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Our next to last honorable mention is one of the many I
could cite to explain why reprints normally aren’t
eligible for our Top 10 lists. Rainbow Energy
first debuted all the way back in the original Team
Rocket expansion. More recent printings work a bit
different from the original, but this card has been
reprinted so often that its almost always been Modified
legal… but for players that joined us before XY
released but after anything older than Black & White
had rotated out of the format, Rainbow Energy was
a new, game changing card. It seems bizarre that an
entire generation of sets excluded Rainbow Energy,
though of course they featured similar cards: Blend
Energy GRPD, Blend Energy WLFM and Prism
Energy.
We also haven’t officially reviewed Rainbow Energy
since
August 18th of 2005.
In fact, that is the only review for Rainbow Energy;
like many older (but reprinted) cards, it just never
seemed appropriate to go back and review it when the
Pokémon CotD section became more than just articles by
Ness in 2002. What is odd is that once again I didn’t
review it with the rest of the crew; I have reviews in
the previous and the next week, but none for the week
when Rainbow Energy was reviewed (let alone for
the card itself). So let us remedy that.
A normal Basic Energy card provides one unit of Energy
that can be used to meet a Colorless Energy requirement
or a requirement of the same Type as said Energy.
You’re allowed up to 59 copies of any one Basic Energy
card in your deck (39 if it is Limited play), and that
cap exists only because of the maximum deck size and
requirement your deck contain at least one Basic
Pokémon. Effects that are (usually) beneficial to you
like searching out, recycling or moving Energy almost
always work on Basic Energy cards but not Special Energy
cards. Effects that you usually don’t want to be on the
receiving end of, such as Energy discarding effects, are
likely to offer a better deal if they only target
Special Energy cards, such as Crushing Hammer
versus Enhanced Hammer.
So getting to Rainbow Energy itself, while you
are restricted to just four copies, while it is in play
Rainbow Energy bends the rules as it counts as
all Energy Types (still only providing one unit of
Energy) but when you attach it to a Pokémon from hand,
it places a damage counter on that Pokémon. In some
formats, that damage counter ends up being largely
meaningless, in others it is quite significant.
Similarly, sometimes being a Special Energy has simply
meant the four-per-deck limit, but other times (like
right now) it has been a real concern both because of
the excellent support Basic Energy has and the fact
there are some very potent (and in the case of
Enhanced Hammer easy to use) Special Energy
counters.
Breadth:
Rainbow Energy isn’t needed by every deck, but it
can be used to enhance just about any deck; the only
requirement is that the deck either already runs or
could be enhanced by running something with Energy
requirements that the deck’s current Energy cards can’t
meet, and that wouldn’t be better met by running that
Basic Energy.
Depth:
Such a simple card actually has a lot of depth to it;
while it does have simple uses, even though have changed
how we play because you know that someone might work in
a Pokémon that normally has Energy specific
requirements, whether it is Yveltal-EX in a deck
that doesn’t run any other source of [D] or blocking
Special Conditions with Virizion-EX and its [G]
Energy triggered Verdant Wind. Then there are the much
more deck specific uses, such as allowing Aromatisse
decks to go the Toolbox route with a variety of
attackers to exploit Weakness and bypass certain
counters while still making use of the [Y]-Energy moving
Fairy Transfer… while also utilizing Virizion-EX.
In a format where Hypnotoxic Laser is amazing,
being part of the counter combo is pretty significant.
Time:
Rainbow Energy was reprinted in XY and
while its exact strength waxed and waned like almost all
other cards, it was a significant presence the whole
time.
Ratings
Standard:
4/5
Expanded:
4/5
Limited:
4.9/5
Summary:
Rainbow Energy is an amazingly potent card even
though it doesn’t do anything “fancy” such as having an
Item like effect or only working for a specific Type or
Stage of Pokémon. I worry that I just haven’t done it
justice with this review; stating what it does feels
almost redundant, and considering how often I repeat
myself, I think that is saying something. Had it been a
legal candidate, impact would have eclipsed most other
cards. It isn’t universal but it is widely used with
some decks where it is central to the strategy.
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