Energy Removal
As with all my articles (many more hopefully), just skip to the second paragraph to get right to the strategy. I am Chris P. and this is my first article for the Pojo, except for Mews News on June 10. My full name is 27 letters long, and I’m too lazy to type it all. You could never pronounce it anyway. Crispy isn’t a very good nickname, but it’s much better than any name I’ve ever gotten before. Also, I hate any one who uses those :) faces. It’s just as bad as any one who only use haymakers or Wigglyies (More on that later). I send those people e-mails that say, "You now have a virus." They get scared and it ends my problem. I love e-mail.
Energy removal or energy denial has been around for a while, but it’s never become very used (at least not effectively). Although, it’s always been nice to play that surprise SER and screw your opponent. Sometimes energy removal is super effective. Other times it needs to be sent to the ER. Energy Denial decks are rarely played and will never become Archetypes or be widely played. However, the strategy is still very good and is employed in many decks. One problem is that decks based on energy removal can be slow, but more on that later. Only evolutions have this ability so far, and there are not many Pokemon altogether. However, a lot of them are uncommons. I can hardly wait for the Gyms. Here’s a look at what we have:
Name: Poliwrath
Type: Stage 2 -- from Poliwhirl
HP: 90 HP
Weakness: Grass
Resistance: None
Retreat: 3
Attack: (1WW) Water Gun (30+) Does 30 damage plus 10 damage for each W attached to Poliwrath but not used to pay for this attack (maximum 2 extra).
Attack: (2WW) Whirlpool (40) If the defenders have energy cards attached, choose 1 and discard it.
This is the best one. Weak to grass, not electric. High HP. Water gun can do 50. Whirlpool does 10 for each energy and removes energy, even Double Colorless. Whirlpool can use Double Colorless. The down side: It’s a stage 2. The Poliwag family is good, but it could be much better. You want Poliwrath ASAP.
Name: Dragonair
Type: Stage 1 -- from Dratini
HP: 80 HP
Weakness: None
Resistance: P -30
Retreat: 2
Attack: [3] Slam (30x) Flip 2 coins. This attack does 30 times number of heads.
Attack: [4] Hyper Beam (20) If defender has energy cards attached, choose 1 and discard it.
Hyper Beam needs too much energy for just 20 damage. Double Colorless helps. Slam is the same as Poliwhirl’s Double slap. High HP. No weakness and Psychic resistance; the best resistance in my area. Good combo: Dark Dragonair gets those badly needed evolutions, Devolution Spray, and bring out higher HP Dragonair.
Name: Golduck
Type: Stage 1 -- from Psyduck
HP: 70 HP
Weakness: L
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Attack: [P] Psyshock (10) Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokemon is now Paralyzed.
Attack: [1WW] Hyper Beam (20) If the Defending Pokemon has any Energy cards attached to it, choose 1 of them and discard it.
Golduck is my favorite Pokemon. Better Hyper Beam and lower retreat. Works great with one psychic or rainbow energy while building up. Both Psyducks are good, especially with P energy.
Name: Dark Vaporeon
Type: Stage 1 -- from Eevee
HP: 60 HP
Weakness: L
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Attack: [3] Bite (30)
Attack: [1WW] Whirlpool (20) If the Defending Pokemon has any Energy cards attached to it, choose 1 of them and discard it.
Another Rocket Pokemon with low HP, but better than the other dark evolutions of Eevee. Bite’s there to deal more damage or attack if you are low on water.
Name: Dark Magneton
Type: Stage 1 -- from Magnemite
HP: 60 HP
Weakness: F
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Attack: [2] Sonic boom (20) Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for this attack. (Any other effects that would happen after applying Weakness and Resistance still happen.)
Attack: [LL] Magnetic Lines (30) If the Defending Pokemon has any basic Energy cards attached to it, choose 1 of them. If your opponent has any Benched Pokemon, choose 1 of them and attach that Energy card to it.
Good card ... for a Magneton. Sonic boom hurts those ground types and Magnetic Lines deals more damage and controls energy. 60 HP, moderate attacks and 2 retreat make this card barely worth it.
Name: Mewtwo
Type: Basic Pokemon
Card #: Promo 12 – From Nintendo Power
Color: Psychic
HP: 60 HP
Weakness: Psychic
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Pokemon #: 150
Species: Genetic
Level: 30
Attack: [P] Energy Control () Flip a coin. If heads, choose a basic energy card attached to 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon and attach it to another of your opponent’s Pokemon of your choice.
Attack: [PPP] Telekinesis ( ) Choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon. This attack does 30 damage to that Pokemon. Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for this attack.
