I have played entirely too much 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon TCG Pocket. I have 1,396 wins out of an unidentified number of matches. I’m guessing around 2,000. I own (well, “own”) 5,062 cards. Don’t mistake any of these statistics f༺or some kind of pathetic humblebrag. Truly, I have spent too much time with this mobile retooling of the perennially popular TCG. My only point is that, with so many hours logged dueling strangers in three-point bouts with thoughtfully-configur𒀰ed 20-card decks, it has always been understandably difficult to choose a single favourite card. Until now.
Banette is that card. Banette is spectacular. Let me tell you a bit about Banette. It’s a sentient abandoned doll. Understandably, it nurses quite the grudge. It weighs 27.ꦅ6 pounds, stands 3’7”, and it has frustrated enough of my foes that I want to construct a shrine in its honour. It is low-key the single best card in Pokemon TCG Pocket right now, and all of you need to put some more respect on its name.
Cyrodiil Feels So Much Bigger♉ When You Decide Not To Fast Travel Anywhere
There are a lot of roads in Cyrodiil - trustℱ me, ౠI know.
At 90 HP, Banette can’t withstand the meta’s myriad powerful attacks. Its weakness to the prevalent Darkness type does it no favours, either. It’s a Stage One card, meaning it evol🌼ves from a Basic Pokemon - namely, Shuppet - rather than needing to jump through the hoops of a middle evolution as a Stage Two. Except, now that Rare Candy has been introduced to the game, and middle evolutions can be bypassed altogether, B🀅anette arrives at a time when the distinction is largely meaningless.
None of that is great! No wonder it’s so frequently ignored. One might even say this card suffers from a sense of abandonment. Oไh, and I almost forgot: its attack only deals 30 damage. Banette, however, is the quintessential example of why every Pokemon TCG Pocket player needs to read the fine print. Night Bind, that aforementioned 30-damage attack, has quite possibly the most important text of them all.
In A Bind And Way Behind
Night Bind locks your opponent out of attaching any Energy from their Energy Zone to their Active Pokemon on their next turn. Read that again for good measure. We’ll start with the obvious: Energy is absolutely vital to victory. By sealing off that pivotal portion of Pokemon TCG Pocket’s rhythm, the whole dynamic is shoved sideways. It can leave folks in disarray. Now, we’ll move into the subtle insinuation. The insidio♕us tidbit. Banette’s Pokedex-established grudge.
You cannot switch out your Active Pokemon for another in order to♌ escape this side effect. The impulse, as I have witnessed time and again, is to laugh at Night Bind by swapping the affected Pokemon for another before bothering to attach an Energy to the newcomer. Nope, sorry, nothing’s changed. You’re stuck. And you’reꦇ going to get stuck all over again, because you’d best believe I’m going to use Night Bind some more. All the Leafs and X Speeds in the world can only take you so far; Banette will continue using Night Bind until you’ve run out of them. You can only have two of each in your deck, besides, so really, you’re just flat-out hamstrung.
And here’s another thing. How many decks have you encountered of late that don’t even have those cards? Solgaleo, for instance, is a current terror in the meta. Rare Candy your Cosmog into this menace, use its Rising Road Ability to leap into Active position, and surely, your opponent will be terrified. But so many players have been leaping without looking. They’ll attach that second Energy, or maybe even the first of the two Metal Energy required in order to use its 120-damage attack, only ไafter they’re in the line of fire. Or rather, they won’t do anything of the sort. Because Banette.
Now, Solgaleo is still a threat. A mere two Metal Energy requirement means there’s a fair chance it's comin'♛ out swinging. That’s where Team Rocket Grunt comes into play. I’ve never cared much for coin flip cards; a 50 percent chance of failure is too steep for my tastes. But Team Rocket Grunt is different. One successful heads flip slashes an Energy from the target. ꦐWith Night Bind, that’s frequently enough to royally wreck the best-laid plans. Further heads are just salt in the wound.
But Solgaleo is one of the worst possible matchups for a Banette deck, and even then, it’s not so bad. Here’s my favourite victim: Shining Revelry’s Charizard ex. As 🍒soon as we all got wind of Celestial Guardians’ incoming Rare Candy card, many of us realized that SR Charizard ex was going to be beastly. Rare Candy your Charmander into Charizard; use Stoke to attach a whopping three Fire Energy at once; use Steam Artillery on your next turn for 150 damage with zero downside. Foes are cooked to a crisp.
This is the part where rival players have conceded, or even rage-quit on me, en masse. Stoke does not w♚ork when Night Bind is in effect. Night Bind’s clause applies even to attacks with Energy-pull potential. It’s a wasted turn. It leaves Charizard ex dangling helplessly for a more powerful Pokemon of mine to swoop in for the kill. There’s a decent chance your opponent won’t be able to get that Charizard ex back safely to the Bench, either. It, like so many further powerhouses, is a sitting Ducklett. Stoke has gone from frightening to laugh-inducing.
Worried about the omnipresent Giratina ex? Don’t be. Broken-Space Bellow won’t work for the same reason. And what about a Benched Giratina ex? That is, the spot where most Broken-Space Bellowing actually takes place? That’s why you bring Tapu Lele to the battle. Swaওp it in - I recommend keeping it in your hand so as not to reveal its presence until it’s time to do the deed - and you can hit Giratina ex or any other Benched Pokemon bursting with Energy for 20 damage per attachment. Time and again, players have stacked their stuck Benches with Energy after Energy while their Active Pokemon is incapable of escaping Banette, with the goal of destroying me as soon as I’m done smacking 30-damage totals on that poor, unfortunate target until it’s dead and dusted. Tapu Lele slurps it up and wins me the match.
I may compose an ode to Baneꦿtte. I’m not going to write a feature about it if I do. No one needs to read my fanfiction. But the underappreciated might of this scorned doll is no mere fiction. Banette is coming for 𓄧you all.
Man, I Kind Of Wish I Pre-Order🍸ed The Switch 2 I🐎n Person
I got my Switch 2 pre-order while refreshing pages for Best Buy, Target, and Walꦜmart, but now I wish I hadn't.
