aroramage |
...I feel this is going to be one
of those on-the-nose not-so-subtle commentaries for a
card review, but let's see how much I can get away with.
Electrode is a white-and-red orb of
silly grinning shenanigans. He's confident in whatever
he does, even when he's super weak and doesn't handle
Fighting too well. He's headstrong with that Head Bolt,
even though it does nothing other than cost 3 Energy and
do a paltry 70 damage. Now don't mind that he's got a
short fuse, he's coming back into the game promising
change for the new world!
See Buzzap Thunder looks to be at
first a very harsh Ability to use. But trust me, it's
the greatest Ability ever, the absolute best Ability to
use. Guys like Garbodor, their Abilities, they're
terrible. Literally, garbage. Garbage has an Ability,
that Ability is terrible. This Ability though, it's the
greatest Ability. Sure, it looks like it's bad cause it
KOs Electrode, and it only really benefits the
Electric-Type, but not only does it support them greatly
but it gives them double the Energy they had before.
That's why this Ability, such a good Ability. This
Ability is the best.
Now some might say it's a trade-off
on giving your opponent a single Prize just to boost
your Electric-Types to higher standards. But you know
what I think, I think they just haven't seen what those
too-big-to-fail Pokemon-EX are like. I mean, have you
seen these guys? 180 HP, 210 HP, 240 HP - it's
ridiculous! I've gone around the country looking at
small Pokemon all around, and all I hear is how tired
they are of this EX nonsense. It's not what this game
needs.
What we need is Electrode, a hero,
a defender, someone who will rejuvenate the process, not
stagnate it and leave our Electric-types to dry. And
we're going to build a wall and-yeah, no, I'm done with
this, Electrode's good for Energy boosting but you
decide whether or not he's worth the KO.
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (I'd say it depends
on whether you think the Prize drop is worth the Double
Electric Energy)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (seriously, it's up
to you)
Limited: 2.5/5 (in smaller Prize
formats, it might be too much)
Arora Notealus: Electrode's got a
lot of unknown potential, but he's also a bit of a relic
from the past. If he provided the Double Rainbow Energy
that he used to be, he could have seen a lot of play in
a variety of decks, but as just pure Electric support?
Maybe, maybe not. All I know is he's still planning to
blow himself up and take whatever with him.
Next Time: A NEW EX!!...kinda?
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Otaku |
Electrode
(XY: Evolutions 40/108) is our eighth place
finisher and I am just going to start by talking about
its Ability. Why? It is central to the card
and when I tried following my usual approach I kept
having to half discuss it anyway, so might as well lead
with it instead. Electrode has the Ability “Buzzap
Thunder”, which you may use once per turn before you
attack. If you do, Electrode is KO’d: yes,
that means your opponent takes a Prize and all cards
that were attached to Electrode are discarded
(that includes Voltorb). Electrode itself
gets attached to one of your Lightning Type Pokémon in
play, where it is treated as a Special Energy card that
provides [LL]. Once it hits the discard pile (for
whatever reason), it stops counting as a Special Energy
card. There isn’t a good way to move Special
Energy about, but it lacks a clause stating it only
provides [LL] while attached to a Lightning Type
Pokémon; in fact it just states it only provides the
Energy “...only while this card is attached to a
Pokémon.” So you can give up a Prize for a quick hit of
Energy, though only for your Lightning Type Pokémon.
No other attachment restrictions, so it works regardless
of Stage or “special” mechanics like being a Pokémon-EX
or Pokémon-GX. So now… what about the rest of the
card?
Electrode
is Lightning Types which is… okay. Electrode
isn’t intended to be an attacker, but if you have to
resort to it then things aren’t bad. A good chunk
of the Colorless Type and various cards spread out among
the other Types are Lightning Weak. In the
Expanded Format, there are also a decent amount of
Lightning Weak Water Types as well, as opposed to just a
few. Lightning Resistance is only found on some
BW-era Fighting Types. Lightning Type support
isn’t too likely to matter, at least not directly:
before something like Flash Energy or Rough
Seas can matter, hopefully Electrode will
already have done its thing. Now Lightning
Energy support matters because it likely rivals
Electrode in usage; do you go with Electrode
for a one time boost or make room for Eelektrik (BW:
Noble Victories 40/101) or Magnezone (XY:
BREAKthrough 54/162) plus basic Lightning Energy
for multiple boosts. Being a Stage 1 slows it down
a little: being a Basic might have made it broken, being
a Stage 2 would have made it bad. The 80 HP is low
but it does make the card Level Ball legal, and
makes the Fighting Weakness deadly because now most
Fighting Type attackers need a single damage buff
instead of multiple for the OHKO. Metal Resistance
is better than none, but it’s only going to come in
handy in fringe cases since again, only 80 HP. The
Retreat Cost of [C] is low and easy to pay and recover
from having paid, plus the Ability can be used while
Active as another out. As we already looked at the
Ability, I’ll just mention here that its attack - “Head
Bolt” - requires [LLC] to do 70; too low for the Energy
required, but it can do the job in a pinch (probably the
only time you’d be attacking with Electrode
anyway).
