Elekid

Elekid's Pokemon Power, "Playful Punch" will do 20 damage to the Defending Pokemon, if you flip heads.  That's an average of 10 damage every time it is used.  That doesn't seem like much damage, and it isn't, but when you consider using Elekid in your deck, the important thing to ask yourself is:

How many times during the average game am I unable to attack during my turn?

Possible reasons for being unable to attack normally are:
1.  Insufficient energy on my active Pokemon.
2.  The defending Pokemon has resistance to my active Pokemon
3.  My active Pokemon is asleep or paralyzed.
4.  My active Pokemon is confused, and I don't want to risk self-damage.
5.  The opponent's active Pokemon has used an effect which prevents me from attacking (like Eevee's "Tail Wag.")

In all of those instances, you would ordinarily end your turn without doing any damage to the defending Pokemon.  But if Elekid is on your bench, then even though your active Pokemon is unable to attack, you could still do "Playful Punch" for possible damage of 20 to the defending Pokemon.  If you are unable to attack normally for 8 turns during a game, that is an average of 80 damage total that you could be doing to your opponent, if only you had an Elekid on the bench.  That could easily mean the difference between losing or winning a game.

Also, there are certain status-heavy decks where Elekid will be even more useful.  For example, if you are using a deck with the TR Drowzee/Rocket's Snorlax combo (using TR Drowzee's "Long Distance Hypnosis" to put your active Rocket's Snorlax to sleep, so that it's "Restless Sleep" Pokemon Power would activate and do damage to the opponent when you are attacked), you could use Elekid from the bench to do "Playful Punch" whenever you put your Rocket's Snorlax to sleep, and are unable to attack. 

Pikabruce
pikabruce@asu.edu