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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Electrode Prime (Triumphant)  Like yesterday’s card, Electrode Prime has certain similarities with a previous version. In this case, the art even looks very like the old Electrode EX, though I’m not sure how much room there is to be artistic with a Pokémon like Electrode.  Like Electrode EX, Electrode Prime will be played (if it is played at all) for its ability to blow itself up (and hand the opponent a Prize) in order to accelerate Energy on to your Pokémon. Because of this, its stats and attack are almost irrelevant. It has a reasonable 90 HP and single Retreat cost, a poor Weakness to Fighting, and an underwhelming attack that does 30 damage plus 10 to two benched Pokémon for [L][C]. Why they named it Gigashock is beyond me: there isn’t very much that is ‘giga’ about it.  The real attraction, such as it is, is Electrode’s Energymite Power. To use this, you KO your Pokémon in order to look at the top seven cards of your deck. You attach any energy you find there to your Pokémon and discard any remaining cards. Manipulating your deck to get the best out of this is difficult. You could run a ton of Energy, or you could use Delcatty PL to try and make sure you get at least two Energy from the Power.  The downsides and risks of using Energymite are huge though. You could get Power Sprayed and give your opponent a Prize for nothing (ruling pending!); you could end up discarding needed cards; or you could just whiff totally on the Power. Couple this with the fact that very few of today’s Pokémon need the kind of Energy acceleration that a successful Energymite would provide and you have a card which is not going to find its way into very many decks.  In fact, what you have here is a massively inferior version of the much more reliable Electrode EX, which is kind of odd given the way that most Pokémon have been given increased power over time. This is definitely one of those Primes you would rather trade away than look to use.  Rating  Modified: 1.5 (someone, somewhere will try to get it to work – I wish them luck!) Limited: 1.75 (Giving away a free Prize is a bad idea in Limited)
virusyosh	Hello yet again, Pojo readers! I apologize for not reviewing so much lately, but grad school has been quite busy. Anyway, we are going to end our COTD week this week by reviewing one of the many new Primes from the new HS Triumphant expansion. Today's Card of the Day is Electrode Prime. Electrode Prime is a Stage 1 Lightning Pokemon. Being a Lightning Pokemon is nice right now, as Fighting decks aren't super common (yet) and a few Lightning Pokemon that receive play tend to be rather feared (Luxray GL Lv. X, Magnezone, etc). 90 HP is about average for a Stage 1, and does hurt the survivability of the card (not like Electrode really should be worrying about that anyway). Fighting Weakness is bad, as Donphan Prime and Machamp SF can pretty easily get rid of you. Metal Resistance is nice, allowing Electrode to take less damage from Dialga G or even Scizor or Steelix Prime. Finally, a Retreat Cost of 1 is thoroughly payable: it won't set you back too much. Electrode Prime has a Poke-Power and an attack. The power, Energymite, allows you to KO Electrode once per turn to look at the top 7 cards of your deck, choose all of the energy found there, and attach it wherever you want. This attack works in a very similar way to the Supporter card Interviewer's Questions, which can be both good and bad. Getting all of that energy at once is really good for whatever type of setup you need at any given time, however you lose Electrode, giving your opponent a prize. Also, most decks nowadays run very little Energy, so Energymite's potential is squandered. Generally, you'll be KOing Electrode for one or two Energy. Is a KO worth two extra energy? It depends on the situation, but probably not. It is important to note though that Electrode works very nicely with the new Supporters in Triumphant. If you and your opponent are tied, use Energymite to attach energy, then KO Electrode and play either Twins or Black Belt. This is a pretty good play, even though your opponent gets a Prize. The single attack, Gigashock, costs [LC] and does 30 damage to the Defending Pokemon as well as 10 damage to two of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. Not terrible by any means, but you'd generally expect more out of a Prime, especially since this is its only attack. Modified: 2/5 Electrode Prime is rather interesting, but I don't know if it's very good. It may end up finding a role as a support Pokemon in a deck (Magnezone?) but there are usually better options. Giving up an evolved Pokemon and a Prize card to your opponent for a Power so random generally isn't worth it in most cases. Limited: 4/5 A bomb here (pun slightly intended). Most decks in Limited run about 40% Energy, so using Energymite will probably net you somewhere around 3-4 Energy most of the time, which will probably be enough to get a huge jump on your opponent. Just make sure not to mess yourself up by KOing yourself when your opponent can easily have the game in hand. Combos With: Twins, Black Belt, cards that can put Energy on the top of your deck
conical	10/29/10: Electrode Prime(Triumphant)   It's Electrode! Boogie-woogie-woogie!   *ahem* Sorry about that.   Anyways, yeah, today we got Electrode Prime, one of the Primes with heavier hype. The hype wholly centers around the Power, Energymite, which instantly KOs Electrode.   ...Yep.   ...OK, there's benefits to having Electrode explode, namely sweet, sweet energy attachment. You get to look at the top 7 cards of your deck, take whatever energy you find, and attach them however you like. This can some in handy, and since most cards with heavy energy costs are simply unplayable these days, Electrode could help these decks. A couple of problems, though.   First, you always run the risk of not revealing any energy. This is the big drawback to this Electrode compared with other Electrodes that exploded for energy: you some way of guaranteeing that you would get energy. This card is somewhat more risky, and the risk is further amplified when one considers the dangers of Power Spray versus the Power. Basically, If you get Power Sprayed while using Energymite, you don't get any energy...but Electrode is KO'd anyway. When one also considers that SP is dominant, has been dominant, and will likely be dominant for a long time, and how much energy one might run to abuse Electrode's Power, Electrode could be facing some hard times, or people might not play him.   Electrode is not having a hard time in Limited, however. Its attack, Gigashock, is cheap and useful in this format, and with 90 HP, it can take a few hits, and then Energymite, and in a 40-card format, there's a far better chance of getting energy.   Modified: 2.75/5 Limited: 4/5 Combos With: Well, what heavy attacker do you have in mind?