Electrode
(XY: Evolutions 40/108) extreme makeover of
Electrode (Base Set 21/102; Base Set 2
25/130). Same Type, Stage, HP, Weakness, and
Retreat Cost as its successor, Electrode (Base
Set 21/102; Base Set 2 25/130) had no Metal
Resistance which is not a surprise given there was no
Metal Type at the time. Its attack was much worse
as well: “Electric Shock” not only required [LLL], did
just 50 damage, plus you had to flip a coin to see if
Electrode did 10 damage to itself. Yet if I
wasn’t worried about game balance, this is the
version I wish we had in Expanded and Standard.
Why? Its Ability is “Buzzap”, but even though the
name is shorter the effect is a little more complicated;
unusually in the “good” way. Electrode still KOs
itself, discarding all cards attached to it (plus
Voltorb) while attaching itself to another of your
Pokémon as a Special Energy. Buzzap works with
Pokémon of any Type, plus instead of only
providing [LL] it provides two units of Energy that must
be the same Type, but you pick the Type when you
initially attach it. So back then it could provide
[CC], [FF], [GG], [RR], [LL], [PP], and [WW]. Now
[DD], [YY], and [MM] would be legal options, which
should already be giving you ideas. So yeah,
Buzzap Thunder is the nerfed form of Buzzap.
Moving on, you can pick between five Voltorb:
BW: Boundaries Crossed 51/149, BW: Plasma Freeze
32/116, XY 44/146, XY: Roaring Skies
21/108, and XY: Evolutions 39/108. All are
Lightning Type Basic Pokémon with Fighting Weakness,
Retreat Cost [C], and no Ancient Trait. BW:
Boundaries Crossed 51/149, BW: Plasma Freeze
32/116, XY 44/146 are Expanded only. BW:
Boundaries Crossed 51/149 has 50 HP, no Resistance,
and the attack “Static Shock”; for [C] the attack does
just 10 damage. BW: Plasma Freeze 32/116 has 60
HP, no Resistance, and the attack “Rollout”; for [LC] it
does 20 damage. XY 44/146 is back down to 50 HP,
and has Rollout as well but this time it costs just [C]
and does only 10, but it has an Ability.
“Destiny Burst” only works when Voltorb gets
KO’d by damage from an opponent’s attack, while it is
Active; “tails” does nothing while “heads” places five
damage counters on the opponent’s Active (Voltorb
is still KO’d no matter what). XY: Roaring Skies
21/108 is back up to 60 HP, has Metal Resistance, and
two attacks. [L] pays for “Thunder Wave”, which does no
damage but inflicts Paralysis upon the opponent’s Active
on a “heads” and does nothing at all on “tails”. [LC]
allows it to use “Big Explosion” to do a solid 60 damage
to the opponent’s Active, but also 60 to itself. Finally
XY: Evolutions 39/108 has 60 HP, Metal
Resistance, and the attack “Continuous Tumble” for [C];
you flip a coin until you get “tails” and the attack
does 10 damage for each “heads”. I’m partial to
XY 44/146 as it discourages your opponent from
attacking it, while XY: Roaring Skies 21/108 buys
time with its first attack or can be a desperation move
with its second.
Now for the other Electrode: BW: Boundaries
Crossed 52/149, BW: Plasma Freeze 33/116, BW:
Black Star Promos BW75, XY 45/146, and XY:
Roaring Skies 22/108. All are Lightning Type
Stage 1 Pokémon with Fighting Weakness and no Ancient
Trait, and only XY: Roaring Skies 22/108
is Standard legal (technically today’s won’t be for a
little while yet, either). BW: Boundaries Crossed
52/149 has 80 HP, no Resistance, a free Retreat Cost,
and two attacks: for [C] it can use Static Shock to do
20 while for [LCC] its “Electro Ball” does 60.
This is not good, if you couldn’t tell by how we haven’t
ever reviewed it. BW: Plasma Freeze 33/116 has
90 HP, No Resistance, and Retreat Cost [C] plus it also
has Electro Ball for the same Energy, doing the same
damage. Besides the change in stats, instead of
Static Shock it has the Ability “Magnetic Draw”, which
allows you once per turn before you attack to draw until
you have four cards in hand. If you have more than
four cards in hand, you cannot use the Ability.
