Card of the Day – Pokémon Collector (Heart Gold Soul Silver HS 97)

pokebeach.comFor today’s review, we’ll be taking a look at Pokémon Collector, which was released in HeartGold & SoulSilver. Pokémon Collector is a Supporter card, which means it escapes Trainer Lock, but is restricted to one per turn. I try not to go too into detail on the pros/cons of Supporter cards every time I review one. Instead, I just make sure to lightly tread the facts to keep them fresh in your mind.

When you use Pokémon Collector, you may search your deck for up to three Basic Pokémon and add them to your hand. The second I read this card, it reminded me of Holon’s Mentor, which had an identical effect but it required you to discard a card from your hand.

Just like Holon’s Mentor was massively played in its respective format, it isn’t rocket science as to why Pokémon Collector sees such heavy play in today’s metagame. Every deck, whether it be SP, Machamp, VileGar, Magnezone, Gyarados needs Basic Pokémon to help set up. Since Roseanne’s Research was rotated out, Pokémon Collector is too good to pass up in 99% of the decks you construct (I have seen some a couple of rogue decks that can function on 4 Call Energy).

Writing this article, I’m thinking of all the cards that combine well with Pokémon Collector, but there are two that I believe to be the most prominent in the format, Pokémon Communication and Unown R.

Early game, have a Collector is your starting hand is really good, but often it can be much less useful late game, when you’re already set up and just looking for that key Level Up or Stage 2 to stay in the game. That’s where Pokémon Communication comes in.

pokebeach.com
(No longer legal.)

Being an almost identical reprint of Pokémon Trader (effect is essentially the same, but worded differently), Pokémon Communication allows you to return a Pokémon in your hand to your deck to pick out any Pokémon in your deck you like and add it to your hand.

Instead of a Pokémon Collector being useful only to search out Uxie late game, it can now be played in higher counts without as much fear of clogging up your hand later in the game. A cards that can give another card a second lease on life definitely deserves a second look.

The second card that goes well with Pokémon Collector, although not as well as Pokémon Communication does, is Unown R. Unown R is a very underused card that can be great at making use of Collectors late game. If you don’t have any useful Basic Pokémon to search for, sniffing out three Unown R’s can be a great way to access draw power during any stage of the game.

My Recommendation: Play it. LuxChomp, DialgaChomp, Garchomp SV, Machamp, Scizor/Cherrim. Heck, if you play Yu-Gi-Oh!, try to talk your local judge into letting you throw a few into your deck.

My Rating: 4.5/5 (The current Modified Format we play in is widely considered to fastest and most powerful that has ever been seen in the game. Pokémon Collector is a staple in the format, it’s gotta be good)

Reader Interactions

15 replies

  1. David Reichenberger

    Pokemon Collector is absolutely one of the best cards in the format. I would contest to say that it is, in fact, 5/5. If we consider the rating to be relative to the number of decks a specific card is played in, then 5/5 would represent an always-used staple. Like Uxie, Collector is used in 99% of (competitive) decks.

    And, as someone already mentioned, I love using the card to thin my deck late-game. Sooooo goooood.

  2. John Rea

    I mean it’s a great card and all, but you don’t want it stuck in your hand in the middle or end of the game….

    • Martin Garcia  → John

      I disagree.
      Pkmn collector is ALWAYS USEFUL, even if just as discarding material for things like regi-move, junk arm, volkner´s, or things like that.
      Grabbing 3 pkmn to recover from a KO even in middle game can be so good, and if, as dakota said, is played together with pkmn communication, unown R or a 3-1 uxie line, you can instantly recover from a bad hand and get back into the game.
      To me, its a 5/5 card, like rosseane´s was last format.

      • John Rea  → Martin

        Yeah, but some times for me the Pokemon Collector gets stuck in my hand near the end of the game, but I agree with 5/5… or more.

        • Dakota Streck  → John

          I know it is an amazing card, but I do think it is SLIGHTLY less powerful than Roseanne’s because it isn’t as flexible. Then again, you could argue that it is superior to Roseanne’s in that it gets an additional Basic. I’m confused :(

        • Martin Garcia  → Dakota

          I guess it depends on the deck, in sp decks rosseanes is not nearly as needed as in others since cyrus can get the energies, so grabbing more basics (something cyrus cant do) is a lot more useful.
          In stage 1/2 decks, the flexibility was a lot more important, since no other card can fecth those energies, and they had claydol/call energy to grab more basics.
          To me, both are 5/5 staples.

          Man, i miss rossy T_T

        • Caleb Cline  → John

          I still think even in this situation it’s a good card. The beauty of collector late game, is normally when supporters like Bebe’s aren’t much use because you have already collected your resources, collector lets you thin your deck of THREE cards. Trying to draw into that one DCE with Trade Off? Thin the deck! It’s just a completely stellar strategy, and really is beautiful.

      • the sidewalk  → Martin

        So, with that being said, I’m assuming that you run four of these in each of your decks. Correct?

        • Dakota Streck  → Martin

          Yeah, if you run 4 Calls, sure. I’ve even built lists with 4 Calls and two Collectors and it works fine, but not all builds can use that, though. Especially ones with 2-2 Lv.X lines.

  3. Eric

    Lol, i proxyed a pokemon collector, turned basic into *4 and slapped 4 into my yugioh deck! I played with my cousin and won 10-0 with my old jinzo deck!

  4. L M

    In a format without Roseanne’s Research or other basic-searching Supporter, I think we may be looking at the BCIF. I guess the one notable deck that could maybe get away with not running it would be Uxie Rush… but I think a few lists actually use it anyway.

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