Reversal Energy – Paldea Evolved
Date Reviewed: June 18, 2023
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 3.0
Expanded: 3.0
Limited: 4.0
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Reversal Energy (SV Paldea Evolved 192/193) is a Special Energy card that provides C energy. However, if you have more prizes than your opponent and it is attached to an Evolution Pokemon that doesn’t have a Rule Box, this card provides every type of energy, but provides only 3 Energy at a time.
Looking at the effect, Reversal Energy seems to be a modernized version of Scramble Energy (EX Deoxys 95/107, EX Dragon Frontiers 89/101), which has been reviewed three times. Looking at older reviews, their thoughts regarding Scramble Energy has been favorable. Scramble Energy came around the time where the only game mechanic that separates from baseline Pokemon is Pokemon-ex. Despite the EX-series containing Pokemon-ex, they are not the same as what we’re seeing today (Pokemon ex without the hyphen). The added effect doesn’t apply to Basic Pokemon and Pokemon-ex, so that affects how Scramble Energy saw play in their time. Even though it doesn’t apply to Evolved Pokemon-ex, there are plenty of baseline Stage 1/2 Pokemon that would love to benefit from such a huge boost. And yes, that even includes Pokemon LV.X that maintains the previous stage (i.e. Empoleon LV.X is still a Stage 2). Since Scramble Energy received two prints, it was able to stay Standard legal until late 2008.
Fast forward to almost 15 years, Reversal Energy picks up where Scramble Energy left off. While it’s awesome that it provides 3 units of energy of any type, the modernized restriction actually hurts its viability. Excluding Pokemon with Rule Boxes means Pokemon-GX, Pokemon VMAX, and Pokemon ex won’t be able to benefit from that effect. In Expanded, other mechanics such as Mega Evolution and BREAK Evolutions also get excluded from that added bonus. All that’s left is for baseline Stage 1/2 to benefit from Reversal Energy. And when’s the last time baseline Evolution Pokemon got placed? Hasn’t been for years. You would have to look at various decks before 2011 to witness the glory days of single prize Evolved Pokemon winning tournaments, not those high-risk high-reward multi-prize rule box Pokemon that can easily deal lots of damage that can OHKO/2HKO most Pokemon in the game.
Still, Reversal Energy does its job well. There might be some decks that not only contain Rule Box Pokemon, but also baseline Stage 1/2 Pokemon as well. You could attach Reversal Energy to various support Pokemon such as Kirlia and Quaquaval, let it sit there with energies attached to them, and your main attacker – like Calyrex VMAX – deal tremendous amounts of damage. One Reversal Energy could mean doing 90 extra damage via Max Geist, and having four of them in play means you can OHKO anything already and probably doesn’t need lots of Basic Psychic Energies in your deck!
Ratings:
Standard: 3/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 4/5
In a way, Reversal Energy has just made Counter Energy (SM Crimson Invasion 100/111) obsolete, though it could be used alongside today’s card for even more energies on the board in Expanded. For some players, some would be glad that a similar card is back while other dread from a sudden turnaround of a match.
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