|
Ah yes, an oldie but goodie. Energy
Retrieval is another Base Set card from wayyyyyyy back
in the day, except for that when they reprinted in Black
& White they took off that pesky discard. Still if
anything that just makes it more playable! Or does it
show just how far Pokemon's come?
I'm sure you can guess what a card
called "Energy Retrieval" does, so you're basically
grabbing 2 when you play this. In terms of card
advantage, that makes it a natural +1 (-1 from playing
the card, but +2 from grabbing the two Energy), and it
can combo well with anything that discards Energy like
Blaziken from yesterday. The important thing to note is
that it only targets basic Energy cards, so no grabbing
for that DCE or Rainbow Energy.
Once upon a time, I imagine this
card was very useful. In Base Set times, you could use
this in a good ol-fashioned Blastoise deck to power your
guys up and retrieve the Energy you lose from one of
them getting beaten. And then with Charizard, you could
grab those Energies you discarded to use his powerful
Fire Spin attack!
Nowadays though, there's a lot more
options to retrieving Energy - and in most cases, it's
better. You've got Bronzong for Metal decks, Landorus
for Fighting, Blacksmith in Fire, and even MManectric-EX
and Eelektrik in Expanded for Lightning. Decks don't
really need two big routes to energy retrieval - most
decks tend to run 12-14 Energy cards, 8 of which tend to
be Basic Energy cards. You've got a good idea of what
fills up the rest - DCE, Rainbow, Strong, Mystery,
whatever you use it's in those last few slots.
So having a Trainer grab 2 Basic
Energies when there are decks that can just snag it
straight from the discard pile AND attach them to a
Bench sitter is a bit excessive and a waste of space.
But that's not to say Energy Retrieval doesn't have a
home. I actually ran a couple for my older Black Kyurem-EX/Blastoise
deck for the discard so I could retrieve the Energies,
reattach them, and go on my merry way. I'm sure that
Primal Kyogre-EX decks will run a couple so they can
take advantage of Alpha Growth even more than usual -
that and to grab at any Energies they'd need to discard
from bad hands with Sycaper.
Energy Retrieval is a
representation of a timeless concept in the TCG -
getting Energy back is vital as Energy is necessary for
a player to perform attacks and win! Get rid of the
Energy, and the player can't do anything, which is why
getting that Energy back is so important. On top of
that, we have to deal with cards like the Hammers and
Head Ringer which can cripple resources and enhance the
costs of attacks to make things hard on us, so having
that ability is essential for many decks to use. The
only thing that could be more important than Energy is
damage output, which just comes as a direct result of
Energy usage - let's face it, there's a reason Muscle
Band topped our 2014 List!
If you're a newer player to the
game, I would recommend running with Energy Retrieval
for a bit, but as for you more pro players, take a look
at what deck you want to run and the options it's got
already out before deciding to commit deck space to this
card.
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (it's not always
going to apply to your deck or your current situation,
but I think of it as good tech for those decks without a
means of getting Energy back)
Expanded: 3/5 (there's more options
here to getting Energy back, so this card's pretty
important for anything that doesn't have it)
Limited: 4/5 (I'd say having a
means to get Energy back is nice for stuff that's
discarding it a lot or else when you're losing against
an opponent and find yourself a little short on Energy)
Arora Notealus: It's an odd thing
to see how far some cards have come over the years. They
don't change much, but they always adapt to whatever
format they come into. Remember when Master Ball came in
as what we now associate Great Ball's effect with? How
about when Potion healed only 20 damage? Things like
effect changes to older cards just shows how the game
keeps evolving - like a giant card game Pokemon. And
it's not the only thing that changes and evolves...
Weekend Thought: What do you think
of this week's cards? Anything strike you as amazing?
Maybe less so? You think we'll be reviewing Water cards
next week? I mean, it would be thematic, would it not?
|
