pokebeach.comkn3ll_ again, with his first Card of the Day knowing of the HGSS-on format. What will be in store for us? Probably more Fire types, Water types, and Lightning types, all HGSS-on.
Anyway, Electrode Prime! I was really surprised to find out that Electrode had a Prime card. The only Prime card less popular than Electrode is Slowking.
90 HP is a bit low for a Stage 1. Electrode’s got a Fighting weakness, x2, now standard for the format. A -20 metal resistance helps it with a few less common decks, Scizor and Steelix. A Retreat Cost of one isn’t bad.
For a Lightning and a Colorless, ‘Gigashock’ does a mediocre 30 damage to the defending Pokémon, and 10 damage to two benched Pokémon. Not great, but Electrode Prime is unpopular for a reason.
‘Energymite’, its Poké-power, allows you to Knock Out Electrode before you attack, reveal the top 7 cards of your deck, choose as many Energy as you’d like, and attach them however you’d like to your Pokémon. The primary disadvantage of this is not Knocking Out Electrode, but discarding all cards in the 7 revealed that are not energy.
Energymite is something else. I really like its potential in Magnezone variants and Zekrom. It also allows you to play Twins and Black Belt before your opponent has time to set up (I especially like Black Belt in Magnezone, saving you an energy for some knock-outs). I think Electrode may be seen as somewhat of a starter in HGSS-on, although a very risky and awkward one.
Electrode could replace the Pachirisu/Shaymin engine seen in modern Zekrom, which would also enable use of Twins to seek out healing items and other useful techs. It wouldn’t require a huge change, and would probably lead to more consistent set-up, albeit at a higher cost.
Electrode charges up a 2/5. A bit high, perhaps, but especially with the higher energy counts I’ve been seeing in decks recently, and relatively bad starters, Electrode earns a spot in my heart.
Great review, kn3ll. Electrode Prime does have some potential thanks to being able to use Twins & Black Belt, but you have to be tricky in use, because it literally gives your opponent a free prize. I think your rating is right on the spot. :)
Cool article! I wonder if Electrode Prime will see some decent play…
Electrode does have way more potential with power spray leaving the format and I see what you’re getting at with the idea of using it with zekrom but the idea of pachi and shaymin is the get a T1 fully loaded zekrom which you be impossible to do in hgss on since you have to evolve into electrode. It is very interesting with magnezone how ever and is deff worth testing.
the chances of you having zekrom, shaymin, pachirisu, and 3 energy is pretty slim. and i’d never want a lone shaymin/pachi start.
its acutally not that hard as it is considering you play quite a bit on energy and you can collector/dual ball for the 3. Plus switch is playable now so starting with those 2 isnt bad either cuz you can switch out of them
I agree with your rating, based solely on the cool artwork.
Horrible attack and an extremely sub-par power.
Cool artwork aside. 1/5 for me.
Sub-par? You underestimate it greatly.
Is there any way to ensure that there will be more energy than not in the top 7 cards?
I think any deck that would run this would also have to run Research Record (CL). That wouldn’t prep the full 7, but it would stack the deck on the first few. It might also be useable as a mid-game tech on a thinned deck, along with Energy Returner (UL) to load the deck back up with energy from the discard.
Neither of these options are that great though. I’d love to be able to use this guy, especially to try to power partners with absurd energy requirements. (Can you imagine the disbelief on your opponent’s face when you put down and power Lugia Legend?) But I just can’t see it.