Capture Energy – Darkness Ablaze
Date Reviewed: January 13, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 3.00
Expanded: 2.00
Limited: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Capture Energy (SW – Rebel Clash 171/192; SW – Darkness Ablaze 201/189) is a Special Energy card that provides [C] while attached, which are only good towards meeting [C] Energy requirements and generic Energy bounce/discard/etc. costs. Its other effect is, when you attach Capture Energy, from your hand, to one of your Pokémon, you can search your deck for a Basic Pokémon and Bench it. Provided you have at least one open Bench spot, of course. As they’re being put into play from the deck, coming-into-play Abilities like Dedenne-GX’s “Dedechange” will not trigger. We first reviewed this card as the 9th best of SW – Rebel Clash.
Did Capture Energy live up to that? Maybe. Right now, it doesn’t look too great; zero decks running it for the Players Cup II Regional Finals or Global Finals. Prior to that, it was doing reasonably well. I may have miscounted, but Air Balloon and/or Big Charm seemed a little more common, Capture Energy became a way to get one more Pokémon out on your first turn, especially valuable for the player going first. Again, you won’t be able to pull off a power play like Benching a Crobat V or Dedenne-GX from your deck to use their respective Ability (because said Abilities only trigger when they’re played from hand), but getting out Basics you need to evolve next turn, support like Oranguru (Sword & Shield 148/202; SW – Vivid Voltage 199/185), or just more Pokémon in general.
All of which was enough to make Capture Energy pretty good for several months of 2020, and why I included it as an Honorable Mention. So, why did its use die down? [L] decks switched to Speed [L] Energy, preferring drawing to two searching out a Basic Pokémon. Welder backed decks are just better focusing on their basic Fire Energy cards and leaving the search to something else. Zacian V decks need the room for other Energy cards. The only recent Eternatus VMAX deck from the Players Cup II Regional Finals (none made it in the Global Finals) opted for just basic Darkness Energy, probably because it ran Turbo Patch. There are plenty of other decks that might still appreciate Capture Energy, but they not doing well enough in the few recent, major events to be noticed.
Which is my way of saying that, in Standard, Capture Energy is still a good, solid card. It just may not be needed by anything in the current, dominant metagame. I don’t have results for Expanded; the last major event I know of took place prior to Capture Energy’s release. It is just a guess on my part, but I still think it is a solid option, just maybe not as solid. The good news is there are more useful supporting Pokémon to fetch from your deck like… um… another Oranguru (Sun & Moon 113/149; SM – Black Star Promos SM13; Shiny Vault SV44/SV94). The bad news is that there are other options in general. I mean, you can run four copies of Quick Ball plus four copies of Ultra Ball here. Plus plenty of strong T2 attackers that can go off using Double Colorless Energy or Twin Energy. In the Limited Format, unless you’re running a Mulligan deck, you’ll want to include any Capture Energy you pull. Even if you are running a Mulligan build, you still might risk one just so you have another excuse to look at the current contents of your deck.
Ratings
- Standard: 3/5
- Expanded: 2/5
- Limited: 4/5
Yes, I may be overly generous here. I am just convinced were at something of a low point for Capture Energy right now. If we keep getting attackers, especially early game attackers, that lack [C] Energy requirements and/or we just have too many alternatives, then I could be flat wrong and Capture Energy has peaked. Getting to search out a bonus Basic Pokémon otherwise seems worth running a Special Energy that only provides [C].
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