Boost Energy – Pokemon COTD Throwback Thurday

aroramage

A card from as far back as Aquapolis, Boost Energy is one of those rare Special Energies that really takes the cake for being CRAZY!! It provides 3 Colorless Energy, making it like DCE but triple instead of double…TCE! However, the Pokemon it’s attached to has to be an Evolved Pokemon, and if it’s not, you discard it. The Pokemon it’s attached to also can’t retreat, and at the end of the turn you discard Boost Energy.

It’s nice to have a quick means to access a powerful move, but there are not that many moves that require 3 Colorless Energy in general, outside of the ones that Colorless Pokemon wield of course. That gives Boost Energy niche potential to empower Pokemon that don’t usually have access to their biggest moves until later, allowing for a quick burst to punch through to that big move to take an early lead.

The main problems I see are that: 1) it’s temporary, meaning you shouldn’t really aim to use it unless you’re going for the KO and the Prize; 2) it only works on Evolved Pokemon, so you’ve got a little set-up to do on your own; and 3) it keeps the Pokemon from retreating, so you can’t put this on something to quickly retreat it but you also have to keep it out and about, meaning it will likely take an attack from the opponent’s next Active Pokemon, and that could put you at a disadvantage.

It’s like any energy drink you’ve ever known – it provides a quick boost to get you what you need, but if you don’t avoid the consequences of the crash, you’re gonna feel sluggish and terrible later.

Rating

Standard: N/A (If it was available today, Boost Energy may have some…niche appeal for the Evolutionary GX, of which few if any have a need for 3 Colorless Energy)

Expanded: N/A (like I said, 3 Colorless Energy costs are rare outside of Colorless Pokemon – not to say they don’t exist, but they don’t come often and are not always that good)

Limited: 3/5 (still, it is what it is, and if you’ve got a Pokemon to benefit from it, it’s worth using)

Arora Notealus: Boost Energy is there for those moments of I need this attack right now, but it’s also got some drawbacks of its own. Funny enough, we’re getting a SUPERPOWERED version of this card in the next set, and if you’re lucky, we’ll see it in the Top 10!…or at least review it at some point, one of the two.

Next Time: Let’s find those Pokemon with our new encyclopedia!

Otaku

This is one of those Throwback Thursdays where we’ll reflect upon the past to try and see the future; specifically, we’ll take a look at Boost Energy because of the soon-to-be-released Super Boost Energy.  Boost Energy has always been a Special Energy, but its exact effect has varied over the years.  Originally it was released as Aquapolis 145/147, then re-released as EX – Deoxys 93/107, EX – Unseen Forces 98/115, EX – Dragon Frontiers 87/101, and finally as Pokémon Organzed Play Series Five 8/17 (the last one was part of a former player rewards program). It is a Special Energy card that provided [CCC] but had three drawbacks:

1. It could only be attached to Evolved Pokémon.
2. The Pokémon to which it was attached couldn’t retreat.
3. It discarded itself at the end of your turn.

As you would expect, the second restriction is mostly an inconvenience, with the first and third being what really defined the card’s usage.  This allowed Evolutions with [CCC] and [CC] – Double Colorless Energy wasn’t legal at this time – an amazing burst of speed, at the possible cost of longterm sustainability.  Recycling Special Energy cards wasn’t impossible during much of its run, but it was usually far less reliable and/or effective than at present.  At the time this card released, the format wasn’t as fast as it is at present.  Other than when it first released, I wouldn’t call it slow; even “slower” is misleading because it was still a fastpaced game (just not the blistering pace of the present).

Of particular importance to the time period when this card released are how Boost Energy didn’t care about being a Pokémon-ex and Rare Candy.  The latter requires some explanation; Rare Candy originally worked on Pokémon the first turn they were in play.  It also wasn’t restricted to just directly Evolving to the Stage 2 form of the Pokémon; you could also immediately Evolve into the Stage 1 (pointless for Stage 2 Pokémon, but vital to useful Stage 1 Pokémon).  This made for some fast, even surprising hard hits.  Boost Energy varied from being a niche (but useful) cards to a maintstay of major decks during its Standard legal lifespan.  So… what if it were reprinted today?

Unless they mess with the effect, I think it’d do very well, maybe even too well.  Rare Candy may have been nerfed, but we’ve got Puzzle of Time and Special Charge to make spamming it more effective.  Old-school combos of the time were things like using the Supporter Pokémon Nurse to flush away damage while making the “discard all attached Energy” part of her effect pointless… now we can do that with the Item card Max Potion.  More OHKO’s now than back in the day… but something being OHKO’d also doesn’t care about the discard clause.  Back then, we had some fantastic attackers that had massive Energy costs or scalable Energy costs that Boost Energy could optimize, and I’m pretty sure we still do.  What might allow it to fake being balanced, I think, is that we also still have Double Colorless Energy – if the deck doesn’t need the full [CCC], it is clearly a better choice.  Even then, as long as it is an Evolution we are talking about, faking having five to eight Double Colorless Energy thanks to Boost Energy would work for some decks.  Even I am too pressed for time to look through every set in which it released, to see how it would fare in various Limited Format events… but then again, these boosters are old enough you’re probably not going to have the chance and I’d still be providing a general rating anyway.  Unless your luck is fantastic (big Basic to run solo) or awful (no Evolutions that can really make use of it), it seems like a happy pull.

Ratings

Standard: N/A     Expanded: N/A     Limited: 3.5/5

Vince

Standard: N/A (would be 4.5/5 if reprinted)
Expanded: N/A (would be 4.5/5 if reprinted)
Limited: 4.5/5
Unlimited: 4.5/5

Retro

Time for another Throwback Thursday, and this time, its a Special Energy card which I’m psyched on. Its Boost Energy, a very unique Special Energy which can, and obviously in this meta, will do something amazing. 

So first, the clauses. This card can only be attached to evolution Pokemon, and it discards itself in between turns, which makes it immune to Enhanced Hammer since the Special Energy will not be around by the time your opponent is starting their next turn. (You can attach this energy in the first turn, which is amazing back then in Gen III meta by why would you do that now.). The Pokemon Boost Energy is attached to can’t retreat either but if you are attacking with Boost Energy why would you? 

Boost Energy itself provides [C][C][C] when attached. There are a lot of applications on which Boost Energy can be useful, which is amazing and if its reprinted now it would be a bonkers card (Super Boost Energy Prism Star, ladies and gentlemen). [C][C][C] can power up many things: Gardevoir-GX and Mega Mewtwo-EX (Y) can get 90 extra damage which really helps the Metagross matchup, Mega Audino-EX (XY FCO) can get going in a single turn, Silvally-GX (SM CRI) can get powered up in a single turn, and also Delphox (XY FCO) gets an extra 60 damage with Psystorm AND be powered up in a single turn! Of course, all of them will lose the powerups in their next turn, but it is still very remarkable on how many Pokemon can be made much more meta by the inclusion of Boost Energy! 

Overall, if Boost Energy is also reprinted alongside Super Boost Energy in this meta, it will be with no doubt that it will be a great condiment to all evolution Pokemon-GX for its legality and expect 5 ultra boost energy cards in those decks. 

Rating:

Standard (when reprinted): 4.6/5
Expanded (when reprinted): 4.9/5
Limited: 3.4/5