Discussion You Have Both Shauna and Birch in Your Hand. Which Do You Play?

Pinecone

Pinecone

A Pinecone on the Beach
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Due to the similarities of the two, Shauna vs. Birch has been a discussion ever since Birch was revealed. Discussion of this has gone fairly deep and while deck choice can make one or the other a bit more favorable, a players main reason for running one over the other has simply been preference, with Birch more favorable because over the course of a tournament, each Birch is more likely to net you more draws.

Some decks/players have decided to run both Shauna and Birch. There are times when you have both in hand, so which one do you play? Do you play one over the other at all times or do you use one or the other based on certain scenarios?

For me, I determine what % of my deck has an out (Shaymin EX/Ultra Ball, Trainer's Mail, Supporter/Vs. Seeker count) and decide accordingly. If I have burned through a lot of these outs through Sycamore or whatever, I will be more likely to play Shauna. If I haven't used many outs and have a lot of Energy/Pokemon/Tools in play/discard I will be more likely to play Birch as my odds of an out in the 4 cards is greater.

Another situation is I will choose Birch over Shauna if my action for the turn is to use Shaymin's Sky Return. In this case I have an out if my I flip tails.

This might be a bit of over-thinking over just 1 card, but 1 card can be sometimes be the difference in a game. Never-the-less I find the choice interesting and am curious what the methods are for others when presented with this choice during a game.
 
Birch is very much a hit-and-miss type of card, in my opinion, and should be used as such. If you and your opponent are head-to-head or pretty even in a current match, is it worth take a hit-and-miss that could potentially drop you back in the game? In this type of case, I'd say go for the safer option of Shauna. If you're in situation where your opponent is ahead in the prize game, it is often worth taking the risk of Birch, as you'll either improve your game or make no process (the latter is often the case when using a Shauna, anyways). If you're ahead in prizes, especially when you have a lot of drawless cards in your deck, it is often better to take the safe option of Shauna. If you take the risk and fail, you could easily put your opponent ahead. If you take the risk and win, you probably don't advance much further than you did previously anyway, making the risk higher than the reward.
 
Easy:
Birch nets you 5.5 cards
Shauna nets you 5 cards
Which one is better?
I believe 5.5 cards is better. But I might be absurd.
 
I believe that this thread assumes that you play both in your deck list and is more about which situations would you play Shauna and which would you play Professor Birch instead. Note that this is not exactly the same thing as which one is better.
 
The choice comes down to board position and what you need to achieve in that turn. If you're in a winning position, usually Shauna would be a better play due to conservative routes being better than the 'winmore' approach. Birch is a high risk, high reward card and should be treated as such. Use it to get going or to try and bring a trailing game back instead of in a place where an unfortunate tails could throw you behind in the game.

To me the correct play is simply running more Shaymin in place of Birch and relying on Shauna more :^)
 
Birch every time. When would you ever want to use Shauna? If your deck runs so little draw that you need Shauna's fifth card to help you get it then you need to rethink your deck. I'm sure everyone has a story about how a tails on a Birch cost them X or using Shauna did Y for them but the majority of the time, getting 4 cards instead of 5 ain't gonna kill you, I will gladly roll the dice 100% of the time if it means I have a 50% chance to get two more cards.

bring back gambler
 
It's not a clear cut as saying "Birch nets you 5.5 versus Shauna's 5." Firstly, it will never get you 5.5 cards -- it's 4 or 7. Average is irrelevant because it's not like you are playing it all throughout the game -- chances are you will play other supporters like Sycamore and VS Seeker as well. I'm sure some people might argue that you could always draw into the Ultra Ball and use Shaymin's Set Up ability to draw more cards, but wouldn't the same argument apply to Shauna, except you net the extra card too? Clearly drawing 7 is huge, but I am just playing devil's advocate here. The fact is that both are pretty lackluster compared to N and Colress; we are in a format where we are now more reliant on trainer and Pokemon-based draw like Shaymin and Octillery (this should help immensely).
 
I would say that average is still relevant because out of all the times that you would play Shauna or Professor Birch throughout the course of a tournament, statistically speaking, you'll draw an extra 1/2 card each time you play Birch compared to Shauna. It's true that you'll play other Supporters, but you'd play those same Supporters regardless of Shauna vs Birch. That really doesn't tell us anything about Shauna / Birch.

Furthermore, if we consider drawing into a Shaymin with Shauna and drawing into a Shaymin when flipping tails on Birch, we see that the "huge risk" of only getting 4 cards compared to 5 is completely nullified since you'll be drawing to 6 either way. The end result in that case is the same.
 
It depends what the situation is I mean I would normal stick to Shauna. Its really a matter of are you feeling lucky or are you not if you are sure why not go for Birch if you are not feeling so luck go with Shauna. I mean a vesipquen if you run unown and (what deck now a days doesn't run shaymin) well if you fail a Birch and have two unown in play or draw two unown then its a solid 6 card draw or the same thing with Shauna.
 
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