Remember, if you think this review is too long to read,
just skip straight to the scores and then read the
summary for a concise overview!
Name:
Dark Metal Energy
Set:
EX: Team Rocket Returns
Card#:
94/109
Type:
Energy
Subtype:
Special Energy
Text:
Attach Dark Metal Energy to one of your Pokémon. While
in play, Dark Metal Energy provides (D) Energy and (M)
Energy, but only provides 1 Energy at a time.
(Doesn’t count as a Basic Energy card when not in play
and has no effect other than providing Energy.)
Attributes:
As usual, there’s not a lot to say for this section when
dealing with Special Energy cards. Still, to point out the
obvious, you can only have four copies of this in your deck
since it is a Special Energy card. Also, this will
not reduce the amount of Darkness Energy or Metal
Energy cards you can run; just because it contains
“Dark” and “Metal” does not mean it counts as those
specific Special Energy cards. Finally, notice
the amount of Energy symbols at the top of the cards: just
one. That tells you that this card will only provide one
Energy, not two at once. If it did, there would be two
Energy symbols, like on all the other Special Energy cards
that provide two Energy. While this information seems very
basic, remember this is a site that players of all levels
read, and sometimes even the so called “pros” miss things.
I only learned about the Energy symbols in the corners
showing amount a few weeks ago. >_< It also shows the type
of Energy provided, but like many Special Energy cards, that
requires an explanation more suited to the Abilities
section.
Abilities:
This card is basically cutting Pokémon with Dark and Metal
Energy requirements some slack. Why do some Pokémon need a
little more slack? A Pokémon that needs a single
Darkness Energy (or Metal Energy) can make use of
Multi Energy, which provides one of any Energy
type when attached to a Pokémon, so long as there are no
other Special Energy cards attached to said Pokémon. So if
an attack needs more than one Darkness Energy or
Metal Energy, Multi Energy just won’t do. Basic
Pokémon and Pokémon ex can’t make use of Double Rainbow
Energy. Team Aqua, Team Magma, and
Team Rocket Pokémon all have ways to get extra Dark-Type
Energy into play with their “team” Energy, but that’s a
temporary boost only available to them. Not that anyone
really uses the old Shining Pokémon (not to be confused with
the new Pokémon that have a “star” shape after their name),
but those Pokémon could use a Miracle Energy to get a
temporary plus two of any and all Energy types. So in
addition to the four actual Darkness and Metal
Energy cards, the only universal way to get more in a
deck is Rainbow Energy, and that places a
damage counter on the Pokémon. Now there is another way,
which is pretty spiffy.
Note that Dark Metal Energy just provides those
types. It does provide both types at once, but it still
only provides one Energy overall. It gets kind of confusing
since normally, colors tend to be an exclusive thing: it’s
either one color or another or neither. In this case, think
of it as a shade that is in between two colors. So if an
attack said “discard all (M) Energy”, you’d still have to
discard this; you couldn’t chose to treat it as just
providing (D) Energy. Kind like if you had a Yellow Green
crayon (an actual shade), and for some reason you had to
throw away all Green crayons, you’d still have to throw it
away. Yes, I need to think of a less juvenile example. XD
Uses/Combinations:
Pretty much any deck that needs Darkness or Metal
Energy to attack or pay for an effect should consider
this unless they need a very small quantity. The
Sharpedo from EX: Ruby & Sapphire, for example, now has
yet another card to use for the optional effect of its Dark
Slash attack. For those who don’t know, that card does 40
damage for (WCC), and if you discard a (D) Energy to do
another 40 on top of that (totaling 80 damage). Remember
that while it is useful for Pokémon that fuel Abilities with
(D) Energy, a Dark-or Metal-type Pokémon without any such
requirements might as well have a just about any other
Energy card, as they receive no benefit other than
fulfilling Colorless Energy requirements. Dark Steelix,
for example, is a dual-type Pokémon: Dark and Metal. It
doesn’t need any of those for its attacks though, so it just
wants the “real thing” for the actual bonuses of true
Darkness and Metal Energy. There are also some
in between cases: Rocket’s Scizor ex can use this to
trigger its Dual Armor Poké-Body and become a Dark/Metal
Pokémon. However, there is little point in that unless you
just want to score damage on a Metal-Weak Pokémon: you want
to be Metal so you can use a real Metal Energy
card’s damage reduction clause.
Ratings
Unlimited:
4/5-This card may not seem like much, but for most
“Sneasel-Centric” decks (decks that rely mainly on Neo
Genesis Sneasel) it’s a pain having your actual
Darkness Energy or Rainbow Energy nailed
by S/ERs. Ideally, you can splice in some of these into the
deck, and draw them early on. You can then attach the
real Darkness Energy without fear of (at
least as potent) a removal barrage. Now something like
Sneasel can have 12 “(D)” available for the game: four
actual Darkness Energy, four Rainbow Energy,
and four Dark Metal Energy cards. It’s not something
for every deck, but some of the best decks in Unlimited
(Mind Games, Snichu, etc.) have a suddenly less weak “weak
spot”.
Modified:
4/5-In Modified, things are the opposite of the Unlimited
format. Instead of the top decks needing to fill (D)
requirements, we have some second- and third-tier decks that
are receive a lot of help from this. Many of these decks
can now ditch their self damaging Rainbow Energy, or
be less reliant on damage reducing Double Rainbow Energy.
In other words, Dark Metal Energy will help a lot
more decks here than in Modified, but not the heavily played
ones.
Limited:
4/5-Same score across the board for different reasons.
Simply put, it’s your only way to pay (M) Energy
requirements for EX: Team Rocket Returns. (D) Energy
requirements can be temporarily filled with R Energy,
but the only semi-permanent option is Dark Metal Energy.
Most of the time this won’t matter though: I had no use for
this Energy at our local Pre-Release.
Summary
Dark Metal Energy provides another easy method for
meeting (D) and (M) Energy requirements. In Unlimited, this
helps some of the top decks; factoring Dark Metal Energy
into your standard Neo Genesis Sneasel based
deck, your opponent must now use four SER and four ER to
completely strip away all sources of (D) Energy in your
average Sneasel-centric deck. In Modified, it makes it
easier to draw into a source of these
Special-Energy-or-combo-only types of Energy, as well as
making their loss less painful. In Limited, it’s the only
way to provide (M) in its set and the only way to meet (D)
Energy requirements in a more permanent fashion. Just
remember that it’s not any help to cards that don’t actually
have Abilities that require (D) or (M) to use.
