While Neo Revelation didn't release many Trainers, the ones it did release have a respectable track record. The metagame wouldn't feel drastically different if you removed these cards, with one possible exception, but 4 of the 5 do see competitive play.
We also finally see the emergence of Rocket's Hideout, the long-awaited solution to the "Dark Pokémon are too frail" problem, although it probably should've been released several sets earlier.
Balloon Berry may look like it would just be another copy of Switch, but the nice thing about it is that it can be left in play until you need it. So while Professor Oak would normally discard every Switch in your hand, it misses this one.
It's also compatible with Traveling Salesman from the e-Card series, for what it's worth, since it's a Tool Card. It is mostly a worse Switch, though, since there are several ways to block a standard retreat that don't work against Switch.
Grade: 7/10
Healing Field is a good card to use as your "default option" when you don't have a particular Stadium in mind for your deck, since it has a generally useful effect. It's good for every deck to have a Stadium, if only to counter opposing Stadium cards.
It's a clean fit in stall decks and in some hyper-aggressive decks that score KOs too fast for the opponent to benefit from your Healing Field.
Grade: 8/10
Old Rod is a very flavorful card, but not a very reliable card. It has a 25% chance of recovering a Pokémon, a 25% chance of recovering a Trainer, and a miserable 50% chance of doing nothing.
I hate to give Recycle any credit, but honestly I'd rather use Recycle than rely on this. And it's obviously no match for actual staples like Item Finder or Nightly Garbage Run.
Grade: 3/10
Pokémon Breeder Fields is a fair enough card, but the reliance on coin flips is really aggravating. It only has a 25% chance of whiffing, but that's still bad enough to consider using Pokémon Trader instead.
Still, you can make a real case for including this card in an Evolution-heavy deck. It's just a shame that such a genuinely viable effect had these unnecessary coin flips stapled onto it.
Grade: 7/10
Rocket's Hideout weirdly released one set before the next wave of Dark Pokémon. Not sure what thought process led to that. Regardless, this deck is an auto-include in decks that revolve heavily around Dark cards, since it patches up their low HP.
As an added bonus, it's unlikely to benefit your opponent due to the smaller card pool associated with it.
Grade: 9/10
It's a little weird that the most powerful Trainer from the set doesn't actually benefit any cards from Neo Revelation, but oh well. It is what it is.
If we're being generous then we can say it was here to give players a hint about the next set...but it was probably excluded from Neo Destiny on purpose, in order to force players to buy both sets if they wanted to make the most of the new wave of Dark Pokémon.





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