kn3ll_ again, with his first Card of the Day knowing of the HGSS-on format. What will be in store for us? Probably more Fire types, Water types, and Lightning types, all HGSS-on.
Anyways, Electrode Prime! I was really surprised to find out that Electrode had a Prime card. The only Prime card less popular than Electrode is Slowking.
90 HP is a bit low for a Stage 1. Electrode’s got a Fighting weakness, x2, now standard for the format. A -20 metal resistance helps it with a few less common decks, Scizor and Steelix. A retreat cost of one isn’t bad.
For a Lightning and a Colorless, ‘Gigashock’ does a mediocre 30 damage to the defending Pokemon, and 10 damage to two benched Pokemon. Not great, but Electrode Prime is unpopular for a reason.
‘Energymite’, its Poke-Power, allows you to knock out Electrode before you attack, reveal the top 7 cards of your deck, choose as many Energy as you’d like, and attach them however you’d like to your Pokemon. The primary disadvantage of this is not knocking out Electrode, but discarding all cards in the 7 revealed that are not energy.
Energymite is something else. I really like its potential in Magnezone variants and Zekrom. It also allows you to play Twins and Black Belt before your opponent has time to set up (I especially like Black Belt in Magnezone, saving you an energy for some knock-outs). I think Electrode may be seen as somewhat of a starter in HGSS-on, although a very risky and awkward one.
Electrode could replace the Pachirisu/Shaymin engine seen in modern Zekrom, which would also enable use of Twins to seek out healing items and other useful techs. It wouldn’t require a huge change, and would probably lead to more consistent set-up, albeit at a higher cost.
Electrode charges up a 2/5. A bit high, perhaps, but especially with the higher energy counts I’ve been seeing in decks recently, and relatively bad starters, Electrode earns a spot in my heart.