Baby Mario looked at it
here
when it was still fairly new and pretty much nailed it.
Back then the issue was Pokémon Catcher
(pre-errata when it required no coin flip), the
previous iteration of the first turn rules (you could
attack first turn back then), coupled with it mostly
being N insurance if you didn’t manage to play
down your hand low enough. Nowadays it is just
outclassed by better options, though in the Legacy
Format of the PTCGO it has proven good. In
Expanded it might be a nice surprise for a deck wanting
to use today’s Electrode, or perhaps vice versa.
BW: Black Star Promos
BW75 is the Team Plasma affiliated version of
Electrode, or Electrode [Plasma] for short.
It has 100 HP, the highest of any contemporary
Electrode card, no Resistance, and a perfect, free
Retreat Cost. Its first attack is “Electribeam”
for [L], which does 20 and allows you to flip a coin;
“heads” inflicts Paralysis as well while “tails” means
just the base 20 damage is done. The second attack
is “Self Destruct” for [LCC] doing 100 damage to the
opponent’s Active as well as 100 damage to Electrode
[Plasma] itself. Until Self Destruct, the card was
looking promising, but even with Team Plasma support it
wasn’t worth using three Energy to hit yourself as hard
as your opponent, especially when it would be OHKOing
your own Stage 1! XY 45/146 has 90 HP, no
Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], and two attacks. For
[L] its “Eerie Impulse” allows you to flip a coin, with
“tails” doing nothing while “heads” allows you to
discard an Energy attached to one of your opponent’s
Pokémon. [CC] pays for Rollout, this time doing 40
damage. Two attacks that might be okay support on
like a big, Basic Pokémon-EX do not make for a good
Stage 1 attacker. Finally XY: Roaring Skies
22/108 has 90 HP, Metal Resistance, Retreat Cost [C],
and two attacks. Continuous Tumble costs [C] and
has you flip a coin until “tails”, inflicting 20 damage
per “heads”, while [LCC] enables “Energy Bomb” which
does 70 damage and allows you to move all Energy from
Electrode to one of your Benched Pokémon.
Surprisingly we reviewed it
here
and it hasn’t gotten any better since. Yes, even
though you could KO today’s Electrode to help
fuel it, then use Energy Bomb to move today’s
Electrode - now an Energy card that provides [LL] -
to a non-Lightning Type Pokémon.
As mentioned earlier, Electrode is competing with
cards like Eelektrik and Magnezone, and
probably Max Elixir as well. So where would
it be worth running and KOing a Stage 1 to fuel an
attacker? What if that attack isn’t a Basic
Pokémon? Ampharos (XY: Steam Siege
40/114) springs to mind, as it needs [LLC] to use its “Gigavolt”
attack to do 80 damage and either another 40 (so 120
total) on “heads” or just the 80 with Paralysis on
“tails”. It also has an Ability which places three
damage counters on one of your opponent’s Pokémon-EX
(your choice). It is a long shot, but this might
be what is needed to speed the whole thing up.
Though unlikely, there is also Jolteon (XY:
Ancient Origins 26/98), which allows any
Stage 1 to be a Lightning Type (in addition to its usual
Type or Types). There may be some control decks
that would enjoy Electrode as well; they don’t
really need the Energy but rather plan on going down in
Prizes to set up for a rather vicious N… but this
is probably the least likely: a similar trick worked in
the past with Electrode-ex, but it gave up two
Prizes per use, attached Energy in a different manner,
and had cards like Pow! Hand Extension and
Scramble Energy with which to work.
Electrode
may have a niche role in either Standard or Expanded,
but nothing of which I am certain. It is a
dangerous pull in Limited as you only play with four
Prize cards in this format; so blowing up one
Electrode (even if you have a good target to receive
the Energy) is 25% of your beginning Prize cards!
If you have the Lightning Types to go with it, though,
it is probably worthwhile addition to your deck.
