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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

 Splash Energy

- XY BREAKpoint

Date Reviewed:
March 2, 2016

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 1.88
Expanded: 1.75
Limited: 3.75

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

Alright, so naturally we all saw this coming - everything's getting a "Special Energy" of their own, so it's about time Water got its fair share. I mean, it was probably the only Type left without it; Colorless is covered by DCE, Dragons by DDE, we've got Wonder Energy for Fairies, Shield Energy for Steel, Mystery for Psychic, Strong for Fighting, Herbal for Grass, Burning for Fire, Flash for Electric, and Dangerous for Dark...oh dang, Water really was the last Type missing one. 

So naturally, Splash Energy needed to be made!...or did it? 

Well Splash Energy, like every other "Type Special" Energy, can only be attached to Water Pokemon, and it has its own effect. Now while the effects of these Type Special Energies varies and doesn't always seem to relate to the overall Type's "specialties" (I mean, since when have Electric Types needed to have no Weakness?), but they generally try and cover them, and most of the time they do it well. Sure, not everything needs to be tougher, but Shield Energy makes the naturally tough Metal Pokemon even tougher, just as Dangerous Energy makes Dark Pokemon more...well, dangerous. 

The problem with Water though is figuring out what its main specialty is. One idea could be the usage of Energy coming out to fuel powerful attacks; you think of Kyurem's Glaciate, Keldeo-EX's Secret Sword, even M Gyarados-EX's Blast Geyser, and that seems to be the case. Now Water tends to like putting down MORE Energy at a rapid pace, such as with Blastoise's Deluge and Palkia-EX's Aqua Turbo, and then getting more effects off of that, but that's really about it. Another aspect would be the usage of the Paralysis Status, which is more related to the "Ice" members of the Water Type and is just far more powerful without some element of chance thrown in, like with Vanilluxe's Double Freeze from NVI.

So how can Splash Energy embody something ? Or, to put it another way, how can it fit Water's "theme" as a Special Energy? Well the truth of it is, it really can't, and that's what must have plagued the developers for the longest time when making these different Energies. Sure, Fire doesn't always discard Energies, but more often than not, it's a Fire Pokemon discarding them so Burning Energy made sense. Grass Pokemon don't always heal off their own damage, but they do it more than, say, Psychic Types would. 

The best effect Splash Energy could have had would be, "When this Pokemon attacks, deal 30 damage to 1 Benched Pokemon." And that sort of thing could have been HEAVILY abused. And it's not like they could copy Burning Energy, what with getting discarded only to bring it back. So Splash Energy now has the misfortune of hitting the bottom of the barrel in terms of "Special Energy Effects." And that's why it only can bring back the Pokemon that got KO'd. 

Really, that's all that can be said for it. Sure, it's got its own uses, but it can't stack like Strong or Shield or Dangerous Energy can - you're only gonna be using 1 of these on 1 of your Pokemon. And unlike Flash or Wonder Energy, it's not going to provide any effect while attached until your Pokemon gets KO'd. That's not to say it can't be useful, it's always nice to get something back from what you've lost, but say it's a Pokemon-EX - now you have to spend your time setting that guy up again while holding off your opponent's Pokemon with another attacker. 

Splash Energy will probably have its best usage on something like Articuno (ROS17) or Regice (AOR), something small and annoying that your opponent won't always be able to deal with or that can deal its own fair share while not leaving you at risk for much. In that way, it's basically just fuel to your back-up attackers rather than your main gambit...unless... 

Rating 

Standard: 2/5 (by no means is this the best Type Special Energy, but it does have its uses) 

Expanded: 2/5 (though they are limited, I'm sure somebody will figure something could make some use out of this card) 

Limited: 3.5/5 (recycling Pokemon back I think works better in this format than the other ones) 

Arora Notealus: Splash Energy could have been the most powerful Type Special Energy for sure, but it's hard to say how to really "balance" it. Maybe it could have had the effect of playing itself down in addition to your other Energy attachment for the turn, or it could cycle back into your hand instead of putting the KO'd Pokemon back, but these could easily have led to much more powerful decks I'm sure, even when you're only given 4. 

Next Time:...there was one Pokemon that could make this work...


