Overlord Drakow
Banned
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- Seen Nov 6, 2019
Introduction
Hello again Pokemon TCG battlers of Pokecommunity. Last time I talked about the effects on the metagame caused by Pokemon Catcher here. Today I want to evaluate an often overlooked Supporter card known as Seeker. The purpose of this article is to break down and evaluate the many different purposes this card can serve in a deck and how a trainer can maximise the potential of Seeker to grant that competitive edge in battle. Here is what the card does.
Each player returns 1 of his or her benched Pokemon and all cards attached to it to his or her hand. (You return your Pokemon first.)
The plan is for this article to follow a similar format to the previous one on Pokemon Catcher. Without further delay let's dive into the meat of this article.
Visiting the past – Scoop Up
First off I would like to mention that Seeker has a unique effect. While it is a one of a kind, it can still be compared to the old school Scoop Up. Scoop Up was one of the only cards that could return a Pokemon to your hand back in the old days (the other card was Devolution Spray). A staple especially in the popular Haymaker deck as a wounded basic Pokemon could be returned and immediately benched and could even attack in the same turn with a single energy attachment. It prevented opponents from scoring prizes and allowed the deck to survive longer. For the more hard hitting decks, Scoop Up also provided a way to remove your active Pokemon to bring in a heavy hitter without having to retreat. A pseudo Switch if you will. Rare Candy ensured that when an evolved Pokemon was returned to the hand, it would be back on the bench on the same turn so not much momentum was lost even for evolution decks. Scoop Up eventually got rotated out and Super Scoop Up was created – essentially a Scoop Up but required a successful coin flip. Despite the flaw, many people still used Super Scoop Up for its incredibly simplistic yet versatile effect. Also there were some good Poke Powers around which could be reused with Super Scoop Up. Fast forward further when Seeker was released and people have been playing around with both cards. The next section will look into this prospect further.
Comparing Seeker and Super Scoop Up
The best way to evaluate these two cards is to contrast the two together and thereby gain an understanding of the main distinctions between these cards. A brief overview of points followed by a summary will be the agenda for this section.
-Similarities.
-Both can be used to heal a Pokemon and salvage any attached cards back to your hand to reuse.
-Both can be used to return a Pokemon to reuse a Pokemon Power.
-Differences.
-Super Scoop Up requires a successful coin flip to resolve whereas Seeker is guaranteed to activate.
-Super Scoop Up is a Trainer card so can be recycled with Junk Arm and multiple copies can be played in a single turn to possibly bypass the coin flip draw back, while Seeker is a Supporter so can only be used once per turn. Bear in mind that Super Scoop Up is useless in the face of a Trainer Lock though Seeker bypasses such a lockdown.
-Super Scoop Up can be used as a pseudo Switch by returning the active Pokemon back to hand. Seeker can only return benched Pokemon to the hand so it cannot be used in this manner. Super Scoop Up can only return one of your own Pokemon back to the hand whereas Seeker forces each player to return a benched Pokemon back to their respective hands, allowing the card to be potentially disruptively.
-Summary.
In a nutshell Seeker sacrifices the possible utility of returning your active Pokemon in exchange for a guaranteed potentially disruptive effect by forcing the opponent to return one of their benched Pokemon.
Power of Seeker
This section aims to really break down the many uses Seeker can give as a means for the reader to get the full mileage out of this card.
-Seeker can win games.
Yes you read that correctly. The card can win games. The most basic example would be using Seeker to get rid of your opponent's only benched Pokemon and then knock out their active Pokemon in the same turn. Such a concept is definitely feasible and I've accomplished it a fair few times. There was a short period of time where a deck known as Uxie Donk was running rampart especially in the United Kingdom. The deck ran a full set of Seeker to simultaneously increase the chances of donking the opponent quickly and reusing Uxie's Poke Power to draw more cards. One achieves maximum power out of Seeker when it is used in this way as one takes full advantage of what the card can do.
-Disruption.
Playing Seeker correctly can disrupt your opponent's set up immensely. If you read my last article, it mentions that an almost foolproof method to ensure that you can evolve a Pokemon on the next turn is to place two copies of the Basic Pokemon on the bench in the same turn. Seeker is one of the few cards that can disrupt this tactic for it can force one of the Basic Pokemon back and then with Pokemon Catcher, the other can be lured to the active position to be knocked out. At the bare minimum, that will set your opponent back a single turn and the momentum is in your favour. Speaking of Pokemon Catcher, it is in my opinion the best card to partner up with Seeker for disruptive and offensive card play. A situation may arise when your opponent has a Pokemon that they can return to their hand without suffering any major repercussions. Pokemon Catcher can draw out that Pokemon to the active spot and the follow up Seeker can force your opponent into a lose lose situation where they have no choice but to return one of their key Pokemon back to their hand.
-Augmentation.
It has already been mentioned how Seeker can further your own goals by healing your Pokemon, reusing Poke Powers and whatnot. I want to dive deeper into an example involving Trainer Lock. Often a Trainer Lock deck will not pack many Trainer Cards as they are useless once the lock is established. An interesting thing about Seeker is that it can be effective both in and against a Trainer Lock strategy. Trainer Lock can be quite slow to set up at times due to the lack of Trainer cards. Seeker allows one the prospect of increasing the amount of Trainers in the deck because it can remove Vileploom at your will. As long as you have another benched Pokemon which can evolve into Vileploom in the same turn, you can use Seeker to temporarily remove the lock, play your trainers and then reinstigate the lock down to give you a deadly advantage. Against the Trainer Lock deck, Seeker can force the opponent to return their Vileploom back to their hand, allowing you to continue your momentum. This example is mentioned because I believe it will have relevance in the future as a deck called Bearploom may soon see rise in competitive play.
Conclusion
That's it for this article. I would like to take this opportunity to mention that Seeker is quite a difficult card to use effectively whereas Super Scoop Up takes far little skill at all to play - it's almost mindless. The reason is because Seeker requires interaction with your opponent. As a stand alone card, Seeker is decent but the card truly stands out when you can combo it with other cards. It's plausible to run Seeker in pretty much any deck but some deck strategies can make the most out of Seeker. If you do end up testing this card out in your deck, don't feel too disheartened or discouraged if it seems mediocre at first. Take my word when I say you really need to test the card out extensively and really get a feel for it to truly appreciate the many many different things the card can do. Ideally, you have found this information valuable and perhaps this will aid you in the process of building your Pokemon deck. It is not my intention to write these articles on a regular basis so do not expect to see any new articles from me in the future. Good day to you all and happy battling.
