Rotom – Space-Time Smackdown
Date Reviewed: February 26, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
We’re looking at Rotom (A2 062, 164)! It’s a Basic, (L) Type Pokémon with 70 HP, (F) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and single attack. For “C”, Rotom can use “Assault Laser” to do 20 damage to the opponent’s Active. If that Active has a Pokémon Tool attached to it, Assault Laser does +30 damage (50 damage total). Rotom is available as the ♦ and ★ rarities.
Being a Basic means no waiting to evolve or extra cards are required to hit the field, and Rotom’s a legal target for Poké Ball (P-A 005). It’s also a legal target for your opponent’s Pokémon Flute (A1a 064) or Victreebel (A1 020). Rotom’s (L) Typing let’s it enjoy a useful +20 damage against at least 10 metagame relevant targets1. I’m talking OHKOs or 2HKOs, though some do require Giovanni (A1 223, 270). The closest thing we have to (L) Type support is “Circle Circuit”, the attack found on Pikachu (A1a 025) and Pikachu ex (A1 096, 259, 281, 285).2
Rotom’s own 70 HP is decent, but once an opponent has even a half decent setup, it’s probably a OHKO. There is some risk of being OHKO’d before your second turn, but it’ll require luck, a Supporter, and/or exploiting Weakness. (F) Weakness makes this problem a little worse. The Retreat Cost of (C) is easy to pay. If Rotom survives it’s time attacking, the same Energy that paid for that can pay for it to retreat.
Assault Laser is very affordable. It isn’t just that it costs only one Energy, but that it can be paid for by Energy of any Type. It’s damage is subpar if you’re not attacking into Weakness and/or a target with a Tool attached. Even under those circumstances, 20 damage (especially more than once) can setup 2HKOs for your main attacker, or finish off something that just barely survived the previous turn.
When your opponent does slap a Pokémon Tool on your Active, the 50 damage can add up fast. As Tools are seeing heavy usage right now, your opponent can be left with a difficult choice; attach a Tool so it does its job but take 50 damage from Rotom, or don’t attach the Tool but miss out on its usual benefits. If Rotom isn’t already in play, as long as you can afford to retreat your Active while still attaching an Energy to Rotom, you can also catch targets offguard.
This may come as a surprise, but I’m not going to discuss the other Rotom cards. Why? There are no card effects that refernce the name “Rotom”, so there’s no mechanical connection between these cards. Nor is there any added drawbacks to these cards, so that comparing and contrasting could reveal at least the perceived value of the difference. Such as when we have a Basic that is effectively a mini version of an Evolution, or the Basic counterpart to a Pokémon ex.
Nor will I be listing specific archetypes that utilize Rotom, because Rotom is so general that its presence or absense doesn’t prove or disprove anything. Let me be clear, you can find successful, competitive decks that include Rotom. It also isn’t important enough to conveniently be listed in a archetype or archetype variant’s name.
Rating: 3/5
Rotom is good, though not so amazing it needs to be in every deck. It is good enough it should be considered for just about every deck.
1Aerodactyl ex (A1a 046, 078, 084), Articuno ex (A1 084, 258, 275), Farfetch’d (A1 198), Froakie (A1 086), Frogadier (A1 087), Greninja (A1 089; P-A 019), Moltres ex (A1 047, 255, 274; P-A 025); Palkia ex (A2 049, 182, 204, 206), Skarmory (A2 111; P-A 039), and Yanmega ex (A2 007, 180, 196).
2Circle Circuit’s damage is based on how many Benched (L) Pokémon you have in play.
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