art by 5ban Graphics
The location of your battle can make all the difference. A good battler knows how the take advantage of their environment. The problem is that sometimes your may be put in an environment that may not be to your liking. You may end up being in a city that isn’t kind to your nature. On the flip side, there is always the town that doesn’t give you much room to move. These things are exactly parallel to each other and you must be ready to face these types of situations when you are in battle. When this happen you must break through these environments and come out on top. Especially if you want to win the battle. This week on TCG Jump, we are going to feature the dual sided stadium, Parallel City!
Parallel City is a Stadium Card from BREAKthrough that has two unique effects which all depends on which side of the card that the player is facing. When the owner of Parallel City places down this stadium, they have the choice of how they want the card to face. If they choose the top part (or the blue side) to face themselves then they will have to play with a bench size of only three Pokemon. If they have more then three Pokemon at the time that this card is played then the player has to discard Pokemon from their bench until they have only three Pokemon on their bench. If the player places the bottom (or red side) to face them then any damage from that players Fire, Grass and Water type Pokemon is reduced by 20 after applying weakness or resistance.
The Pros
The Parallel City Stadium card is not only an amazing card but one of the first of it’s kind. This is the first full art Stadium Card and the art looks amazing. If you were a collector then you will definitely want to add Parallel City to your collection if you haven’t already.
If you are a TCG player then you would want a playset of these cards. You may already have some of these cards already if you went to a few City Championships this season as they were the promo given to every competitor. Parallel City has proven to be an interesting card that can provide some benefits no matter which side you have facing you.
The blue side is maybe the most infamous of the two sides as it can limit a player’s bench to three. Most of the time players would want to limit their opponent’s bench to where they have limited options. This card is powerful against decks like Raichu and M Rayquaza EX who love to cram their bench with Pokemon. This will instantly reduce their power and set them back as these decks will need to regain their Sky Field and fill up their bench with new Pokemon. Though you could also play the blue side towards you. This could help you by getting rid of any Pokemon like Shaymin EX who could be used in the late game against you as easily prize targets.
The red side also has some uses as well if you are playing a Fire deck. Entei with the Theta Double trait has seen a lot of play during Cities. It can use Heat Tackle to do massive damage but the draw back is that it does 30 damage recoil to itself. If you play the red side of Parallel City towards yourself then you may end up doing less damage but if you flip tails while using Heat Tackle then you will only do 10 damage recoil to Entei.
The Cons
One of the cons of playing Parallel City is that it is easily removable. All you have to do is simply play another Stadium card to get rid of it. Several decks play Stadiums such as Rough Seas, Sky Field and Scorched Earth. So it isn’t guarantee that Parallel City will be in effect unless you play cards like Ninetales and Giratina EX.
There are also other wise to get rid of Parallel City such as Lugia EX’s Deep Hurricane attack and Primal Groudon EX’s Gaia Volcano. These attacks do more damage if they are able to discard an active Stadium. Also, BREAKpoint is providing a card that has an effect where it discards an active Stadium.
Lastly, you may not want to be playing another deck that is also playing Parallel City. If your opponent lay their Parallel City first and you end up being on the side that you do not want then you are not allow to play your Parallel City to override theirs. A Stadium can only be removed by another Stadium if the other Stadium being played has a different name. Because Parallel City is name of the card, another Parallel City can’t be played in order to give your opponent the effect of the other side of the Stadium. This could lead to an unwanted situation as you are unable to play down your Parallel City before you opponent.
How to Play It
A few decks have made good use of Parallel City in their strategy. One of the most notable decks to use Parallel City would be Manectric EX and Bats. This deck uses Parallel City in order to limit their opponent’s bench size in order to force their opponent to choose wisely which Pokemon they want to play. They will then use Golbat’s Sneaky Bite and Crobat’s Surprise Bite abilities to weaken the Pokemon they do play so that Manectric EX can finish them off. This makes taking knockouts easier as all that is in play for their opponent is already wary and damaged Pokemon.
As mention before, some decks may want to use Parallel City to get rid of any Shaymin EX that they do not want to have on the bench in the late game. By doing this, they make it harder for their opponent to take late game knockouts and potentially win the match by eliminating an easy Lysandre target.
Cities are now over but you can still battle in the city thanks to Parallel City! The ability to use a dual sided stadium can make duels quite interesting. You better hope you end up on the right side of town of you will have a bad time in the big city!
Good luck in your pulls this weekend at any BREAKpoint Prereleases you are planning to attend!
