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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Top 10 Cards Lost to Set Rotation

#9 - Double Dragon Energy
-
Roaring Skies

Date Reviewed:
August 1, 2017

Ratings & Reviews Summary

See Below

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

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

Coming up in 9th place, it's a card similar to Mega Turbo in that it was absolutely essential in a particular deck type - Double Dragon Energy, a must-run in Dragon-based decks. 

Dragon-types themselves came to the TCG with the set Dragons Exalted (and mini-set Dragons Vault), and when they were introduced, they had one peculiar quirk that no other Type has had as a main characteristic: the need for 2 different Energy Types. There has been some experimentation with this in past sets, with the Pokemon being one Type and requiring another Type of Energy or with the Pokemon needing another Type in addition to its original Type or in even rarer cases requiring multiple Types of Energy not associated with their Type (seen as early as Lugia (N1) and his Elemental Blast attack), but never had any one Type required the usage of 2 different Energy Types outside of its own Type for every member of its Type. 

Like with how Rayquaza-EX (DEX) required Fire and Lightning Energy, or Kyurem (DRV) required Water and Psychic Energy. 

Dragon-Typed Pokemon became this anomaly in the card game, with their requirements either deeming them too slow or two costly to work together. And considering the variation of combinations which varied between each iteration of Dragons, it was hard to really fuel them if you didn't have them included in a deck already running copies of both Energy Types. The immediate solution was with the Blend Energies, which provided 1 of 4 different Energies depending on which one you were using, thus making it easier to put Rayquaza-EX with Eelektrik (NVI) and benefit off of the Dynamotor Ability without having to run additional Fire Energy. 

And then Roaring Skies introduced Double Dragon Energy, a Special Energy card that could provide any 2 Types of Energy at any given time. It was like a Type-specific Double Rainbow Energy without any of that pesky extra stuff that made it harder to use, and that meant Dragon-Types could benefit from this card immensely! Really, I think it ought to become like DCE and be a staple for as long as the Dragon-Type remains. I mean, it's not like they're planning on introducing a Dragon-Type Basic Energy soon, and its trait of needing 2 different Basic Energy types has been a staple of the Type for the past 5 years since its inception! 

But since they haven't reprinted it yet we'll just have to wait and see what the future holds for Dragon-types. Hopefully they'll give something back - kinda like Rainbow Energy, but Type-specific, maybe with 2 Energy provided. 

...I'm gonna miss Double Dragon Energy. 

Rating 

Standard: N/A (again, it's a must-run in a particular deck, just like Mega Turbo) 

Expanded: 4/5 (and once September comes around, this card is a goner) 

Limited: 4/5 (and if you happen to run into a Dragon in this limited environment, you run this card) 

Arora Notealus: I'll personally note that Double Dragon Energy ended up as one of my Top 3, though mainly that is because I put out my own list in...much shorter time than I meant to, considering my real-world shenanigans. I don't know if I'd rank it that high again - especially considering there are some cards that made the Top 10 List that I completely forgot to look at - but I would still at least consider it for my own Top 10. I'd probably have ranked it similarly to Mega Turbo, which ended up as my #8, simply because while it does provide an amazing boost, it's for a very specific set of cards. Mega Turbo had the advantage of being an Item as well, though DDE has the ability to provide 2 Energies, so it's a bit of a toss-up between the two. But such is hindsight, the 20/20 fiend. 

Next Time: Time to buddy-up!


21times

Double Dragon Energy (Roaring Skies, 97/108) functions essentially as a Double Colorless Energy (Sun & Moon, 136/149) except that it serves as every energy – meaning that you could use it in conjunction with various item cards or stadiums that benefit Pokemon with a certain type of energy attached to them.  For example, you could potentially use it with Fairy Drop (Fates Collide, 99/124) but also use it with Altar of the Moone (Guardians Rising, 117/145) as well.  The only down side is that you can only attach it to Dragon type Pokemon… and there have been very few competitive Dragon Pokemon in the meta over the past couple of years.

