Get ready for ya boy!
Burning Shadows has brought in so many new and interesting Trainer cards. Some of them are nice and sweet while others are pretty bad. That is why we are going to focus on one of the biggest and baddest cards from the set. This card will make sure that the beat down continues no matter what. You can try to run from this card but he will drag you back into the shadows and leave you all bruised up. Nowhere is safe from this big bad boss! He has the big bad beats in so many ways. So get ready as we feature a card that is a staple in every deck! Get ready for ya boy, Guzma!
Guzma is a Supporter card from Burning Shadows. This card allows you to choose one of your opponents Pokemon from the bench and put it into the active. When you do this then you will have to swap your active Pokemon with your bench Pokemon. If your opponent has no benched Pokemon then you are not allow to use this card due to having no target. You can not play another Supporter if you played Guzma during your turn.
The Pros
What is the biggest pro to using Guzma? That you do not need to rely on getting heads with Pokemon Catcher.
Everybody knew that there was going to be a high chance for Lysandre to be rotated. Some were already trying to figure out how to play in a format without “Gust of Wind” effect cards. The effect that drags one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon into the active so you can knock them out or stall. The only card that would allow us to do that was Pokemon Catcher but nobody wanted that. Imagine if your opponent wins simply because they got lucky on a heads with Pokemon Catcher.
Then Guzma was introduced to be our new “Gust of Wind” card. This card gave you the ability to drag your opponent’s benched Pokemon into the active but it also gave you a “Switch” effect.
This Switch effect was something new that helped give balance that Lysandre didn’t have. Now your opponent had to think about who they were going to put in the active. There was no matter instant win games by simply saying, “Lysandre for game”. That is because if you Guzma that you needed to follow up with a retreat. After all, you can’t win the game if the Pokemon you put in the active wasn’t ready to attack.
The Switch effect could also help you out in a sticky situation. Let say that somehow you found yourself with a heavy Pokemon in the active. Your opponent has a Pokemon in the active that is ready to attack. You can always play Guzma to move your Pokemon out of the active while putting a Pokemon who is not ready to retreat or attack in your opponent’s active position.
The Cons
If you do not think before using Guzma then you will be in a world of pain.
As mention before, you can’t just say “Guzma for game”. You will need to do one of two things. Either switch to a free retreat Pokemon or use Guzma to put a free retreat Pokemon in the active.
If you simply just decide to use Guzma to put the Pokemon you want to knockout in the active but you can’t preform the attack then all you did was simply force your opponent and yourself to switch their active. That doesn’t put you in any position to win the game. It forces you to find a way to retreat before your opponent. That can easily be done if they have a Float Stone which will just make your ill planning a possibility to lose for you.
The last thing you want to do is force a Tapu Lele GX into the active and not have the energy, Float Stone or Switch to replace it with your attacker. Even worst, putting a Metagross GX in the active who has a hefty retreat cost and not enough energy in the discard to retreat it. All you did was give your opponent the chance to win the game.
How Would You Play It
I will be honest right now, I knew Guzma would be a big card but only after Rotation. My thoughts were that a few decks would use it at the World Championships such as Golisopod GX and Metagross GX decks. After all, they have heavy retreat costs and wouldn’t mind swapping out attackers. Though I was surprise to see that almost every deck at Worlds were using it. This blew my mind as it looked as if players were accepting Guzma with open arms. Apparently people like the ability to swap out their active Pokemon with another one if it means they can get rid of status conditions or just break a stall. Color me surprise when I saw Guzma being used over Lysandre in almost every match during the World Championships.
Now every deck has to play Guzma. If you want to get a knockout on one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon then Guzma is your boy. That is if you want to play Pokemon Catcher. Nobody wants to play Pokemon Catcher.
So lets talk about one deck who wants to play Guzma as many times as they want: Golisopod GX.
Golisopod GX wants to keep putting a new Golisopod GX into the active every turn. That way they can constantly use First Impressions for big damage for a single energy. There will need to be a constant switching out and Guzma can help with that. This Supporter allows Golisopod GX to switch their attacker while also hitting another new Pokemon. This can be helpful as it allows the Golisopod GX player to spread damage around and set up knockouts later in the game.
The problem with Golisopod GX decks is that they do not hit hard enough with First Impressions. The card only hits 120 damage or 150 with a Choice Band. That is nice but it isn’t a knockout all the time. If you are able to do that three times on three of your opponent’s benched Pokemon then that could be knockouts for the future. Now that is doable. Especially if you are using Guzma. You just got to be able to set up the knockouts and plan your attacks.
Another deck that will enjoy having Guzma in their ranks will be Metagross GX. This deck has nothing but heavy retreat Pokemon. Even better, these Pokemon have to wait a turn before they can attack again. That is where Guzma comes in. You can simply retreat to another Metagross GX and then use Guzma to attack with another Metagross GX. That is after you power up the Metagross GX with Geotech System.
There are a few ways to use Guzma in Metagross GX. You can just use Guzma to put in a Metgross GX with some energy. If you do this then you can conserve the active one with energy for later in case you need to use it. That way in case you do find yourself unable to use Geotech System then you have another attacker ready to go.
Worst comes to worst, somebody is bound to put a Metagross GX with no energy on it or in the discard to stall you. Simply use Guzma to swap that trapped Metagross GX with your ready to battle Metagross GX. Add insult to injury by knocking out their Pokemon who was prepping to attack.
So how would somebody who doesn’t play Golisopod GX or Metagross GX play Guzma? Simply play it when you have a Pokemon with free retreat on the bench. It is easy as that. You will use Guzma to pull a Tapu Lele GX into the active. Next, you will swap your active with a Tapu Koko or a Pokemon that has a Float Stone attached to them. After that, retreat the free retreat Pokemon with your attacker and knockout Tapu Lele GX for your last prize.
This does take some planning as you need to make sure you have a Float Stone in your deck. Maybe you should think about using Tapu Koko. After all, this Pokemon does have an easy to pay attack and could put some early game pressure on your opponent.
Guzma is a big and bad card that will make sure the beatings will continue. Make sure that you play this card if you want to bring the beat down on your opponent! If not then be prepare to be called a numbskull.
