Warp Energy – Top 5 Shining Legends Cards #5

Another day, another booster set to-BOOSTER SET?! When the heck did this come out?!

Yep, go figure, the Shining Legends just snuck up out of nowhere last Friday, so if you’re wandering around your local card shop or place of business and wondering where the heck those boosters came from, well now you know! And now you need to know the best cards in the set, so this week we’re calling out our Top 5 Shining Legends cards!

The first card is Warp Energy, which is…actually a reprint? You heard that right – this card first came out way back in Aquapolis, and it hasn’t seen a reprint since the days of Diamond and Pearl. It’s been nearly 9 years since it was last printed in a set! Go figure.

Warp Energy has the simple effect of providing one Colorless Energy but also having the ability to switch out your Active Pokemon with a Benched Pokemon when you attach this to your Active Pokemon. In other words, you power up a Pokemon to warp them to your Bench.

Now that probably doesn’t sound that great at first – why power up a Pokemon you’re forced to switch out? Well, there are a couple reasons you would do this, like if there is a Status Condition on it! If your Pokemon is afflicted with multiple Statuses, chances are it’s going to get run over sooner or later – so why not keep accelerating it to your big attack and switch it out for some much needed healing at the same time?

In fact, why don’t we switch it with Golisopod-GX? Yep, that’s right, this deck would THRIVE on Warp Energy. Given access to 4 of these, Golisopod-GX decks can do even more Switching – without the need for a Switch! This makes them stronger against Garbodor decks, and it keeps their First Impression attack fresh for even longer! I would think that this is a necessary absolute must-have 4-of in these decks!

As for other decks, well, it’s admittedly a bit weak. If you’re going to play a Colorless Energy on anything, you’d rather have DCE, and you’d want it to go on the Active Pokemon that’s attacking stuff, not on some Benched guy. Not to mention this effect doesn’t work ON Benched Pokemon, so you can’t swap out for another attacker by attaching this to the Bench. Still, the utility to be found in Warp Energy ought to be the focus, so it might be worth running a copy or two.

Don’t bend your deck out of shape for this card, though – if it doesn’t work for you, stick with what you’ve got.

Rating

Standard: 3.5/5 (a high-utility card that’s a 4-of in Golisopod decks)

Expanded: 3/5 (but in most other decks? it’s not necessary)

Limited: 4/5 (and hey, Energy is Energy, eh?)

Arora Notealus: I wonder if they’ll bring back other old-fashioned Energies. Even in a newer light, ya know? Like what they did with Rainbow Energy into Prism Energy, for instance.

Next Time: Rapid thundering across the way!

Warp Energy (Shining Legends, 70/73) debuts in the meta from the brand new Shining Legends expansion set.  I know that a lot of people have questioned this card – it seems backwards.  Normally, you want to attach an energy to a benched Pokemon and move it into the active to attack.  This appears to give us the opposite effect of what we really would like out of this card.  However, I think most people have missed this in the review videos I’ve watched – it’s very clear to me what this card is:

It’s a Float Stone (Breakthrough, 137/162).

So I don’t know what the exact time frame is on how cards are developed, but it seems to me that a card would probably take about six months to enter the meta from the day it officially gets approved.  With printing and distributing and everything else, I don’t think it could get done in much less time than that – maybe five months but I really doubt it could possibly be any less than that.

Let’s all jump into the “Wayback Machine” and try to remember what exactly was happening in April of 2017.  Baseball had just begun (I had no idea my beloved Detroit Tigers would finish as the worst team in the league), Trump was dropping bombs on Syria, and we were all squinting at fuzzy images of a new Garbodor (Guardians Rising, 51/145) card that was about to rock the meta.

We all know that Float Stone has seen significant use in the game.  Even since the release of GRI Garbodor, knowing full well that Field Blower (Guardians Rising, 125/145) will simply reduce it to Trashalanche fuel, we have still chosen to put multiple (sometimes even four) copies in our decks.  Now, we have a non-Item alternative to play instead of Float Stone, and it gives the added bonus of adding a count of Colorless energy as well.  Warp Energy won’t perfectly substitute for Float Stone (and maybe it’s even closer to being a Switch (Guardians Rising, 132/149) than a Float Stone), but it’s a switching card that we can play that isn’t an Item and, therefore, joins the throng of non-Item alternatives that we have adopted to reduce the power of Trashalanche.