Otaku

Before we cover any of the many, many Water-Types it seemed appropriate to first cover their new piece of Type exclusive support: Splash Energy (XY: BREAKpoint 113/122).  It may only be attached to Water-Type Pokémon; should it somehow become attached to a non-Water-Type, Splash Energy will discard itself.  Only while attached to Water-Type Pokémon will it provide [W]; it won’t count as such in the hand or deck or discard pile.  Its big effect though is that should the Water-Type Pokémon this card is attached to be Knocked Out by damage from an attack by your opponent’s Pokémon, you may that Pokémon into your hand instead of the discard pile.  You discard all attached cards (including Splash Energy), but an Evolution includes the entire line (Basic through highest Stage).  You still give up however many Prizes are due, it is just instead of that Pokémon hitting the discard pile, it goes to your hand.  This can be a handy effect, and for better or worse it doesn’t stack: multiple copies are for protecting multiple Pokémon, or if you are so worried about a single Pokémon that you include extras so that you still get the effect should at least one remain attached.  Also remember that its effect won’t matter if the KO your opponent takes is for the win. 

So what do I think of the card for Standard and Expanded?  As we all know, Special Energy in general is quite vulnerable right now, but also quite common.  This makes counters to Special Energy far more useful.  Maybe I am on the wrong path, but while at first I was trying to work in a Startling Megaphone to deal with problematic Pokémon Tools, now I am once again looking at Xerosic for a strategic strike against either a single Pokémon Tool or Special Energy.  Giratina-EX (XY: Ancient Origins 57/98, 93/98) can block a player from even attaching Special Energy, and the only effective, generic way of reclaiming them seems to be Puzzle of Time.  So the good news is that the format is primed for Special Energy, the bad news is that is because it has been reliant upon them for a while, and thanks to the backlash it can be dangerous to run too many Special Energy.  With respect to the Type-exclusive Special Energy that have a clause which causes them to discard themselves when attached to the wrong Pokémon-Type, Slowking (XY: BREAKpoint 21/122) may be a new threat: use its “Royal Flash” Ability and if you “get heads” you could move something like Splash Energy from an Active Water-Type to something like Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108) on the Bench, forcing Splash Energy to discard itself! 

This brings up an important difference between this and the other Type exclusive Special Energy cards.  As you might expect in our highly aggressive format where not only does speed of setup matter, but the fact that most of the time decks are going for a OHKO or a 2HKO, it is important to cash in on a card’s benefits ASAP.  So passive effects that don’t apply right away are less successful than those that can be used immediately.  It might seem like a surprise but being able to stack an effect for added value is also important: some cards do manage to hold on for a turn or two, especially if a deck can disrupt the opponent’s offense either through control effects or raw, overwhelming power.  The third major trend is whether or not a Type has something that makes the basic form of the Energy advantageous, like Basic Energy-only acceleration.  Finally there is a question of can something else provide this effect, and if it does, how does it interact with the Special Energy?  Is it redundant or can it yet again stack? 

Splash Energy doesn’t stack, it requires your opponent score a KO via damage from an attack to trigger, and when it triggers it just saves you the mild hassle of getting the Water-Type Pokémon back into hand… assuming you don’t want said Water-Type to go there (like for Archie’s Ace in the Hole).  Plus there are some very good effects like “Deluge” on Blastoise (BW: Boundaries Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma Storm 137/135; BW: Plasma Blast 16/101) or Greninja (XY 41/146) or Greninja BREAK (XY: BREAKpoint 41/122) that require basic Water Energy cards.  So I don’t think this has a tremendous amount of use for Expanded or Standard.  Just an odd note: if this was an Energy for Grass-Types, this card would have been at least a little better.  Why?  Instead of potentially wanting your Water-Type Pokémon to end up in the discard pile, you could attach this to something like Vileplume (XY: Ancient Origins 3/98) and should it get KO’d, Forest of Giant Plants would then let you drop the entire Evolution line from your hand the next turn.  If you’ll indulge me for one other example, if the Water-Type had something akin to the Crobat (XY: Phantom Forces 33/119) where even if you couldn’t play that Basic can Evolve it twice right away, could benefit from getting the Basic back down, Evolving a waiting Basic and a waiting Stage 1 for a benefit, that also would enjoy this card’s effect.  About the only place this effect is going to be really valuable is for Limited play, as you could have a great Water-Type and thanks to Splash Energy you could use it again.  Just remember you play with Four Prizes instead of six, so Splash Energy becomes useless more quickly. 

Ratings 

Standard: 1.75/5 

Expanded: 1.5/5 

Limited: 4/5 

Summary: Splash Energy is one of the many Type-exclusive Special Energy cards that feels like the effect when to the wrong Type… or maybe it is just that an effect that was once significant (see Rescue Energy) is currently a luxury or even a complication decks may not need, so a Pokémon needs very specific traits to make good use of it.  Enjoy it in Limited play, don’t worry about it elsewhere unless you can find something I missed.


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