aroramage |
Alright, so naturally we all saw
this coming - everything's getting a "Special Energy" of
their own, so it's about time Water got its fair share.
I mean, it was probably the only Type left without it;
Colorless is covered by DCE, Dragons by DDE, we've got
Wonder Energy for Fairies, Shield Energy for Steel,
Mystery for Psychic, Strong for Fighting, Herbal for
Grass, Burning for Fire, Flash for Electric, and
Dangerous for Dark...oh dang, Water really was the last
Type missing one.
So naturally, Splash Energy needed
to be made!...or did it?
Well Splash Energy, like every
other "Type Special" Energy, can only be attached to
Water Pokemon, and it has its own effect. Now while the
effects of these Type Special Energies varies and
doesn't always seem to relate to the overall Type's
"specialties" (I mean, since when have Electric Types
needed to have no Weakness?), but they generally try and
cover them, and most of the time they do it well. Sure,
not everything needs to be tougher, but Shield Energy
makes the naturally tough Metal Pokemon even tougher,
just as Dangerous Energy makes Dark Pokemon more...well,
dangerous.
The problem with Water though is
figuring out what its main specialty is. One idea could
be the usage of Energy coming out to fuel powerful
attacks; you think of Kyurem's Glaciate, Keldeo-EX's
Secret Sword, even M Gyarados-EX's Blast Geyser, and
that seems to be the case. Now Water tends to like
putting down MORE Energy at a rapid pace, such as with
Blastoise's Deluge and Palkia-EX's Aqua Turbo, and then
getting more effects off of that, but that's really
about it. Another aspect would be the usage of the
Paralysis Status, which is more related to the "Ice"
members of the Water Type and is just far more powerful
without some element of chance thrown in, like with
Vanilluxe's Double Freeze from NVI.
So how can Splash Energy embody
something ? Or, to put it another way, how can it fit
Water's "theme" as a Special Energy? Well the truth of
it is, it really can't, and that's what must have
plagued the developers for the longest time when making
these different Energies. Sure, Fire doesn't always
discard Energies, but more often than not, it's a Fire
Pokemon discarding them so Burning Energy made sense.
Grass Pokemon don't always heal off their own damage,
but they do it more than, say, Psychic Types would.
The best effect Splash Energy could
have had would be, "When this Pokemon attacks, deal 30
damage to 1 Benched Pokemon." And that sort of thing
could have been HEAVILY abused. And it's not like they
could copy Burning Energy, what with getting discarded
only to bring it back. So Splash Energy now has the
misfortune of hitting the bottom of the barrel in terms
of "Special Energy Effects." And that's why it only can
bring back the Pokemon that got KO'd.
Really, that's all that can be said
for it. Sure, it's got its own uses, but it can't stack
like Strong or Shield or Dangerous Energy can - you're
only gonna be using 1 of these on 1 of your Pokemon. And
unlike Flash or Wonder Energy, it's not going to provide
any effect while attached until your Pokemon gets KO'd.
That's not to say it can't be useful, it's always nice
to get something back from what you've lost, but say
it's a Pokemon-EX - now you have to spend your time
setting that guy up again while holding off your
opponent's Pokemon with another attacker.
Splash Energy will probably have
its best usage on something like Articuno (ROS17) or
Regice (AOR), something small and annoying that your
opponent won't always be able to deal with or that can
deal its own fair share while not leaving you at risk
for much. In that way, it's basically just fuel to your
back-up attackers rather than your main
gambit...unless...
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (by no means is this
the best Type Special Energy, but it does have its uses)
Expanded: 2/5 (though they are
limited, I'm sure somebody will figure something could
make some use out of this card)
Limited: 3.5/5 (recycling Pokemon
back I think works better in this format than the other
ones)
Arora Notealus: Splash Energy could
have been the most powerful Type Special Energy for
sure, but it's hard to say how to really "balance" it.
Maybe it could have had the effect of playing itself
down in addition to your other Energy attachment for the
turn, or it could cycle back into your hand instead of
putting the KO'd Pokemon back, but these could easily
have led to much more powerful decks I'm sure, even when
you're only given 4.
Next Time:...there was one Pokemon
that could make this work...
|
Otaku |
Before
we cover any of the many, many Water-Types it
seemed appropriate to first cover their new piece of
Type exclusive support: Splash Energy (XY:
BREAKpoint 113/122). It may only be attached
to Water-Type Pokémon; should it somehow become attached
to a non-Water-Type, Splash Energy will discard
itself. Only while attached to Water-Type Pokémon
will it provide [W]; it won’t count as such in the hand
or deck or discard pile. Its big effect though is
that should the Water-Type Pokémon this card is attached
to be Knocked Out by damage from an attack by your
opponent’s Pokémon, you may that Pokémon into your hand
instead of the discard pile. You discard all
attached cards (including Splash Energy), but an
Evolution includes the entire line (Basic through
highest Stage). You still give up however many
Prizes are due, it is just instead of that Pokémon
hitting the discard pile, it goes to your hand.
