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Otaku |
This is being written 40 minutes
after I should be sleeping. Hope it makes some sense. 8-}
Name:
Super Energy Removal 2
Type :
Trainer Card
Text:
Flip 2 coins. If both are heads, discard all energy cards
attached to the Defending Pokemon. If both are tails, discard
all Energy cards attached to your Active Pokemon. If 1 is heads
and 1 is tails, this card does nothing.
This is one of those cards that
tell you that normally, energy removal capabilities are strong.
Why? We have a remake of a once formidable card that has, for
lack of better term, been de-clawed and spayed or neutered. @_@
Comparing them, we had the original ER and SER (I'll comonly refer
to both together as S/ER), which were commonly played. For a card
slot, you could nuke one energy from an opponent's Pokemon of your
choice. This worked because you were allowed to play as many
Trainers as you had (barring effects that said otherwise) per
turn, while your opponent, under normal circumstances, was limited
to one energy per turn. So it was a "fair" one-for-one trade-off,
it set your opponent back a turn and was nothing to you. For SER,
you paid an even 2-for-2, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut had the advantage of
setting your opponent back two turns, and when played right,
yourself none. How's that? In Unlimited, Pokemon were chosen for
power and energy efficiencey. Since you were prepared to lose an
energy, this meant you were bascially two turns ahead of your
opponent. Now, add in that you could play, without card
recycling, 4 ERs without a problem, and with some forethough 4 SER
too. Well, energy removal is an important part of the
environment. Yes, too much of it ruins the game, but so does too
little. Some monsters end up being too powerful once they get
going. Imagine the dread "Encargo" deck if Neon Modified had ERs
available. They "Howl", power up, then you'd strip them down
before they could attack. So obviously the old removals were too
powerful for the game as it was meant to be. So they come up with
two new removals, one of which was this SER2. As I tried to imply
with my opening, they went too far. It starts out promising. 2
coin flips. This means that the card can be more than a basic
"tails fails" card. A successful use is amazing. While
restricted to just your opponent's active, it removes all
that actives energy! take that mister
"attached-(R)-and-Howled-for-another-5"! Sadly, they then
buggered up what that ability shoudl cost you. The removal only
occurs on 2 heads. On two tails, the card
removes all your actives energy. That can be a pain, but can be
worked around. Have something with like a single energy you can
replace, or that uses no energy, or that can retreat for free to
something else. Then they went insane. On a result of one head
and one tail, which is half the time, the card does aboslutely
nothing! This would be bad enough, but the fact
that this card thus only benefits you 25% of the time, makes it
more or less an e-card compatible coaster. They could have
balanced it countless other ways, using tricks they helped other
cards, but no, not only us it flippy, but if it does something, it
is just as likely to do to you what you wanted to do to your
opponent!
Is there any hope for this? Well,
sort of. Using proper preparation, you can minimize the cost to
yourself. Also, more cards that can recycle Trainers are popping
up, and combined with preparation, can make this somewhat potent:
in formats with little removal. Then it can become a powerful
tool for, say stripping a Rampaging, 4 Metal Aggron ex,
possibly crippling such a deck.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.5/5-If you need even more energy
removal, and have maxed out on S/ER, then this might be useful.
Modified (Neon):
1.75/5-Here, with removal being more potent and rare, it is more
useful... but it backfires or does nothing so often that it can't
truly shine.
Modified (LC/Eon):
2/5-Less options and some energy hogs in top spots mean the need
is so great that again it is more useful. Still, mainly as
occaisional TecH, and no where near a staple.
Nintendo Only/2-on-2:
Illegal. If it were legal, probably about a 2.25/5. The dual
active aspect can make it both easier and harder to use, since
they can spread out their energy, just as you should theoretically
be able to chose your own active that is least effect. As for the
boost, again, lot of energy hogs, and in this case, less tight (as
in jammed pack full of cards) decks.
TMP:
2/5-Like Neon, and in some respects like 2-on-2. Big difference
though: I believe, how its worded, you and your partner could
chose from amongst you which takes the hit on the discard, making
it a bit easier to deal with. Also, unlike 2-on-2, you cangang up
on what you stripped and probably eliminate the now crippled
player. You also can each TecH one in for more chances with
similar alloted space.
Draft:
I'll say 2/5-if your opponent drafted something huge, it could
save you... but then we run into all the same problems as above...
Still, if there's nothing better in the pack...
Sorry this one was so short: low on
time and for this card, information. :P
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