: Use a whole bunch of stuff that's going to be useful later and maybe draw like 3 to 4 cards. Or you play as conservatively as possible and draw like 1 or 2 cards. Both of them put you in a terrible position to win the game, and Cheren is just straight better in that situation.

Sometimes you get those hands that are full of search cards and stuff that's good to play down, and you usually still just draw around 3 cards. Which is still worse then Cheren, since with Cheren you have knowledge of what you're going to have before you play those cards.

Now, the only perk of playing Bianca in my opinion is it's late game power over Cheren. In the late game, after you've used resources for more productive things, and N after N makes your hand smaller and smaller, Bianca because more powerful the later the game goes on.

If I were to ever play Bianca (which I probably won't), I'd probably only play around 2. Having the standard 4 Juniper, 4 N with your only other supporters being 4 Bianca is probably the dumbest thing I can think of doing in a deck. You want as little possibility as possible of having it in your starting hand.

Pretty much the only deck where Bianca might be better then Cheren in a lot more situations is Darkrai decks, which have Sableye to get back those trainers. But even Darkrai can have hands full of unplayable cards (like Hydreigon pieces, Eviolite's but no Darkrai, Potion), or no Sableye to get them back for a while. But all of this is pointless since Darkrai just uses Skyla and Random Receiver now.

I also don't like Skyla for similar reasons. Where half the time I draw it, I'm going "Why can't this be ANY other Supporter?!" But with Skyla, it's more based on the deck. Bianca, it's like that in every deck.

Neither are that great, I'd usually just use Skyla and Random Receiver instead of both anyway. I think the choice is based on whether you want to risk starting with Bianca, or risk having slightly weaker hands with Cheren, and I do mean slightly.

 

[Slowbro]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

You can't say one card is flat out better. A comparison would be I don't know, something like which is better, Darkrai or Mewtwo. Yes, arguments can be made for both, but in certain situations, you'd rather have Darkrai, when in others, you'd rather have Mewtwo. Same with Cheren/Bianca. In certain decks and situations, you'll favor Bianca. In others, you'll favor Cheren. They're both solid cards, and just play whatever fits your playstyle. If you're a conservative player who tends to have big hands, go with Cheren. If you play cards down more and tend to have a smaller hand size, Bianca is the way to go. Generally, fast basic decks tend to go with Bianca, as they can usually play down their hands, while stage 2 decks usually favor Cheren because it's easier to fish for the rare candy+stage 2 with it. It all comes down to how you play and what you're playing.

 

[Vulpix Yolk]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

For the most part, I feel that Bianca is stronger card than Cheren. This may sound ridiculous, but usually, when I play against people who are using Cheren over Bianca, I win. Cheren may be equal as a card, but often times, something is wrong with your list, or playstyle, if you can't effectively utilize Bianca. Being stuck with large hands that you can't play anything out of is a sign of inconsistency. Obviously, there are exceptions, and this applies to some lists more than other (for instance, Landorus Variants) but a T1 Cheren really isn't a good way to start off a game. You want a significant draw early on. You want to be able to burn through a decent amount of cards to get what you need out. Playing Cheren is a sign that you aren't able to play your hand out often, which means you are constantly hitting dead cards. Being able to use Bianca effectively is often times a good sign. If you can get Cheren to work well for you, great, but I'd honestly recommend Bianca, because when it works, which should be fairly often, it works much better. Either way, it generally comes down to player preference. I usually go with either of the following Supporter lines:

x4 Random Receiver
x4 Juniper
x4 N
x2 Bianca

or

x4 Random Receiver
x4 N
x4 Juniper

You don't really need either, but I do find 2 Bianca to rather nice if I can find room for it. I'd also like to mention that both of these Supporters will most likely become completely irrelevant once Colress is released.

 

[pokedan24]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

I prefer cheren because it's one of those cards that's never bad to draw into. Like juniper and N, you won't want to play bianca when your hand size is high. And when I have a low hand size, juniper and N are almost always better. Since I'm usually running juniper and N anyway, why not play a supporter I can play any time?

Bianca is still very good, but I just like cheren better.

 

[dmaster]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

With the addition of Skyla into the format, I absolutely hate Cheren. I actually can't really think of a deck that would prefer it over a combination of Bianca and/or Skyla.

Searching for a crucial Trainer is usually way better than just drawing three cards (and probably whiffing). With most decks playing Ultra Ball, Bianca provides better draw and there's really no reason to run four draw cards when you can have guaranteed clutch search to win games.

dmaster out.

 

[The Fallen One]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

Ah, but what about Random Receiver? I see some people use 4 of them, I see some people use none at all. What advantage does it actually gain you, and is it always the best choice to have at least 2 of?

 

[dmaster]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

I personally only like Random Receiver in decks that use Sableye's Junk Hunt. Random Receiver into Skyla is pretty poor and without a way to reuse the Trainer, there goes one of your Supporter outs so to speak. I didn't even like it last format in non-Sableye decks but I know people preferred it over playing all four of the good Supporters. With Skyla now out, Random Receiver becomes a little weaker, at least for me.

dmaster out.

 

[Vulpix Yolk]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

Skyla and Random Receiver don't work well together in the same list, that's why I don't play Skyla lol. Random Receiver is amazing if your list is designed to support it. With 4 N, 4 Juniper and 4 Random Receiver, you are only going to hit hand refresh Supporters, so it is reliable and predictable.

 

[RogueChomp]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

However, what if you don't want to get rid of your hand and need to draw into something? That's where you need draw supporters like Bianca or Cheren.
Cheren is pretty nice in decks that use Tropical Beach, Empoleon, or need a large hand to operate (Ambipom hardy har har).
Bianca is great in Darkrai, Eels, Blastoise Keldeo, pretty much any deck with Ultra Ball, Landorus EX, etc.

---

If I were to ever play Bianca (which I probably won't), I'd probably only play around 2. Having the standard 4 Juniper, 4 N with your only other supporters being 4 Bianca is probably the dumbest thing I can think of doing in a deck. You want as little possibility as possible of having it in your starting hand.

Actually the only thing dumber would be 4 Hooligans or Cilan.

 

[The Fallen One]

RE: Cheren vs. Bianca?

Skyla and Random Receiver don't work well together in the same list, that's why I don't play Skyla lol. Random Receiver is amazing if your list is designed to support it. With 4 N, 4 Juniper and 4 Random Receiver, you are only going to hit hand refresh Supporters, so it is reliable and predictable.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I'm probably just going to drop Random Receiver since my lists aren't really optimized for it, and since I'm putting in 3 Skyla that makes it useless.