Miracle Energy – Pokemon Throwback Thursday (2002)

Vince

Today’s Throwback is a much older card from Neo Destiny called Miracle Energy. It’s also an interesting card because it’s one of the few cards that restrict you from having only one Miracle Energy in your deck. Kinda predates Ace Specs and Prism Stars, doesn’t it?

Anyways, you can’t really expect Miracle Energy to carry through your deck because it only lasts for one turn which is the same turn you attach this card to Light or Shining Pokemon. Light Pokemon is also a rare sight in the TCG, even now. They’re usually on their final stages and have more HP and does less damage, at least that’s how I recall. Otherwise it’s not much different when it comes to evolving into higher stages. Shining Pokemon are Basic Pokémon whose attack costs involve at least three different energy types. And I guess that trait is gonna carry on to Japanese’s Amazing Rare Cards where they, once again, have Pokémon whose energy cost involve at least three different energy types. Good thing in Expanded there’s Ho-Oh’s Rebirth and Golduck BREAK’s Hyper Transfer ability to facilitate accelerating and moving basic energies.

Miracle Energy would greatly help Light Pokemon, though redundant. Shining Pokémon, on the other hand, definitely needs this energy. If a similar energy card like Miracle Energy would be reprinted, it would probably help out Pokemon with attacks that cost multiple different energy types.

Ratings:

Standard: n/a

Expanded: n/a

Limited: 5/5 (only if you also pulled Shining Pokemon)

Otaku

Miracle Energy (Neo Destiny 16/105) is a Special Energy card that provides two units of Energy, and each of those units of Energy counts as all types at once.  The catch?

• You may only have a single copy of Miracle Energy in your deck.
• You may only attach it to a Light or Shining Pokémon.
• At the end of your turn, you discard Miracle Energy.

Light Pokémon are an example of the old “Owner” mechanic, except it didn’t represent any particular group from Pokémon Lore.  Rather, they were intended as the opposites of Dark Pokémon (which resemble Shadow Pokémon from the video games).  The execution wasn’t that great, or maybe it was just the usual TCG filler issue that most Light Pokémon weren’t worth using.  Shining Pokémon should sound familiar, as we still have some of those kicking around the cardpool.  The modern ones are all based on VG “Legendary” Pokémon, depicting them with their rare alternate (or “Shiny”) color scheme.

The original Shining Pokémon were different.  The art still featured their alternate VG color schemes, and they were all Basic Pokémon, but they weren’t limited to Legendaries, or even to Pokémon that were traditionally Basic.  For example, there is a Shining Charizard card; it is a Basic instead of being a Stage 2.  These Shining Pokémon had crazy attacks with not only hefty Energy costs, but the costs were split between at least two Energy types, often more.  Finally, like Shining Energy itself, each Shining Pokémon was capped at one per deck.  You could run a single copy of each Shining Pokémon in the same deck, but never more than one copy of the same one.

The quality of old-school Shining Pokémon and Light Pokémon is important, because Shining Energy would be great if those cards were better, but the vast majority were terrible in competitive play.  At least, as far as I can remember.  There were a few interesting tricks available for Miracle Energy, and one that I think proved to be a competitive deck.  While Miracle Energy can only be attached to Light or Shining Pokémon, the wording (and supporting rulings) are talking about attaching it from hand.  You could, for example, attach it to a Shining Pokémon and then use an effect that moved Energy around to get Shining Energy on a non-Light, non-Shining Pokémon.

The other trick ties directly into the deck where I vaguely recall Shining Energy doing alright.  Light Dragonite was a 100 HP, [C] type Stage 2 Pokémon with no Weakness, [F] Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of [CC], and at a time when those stats varied from “adequate” to “good”.  For [CCC], its “Light Wave” attack did 40 damage and protected it from all effects of attacks (other than damage) during your opponent’s next turn… at a time when that damage and that effect were pretty good (though not great).

What I skipped is its Pokémon Power.  Recall that Pokémon Powers are basically old-school Abilities.  Light Dragonite’s was named “Miraculous Wind”, and while it was Active, all Special Energy would provide [C] Energy (instead of its usual type), and any other effects of that Energy stopped working.  Like nearly all Pokémon Powers, if affected by a Special Condition, Miraculous Wind would stop working.  This effect is both better and worse than it sounds.  It applied to all Special Energy, both yours and your opponent’s.  What maybe confusing for newer players is that during this time the units of Energy provided by a Special Energy card were not considered an effect; it was based on how many Energy symbols were in the upper right (later upper left) corner of the card…

…so the trick was for Light Dragonite to utilize Miracle Energy as its own Double Colorless Energy.  That doesn’t sound like much, but Double Colorless Energy didn’t exist in the Standard Format (then referred to as the “Modified”) of the day.  A few sets later, Boost Energy was first released; it is like Triple Acceleration Energy, except it prevents the Pokémon to which it is attached from retreating.  That means it also discarded itself at the end of your turn.  That’s right; the self-discarding clause for both Boost Energy and Miracle Energy would not work so long as Miraculous Wind was in effect.  If Miraculous Wind ever stopped working, however, the either Energy’s self-discard clause would kick in.

In retrospect, I’m surprised Miraculous Energy never made a comeback.  Well, it kind of did; while not made for use with Shining Pokémon, Super Boost Energy {*} is basically what you’d get if you could breed TCG Special Energy cards, and decided to cross Boost Energy with Miracle Energy.  I doubt they’d ever straight up reprint Miracle Energy, simply because Light Pokémon don’t exist anymore, and Shining Pokémon returned for one non-quarterly “bonus” set, plus a few promos.  If you’re using cards in the Unlimited Format, Miraculous Energy should work with the new Shining Pokémon and not just the old.

If they had chosen to release a slightly updated Miraculous Energy alongside the brief return of Shining Pokémon, it would have been great for those Shining Pokémon, but only “good” overall.  That self-discarding clause is a real drawback, after all, as much or more than the attachment restrictions.  Oh, and if you somehow are able to use Neo Destiny boosters for a Limited Format event, this is a great pull but only if you pull some Shining or Light Pokémon that can use it.

Ratings

• Standard: N/A
• Expanded: N/A
• Limited: 3/5

Miracle Energy wasn’t that miraculous, but it was interesting, and it released long before cards like Double Rainbow Energy or Double Dragon Energy.  A re-release of it isn’t likely given how many mechanics have changed, but I could still see another Energy “inspired” by it being released.  No, that isn’t based on any upcoming cards; I just felt like having us review this one today.