art by Hitoshi Ariga
Primal Clash has now been officially released in stores! A new epic battle is about to ensue with this set as the stage has been set! Land vs Sea! Fairy vs Steel! Everything is being set up for a new battle that will rock the TCG. A flood of new cards will be coming out to help create in strategies. There are several cards in this set that will prove to shake the very foundations of the TCG while creating some rough seas for veterans. To start off our look into Primal Clash, we will be taking a look at a card that is making waves among players. This week we are featuring: Archie’s Ace in the Hole!
Archie’s Ace in the Hole is a Supporter trainer card based on Team Aqua’s Leader Archie. The art on this card is based on his OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire design. This card can only be played when it is your only card in your hand. If you play this card then you can gain a new hand of five cards and place one Water type Pokemon from your discard to your bench.
Pros
This week we will feature the Supporter card Archie’s Ace in the Hole to break the normal of featuring Pokemon from the new set. There are plenty of interesting cards from Primal Clash but this Supporter card has been gaining a lot of talk. Archie’s Ace in the Hole is a powerful Supporter card as it gives you a new hand while placing a Water type Pokemon from your Discard onto your bench. That sounds nice but the best part is yet to come. The card does not mentions what kind of Water type Pokemon.
What does this mean? You can easily discard a Stage 2 Blastoise using an Ultra Ball during your first turn and find ways to get your hand down to where Archie’s Ace in the Hole is your only card. Then you can play Archie’s to gain a new hand and place the Blastoise that you had earlier discarded on to your bench. That means you were able to place a Stage 2 Pokemon on the bench on turn one without even playing Squirtle or any other card. From there you can simply start using Blastoise’s Deluge ability to flood your Pokemon with Water energy.
Maybe you have bigger plans with Archie’s Ace in the Hole. Perhaps you want to use Archie’s to place a Primal Kyorge EX on the bench without wasting time or resources on Mega Evolving. Now that will really scare your opponent.
There are plenty of Water type Pokemon that can be used in combination with Archie’s Ace in the Hole. Some of these Pokemon besides Blastoise and Primal Kyorge include: Empoleon, Keldeo EX, Suicune, Seismitoad EX and many more. That is the advantage that Archie’s Ace in the Hole has over Maxie’s Hidden Ball trick which has the same effects and conditions.
Did we mention that this card can help refresh your hand and get you any Water type Pokemon from your discard to help you in a pinch? Because it can do that.
Cons
The biggest con to using Archie’s Ace in the Hole is getting to the point where Archie’s is your final and only card in your hand. There are a few ways to make it where Archie’s is your only card in your hand but those ways involve using Items which could be shutdown by the growing popularity of Semistoad EX.
It will be great to play your hand to one if you can but if you draw into Archie’s Ace in the Hole in the middle of a Supporter drought then you may not be able to play it right away. After all, there are some items that can only work when you fulfill certain conditions. So you may not be fast enough to play your hand down to one in order to take advantage of Archie’s right away.
The fact that you can’t play it right away compare to other Supporters, especially draw based Supporters, may be what keeps Archie’s Ace in the Hole from being played. It has a pretty interesting effect with the ability to play Stage 2 Pokemon easily but you must meet certain conditions in order to play it. You literally need to place yourself into a corner to play this card.
Lastly, you must have a Water type Pokemon in your discard. If you don’t have a Water type Pokemon in your discard then don’t expect to get that new hand anytime soon.
How to Use It
In order to use Archie’s Ace in the Hole, you will need to play down everything in your hand. One angle to approach this goal is to play cards that you can use instantly such as Roller Skates, Dive Ball, Crushing Hammer and Hypnotoxic Laser. Also you will need to play cards that will eliminate cards in your hand that can’t be played down easily. Some of these cards for you to consider include: Maintenance, Computer Search or Ultra Ball. Your best bet is to use Ultra Ball or Computer Search but Maintenance is somewhat worth mentioning.
Archie’s Ace in the Hole has an awkward name but it could see some use once that perfect formula to exploit it can be found. It is a powerful card that can really put you in a better situation. You just need to figure out how to do that. Once you do then expect to flood your opponent in an onslaught of attacks!
