Draw Support

totodile_it_down

totodile_it_down

Rogue Life
Member
So with the re-arrival of VS Seeker, what are your draw support lines going to look like? I kind of like the idea of stashing a Sycamore or an N in the discard pile with Battle Compressor so you can Seek it out at a later time, potentially allowing you to run fewer draw supporters as you continually recycle them.

Could I get away with just 4 Sycamore and 4 N, or is that too thin?
 
I think with Seismitoad-EX around, you can't rely too much on VS Seeker, so going 4 Sycamore/4 N just won't work. The primary thing VS Seeker will enable in this format is allowing you to run tech supporters like Xerosic, Skyla, Iris, Pokemon Fan Club, etc.

At most I might run 2 VS Seeker in a deck, unless you have a really strong answer to Seismitoad already. Still, 2 seems like a good round number.
 
I've done a little testing with a Battle Compressor/Vs Seeker engine myself, and my advice is to not throw it in all of your decks. First of all, it almost never works out the way people are saying. It's such an inconsistent engine unless you are willing to bump each to 4-of. Even then, I don't think it would work well. Plus there's SeismitoadEX, which for some reason everybody was ignoring while getting hyped about an Item-based draw engine. Battle Compressor should not be used in a deck unless it is a pretty vital part of the strategy (mainly Flareon). Despite the false hype of BC, I've found that 1 or 2 Vs Seeker alongside your usual Supporters (or one less supporter if you feel brave) can get you out of a tough spot mid-late game.
 
Battle compressor is more of a deck specific card. The biggest problem with the card is finding the space for it. It's just more cards to put in a deck and unless I'm playing something like Flareon or Night March, I don't think it's worth it. (though I'm debating keeping one in a Kingdra deck for a big Dragon Vortex).

VS Seeker, on the other hand, is amazing, even with Seismatoad EX in the format. Much better than Random Receiver, Pal Pad, or any of the item based draw cards. Basically, I run 10 draw supporters, 3 or 4 VS Seeker, and several 1 ofs such as Trump Card, Xerosic, Iris, Lysandre (which still might be worth playing 2). To ensure I have a draw supporter early game, I play a Jirachi EX and max ultra ball. I still get the benefits of supporters, but the one ofs allow decks to do a lot of cool things. Reusing Lysandre, playing Trump Card to ensure no card is ever gone forever, even something like Iris. Iris actually makes me less afraid of Pyroar in the bronzong Matchup. Why? Because it can enable Bronzong with a muscle band (a one prize attacker) to score a quick KO on Pyroar. The same could work for aromatisse. It's not foul proof and has a lot of holes, but it doesn't require sacreficing much consistency, and gives you a fighting chance.

Another card I'm liking more is Pokemon Fan Club. It's a good one to get early game with Jirachi and you really only need 1 or 2.
 
I've done some play-testing already with VS Seeker and found that it works best when there are just 1-2 in my tournament decks (I have 4 different decks). My "normal," "core," card-draw support consists of 2 Colress, 4 N and 3 Professor Juniper (I very seldom ever run 4 of these in my decks); these counts have not changed. But, cards like Bicycle, Pal Pad and/or Shauna have.

IMO, inclusion and count of VS Seeker is quite player's style and deck dependent.
 
Very interesting. I think I agree that VS Seeker is best used for retrieval of techs as opposed to it being relied upon for draw support, though being able to grab a Sycamore when needed is a nice plus.

Battle Compressor is a bit more debatable. I think most decks would benefit from having at least two copies. They are nice early game to maybe stash a supporter as I described above (VS Seeker), as well as for decks that recycle energy (M Manectric EX, Blastoise, Bronzong, etc..). They are also great late game for deck thinning and last minute combos with VS Seeker again (Battle Compressor a Lysandre, VS Seeker for it, win).

Ultimately, I think 2 of each (I actually like 3 VS Seeker) will become fairly commonplace.
 
Maybe instead of VS Seeker you could run a 1-1 Electrode line with Electric Draw? VS Seeker seems like a 1 of in my book because you can grab awesome cards such as AZ, Iris, Pokemon Center Lady, Pokemon Fan Club, Lysandre, or Elesa if you run that. One card that does not get too much spot light is Caitlin, that card can be powerful at times, keep a stage two in your hand and draw into a rare candy?! Can be awesome. Plus you don't reveal them.
 
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