Otaku	Name: Electrode Set ID: HS – Triumphant 93/102 Rare Prime Stage: 1 (Evolves from Voltorb) Type: Lightning HP: 90 Weakness: Fighting x2 Resistance: Metal -20 Retreat Cost: (C) Poké-Power: Energymite Once during your turn (before your attack), you may use this power.  If you do, Electrode is Knocked Out.  Look at the top 7 cards of your deck.  Choose as many Energy cards as you like and attach them to your Pokémon in any way you like.  Discard the other cards.  This power can’t be used if Electrode is affected by a Special Condition. Attack: (LC) Gigashock [30] Does 10 damage to 2 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)   We end the week with Electrode Prime.  Hopefully I picked something that lets us end on a high note.   Attributes: Being a Stage 1 Pokémon bodes ill: it seems like they are less hit and more miss.  Then again, if it is good Broken Time Space would make it pretty easy to field it fast and in multiples.  Now, I am going to be honest, that’s about the only attribute on this card that will matter.  For posterity’s sake, I will comment on the rest.  Being a Lightning Pokémon at the moment is fairly good. 90 HP is just about as low as I want to see on an Active Stage 1 (though I don’t think it shall be Active very often).  Fighting Weakness x2 is fairly bad: Donphan Prime and friends score an easy OHKO.  Metal Resistance -20 is nice, as is a single Energy retreat cost.   Abilities: The Poké-Power is why you’d play this card, so I am going to skip to the attack: Gigashock let’s you hit the active while spreading damage, but is a bit underpowered and shouldn’t be used unless you’re type matching or otherwise desperate.   Energymite is why you play this card.  You have to KO your own Electrode (via this Poké-Power), but when you do you get to look at the top seven cards of your deck, take any Energy there then spread it out amongst your Pokémon as you wish, and discard the rest.  Energy acceleration is always powerful in Pokémon, and while it’s a steep price (running a Stage 1 Pokémon, KOing it, and one way or another losing seven cards from your deck), the pay off can be tremendous.  Let me point out that it doesn’t restrict you to Basic Pokémon: if you hit any Special Energy cards, they are fair game!   Uses and Combinations: I can see two ways to use this card.  The most obvious is you run your deck to maximize the Energy pulls and hope to hit mostly Energy cards.  Even the most Energy intensive Pokémon could be powered with a single “good” Energymite.  In this case, “good” is four or more Energy.  You still have your normal Energy attachment, that’s five whole Energy cards played in a single turn, and only one from hand.  Assuming such a pull, you could power up multiple main attackers all in one shot.  As long as you can hit at least two Energy, you can power up most Pokémon in a single turn (though some will require an Energy card from hand).   There is another possible use: you have to discard the cards that aren’t Energy.  At first that seems awful: what about Trainers and Pokémon?  Then I remembered there are some effects that want non-Energy cards in the discard pile.  Let’s flash back to Honchkrow with Vengeance (HS – Undaunted 16/90).  Vengeance is a pretty poor attack until you can discard about six Darkness Type Pokémon, and you need another two or three for it to actually be good.  Electrode provides a deck built around the bird a way to build fast.  A single turn can see both Honchkrow and Electrode hit the field, completely power up Honchkrow, and dump two or three Darkness-Type Pokémon.  A second means a two Prize deficit but by then you should actually be able to hit for some serious damage with the Honchkrow and have a spare ready to go.  There are also a few cards that benefit from you being behind in Prizes.  I’ll just name the newest one, Black Belt.  It’d eat up your Supporter for the term, but you get a fat bonus 40 points of damage on top of your attack.   You might even consider using it just because, with the right stacking cards, you could really enjoy attaching multiple Special Energy cards in a single turn.  Drop Rainbow Energy without damaging the Pokémon it is being attached to, even if you hit all four!  Full tank out a Metal-Type Pokémon or watch a Darkness-Type Pokémon enjoy a fat damage bonus.  With how impressive that can be, I almost neglected the simple benefit of stockpiling a Pokémon with high Energy discard costs.   In Limited Play, the Attributes actually matter and are good, and the attack isn’t bad either.  If your opponent isn’t in a position to OHKO it, you might even consider sending it up to attack for at least a turn before using its Poké-Power to KO it.  It is very risky since you only have four Prizes to begin with, but Limited decks tend to run higher on Energy counts and have trickier Energy requirements (due to the difficulty of not running a multi-type deck).   Ratings   Modified: 4/5   Limited: 3.75/5   Summary It is a risky card, especially in Limited, but the scope of the potential pay off is well worth it for the right decks.  You won’t see it everywhere, but even a TecH 1-1 line is tempting for Metal and Darkness-Type decks, or any deck that runs a lot of Energy cards.   I am still selling my former collectables on eBay.  I’ve had a lot of hobbies over the years, so at various times I’ll have comic books, manga, action figures, and video games on the auction block.  You can take a look at what’s up for bids here.  Just a reminder, Pojo is in no way responsible for any transactions and was merely kind enough to let me mention the auctions here. ;)