Rating

Standard: 2.5 out of 5

Conclusion

Is it worth it to play Warp Energy though?  There is no way to search your deck for a Special Energy except for Mallow (Guardians Rising, 127/145), so you can’t guarantee that you’ll get it when you need it.  Also, the switch is not optional.  It doesn’t say, “You may switch…”, the card reads “… switch that Pokemon with 1 of your Benched Pokemon.”  And it only provides Colorless energy as well.  If you need a specific type of Energy, this will do you no good.  Moreover, as we have adapted the game, and as certain essential Item cards have been rotated out of Standard play, Garbodor has seen less impact because there aren’t as many items out there, so people are actually running less of him.  In September, I saw Trashalanche Garbodor only sixteen times in 355 matches.  I tried running Garb in a deck the other night and found that I just wasn’t using him because my opponents weren’t playing enough items.  Sometimes they did, but in most cases, the limited Item usage made it difficult for me to devote resources to Garb.

I will say that Warp Energy will work great for Golisopod GX (Burning Shadows, 17/147), Metagross GX (Guardians Rising, 139/145), and Lapras GX (Sun & Moon, 35/149).  Just slap a Warp Energy onto a Tapu Koko (SM30), and, after he moves to the active, retreat back to the bench and all of these Pokemon can now attack again.  Warp Energy gives you another non-item, non-ability reliant option to help you slip off the effect of an attack that prevents you from attacking again in the next turn.

Shining Legends officially released last Friday; it isn’t an official part of the SM-series of releases, but is a bonus mini-set like Generations or Double Crisis.  Well, not that “mini” considering it contains 73 cards (or 78 including Secret Rares); then again, the past three expansions have had over 140 cards before Secret Rares, so I guess it isn’t too big.  Which is why we’re doing a Top 5 countdown instead of the usual Top 10.  Our fifth place finisher is Warp Energy (Shining Legends 70/73), a Special Energy card that provides [C] while attached.  It has an effect as well, one that triggers when you attach it to your Active Pokémon; it forces you to switch your Active Pokémon with one of your Benched Pokémon.

Warp Energy making the list may shock some longtime readers because it is a reprint!  We’ve relaxed our restrictions so that cards returning to Standard (and especially Expanded) Format play are eligible.  Otherwise, Warp Energy originally released as Aquapolis 147/147 (January 15, 2003), and was followed up by EX: Unseen Forces 100/115 (August 22, 2005), EX: Power Keepers 91/108 (February 14, 2007), and DP: Stormfront 95/100 (November 5, 2008).  This means Warp Energy has a long history with the game, but we’ve seen it leave and return to Standard play before.

Warp Energy is an Energy-based version of Switch; you’ll come out [C] Energy ahead on the Pokémon you’re sending to your Bench.  If you didn’t need that Energy elsewhere, it seems like a solid deal.  If you’ve got a pivot Pokémon or another effect that can change out your Active, you can even use this to shake attack effects resting on your active (including Special Conditions).  You might even avoid the issue of losing that Energy attachment if your deck has the correct form of Energy acceleration.  As opposed to running a card like Switch or Olympia, you’re trading the various effects that apply to Items or Supporters for the ones that apply to Special Energy.

Is that a good trade?  In Standard, using a Special Energy instead of a Trainer means you have the option of using cards like Energy Loto an Special Charge to search and recycle Warp Energy (respectively); there isn’t a good option to search out Items with a different Item, and all the Items that can recycle other Items work on anything (Recycle, Puzzle of Time).  Supporters no longer have VS Seeker in this format, but they’ve got Tapu Lele-GX for search.  As for counters, preferred Special Energy counters like Enhanced Hammer can still remove a Warp Energy but after it has had a chance to do its thing.  The main anti-Item effect is the “Trashalanche” attack of Garbodor (SM: Guardians Rising 51/145), while there aren’t any major anti-Supporter effects.  All in all, not too bad of a trade for Standard, if you can spare your Energy attachment for the turn.

For Expanded play, you’ve got Battle Compressor and VS Seeker in addition to still having Tapu Lele-GX handy; counting on Acerola, AZ, Guzma, or Olympia to changeout your Active; if you’re worried about anti-Item effects, Battle Compressor and VS Seeker aren’t doing you favors, but if you aren’t worried about reusing a clutch copy anyway, they probably have it covered.  If you aren’t sweating anti-Item effects, Escape Rope and Switch can still do the job.  There will be come decks, however, that meet similar guidelines as given for Standard and this format has a lot more Item-lock; I still think Warp Energy has a place here. The Limited Format makes Warp Energy a lot better, because you probably don’t have any other options.  Shining Legends didn’t get Pre-Releases, and product isn’t being released in the usual manner, so a Limited Event might not even be an option.  Older boosters from expansions with Warp Energy are so old, you’re even less likely to use them in this manner than Shining Legends boosters, but I’ll score for this format anyway.

Ratings

Standard: 2.75/5
Expanded: 2.5/5
Limited: 4/5

Conclusion

I know I scored Warp Energy a bit low but it strikes me as fairly niche.  I’m happy it is back, though.  I didn’t have it on my own Top 5 list (or even Top 15), but it still caught my eye.  It did make not one but two of the individual Top 5 lists that we reviewers submitted to make the site list, and as second place picks no less.  These placements allowed Warp Energy to beat out our unnamed sixth place finisher by four voting points, but missed tying our fourth place finisher by seven voting points.

