My rant is against "hidden energy".

Enter Rant Mode

I'm pretty much an easygoing, mellow player.  It has always
annoyed me when an opponent will "attach" energy by placing
it directly underneath the pokemon--so nobody can see it, or
see how many are there.  I always attach my own energy with
each "Energy" clearly extended and visible, which is the way
that most players play.  So those few players who hide
their energy bothered me, but I never said anything to them
in the past.  My silence is now ended.

Last weekend I got knocked out of a tournament in the first
round because my opponent was stacking all his energy directly
under his pokemon, and I thought I had Energy Removed it all,
but he had one left that I didn't see (which I would have also
removed, had I known that it was there).  That one energy card
enabled him to win; otherwise I would have won on the next turn.
I took my defeat politely, but afterwards I said to myself:
"never again"!!!

>From now on I am going to say: "Will you please make your energy
visible?" every time an opponent hides his energy.  If I have to
I will say it each time the opponent adds an energy.  Hopefully if they
get sick of hearing me say it, they will play the way they should
have been playing all along.

Exit Rant Mode

Bruce Long