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Twilight Masquerade - Rob Wright:
Okay, everyone sing along - Summer’s here and the time is right, for STAYING INSIDE AND PUTTING THE HEATING ON BECAUSE THE WEATHER IS APPALLING AND IT IS STILL COLD. But that is fine, because there’s a new Pokemon set in town with a new card that’s almost as broken as Charizard was last year (Tera Dragapult ex, if you didn’t know). The set is Twilight Masquerade, and as well as the aforementioned Derpapult there are some other tasty cards… and that stupid Waluigi clone, Teal Mask Ogerpon.
I’ve pulled two of the blasted things.
It’s a good card and all, but… ah well, there you go. Good news is that I have also pulled some other very nice cards this month, including the Special Art Rare of Perrin, illustrated by GIDORA (sic) and also featuring a Hisuian Growlithe, reflected in her camera; this is partnered with an Art Rare of a Hisuian Growlithe, also illustrated by GIDORA (sic). For a while this was my best pull (I don’t like to mention the Special Art Rare of the Ogerpong that taught me a pricey lesson), until I pulled an even better one: the Bloodmoon Ursaluna Special Art Rare.
First off, it is a hugely playable card: a basic with a whopping 260 HP and an attack that does 240 damage for five colourless. Impractical, until you see that it has an ability that reduces its attack cost by one energy for each prize card your opponent has taken. Well, that’s a lot better, isn’t it?
The Special Art Rare from MINAMINAMI Take (sic – I still don’t get the caps thing. Someone please explain the caps thing) takes the beauty of this card to another level. This beast of a bear is forging in a tree stump for honey, surrounded by Cutieflies and Teddiursas in a sylvan glade. Delighful! MT’s only other previous Alt Arts were the Charmander promo from the Obsidian Flames ETB and the Detective Pikachu promo, which I don’t think we got over here, so it is nice to see him growing his portfolio in such an elegant fashion.
Shirahoshi - One Piece Card Game: Matthew Morgan
That’s right, I’m back with another fantastic One Piece Card Game pull, and one I’m particularly excited about. This month it’s a pleasure to be showcasing the alternate art version of Shirahoshi from the EB01 set.
The main reason I’m so excited to have pulled this card is because I run it in the competitive Enel deck I’m currently playing in the Regional championships. It’s a strong blocker to play, especially at 2 cost, and can help to hold off any rush characters my opponent might be playing on their following turn. In addition, it can grant me an additional life if it’s ko’d by an effect rather than combat which helps to feed cards into my hand and help me sustain until late game.
But enough about mechanics; let’s talk about the card itself. With the layered foiling on this card, the bright vivid colours really stand out and pop. Almost as much as the subtle air bubbles that can be seen in the background of the card if you look carefully enough.
The only thing I would have preferred in this cards art is something to show off the sheer size of the character herself. Shirahoshi is renowned for being a gigantic mermaid, and it’s frequently mentioned by other characters; especially Luffy. Having Luffy sitting on her tail would have added more charm to the card and given players a bit of a laugh too.
Nonetheless, I’m absolutely thrilled to add this card to my collection and even more pleased to have pulled it from a pack! All that’s left is to find three more of them so I can complete the playset for my deck…
Goofy, Super Goof – Disney Lorcana: Stefano Paravisi
Not surprisingly my TGC Pull of the Month for May is a card from the newest set of Disney Lorcana, “Ursula's Return”. The set released almost a month ago on the 17th of May and it brought so many new features and so many good cards that I really had a hard time picking one card out of it.
After a lot of thinking and debating, I decided that my best pull for May has to be “Goofy, Super Goof” and for two very good reasons. The first one has clearly spoiled by the picture below: I pulled the card as an enchanted. Funny story, it was in one of the 6 booster packs I opened during a sealed event and they were all handed to me by one of the friends I usually play with as he was super confident “there was an enchanted in that box”. I ended up loosing most of my games during the tournament but I keep thinking it was because I was too stunned by my finding to play properly.
The other reason for loving this card (enchanted or not) is how well Goofy can fit into both my two favourite decks Sapphire/Ruby and Amethyst/Ruby. In terms of gameplay, this card is a 4-cost, inkable, Ruby character with a Strength of 2 and a Willpower of 4. Super Goof's superpowers allow him to swiftly swing into action (he has Rush) and to generate two points of Lore every time he challenges a character. Due to his stats, Goofy is surely not as powerful as the demi-god Maui but he is still a good (and cheaper) Rush challenger. I manly use him to put pressure on my opponents and remove any weaker characters that carelessly quested the turn before. When used this way, Super-Goof can easily provide a good amount of additional Lore that can be even more if the opponent set up any location as Goofy can challenge them without taking any damage. A-hyuck! This is the best!
Star Wars Unlimited: Sam De Smith
I’ve had a fair bit of Star Wars Unlimited, been pretty lucky with my booster pulls, but 2 cards have evaded me – Darth Vader, Commanding the 501st and Boba Fett, Disintegrator – which of course are the most expensive, sought after cards in the game’s base set, with competitive players running 3 of each and the price consequently skyrocketing. That, and the base set is proving increasingly tricky to find in the wild. So, whilst I wasn’t going to pay over the odds, I’ve traded away an awful lot of stuff to try to track them down. And then I happened to wander into a local bookshop, and what should they have but a handful of boosters at the front desk alongside the Lorcana and One Piece. Now I always open boosters at the back first, so for SWU that means the foil, and I was genuinely happy to pull a Han Solo – yes, one’s in the starter set, but I’ve actually not pulled him out of a booster, so that was lovely. Flip it round, sort the Commons – and wouldn’t you know it? Boba Fett tracked down Han after all.