As I don’t have much to say here, I’d like to bring up
Electrode (Base Set 21/102; Base Set 2
25/130). You see, even though I’ve mentioned how
potent it could be, it never was very good for
competitive play back in the day, at least if the player
base was knowledgeable and had access to Gust of Wind
plus Energy Removal or Super Energy Removal
or both. You could attack first turn back then and
the first release of Hitmonchan (Base Set
7/102; Base Set 2 8/130; Best of Game 2;
Platinum 129/127) was doing great. This
meant if you dropped a lone Voltorb, there was a
good chance it was being OHKO’d before it could Evolve,
meaning the cost to use Buzzap was effectively two
Prizes, not just one. If your opponent didn’t OHKO
whatever it was you attached the Buzzapped Electrode
to then an Energy Removal or Super Energy
Removal would turn it into a single turn boost (or
possibly another OHKO). It isn’t quite as scary
now, though. OHKOs of larger Pokémon are more
common, but Crushing Hammer, Enhanced Hammer,
and Team Flare Grunt aren’t loose staples like
S/ER. One advantage we do have right now,
unless the combo is specifically ruled against, is
Life Dew. It would eat up your Ace Spec slot
and it’s only for Expanded play, but a Life Dew
should keep Buzzap Thunder from actually giving your
opponent a Prize.
Ratings
Standard:
2.5/5
Expanded:
2.25/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
Electrode might be the boost the Lightning Type
needs, or it might be another dead end. As you can
tell by the score, I am thinking mostly the latter; it
does worse in Expanded due to the competition. You
might be desperate enough to use it in Standard, but
Expanded has Eelektrik; even the Life Dew
combo only offsets that by so much.
Electrode
managed six voting points, none of it from me. It
almost made my list, almost, but being so severely
nerfed when compared to the original really hurts.
I don’t mind it making the list, but it seems more like
a 10th place card than an 8th place, and only because
this set either didn’t have a lot of impressive cards,
or ran low pretty quick. As mentioned
yesterday,
it only edged out Mewtwo (XY: Evolutions
51/108) by a single point, and it lost to
tomorrow’s
card by two voting points.
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Hey, everyone! Today we are looking
at Electrode from the new Evolutions set. Like many
cards in this set, Electrode can be thought of as a
buffed reprint, allowing it to (hopefully) keep up with
current meta-game decks and strategies. This is probably
one of the most playable cards in the set, so I will try
to explain my reasoning on why I think Electrode might
become popular as the 2016-17 season progresses.
Electrode’s “Buzzap” Ability from
the Base Set was paired alongside Zapdos. It gave
attackers with high Energy costs a chance to shine,
though this was still difficult in an extremely
aggressive format where Haymaker decks were dominant and
you could play as many draw cards – think Professor Oak
and Bill – as you wanted a turn without limitation. The
Electrode from Evolutions is similar in this manner,
having the same Ability and given Metal resistance to
boot. “Buzzap Thunder” lets you knock out Electrode in
order to turn it into a Special Energy card that
provides 2 Lightning Energy, but only to a Lightning
Pokémon. Had this text said any Pokémon, it would
suddenly open the door to a whole new world of
deckbuilding, but sadly this is not the case.
That said, the effect is still
strong given that there are lots of viable
Lightning-types to work with. Raikou from BREAKthrough
has become incredibly popular in the Expanded format, as
it pairs nicely with Eelektrik’s “Dynamotor” Ability to
hit hard while being able to take a few hits thanks to
Fighting Fury Belt and Rough Seas. It has not found a
place in the Standard format because there is no proper
Energy acceleration to pair with this Legendary beast.
Believe me – I’ve tried really, really hard to make it
work with Magnezone for unlimited Energy attachments per
turn, but it is simply too inconsistent having to rely
on Rare Candy and clunky with so many Evolutions.
Electrode could potentially remedy this problem by
providing Raikou with a quick boost to let it attack
right away. Keep in mind that this makes the prize
exchange unfavorable given that Electrode’s “Buzzap
Thunder” requires it to be KO’d in the process.
As far as other attackers, Zapdos
from Evolutions could work, though its Thunderbolt
attack requires you to discard all Energy attached to
it. In addition, the 170 damage it deals isn’t quite as
relevant now that Tool removal is gone, making Fighting
Fury Belt permanent on your opponent’s Pokémon and
skewing the math. Perhaps Electrode’s ideal partner has
yet to be released – there have already been a lot of
cards from the Sun/Moon base set revealed, so maybe we
can look forward to some new Lightning-type attackers
when it is released this February.
Expanded is not much different when
it comes to Lightning-types. Raikou pairs with Eelektrik,
but not so much with Electrode. Jolteon-EX can easily
get set up on turn two already because it can take
advantage of Double Colorless Energy. Team Plasma decks
are somewhat popular, but they are already
Energy-efficient and can use the Colress Machine engine
to quickly get powered up already.
Ratings
Standard: 2/5
Expanded: 1.5/5
Limited: 4/5
Summary: I’m glad to see
Electrode reprinted because I think it will bring some
creative deckbuilding options to the table as the season
progresses. Unfortunately, it lacks a suitable partner
currently and will likely remain in binders until some
new Lightning-types emerge.
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