It doesn’t help that Pokemon simply hasn’t made a lot of good Dragon Pokemon.  Dragonite EX (Evolutions, 74/111) has no business being Colorless, and IMO Pokemon like Rayquaza (Roaring Skies, 75/108) and Tyranitar EX (Ancient Origins, 42/98) look like they could be Dragon-ish Pokemon.  Dragons are cool – who doesn’t love Dragons?  I mean besides Lord Farquodd, enemies of Daenerys Targaryen, Matthew McConaughey… but seriously, why didn’t Pokemon make more good Dragon Pokemon when they had DDE to help them achieve their ridiculous energy costs?  The best Dragon Pokemon over the past year?  Giratina EX (Ancient Origins, 57/98) and Salamence EX (XY170), and they were primarily used as tech ins to support Darkrai EX (Breakpoint, 74/122). 

To be fair, Giratina and Salamence actually saw quite a bit of success in their supporting roles over the 2016-17 season.  Top Eight placements in the Masters Division with decks running DDE this season:

·         Toronto Giratina EX (three different decks – Expanded)

·         Salt Lake City (Giratina EX Salamence EX in the same deck)

·         Anaheim (1st place Giratina EX)

·         Dallas (Salamence EX)

·         Philadelphia (Giratina EX)

·         Orlando (two Giratina EX decks)

All of those placements came as supporting Pokemon in Darkrai EX decks.  Neither Giratina EX or Salamence EX could be used as a feature Pokemon in a decklist.  I actually tried a quad Giratina EX last week as I had a Dragon challenge on PTCGO, and I didn’t win a single game in five matches.

Rating

Standard: 2.5 out of 5

Conclusion

I won’t argue that decks with Double Dragon Energy had some success this season, but I think everyone would agree that if a card like Noivern GX (Burning Shadows, 99/147) had been available to us over the course of the 2016-17 season, Double Dragon Energy would have seen significantly more usage, and it would have been used as a feature deck and not just in a supporting tech in role.


Otaku

If you’re jumping around in the Card of the Day section, please know that we are looking at our ninth place pick for the top 10 cards lost to the 2017-2018 Standard Format rotation.  If you’re really new to the game, you might need to look up some of these terms to have a clear idea of what all that means, but the short version is these are some cards that aren’t going to be legal for use in most tournaments after September 1, 2017, so each current CotD reviewer wrote his own list of the 10 most important cards we’re losing, then I took those five lists and combined them to make a master list for the Pojo site.  A list we are counting down with these reviews. 

Ninth place is Double Dragon Energy (XY: Roaring Skies 97/108), a Special Energy card that states it may only be attached to Dragon-Type Pokémon.  While attached to a Dragon-Type Pokémon, Double Dragon Energy will provide two units of Energy that (each) count as all Types of Energy at once.  If the Pokémon to which this Energy card is attached ceases to be a Dragon-Type (such as through Evolving), then Double Dragon Energy also contains a clause that will cause it to discard itself.  We previously reviewed this card as the second best card of XY: Roaring Skies.  Though there are exceptions, the vast majority of Dragon-Types (including those that proved competitive) want Double Dragon Energy included in their decks.  Dragon-Types have a gimmick; all (or nearly all) of them have two different Energy requirements in their attack costs, besides [C] Energy requirements (which anything can meet) and [N] requirements (which do not exist, nor is there a basic Dragon Energy).  Sometimes these differing Energy requirements are split between multiple attacks, sometimes they appear together in the same attack, and chunky attack costs are typical of the Type as well.  Put it all together, and only a few notable Dragon-Types don’t majorly benefit from Double Dragon Energy, and even fewer have no real use for it at all.  This allowed Dragon-Types to slip into many decks where their Energy requirements were partially or totally off-Type and be surprisingly swift attackers, including when their requirements differed from each other. 

