aroramage |
Pumping up the roots of those Grass-types, we've got
new Energy for them with Herbal Energy, a simple card
with a simple effect that's ready to help out your
VirGen decks and Mega-Heracross-EXs! Should you be
running this in such decks, or should you be running
this in such decks?
Well, as I said, it's a simple card: you attach it and
heal off 30 damage while providing a Grass Energy. It's
pretty much adding a Potion effect to your attachment.
This is wildly useful with Mega-Heracross-EX due to Big
Bang Horn's damage getting reduced by 10 for each damage
counter on it, so not only do you get the Energy you
need but you essentially add on up to 30 more damage!
Not bad, huh?
Then you've got the VirGen decks, and the card I'm
thinking this would work best with is a Genesect-EX
equipped with the G Booster. For anyone unfamiliar with
G Booster, it attaches only to Genesect-EX but gives him
an attack that deals 200 damage for 3 Energy. It's an
insane amount of damage on par with Black Kyurem-EX
(PLS) and his Black Ballista, but in a way it's actually
better; while both deal 200 damage, Black Kyurem-EX
discards 3 Energy for the attack each time, but not only
does Genesect-EX only discard 2 Energy - his attack is
unaffected by effects on the Defending Pokemon! It
ignores Pyroar's Intimidating Mane, Sigilyph's
Safeguard, any effect that would reduce the damage,
etc.!
But how does that connect to Herbal Energy? Well,
Genesect-EX will probably have been taking damage in the
meantime, right? So KO two Pidgeys with one Rock Throw;
that is, by attaching Herbal Energy, you get one of your
Energies back AND heal off some of the damage Genesect-EX
took from your opponent's counterstrike! And then you
just decimate them again next turn!
There are still a few problems with that strategy, the
biggest of which requires you to run your one ACE SPEC
as G Booster, but even without that combo, Herbal Energy
ought to be run in VirGen decks - heck, ANY Grass-type
deck should be running this! It essentially saves you
space in your deck, and let's face it, free healing
isn't that bad at 30 damage - especially when healing
powers up your guys!
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (an ESSENTIAL for any Grass deck; just be
wary that it will run into the same problems Strong
Energy does, being a Special Energy)
Expanded: 3/5 (still Essential, though there's more
Special Energies to go around here)
Limited: 4/5 (if you run a Grass type, put this in - you
won't regret it!)
Arora Notealus: So far the only Special Energies to be
devoted to a particular type (that is, they focus only
on 1 Type other than Colorless) are Darkness Energy,
Metal Energy, Strong Energy, and Herbal Energy. Wonder
if they'll make stuff for the other Types...
Weekend Thought: What do you think of the cards from
this week?
|
Otaku |
We finish out this week with the second
of the two brand new Special Energy
cards released this set, Herbal
Energy (XY: Furious Fists
103/111). Well technically its the
first if you go by the numbering, but we
looked at Strong Energy first
here,
because it made the Top 10.
Herbal Energy,
like Strong Energy is a Special
Energy that provides one of the basic
Energy-Types with an additional effect,
but has attachment restrictions. In
this case, once attached to a Grass-Type
Pokémon it provides [G] Energy. At the
moment of being attached to a Grass-Type
Pokémon from hand, you heal 30
damage (or as much as you can if there
is less) from that Pokémon. You can’t
attach this to a Pokémon that isn’t a
Grass-Type. If you circumvent the
attachment restriction (such as by using
an Energy moving effect), Herbal
Energy will discard itself if it is
somehow attached to something that isn’t
a Grass-Type.
Strong Energy
has been amazing because that extra 20
damage per copy has helped a lot of
Fighting-Types hit key damage thresholds
for KOs. If something with Strong
Energy survives to attack more than
once, each attack is another 20 points
of damage you wouldn’t have gotten out
of a basic Fighting Energy card.
Herbal Energy provides a small
dose of healing and just once (at least
without combos). Healing is totally
ineffective if you were OHKOed (which
happens a decent amount of the time) or
if it doesn’t force your opponent to use
more resources/take at least one more
turn for the KO and in general, a better
offense (like Strong Energy
provides) is more effective than a
better defense (which is how I’d
classify the healing of Herbal Energy);
even healing 30 versus hitting for an
additional 20 doesn’t level things out.
Still, especially as long as we don’t
have something like Enhanced Hammer
in the format, enjoy Herbal Energy
for healing in decks that are mostly or
all Grass-Type Pokémon. There the
versatility lost by being a Special
Energy with restrictions is probably
worth the healing you gain. In decks
focused on messing with Basic Energy or
with a significant amount of
non-Grass-Types, I’d only include a copy
or two or none at all… and in Expanded
it gets worse because of Enhanced
Hammer. For Limited, if you get
even a single Grass-Type Pokémon worth
running and are indeed already going to
run it, definitely include Herbal
Energy. If you don’t have any
Grass-Types worth running to begin with,
skip it due to the attachment
restrictions.
Ratings
Standard:
3/5
Expanded:
2.75/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
I’m hesitant to run a Grass-Type deck
without at least a single copy, but so
far there aren’t any major combos (at
least of which I am aware) that make it
a big deal (and some decks do avoid it
because they have no room for another
Special Energy card). The extra healing
is nice for what it is, but the hassles
of being such a selective Special Energy
are not. In Expanded you’ve got to deal
with Enhanced Hammer and in
Limited not only do you need to draw it
at the right time, but you need
something that can use it.
|
