Hello Scott

As my title implies, this article will teach you the basics of Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal. The first thing to know is to never ER someone with an attack of 1 energy, because the chances are that they'll just re-attach it next turn. The acception to this is if they are playing a 2-3 color deck, and the attack takes a colored energy. Then, they probably won't have another of that energy in their hnd. This can be especially useful against Hitmonchan. Say he has 2 Fighting and 1 Lightning attached to him. Remove the Fighting energy, because if you remove the lightning energy, then he can put on any energy card. If you reove the fighting, then they HAVE to re-attach a fighting energy to do Special Punch.

When you have two energy removals in your hand, then try to use both at the same time. Your opponent won't be able to attach both energies back in 1 turn. The only acception is when playing Raindance, at which point you should have put SER's in your deck, as they are much more effective against Raindance.

Also, use these 2 cards as footholds to: (1) Gain the upper-hand in the early game, (2) prepare for the late-game during the mid-game, or (3) if you just totally screwed yourself in both the other stages of the game, the cards can help you make a nice comeback in the late game.