Hi there. In this Pokemon card reveal I cover just one card. This card is very interesting though even though its HP is low at 30 HP. It is Budew from the upcoming Terastal Festival set in Japan. Budew will be a part of the Eevee themed Prismatic Evolutions set to be released in January. That set is so hyped that pre-orders are sold out. (Crazy collectors and possibly scalpers buying up stuff)
This Budew card is one of those weak Pokemon with free retreat and a zero Energy attack. Before this card Cleffa from Obsidian Flames saw some competitive play. Cleffa was also a 30 HP free retreat weak Pokemon that had a free attack where you do no damage but draw cards until 7 cards in hand.
Budew's free attack does 10 damage with the additional effect of having your opponent not being able to play any Item cards from their hand. This Item lock effect is quite powerful and very annoying. Control decks would greatly benefit from cards like Budew.
Item cards in the Pokemon TCG are one time use cards that can be played anytime during your turn. You can play as many Item cards as you like in your turn. Not being to able to use Items after being attacked by Budew does restrict you. Popular item cards include Nest Ball, Buddy Buddy Poffin, Ultra Ball, Rare Candy, Switch, ACE SPEC Prime Catcher and Earthen Vessel. Let's look at how Budew's Item lock can impact your turns.
Nest Ball
Nest Ball is a staple card in every deck. You search for 1 Basic Pokemon from your deck and put into your Bench. Budew's attack in the early game prevents the opponent from setting up more Basic Pokemon to the Bench. It would be pretty annoying.
Ultra Ball
Ultra Ball is another staple card. For the cost of discarding two cards from hand, you search for any Pokemon in your deck and put into your hand. Ultra Ball is commonly used to search for an Evolution Pokemon to evolve into a stronger attacker or more useful utility Pokemon. There are cases where Ultra Ball is used to search for a Basic Pokemon to your hand. Not being able to play Ultra Ball from Budew's item lock can significantly delay certain decks that rely on Evolution Pokemon for attacking.
Buddy Buddy Poffin
Buddy Buddy Poffin is a recent card from early 2024 that is considered a staple card for many evolution based decks. You can search for two Basic Pokemon with 70 HP or less from your deck and put them to your Bench. Just like with the previous Nest Ball and Ultra Ball cards being Item locked from Budew would disrupt setup.
Rare Candy
Rare Candy is an essential card for decks that have Stage 2 Pokemon such as Pidgeot ex, Charizard ex, Dragapult ex and Dusknoirs. Instead of taking two turns to evolve from a Basic Pokemon to a Stage 1 Pokemon then a Stage 2 Pokemon, Rare Candy skips the Stage 1 Evolution. This makes the evolution go from a Basic to Stage 2 Pokemon one turn after the Basic Pokemon is put into play.
Budew's item lock does hurt Stage 2 decks that rely on Rare Candy for their evolutions in order to attack. There is more impact from the Item lock if the Stage 2 deck has a greedy build where they do not have Basic Pokemon attackers and/or do not have Stage 1 Pokemon.
Switch
Switch is a simple Item card that has been reprinted a lot over the years. You just switch your Active Pokemon with one from your Bench. Not being able to Switch due to Budew's Item lock could possibly mean you cannot attack with a non-attacking Pokemon or if you do not have enough Energy to meet the attack costs.
ACE SPEC Prime Catcher
A good handful of the ACE SPEC cards in the format are Item cards. I could go through them all but I rather cover the most expensive one. It is Prime Catcher. Prime Catcher switches your Active Pokemon with one of your Benched Pokemon as well as you switch one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon with their Active Pokemon. Think of it as a double Switch. With Prime Catcher you can target a vulnerable Pokemon on the opponent's Bench. Budew's item lock prevents the opponent from playing such a powerful ACE SPEC item card like Prime Catcher.
Earthen Vessel
Earthen Vessel is a staple card released in late 2023 from the Paradox Rift expansion. The card effect is simple. By discarding 1 card from your hand you can search for two Basic Energy cards from your deck. If you look at it in terms of card advantage it is zero. Being able to thin out 2 cards from deck and search for 2 Basic Energy cards is quite powerful.
Being item locked from Budew's attack prevents you from using Earthen Vessel and searching for Basic Energy cards to power up your attackers.
I do think Budew is pretty impactful but I do see ways to deal with it.
Attack It
Since Budew is weak at 30 HP you would have to simply knock it out. This could be easier said then done though.
Dusclops With Cursed Blast
Decks that run Dusknoir would reconsider using Dusclops. Dusclops' ability knocks itself out to place 5 damage counters on 1 of your opponent's Pokemon.
Munkidori
Munkidori from the Twilight Masquerade set did change the game in a away. You would move up to 3 damage counters from one your Pokemon and transfer into one of your opponent's Pokemon. It is a damage transfer ability where you heal up to 30 HP from one of your damaged Pokemon and transfer that damage to an opponent's Pokemon. This ability is very unique and hard to stop. Being to use Munkidori to hit Budew is most likely easier said than done.
I do see this Budew card changing the game but I don't see it as broken. There are people out there that find counters to anything popular. Solutions do exist. Let's see how it plays out in early 2025.
Thank you for reading.