This can be a handy effect, and for better or worse it
doesn’t stack: multiple copies are for protecting
multiple Pokémon, or if you are so worried about a
single Pokémon that you include extras so that you still
get the effect should at least one remain attached.
Also remember that its effect won’t matter if the KO
your opponent takes is for the win.
So what
do I think of the card for Standard and Expanded?
As we all know, Special Energy in general is quite
vulnerable right now, but also quite common. This
makes counters to Special Energy far more useful.
Maybe I am on the wrong path, but while at first I was
trying to work in a Startling Megaphone to deal
with problematic Pokémon Tools, now I am once again
looking at Xerosic for a strategic strike against
either a single Pokémon Tool or Special Energy. Giratina-EX
(XY: Ancient Origins 57/98, 93/98) can block a
player from even attaching Special Energy, and the only
effective, generic way of reclaiming them seems to be
Puzzle of Time. So the good news is that the
format is primed for Special Energy, the bad news is
that is because it has been reliant upon them for a
while, and thanks to the backlash it can be dangerous to
run too many Special Energy. With respect to the
Type-exclusive Special Energy that have a clause which
causes them to discard themselves when attached to the
wrong Pokémon-Type, Slowking (XY: BREAKpoint
21/122) may be a new threat: use its “Royal Flash”
Ability and if you “get heads” you could move something
like Splash Energy from an Active Water-Type to
something like Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies
77/108, 106/108) on the Bench, forcing Splash Energy
to discard itself!
This
brings up an important difference between this and the
other Type exclusive Special Energy cards. As you
might expect in our highly aggressive format where not
only does speed of setup matter, but the fact that most
of the time decks are going for a OHKO or a 2HKO, it is
important to cash in on a card’s benefits ASAP. So
passive effects that don’t apply right away are less
successful than those that can be used immediately.
It might seem like a surprise but being able to stack an
effect for added value is also important: some cards do
manage to hold on for a turn or two, especially if a
deck can disrupt the opponent’s offense either through
control effects or raw, overwhelming power. The
third major trend is whether or not a Type has something
that makes the basic form of the Energy advantageous,
like Basic Energy-only acceleration. Finally there
is a question of can something else provide this effect,
and if it does, how does it interact with the Special
Energy? Is it redundant or can it yet again stack?
Splash
Energy
doesn’t stack, it requires your opponent score a KO via
damage from an attack to trigger, and when it triggers
it just saves you the mild hassle of getting the
Water-Type Pokémon back into hand… assuming you don’t
want said Water-Type to go there (like for Archie’s
Ace in the Hole). Plus there are some very
good effects like “Deluge” on Blastoise (BW:
Boundaries Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma Storm
137/135; BW: Plasma Blast 16/101) or Greninja
(XY 41/146) or Greninja BREAK (XY:
BREAKpoint 41/122) that require basic Water
Energy cards. So I don’t think this has a
tremendous amount of use for Expanded or Standard.
Just an odd note: if this was an Energy for Grass-Types,
this card would have been at least a little better.
Why? Instead of potentially wanting your
Water-Type Pokémon to end up in the discard pile, you
could attach this to something like Vileplume (XY:
Ancient Origins 3/98) and should it get KO’d,
Forest of Giant Plants would then let you drop the
entire Evolution line from your hand the next turn.
If you’ll indulge me for one other example, if the
Water-Type had something akin to the Crobat (XY:
Phantom Forces 33/119) where even if you couldn’t
play that Basic can Evolve it twice right away, could
benefit from getting the Basic back down, Evolving a
waiting Basic and a waiting Stage 1 for a benefit, that
also would enjoy this card’s effect. About the
only place this effect is going to be really valuable is
for Limited play, as you could have a great Water-Type
and thanks to Splash Energy you could use it
again. Just remember you play with Four Prizes
instead of six, so Splash Energy becomes useless
more quickly.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5
Expanded:
1.5/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Splash Energy is one of the many Type-exclusive
Special Energy cards that feels like the effect when to
the wrong Type… or maybe it is just that an effect that
was once significant (see Rescue Energy) is
currently a luxury or even a complication decks may not
need, so a Pokémon needs very specific traits to make
good use of it. Enjoy it in Limited play, don’t
worry about it elsewhere unless you can find something I
missed.
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