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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Energy Root

EX Unseen Forces

 

Date Reviewed: 09.20.05

Ratings & Reviews Summary
Unlimited: 2
Modified: 3.75
Limited: 4.5

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  5 is the highest rating.


Otaku

If you find the review is too long, skip straight to the Ratings and Summary! 

 

Name   : Energy Root

Set       : EX Unseen Forces

Card#   : 83/115

Rarity   : Uncommon

Type    : Trainer

Sub-type: Pokémon Tool

Effect Text: Attach Energy Root to 1 of your Pokémon (excluding Pokémon-ex and Pokémon that has Dark or an owner in its name) that doesn’t already have a Pokémon Tool attached to it.  If the Pokémon Energy Root is attached to is Pokémon-ex or has Dark or an owner in its name, discard Energy Root.

 

As long as Energy Root is attached to a Pokémon, that Pokémon gets +20 HP and can’t use any Poké-Powers or Poké-Bodies.

 

Attributes: Energy Root is the second of the new batch of Pokémon Tools from EX: Unseen Forces that we are going to look at.  Like all Pokémon Tools, it is a Trainer: Trainer denial is moderately popular in Modified and extremely common in Unlimited, but all Trainers are hit that hard, so it’s not going to drop the score: just remember to use common sense.  What does help is that Pokémon Tools activate after they are already in play, and that means that if you can drop them into play before the assorted Trainer prohibiting cards hit the field, they’ll work fine.  Sadly, this too comes with a downside: since they remain in play, there are specific effects, though fairly rare, that can target them – like Ancient Technical Machine (Ice).

 

Energy Root is restricted to use by Evolved Pokémon that aren’t Pokémon-ex or Pokémon that have either an owner or Dark in their names.  This is even more restrictive than Curse Powder, and is obviously a negative thing in that your options are lessened, but hopefully it will compensate by being more powerful.  Oh, and it is obvious (at least to me) that Dark Pokémon shouldn’t have this option as that would be a total of plus 40 if you used Rocket’s Hideout with Energy Root.  Good thing that is illegal, eh?

 

Proving that Nintendo is learning how many rule lawyers play this game, Energy Root, like Curse Powder, states that if the Pokémon it is attached to stop being a non-Pokémon-ex or suddenly has Dark or an owner in its name, it is discarded.  Yes, I did a lot of cut and pasting, but it’s the only way I can get these done in time: it’s a very busy week and I will hopefully get my act together enough to earn some interviews for internships/jobs.

 

Abilities: Lose the use of your Pokémon Powers (remember, that term has been ruled to encompass both Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies) in order to gain an extra 20 HP.  Now, if you don’t have any Pokémon Powers to begin with, this is “gravy”, that is, a pure bonus.  Even if you do have one, as you may recall from some of my previous reviews, there are many so-so Pokémon Powers, and a few negative ones, that this can shut down.  In the case of the latter, it becomes an even better bonus.  Of course, I don’t think that anything currently in Modified has a truly “negative” Pokémon Power; at least that is a legal target for this card.  Sadly, the wording prevents Energy Root from taming Misty’s Gyarados in Unlimited, who would have been fantastic if it had been a legal target.  I am pretty sure something that is a legal target for this card has been released possesses a limiting Pokémon Power… and if they exist in both formats, great.

 

As for the Pokémon Powers that are only minor benefits… you are likely to be just fine using them for a little while, then dumping them in favor of an HP boost.  So as a whole, this card is almost pure advantage.

 

Uses and

Combinations: Any legal target that a + 20 HP boost would really help, unless it disable a vital Pokémon Power.  Remember not to use it with a legal target that gets more out of a different Pokémon Tool.  For example, if a free retreat is more important, use the new Fluffy Berry.  If covering a Weakness in Pokémon Tool form matters more, use Protective Orb.  Pretty straight forward, except for the damage removing Berry cards, which can be a toss up: is it better to heal between turns or just to have 20 extra HP and then use healing cards on your own turn.  Personally, I’d favor the latter.

 

As for my second guideline involving Pokémon Powers, obviously anything negatively impacting you (nothing coming to mind), that only benefits something when it’s on the Bench and you plan on keeping it Active most of the time, or is literally a one-time-only Pokémon Power, like Azumarill from EX Team Rocket Returns ‘Froth’ Poké-Power: when Azumarill is used to Evolve one of your Active Pokémon, you can automatically Paralyze both your opponent’s Pokémon.  Unless they bring back cards like Hyper Devolution Spray or Retro Energy, this means that you’re not going to have to worry about re-using this Poké-Power in a manner that would needlessly discard Energy Root (shrinking down to a Basic and forcing the discard).  Also, until they release a new Azurill, there is no way for the Energy Root to already be attached to Marill before Evolving into Azumarill.  So as you can see, losing that Poké-Power means next to nothing.

 

Also, anything with an effect that references HP in a manner that more yields better results will work especially well with this.  Like EX Hidden Legends Swalot.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 2/5-Why so low?  Because most Pokémon in this format are just better off with Focus Band or Gold Berry.  I am having a pretty hard time finding combos that wouldn’t be better using those two.

 

Modified: 3.75/5-This is has the good chance of becoming the most used of the new Pokémon Tools.  Pretty much any Pokémon that can legally use this and that doesn’t have a Pokémon Power they need to access repeatedly will find this a good default Pokémon Tool.  There are some exceptions

 

Limited            : 4.5/5-Fantastic pull unless your Pokémon can’t use it or have a great, re-usable Pokémon Power.  In many ways, it acts like “half” an Evolved form.

 

Summary

I’ll say it again: if it is a legal target that doesn’t have a Pokémon Power that you will repeatedly use and doesn’t combo especially well with other Pokémon Tools, this is almost certain to help you out.  Crystal Shard and Strength Charm used to not be played because there were a lot of better Pokémon Tools that stayed in play longer, clashing with their usage.  I doubt those two will be abandoned because of this, but at least a slight decline in their popularity would not surprise me.
 


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