What really caught some of us off guard (myself included) were the Pokémon capable of using Double Dragon Energy indirectly like Darkrai-EX (XY: BREAKpoint 74/122, 118/122); its “Dark Pulse” attack hits harder the more [D] energy you have in play, so a Dragon-Type can contribute two units of [DD] Energy for each Double Dragon Energy attached to itself.  Though neither Dragon-Types nor the decks that can exploit Double Dragon Energy seem to be big in the twilight of the 2016-2017 Standard Format, if it were sticking around, I’d expect it to make (maybe even break) certain future decks.  It isn’t, but that is also my prognosis for Expanded play.  On the off chance you can play in a Limited Format event (or even just for fun with friends), know that Double Dragon Energy is awesome… if you have a Dragon-Type.  XY: Roaring Skies has a strong Dragon-Type presence but they are split between Evolution lines (with the final Stage as a Rare or better card) or Pokémon-EX.  This forces a dramatic split where it is either true filler (as it will be a dead card) or brilliant (because it helps even the less impressive Dragon-Type perform) based on what else you’ve pulled.  I don’t like docking a card too much just for being specialized in such an obvious fashion, but if you have the Dragon-Type Pokémon to run, this is going to vary between “handy” and “brilliant”, unless your luck is bad and you don’t draw into it at a useful time.  If it isn’t going to do you much good, you should know it right away. 

Ratings 

Standard: 3.35/5 (Soon to be N/A) 

Expanded: 3.35/5 

Limited: 3.75/5 

Conclusion 

Double Dragon Energy is almost always a must for Dragon-Type focused decks, plus a few with clever tricks (maybe even running a Dragon-Type to make use of Double Dragon Energy).  They aren’t doing so hot right now, though, so I’m hesitant to score this card too high; the awkward compromises required to use a simple scoring system.  As Dragon-Types will eventually become relevant again in Standard play, so too would have Double Dragon Energy (or “will” if we get a surprise at the World Championships).  In Expanded, it just waits for a past user to rise again or something new to come along; then it will once again make for some powerful plays.  In the Limited Format, it boils down to what Dragon-Types (if any) you pull and can use well in a deck; Double Dragon Energy might be useless or a power play. 

Breakdown 

Double Dragon Energy managed to take 9th place with 13 voting points, beating out yesterday’s 10th place finisher Mega Turbo by three voting points and falling short of the tie we had between 7th and 8th place by only one voting point.  As with Mega Turbo, Double Dragon Energy appeared on three of the five top 10 lists, with it making the top 20 list one of the reviewers submitted…  and no it wasn’t me.  As I was running short on time, I only just finished an “extended” list, specifically so I could say where I would have ranked Double Dragon Energy.  The answer is… 27th place out of what became my Top 30 list; this doesn’t change anything that I said, it just means I thought that highly of 26 other cards.


Vince

Our 9th place pick for the top ten cards lost to set rotation is Double Dragon Energy from XY Roaring Skies.  It took second place in the top 10 cards of XY Roaring Skies.  This Special Energy card provides 2 units of energy of any type, as long as the Pokemon this card is attached to is a Dragon Type.  In a way, it's a nerfed Double Rainbow Energy, which was reviewed on Throwback Thursdays couple weeks ago.

 

So how does Double Dragon Energy help Dragons?  Most Dragons have attack costs that require two energy types such as Dragonite’s Grass/Lightning or Hydreigon’s Psychic/Dark energy requirements.  Most dragons still do not see being used competitively, but at least their attacks are manageable to meet.  Double Dragon Energy can also pay for the cost, whether it be by retreating or discarding energy.  If an attack says “Discard 2 Energy attached to this Pokemon”, then Double Dragon Energy alone can cover that cost.

 

With Double Dragon Energy gone, Dragons take a substantial hit, though Rainbow Energy can still help to some extent (provides one unit of energy of any type).  In Expanded, cards from Black and White onwards are legal and BW Dragons Exalted is the debut of Dragon types (which would have been colorless or another type similar to the video games back then).  This will completely outclass Blend Energies that were in that set since Double Dragon Energy covers everything while Blend Energies didn’t have complete type coverage.  Of course, you have to deal with counters against Special Energies such as Enhanced Hammer, so don’t expect your Double Dragon Energy to hang around for more than one turn!  In Limited, this is a must run if you pulled any dragons worth using in prerelease (which is back in May 2015).

 

Ratings:

 

Standard: 4.25/5 (You’re about to be missed.)

 

Expanded: 4.35/5 (There are more dragons in this format’s card pool.)

 

Limited: 5/5 (If you have a dragon Pokemon, even a bad one, why not use this?)

 

Notes:  Seeing Double Dragon Energy at number nine doesn’t bother me too much, since it might not be important enough to be placed higher on the list.  I had this as my 7th place pick.

 

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