Why more people should be playing Bursting Balloon

[KingSpadeIX]

With the rotation of Muscle band, a void has been created for a new Tool card to step up and reign supreme. Bursting Balloon could be the Tool we have all been looking for. Bursting Balloon is a Tool that you attach to your Pokemon but it discards itself at the end of your opponents turn. If your opponent attacks and does damage to your Pokemon while Bursting Balloon is attached, it will trigger and deal 60 damage to the attacking Pokemon.

Okay so you may be asking yourself why this card is good, allow me to explain: Most Pokemon that people will use to fight you have between 120-180 HP. If they are foolish enough to attack into you and take 60 from Bursting Balloon then they are left with 60-120 HP, which should be pretty easy for you to finish off. Bursting Balloon gets even better if you attack first and can leave your opponent at 60 HP or less. This will force your opponent to have to make a tough decision between attacking you and kill themselves or not attack and let you attack them again on the next turn (likely resulting in their demise anyway). It is a lose lose scenario for them.

Bursting Balloon is a very strong card, but it does have counter play options against it. Cards that promote counter play can be very healthy for a game from a design perspective.

There are a few ways to counter Bursting Balloon, all of which come at a cost. First, the best work around is to play Lysandre.

Lysnadre will allow your opponent to pull one of your bench Pokemon out and attack it, instead of the Pokemon that has Bursting Balloon attached to it.If they do this, then your Balloon will fall off without going kaboom which is both sad and unfortunate. However it does mean your opponent used Lysandre as his supporter for the turn and your built Pokemon is still set up ready to go.

Another counter play option your opponent has, is for them to switch and attack with a different Pokemon. This will allow them to keep their more valuable Pokemon alive and healthy but at the cost of likely losing a less valuable one and giving up a prize card or two as a result.

The last option your opponent has is to simply not attack. This is a good choice for them if your Pokemon cannot hit very hard. This however at least buys you a turn to get more set up and back into the game.

Bursting Balloon has a number of ways to counter it, yet each counter method still leaves some value on the table for you making it not a complete waste. The key to playing Bursting Balloon effectively is to attach it when it really counts. It is best to attach it when your opponent has a big attack lined up and can finish you off. This makes the decision hard for them, do they take the kill and eat 60 damage or hold out and possibly risk taking an attack from you? On the flip side, if you are to play Bursting Balloon early when your opponent can only do 30 or so damage which would not even kill you, then it becomes a much easier decision for your opponent to make and the Balloon is much less effective. The key is timing.

From a design perspective Bursting Balloon is a healthy and well designed card. It is strong and promotes counter play. Despite having counter play options, Bursting Balloon still adds value to the user through the opportunity costs that your opponent has to forgo (example: playing Lysandre instead of the Sycamore they wanted to play).

Bursting Balloon is a good card and is a cheap option that can throw your opponent off and give you the edge you need to pull out a win. Give it a try and tell me what you think of Bursting Balloon in the comments below!

 

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 KingSpadeIX

 

I am a steamer, blogger and hopefully someday will be a card game designer. I love card games and try to come up with newer innovative deck ideas. Hope you enjoyed my post!

[SteppeRRoB]

It all depends on what kind of deck you're playing. I agree that in decks with slow setups like almost every evolution deck that wants stage 2 Pokemon. Or with Talonflame because you want to seek out as much cards as possible early game but mid/late game as wel and therefore he has to be alive. So I think for that kind of decks/plays, Bursting Balloon is the best card to use. 

[SuperStone]

Unfortunately, some decks no longer have support tools, but with the hyper gear tools gone, there is no pressure to actually have one.  Busting balloon is definitely good, but it just has too many playarounds; I prefer rocky helmet.  Because it discards itself at the end of the turn, a player can attack with shaymin-EX and get three benefits: shaymin off the field, balloons gone, and 30 damage played.