Review too long? Skip straight to the Ratings
and Summary!
Also note I will be reviewing for the new
Modified Format from now on (EX Hidden Legends
and later sets, called Hidd-On for short). This
format officially becomes the current Modified
Format on September 1st.
Name:
Warp Energy
Set:
EX Unseen Forces
Card#:
100/115
Rarity:
Uncommon
Type:
Energy
Subtype:
Special Energy
Text:
Warp Energy provides (C) Energy. When you
attach this card from your hand to your Active
Pokémon, switch that Pokémon with 1 of your
Benched Pokémon.
Attributes:
Pretty straight forward-obviously, like any Special
Energy (other than Miracle Energy), Warp
Energy is limited to four per deck, like any
non-Basic Energy card. It provides a single
Colorless Energy as evidenced by the symbol in the
upper right-hand corner of the card. As usual, I’ll
remind players that Colorless Energy can only meet
Colorless Energy requirements, because any type of
Energy meets a Colorless requirement.
Abilities:
If you attach it to your Active from your hand, it
requires you switch out that Active with one of your
Benched Pokémon. This is a fairly solid ability,
mostly useful since it gets around Trainer blocking
effects, and on the occasion that you need to bench
something while powering it up.
Uses and
Combinations:
The two situations mentioned above may seem rare,
but now that we have a lot of Bench manipulation and
contrasting factors that mean you get punished for a
large Bench or a small Bench means that sometimes
you’ll have something Active you want to keep
powering up but also want on the Bench. For me, it
would be my EX Fire Red/Leaf Green Victreebel
in my “Liabelity” deck (using EX Deoxys Weezing).
Weezing uses Liability to blow itself up and
reduce the opponent to 10 HP left, then before my
turn ends I have to send up a new Active, and its
usually Victreebel, since that means its
Poke-Body (Acid Sampler) will place a counter on the
opponent’s Active Pokémon between turns, which
equals a KO. Problem being is that if I have to do
this early enough, I will be just a little bit shy
of Energy to attack with Victreebel, and will
need a way to power it up quickly as well as get it
back to the Bench. Enter Warp Energy. My
deck also currently runs an EX Fire Red/Leaf Green
Scyther as TecH: when it has a Grass Energy
on it, it has a free retreat cost. So if I need to
shake any Special Conditions or other effects that
go away when I bench a Pokémon, Warp Energy
to the Active, Scyther comes up then I
retreat back to the old Active now “effect” free.
As you can see, pretty specialized for Modified. In
Unlimited, it is a whole other story: Pokémon are
constantly forced into the Active slot against their
player’s will thanks to Gust of Wind. You
also have a lot of popular Trainer denial that
Warp Energy can get around. Finally, you can
use Warp Energy to not only break a Neo
Genesis Murkrow’s Mean Look/Feint Attack
lock, but keep the Murkrow active where you
can (ideally) OHKO it with whatever you bring up,
truly ending the lock.
Ratings
Unlimited:
4/5-Here I find a single copy to be a staple, due to
the “Murkrow Lock”. While much less painful
than a Yata-Lock from Yu-Gi-Oh, the multiple
kinds of Murkrow locks are still strong
though not as heavily played as in the past. Again,
there is also so much Trainer denial it also
bypasses.
Modified:
3/5-Here, not as good. In fact, it now seems to
match its set mate and seemingly counterpart,
Cyclone Energy. It’s useful but far from
required for most decks in general, but for a few it
will be quite helpful.
Limited:
4.75/5-No real reason not to take it here, unless
you honestly have no use for it (you are running a
deck with but a single Pokémon), or none of your
Pokémon have Colorless Energy costs.
Summary
Warp Energy
is back in Modified at last… too bad most of the
stuff that could really use it has been rotated
out. Still nice to have options.
