Howdy everyone, welcome once again to -Overlooked- where I take a gander at some

useful cards that seem to have been lost in the shuffle of more popular cards.

Today I’m going to be looking at 3 more cards once again, and it seems that last

time I had a theme which was the pokemon I had chosen all had pokemon powers. So

today I guess I’ll try another theme. Today its pokemon with Dark in their name,

some have some cool combos that you can work with. The list today is:  Dark

Vaporeon, Dark Electrode, and Dark Magneton. So lets start this, shall we?

 Leading off today, Dark Vaporeon.

Stats: 60 hp, Water type, stage 1from eevee, 1 retreat, weak to lightning, no

resistance, colorless attack.

Attacks: CCC ­ Bite-   (30)

   WWC- Whirlpool-   (20) If the defending Pokemon has any energy cards attached

to it, choose one of them and discard it.

 At first glance this just appears to be another so-so Eevee evolution and a

ho-hum evolution in its own right. But, as with all pokemon in today’s session,

you can attach a Dark energy to him and he doesn’t take the damage from the

energy. This means that Whirlpool is devastatingly powerful with WW and a Dark

on it. That’s 30 and energy removal. Then to finish off those 70 hp pokemon you

can follow up with Bite for 40 damage with a dark on him. What stops him from

being great is that Rocket’s Zapdos has sponge ability and can KO vaporeon in 2

shots with Plasma. Still if Vaporeon strikes first, he can take down the Zapdos

just as fast with dark energy. The reason why Vaporeon is good in my opinion is

because Energy Removal is essential in today’s environment against guys like

Sneasel, Scyther, and Steelix, which all need multiple or Special energy to get

powered up. Vaporeon’s worst enemy is probably energy removal itself along with

clefable and Electabuzz, who can KO vaporeon in just one shot with only 2

energy. Clefable has the edge because it only needs 1 energy to do bite and with

2 bites, vaporeon is gone. Gust of wind is great with Dark Vaporeon though,

because then you can eliminate most threats on the bench quickly with a

whirlpool or 2. Overall I give Dark Vaporeon a 5/10 because of its own

weaknesses and bad HP, but its removal capabilities work quite well in tough

situations.

 Batting 2nd we have: Dark Electrode.

Stats: 60 hp, lighting type, stage 1 from voltorb, 1 retreat, weak to fighting,

no resistance.

Attacks: C ­ Rolling Tackle -   (10)

   LL- Energy Bomb -   (30) Take all energy cards from Dark Electrode and

reattach them to your benched Pokemon, If you have no benched pokemon, discard

all energy cards from Dark Electrode.

 First attack sucks. HP: terrible. Basic form, not very good. Yes, Dark

Electrode certainly isn’t the shining star of the Pokemon TCG, but his 2nd

attack is quite interesting. 1 Dark Electrode may only have 1 attack in him

before he bites the dust, but it does good damage (for the ratio) and it lets

you take your energy and scatter it to someone who can use it. Thus, you never

lose energy when he gets KO’d. This lets you use lower energy costs in your deck

and you can throw down an Electabuzz and have it powered in one Energy Bomb.

Combined with Switch or Dodrio, you can get Electrode out of the situation after

he energy bombs then let your other pokemon do the dirty work while you power

him back up to do it again. Its this element of surprise that can mess up your

opponent, playing a pokemon that needs 3 energy to attack and throwing 2 energy

on him in one turn is great. Now, basics like Kangaskhan can be used to attack

because you can throw 2 energy on him, then a DCE and he’s loaded up to do Comet

Punch already. Put the basic on the bench right before Energy Bombing and then

you’ve shocked your opponent and put him/her in a predicament. And with huge

basics like Kanghaskan and Chansey they’ll HAVE to react. Dark Electrode has

limited use, but it’s nice. I give him a 6/10 just because of the shock factor.

 Last for the inning, Dark Magneton.

Stats: 60 hp, Lightning type, stage 1 from magnemite, weak to fighting, no

resistance, 2 retreat.

Attacks: CC- Sonic Boom-   (20) Don’t apply weakness or resistance for this

attack.

    LL- Magnetic Lines -   (30) If the defending pokemon has a basic energy card

attached to it, choose one and attach it to one of his/her benched pokemon. (If

they have no benched pokemon, ignore this effect)

 Sonic boom can be OK if its combined with Dark energy but not many times is

Dark Magneton going to get through resistance without getting killed by the

opposition first. Magnetic Lines is the real meat and potatoes of this pokemon.

The attack is very good for its cost and can totally screw up your opponent.

It’s too bad that it only works on basic energy cards if it didn’t this guy

would get a 10/10. Even though you can’t take a Murkrow’s dark energy and attach

it to their Cleffa, you can take basic energy and pile a bunch onto a pokemon

that doesn’t need it. And there aren’t pokemon that do not need energy more than

baby pokemon. Some pokemon still need basic energy to attack, guys like Rocket’s

Zapdos, Blastoise (even though he’s dead), and most grass pokemon. Dark Magneton

takes advantage of this and you can take an energy off of someone like rocket’s

zapdos and throw it on and igglybuff! Soon enough you can have their baby

pokemon flooded with 2-3 energy that none of them need. Since the energy isn’t

discarded, nightly garbage run isn’t getting any of that back, and with all of

the skimpy energy counts in decks nowadays, you can simply run your opponent out

of energy! Dark Magneton’s HP as of all Dark Pokemon, is quite low, but healing

cards and defenders help you take their energy and throw it around on them.

Since Mag can’t take away the non-basic energy, use energy removal to throw it

in the graveyard, where most likely it isn’t coming back. Recycle energy is the

only thing that kills this, but only 4 can be in a deck anyway so it’s not too

bad. All around I give Dark Magneton an 8/10 for its nice 2nd attack, and cool

combos that run your opponent dry!

 Well that wraps it up for today; I hope you enjoyed the article. You can

contact me about other combos or pokemon you think are overlooked at

PANDNKENNEDY@prodigy.net

    Cya later.

-nikePK-