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TCG Jump: Feature Card- Wally

Wally

art by Emi Ando

This weekend marks the start of the Spring Nationals. There will be many tough battles as trainers duke it out in order to win Championship Points but there is a new battle on the horizon. Literally. In the skies is the start of a fierce battle that will bring some roaring changes to the metagame.

This week on TCG Jump, we are going to be featuring a card from Roaring Skies that will surely be a boast to certain decks. This card may seem meek but it can really cause some loud effects on the battle. Just like the inspiration of this card, the effects can take a small and weak Pokemon and make them into a force to be reckon with. This could mean that you may need to face your fears sooner then expected as your opponent plays this card. This week we are featuring Wally from Roaring Skies!

Wally is a Supporter card from Roaring Skies. When this card is played, it allows you to search your deck for an evolution of any Pokemon that you have on your side of the field. You can then evolve that Pokemon. The effect of this card can be used on your first turn or on a Pokemon that was just put into play. The effect of this card is based on Wally’s Training from EX Sandstorm.

The Pros
The best thing about Wally is the last line of text. Which states:

…You can use this card during your first turn or on a Pokémon that was put into play this turn.

This means you can put a Pokemon down and play Wally to evolve it in the same turn the Pokemon was placed on the bench. Even better, you can evolve on the first turn.

Trevenant XYWhat does this means? You can start locking items by using Trevenant on turn one. Garbodor can start locking abilities on the first turn. Bronzong can use Metal Links to power up Pokemon right away! Altaria can get rid of any weaknesses that Normal types may have. Lastly, it means you do not have to spend a turn worrying if your Basic Pokemon will live long enough to evolve.

Wally gives amazing speed to decks that depends on Evolved Pokemon to gain an edge in the battle. This card is a Mega Evosoda thanks to the extra line that says you can evolve any Pokemon no matter when you played it. Wally allows you to search your deck and simply play the Evolved Pokemon as if it was nothing.

Stage One decks will love the ability to get their abilities up on the first turn. That means they won’t have to waste an Ultra Ball searching for the evolve form and playing it while also hoping their opponent won’t Lysandre the Pokemon up to knock it out because they saw though their strategy.

Even Stage Two decks may appreciate Wally in their deck. It won’t evolve the Basic Pokemon into a Stage Two in the same turn but it provides another option to set up your Stage Two quicker. Lets say that you have Wally and Plasma Klinklang in your hand on your first turn and Klink on your bench. You can simply play Wally to evolve your Klink into Klang on your first turn. Then you just need to wait one turn to play your Klinklang to give your Steel type Pokemon immunity from EX Pokemon’s damage. This combo works even if you have a Klang in your hand to evolve into during your second turn. This is just another option that your opponent may not see or be quick enough to prevent.

The Cons
Exeggutor (Plasma Freeze)Wally is a Supporter which means you will need to decide if you want to sacrifice your draw Supporter for the turn in order to evolve. This will really depends on how much you value your evolution. If you really need to evolve that turn then you may want to use Wally to set up your valuable Evolved Pokemon. It may be worth waiting a turn to gain a new hand if you can guarantee getting your evolution set up. Though, if you have a horrible hand and feel lucky enough to draw into the evolution that you need then play the Professor Juniper/Sycamore.

There could be things around this situation to lessen the pain. You can run Wally along side the new Shaymin EX from Roaring Skies with the Set Up ability. You can play Wally to evolve one of your Pokemon. Once you do that then set Shaymin EX on your bench and draw cards until you have a hand of six. This could be used in place of a draw Supporter for the turn.

The other option you have is simply discard Wally using Juniper and use VS Seeker later (hopefully next turn) to get Wally out of the discard and play it next turn to evolve your Pokemon.

The second con to Wally is the popularity of Exeggutor with the Blockade attack. If your opponent is able to use Blockade turn after turn then you will never be able to play Wally to evolve any of your Pokemon. Even worst, you won’t be able to play any draw Supporters. This will make any Supporters in your hand useless.

How to Play It
Garbodor (Dragons Exalted)Wally will not be a four-of card in your deck. You will most likely run one or two Wally in your deck. If you deck depends on evolutions then maybe three but that would be stretching it. That third Wally may be better suited as another draw Supporter or item in your deck.

If your deck relies heavily on Stage One Pokemon then you want to run Wally. The obvious, and as mention earlier in this article, is Garbodor and Trevenant. Both of these cards provide a lock that your opponent will not want. Garbordor with an item attached can shut down your opponent’s abilities on turn one. If you play Seismitoad EX then you can also get item lock on as well which will put your opponent in a serious pinch. If you depend on Trevenant to set up item lock then it may not be a bad thing to start off with Phantump as your active. This just means that you can simply use Wally on your first turn and start the lockdown on your opponent’s items.

Some new ideas to consider from Roaring Skies involving Wally could be Banette. Which one? Both of them.

Banette (Roaring Skies)One Banette has the ability to lock item effects, Item Concealment. This means that any items in play will have no effect on the Pokemon they are attached to. This means no extra 20 damage thanks to Muscle Band, Float Stone doesn’t make the retreat of the attached Pokemon zero, and lastly it means Pokemon with Spirit Links attached to them will end their owner’s turn upon Mega Evolving. That last one will be painfully annoying for people playing Mega Evolution decks.

The other Banette has an interesting attack that sets up evolution lock. Banette’s Evolution Jammer prevents your opponent from evolving Pokemon from their hand. That means they have to rely on things like EvoSoda or Wally to evolve. This card may only do 20 damage per turn but the effect could be all you need to make sure your opponent can’t Mega Evolve or set up their own nasty evolutions.

Other State One Pokemon from Pre-Roaring Skies and after that would love some time with Wally include: Shedinja, Exeggutor, Slurpuff, Bronzong, and any Pokemon that evolves into a Stage Two.

Wally can make any deck that depends on Evolution into a major contender in a format that is all about speed. You need to make things fast if you want to live in this format and Wally can help with that. He may be a meek character in the games but as we all know, Wally can grow into something fierce and that can be said for him in the TCG as well.


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