X Speed (002/P-A) – Promo Series A Pokémon Card of the Day

The fourth best Promo Series A card is X Speed (002/P-A)! This Trainer-Item reduces the Retreat Cost of your Active Pokémon by (C), and multiples do stack. Since this is the Pokémon TCG Pocket, unless we get a way to recycle them, that means the most you can do is stack two copies of X Speed for a [CC] reduction.

Even more than Potion making this countdown, X Speed tells you how different Pocket is from the full TCG. Because of Switch. Switch is a Trainer-Item that let’s you switch your Active Pokémon with one of your Benched Pokémon. If you have more than one Benched Pokémon and/or more than one Active Pokémon (abandoned but official rule variants), you get to pick which of your Pokémon get switched. All cards attached to those Pokémon go with them, and the usual effects (like Special Conditions) that were on your now former Active Pokémon go away.

Switch is much better than X Speed. The full TCG does have card effects that consider Retreat Costs other than actual retreating, but other than those, a switching effect will always be better than manually retreating. Why? Because “switching” is not “retreating”. If your Active is Asleep or Paralyzed, you can still move it to your Bench with Switch. If you need to change your Active again, using an effect like Switch means you still have your once-per-turn manual retreat.

Why am I fixating on Switch? It is a card that debuted in Base Set, and it has been repeatedly reprinted since. Switch has not been legal for every iteration of the Standard Format, but like Potion, it comes close. It easily outclasses X Speed… but Switch does not exist in Pocket. The only Switch-like effects I have seen in Pocket are part of Pokémon attacks. There’s not even a Supporter that grants a Switch-like effect.

X Speed is the best we have for Pocket, and because of the rest of the cardpool, it works well. While not every deck runs a copy or two of X Speed, it is a pretty common sight. Even now that there is one generic alternative to it, Leaf. Leaf is a Supporter that reduces the Retreat Cots of your Active Pokémon by two. Yeah, Leaf is literally just a double X Speed. I’ve seen competitive decks run it instead of X Speed. I’ve also seen competitive decks run both or neither. Overall, though, X Speed is frequently played.

Currently, nothing increases Retreat Costs in Pocket. Thus, if most or all the Pokémon in your deck already Retreat for free, you don’t need X Speed. If your deck is mostly or all chunky ‘mon with Retreat Costs of 2+, X Speed probably isn’t worth it; either use Leaf or nothing. When you have a mix of (C) or (CC) for most of your Retreat Costs, then you’ll actually have to think (and probably playtest) to know if X Speed, Leaf, or a combination of the two are right for your deck.

Rating: 3.75/5

If I were reviewing X Speed before Leaf released, it’d have scored four out of five. The effect may be simple, and even feel under-powered for those of us used to the full Pokémon TCG… but in Pocket, X Speed is a loose staple. Assume you’re including it while building your deck until it becomes clear you should be running Leaf instead. Or the rare instance when you should run neither. I actually had this lower in earlier drafts of my countdown, until I saw how truly often X Speed was being run.

Does that make me… slow?