Hello readers! We are here with another top 5 countdown, this time it’s another set similar to XY Generations: SM Shining Legends.  This set contains 73 cards before factoring secret rares whose numbering system goes beyond the max number!  The crew had compiled their lists and was finally determined which cards would make the list.  So without further ado, here’s our number five card: Warp Energy!

This card would have been on Thursday’s review had everyone picked Warp Energy at #2, but not everything’s perfect.  At least we got a very old card to review, because this card was first released in Aquapolis; its second print was in EX Unseen Forces; its third print is EX Power Keepers; and the fourth print is in DP Stormfront (which I have three copies of that card).  We considered having this card on the list because it hasn’t been on Standard for 5+ years.

So what does this Special Energy do?  It provides one colorless energy and the moment you attach hat energy to your Active Pokemon, you switch that Pokemon with one of your Benched Pokemon.  Think of it as a Switch card, but as a special energy card instead of an item card, therefore not fueling the damage output of Trashalanche, as well as a getaway option fo when item cards are shut down.

There are other cards that may compete with Warp Energy or scenarios which you may not want to use it at the wrong time.  Sometimes Warp Energy is the only Energy in your hand and you need to attach it to one of your Pokemon; being forced to switch with another Pokémon that you don’t want to be in front may be undesirable.  There’s Rush In Keldeo and/or Stand In Zoroark with Float Stone that allows you to switch without wasting your manual retreat.  Solgaleo’s Ultra Road is on the same boat there.

Overall, I’m glad this card has reprinted. It may not be the best Special Energy, but at least this is an alternative if you want a card that does two things at once.  In Limited, this is a must run unless you have a deck with just one Pokemon and 39 energies (at which the second effect is useless) and/or have a Pokémon whose energy costs doesn’t have any colorless energy.  And finally, I don’t know or remembered how this card performs in Unlimited, so no score there.

Ratings:

Standard: 3/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 4/5

Sylveon’s Notes: Well, time to take it out from my DPHGSS binder and onto Expanded!

Coming Up: This Pokemon makes an electrifying presence on the battlefield!

Kicking things off, we have a new Special Energy card that isn’t necessarily a new card nor a new concept. This Special Energy is actually a reprint of the same one that is rather old. Its Warp Energy and in this meta, it might actually find a home as a good alternative Special Energy.

Warp Energy has a simple premise. It may only give 1 Colorless energy, but that’s not the point of it.

When you attach it to an Active Pokémon, you may switch it for 1 of your Benched Pokémon.

This is another great way to help pivot your Pokémon around your field. Without needing to spend more switching resources such as Guzma or Switch, you can do two things with Warp Energy; pay the energy cost of a Pokémon (as long as they have an attack with a Colorless cost on them) so they can attack later in the game, and also switch your Active Pokémon with a new benched one that may just be ready to fight. This card really helps with Pokémon that has a high retreat cost such as Volcanion-EX, Turtonator-GX and Metagross-GX, so they can just pivot around the field easily, or support Pokémon that doesn’t need energy investment such as Alolan Vulpix (SM GUR). The applications of this card is extremely dynamic, and can help your deck in more ways than one.

A deck that is clearly hyped with the release of this energy is indeed Golisopod-GX (SM BUS), since this deck revolves mostly around its First Impression attack, which can deal 120 damage when a Golisopod is brought from the bench to the Active slot on that turn. Using Warp Energy does two things for it; help save up to use its Armor Press and Crossing Cut GX attacks later in the game, and also helping to switch around Golisopods for First Impression to take full effect and also Pokémon conservation.

However, whilas the Warp Energy is indeed fine on its own, the meta itself has also shaped to be very harsh on it. Special Energy hate such as Drampa-GX’s Righteous Edge, Jirachi (XY67)’s Stardust, and Enhanced Hammer can remove your Warp Energy, and while it is an active Special Energy (meaning you take full advantage of it on the turn you play it) also means that you have used your manual energy attachment for the turn, which may be used otherwise to better effect, just to switch a Pokémon. A Float Stone (XY BREAKpoint) can do it better and more! Especially since it only gives 1 Colorless energy, which doesn’t power up a lot of Pokémon in this meta.

In short, although Warp Energy is rather independent of the meta state that it is in, it may just be too clunky and singular, in that it only does a switch effect, to a meta that is slow, yet fast.

Rating:

Standard: 3/5 (Too one-dimensional in usage, but it does open up alternatives for non-manual switching)

Expanded: 3/5 (Same reasons as the one in Standard)

Limited: 4.2/5 (Does solve switching problems and helps with mobility, but most of the decent attackers has a managable retreat cost)

Next on SM Shining Legends:
Rairyū no Hōkō!!!!