Energy Search (Black & White BLW 93) – Card of the Day

pokebeach.comHello 6P.com and welcome to my first CotD.

Today I will be going over the usually, overlooked Energy Search.

Energy Search is a card that has pretty much always been the game, and is one of those cards that is always reprinted, starting from Base Set, and most recently in our current Black and White Expansion.

It has almost always been overlooked, especially lately, where we’ve had cards such as Cyrus’s Conspiracy and Roseanne’s Research. Both of those cards let us get a basic energy, and either two of them, or other useful cards.

We also had Energy Exchanger in both of those formats, and it could be well paired with both of them to get a Double Colorless Energy, and Energy Search wasn’t used or needed.

Now, Energy Exchanger is still in the format, but generally isn’t used because the decks that need a ton of energy, Reshiram variants and MagneBoar run a very effective drawing Pokémon, coupled with a fair amount of either hand refresh cards or digging cards.

Plus, most decks aren’t using Double Colorless Energy as much as last format, and those that do, don’t always have enough energy to use Energy Exchanger as effectively as they like.

However, in our current format, we don’t really have any cards that directly search for energy, besides Energy Search. This has led to increased count in basic energies, and the problem has gone, in general a bit un noticed, especially since Yanmega has been dominating the format, and it doesn’t even need energies to attack.

Now onto to finding a niche for Energy Search, which I actually really like in this format as a one of card in some decks, and that I think could/should be tested, and that is a trainer card, which is very important to making this card playable.

pokebeach.com

Energy Search, for me, is a card that can add consistency to a deck, and in my opinion is best used in Zekrom variants, especially ones that are geared to getting a turn one Zekrom.

In this format, Trainer locking typically can’t be accomplished, at the earliest turn two, unless your opponent uses Tediursa and flips heads. This gives this card a one turn window to be very effective. The reason I think it is best IN Zekrom is because the deck needs to get 3 energies, one way or the other, in one turn.

That is usually the most difficult thing for the deck to do, and Energy Search does a great job at “upping” your energy count, but as I’ll explain shortly, by more than one.

By getting just one energy, you may think it would be more effective to just simply run another Lightning energy, or if using a different deck, just another energy period. But that’s where I think you might be wrong. Energy Search, in being a Trainer card, is something that a regular energy card isn’t; it can be used with Junk Arm.

With most decks running four Junk Arm, at the moment that means by just using energy search you can get yourself a basic energy five times a game. This, if you aren’t running a particularly stable draw engine, such as Magnezone Prime, Ninetales, or to a lesser extent Noctowl, means that it will be harder for you to get that key basic energy card.

This, again, is especially important in a Zekrom deck that needs to get those lightning energies turn one to succeed. By running energy search, you essentially are adding more than one “energy” card to your deck, if your run Junk Arm, which is why I think this is a card worth testing, and I’ll end this CotD by showing a sample Zekrom list using Energy Search.

Pokémon – 104 Zekrom BLW

3 Pachirisu CL

3 Shaymin UL

Trainers – 354 Energy Search

4 Junk Arm

4 Professor Juniper

4 Dual Ball

4 Pokémon Reversal

3 Super Scoop Up

2 Seeker

3 Victory Medal

1 Energy Retrieval

1 Revive

3 PlusPower

2 Pokémon Collector

Energy – 15

15 L

This list is even able to use Energy Search more effectively than most because with 4 Juniper and 4 Sage’s it can also discard Energy Search, and then use Junk Arm to get it back, giving it even better odds of getting a turn one Zekrom.

You can definitely make this list better, but it’s relatively nice starting point to get started and learn how Energy Search can be effective in this format.

Reader Interactions

7 replies

  1. Ed Mandy

    I don’t really like COTD, but I do like Energy Search!

  2. Mekkah

    Energy Search is kind of interesting for deck thinning purposes and being able to turn a Junk Arm into an Energy.  It does strike me as one of those #61 cards though that you want to fit in but sometimes just can’t, like VS Seeker last format, and Alph Litograph TM this format.

    • Carl Scheu  → Mekkah

      I agree, it is almost my 61st card in any deck, even in decks w/ high energy counts it can just prove to be very useful.

  3. Kyle Lane

    I really like Unown DARK better for the ZPS style deck. However, I totally agree about Energy Search being underrated. Like the others have already said, it certainly is that card #61. It certainly has it’s place…it’s just usually pushed out for one more copy of “this” or “that”.

    • Carl Scheu  → Kyle

      I agree w/ that, and yes I have hearde about people using the Unown Dark, but I don’t neccessarily like it(especially when I could just run energy search) b/c it forces me to use one, prolly 2 dark energy, and those are energies that aren’t pachi-able. Just my thoughts on that card. Yeah, IMO it might be like one of the top five card #61 in the format right now(wants it to be used in WC deck :p

  4. Cam Graybill

    energy search is ONLY good if you are running multiple types of basic energy, if you are not, it is 100% useless.

    i have seen it played in things with yanmega, to change hand size because you can play and fail it, but there are much better things such as dual or pokeball in those situations….

    if you are running just Lightning energy, add 4 lightning and take off all of the energy searches

    • froggy25  → Cam

      So you drew Junk Arm and understood you could have more consistency playing 1/2 Energy Searches because it is searcheable via Junk Arm when needed and it thins your deck

Leave a Reply

You are logged out. Register. Log in.