Energy control is just that. 50% chance to move energy makes you like Dark Magneton. Telekinesis kills nasty colorless Pokemon (Jigglypuff... cough, cough...). Mewtwo in an Energy removal deck = death for you. Mewtwo in a Bench hitter deck = death for them.
The problems with Energy Removal is that they are all evolution and kinda slow – especially compared to that ever dangerous haymaker. Eventually, you realize that the best Pokemon are water ones. "So what!" yells the bowels of my throat. Well, we all remember the speedy little Archetype Raindance. "Duh." It means that if you combine the two, you get a powerful, quick, annoying, and unstable deck. Here’s how I have made it:
Energy Dance v1.0
4 Squirtle
1 Wartortle
3 Blastoise
4 Poliwag
2 Poliwhirl
3 Poliwrath
2 Lapras
3 Super Energy Removal
4 Energy Removal
3 Pokemon Breeder
3 Computer Search
3 Professor Oak
2 Item Finder
3 Bill
1 Super Potion
17 Water Energy
Explanation:
Squirtle Get Blastoise. If you put in Double Colorless and think you will draw it, use
Team Rocket Squirtle. Otherwise, use the Base Set one.
Wartortle Backup. Protects against Mew and Dark Vileplume. Can do 40 damage or stall.
Low retreat.
Blastoise Duh! Without him, this deck is slow and weak. 60 damage attack is great.
Poliwag Water gun up to 30. Alternate Mime killing, Needed for Poliwrath.
Poliwhirl Again, backup. Amnesia works very well with this deck. Make it so the defending Pokemon can’t retreat and
cannot use one attack, then Amnesia. The defender can’t do anything.
Poliwrath The point. 2 great attacks. See above review.
Lapras Stall or attack. Confusion also works great with Energy Removal. If they try to retreat, they pay the cost anyway.
Play it like a Raindance deck until Poliwrath is powered up. With a few energy removal, you’ll be devastating. Feel free to snicker under your breath while they cringe. Just maker sure he or she isn’t extremely aggressive. Energy Dance is effective against almost every deck since it’s very disruptive. The ideal opening hand: Professor Oak, Pokemon Breeder, Squirtle, Blastoise, Lapras, Poliwag, and water energy. Play Lapras as your active with the water energy, and put Squirtle and Poliwag on the bench. Next turn, evolve and oak. Hopefully, you will get more energy, energy removal, and/or an evolution for Poliwag. Worst opening hand: 2 Item finder, Squirtle, 3 Poliwrath, Professor Oak. Oak wouldn’t help because you would lose all your Poliwrath - killing the strategy. Many changes can be made like:
-Dark Dragonair/Dragonair. Use The Boss’s Way to get Dark Dragonair and find every needed evolution. Mew or Devolution Spray to bring out regular Dragonair.
- Golduck. A pretty good water/psychic deck can be made.
- Dark Vaporeon. An Eeveelution deck.
These deck types might give Energy Dance problems:
Raindance - This would be interesting. Energy Removal wouldn’t stop the attack. The only thing to do is stall (Poliwhirl), deck them, and/or run them out of energy. With trainers, you can take away up to 14 energy, and then there are the energy removal attacks. You can run Raindance out of energy.
Wigglytuff - The only problem is that it’s powerful and reliable. If you get the ideal hand, Wiggly is dead. It is very fun to remove DCE. They can only have 4 in a deck and can’t get them back. If you start out slow, accept Challenge. Don’t load your bench; leave 1 or 2 spaces. That makes the other Challenge cards useless for them. Finding Squirtle could get you that Blastiose, who also can do 60 damage.
Haymaker - Haymaker Pokemon don’t need much energy and have high HP. Electabuzz is lethal. In Haymaker decks, I have never seen anyone power up a Scyther, so Poliwrath is safe. In Haymaker decks, there are a very limited number of each energy. Choose one type and Electabuzz is dead with no lightening energy. I figure Energy Dance has about a 49% of beating it.
Now, before anyone accuses me of Wigglytuff and Haymaker bashing, let’s get a few things straight. These are very good decks, but they aren’t that original, creative, or need that much strategy. I think that if you are in a tournament, you should use a Wigglytuff/Haymaker variant if you want to win. In friendly play, though, never use these decks. They are no fun for either player, you won’t learn anything, and you’ll make enemies. People will stop playing you, believe me.
Congratulations! You are at the end of this article.
If you have too much time on your hands, E-mail me, Chris P. at jpfret@terapath.com.
Please, NO :-) faces. Save yourself the embarrassment.