Buy @ TCGplayerL: $0.10 — M: $0.25 — H: $0.83
Tropius (Plasma Blast PLB 5)
[G] Return: 10
Draw cards until you have 6 cards in your hand.
[G][C] Energy Press: 20+
Does 20 more damage for each Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon.
weakness: [L]×2
resistance: [F]-20
retreat: 1
Illus. Shigenori Negishi
Plasma Blast — 5/101 — Uncommon
It flies by flapping its broad leaves and gives the sweet, delicious fruit around its neck to children.
feyblade
For a common, this thing is totally modified playable. Energy Press is pure hate against blastoise/Keldeo, and Return can be useful, though the lost turn makes this so much less desirable than Uxie LA,whether or not the effect is repeatable.
Return should probably be colorless, though the developers might have thought that would make it “too good” for a common.
EverPhoenix
True, for commons (even uncommon) they also have to consider limited. Having it accessible to everyone, not just those willing to commit to using grass, would have been too strong
HEZ
Limited was crippled at B&W and completely died at Next Destinies… considering Limited is the last thing they think of now. Colorless Return doesn’t really stand up to an Emerald Slash or Plasma Blast…
EverPhoenix
There has to be some reason for them printing so many bad cards that will never be used anywhere…
And strong rares (especially ultra rares like EXs) are meant more for modified. Their rarity ensures that they won’t turn up too often in limited.
feyblade
Jank rares help promote sales by making it more difficult for players to get the good rare cards.
On the subject of ultra rares in draft tournaments, Keep in mind that limited tournaments almost as a rule allow players to pull from multiple packs. Most ultra rares will be non-mega EXes, so a good portion of players will get at least one basic Pokemon EX, especially if you have a large base of players competing. You’ll be able to beat a lot of decks merely by good deckbuilding, but you’re almost bound to stumble across a powerful Pokemon EX at some point during a draft tournament,making it exceedingly hard to reach the top without an EX of your own
Mantidactyle
OR they could do like in Team Rocket’s Return and print mostly good rares. The boosters would still sell well.
HEZ
They only need to show up once to wreck an event though. 1 EX 39 Energy has never been possible before B&W series, it’s the most no-brainer deck to build and play… and it’s the best option.
The reason for the bad cards? To fill the set out so you Need to dig for the super rares to compete. Every game has good cards and bad, but the power gap between good and bad in Pokemon has become ridiculous with very little middle ground.
HEZ
Look at a delta set like Dragon Frontiers; the percentage of playable cards is much higher across all rarities. The difference in power level between the cards that made top tier decks and the ones that didn’t is MUCH smaller. This meant you could go full rogue (a completely rogue deck, not a different selection of techs in a T1 deck -__-) and stand a chance. The Basic exs were more like the power level of a regular Stage 2, rather than better than any evolution so they wouldn’t just sweep the event but they’d usually at least take their prizes worth. Ok, screw B&W on, end rant :3
HEZ
Funny how this was the Nationals promo… like they expected it to be popular or something :P
(Not a bad card by any means but not Standard format good)
Dark Kira
I hope Shaymin is enough…