1. How does this card stand on its own
Electrode Prime is a stage 1 {L} Pokemon with 90 health. He typically is not used for his attacking power, as 90hp is very low in this format, and easily 1-shotable by most offensive pokemon out there, such as Zekrom or Magnezone. His weakness is {M}, which is only played by Cobalion (which would typically be a mirror match, see deck synergy below), is great. Having a weakness to {F} is also amazing, since there are no prominent {F} Pokemon except
Terrakion, which can 1shot him even without the weakness. Being a stage 1, he can be set up on Turn 2, and does not rely on candies, enabling you to play him out of trainer lock against a
Vileplume or
Gothitelle deck.
Alone, he is very useless, with an {L}{C} for 30 damage, with 10 damage to two separate benched Pokemon. Electrode Prime is used as energy acceleration with his Poke-Power Energymite, which allows you to knock him out and have a shot at apply 0-7 energy cards in one turn to all of your Pokemon.
Voltorb, Electrode's basic form, has 40 health and does not have a free retreat, so he is delicious
Catcher bait. Additionally, Voltorb has a {L} 20*(+10) attack. However, he should not be played as an attacker, unless you have a very bad early game draw. Since he evolves into Electrode, who will blow himself up, no energy should be attached to Voltorb unless it's an emergency, as it will inevitably be lost.
2. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?
Electrode Prime is used for energy acceleration with his Poke-Power, and thus, does not require any Electric energy to be used. This enables him to be fit into decks that don't run electric, which already have one of the fastest acceleration in the game thanks to
Magnezone Prime and
Eelektrik. Decks such as
CaKE (
Cobalion,
Kyurem,
Electrode Prime) greatly benefit from this, such as the deck relies entirely on Electrode for all draw power.
Typically, you'd knock out Electrode on Turn 2, and look at the top 7 cards of your deck. Use these cards, hopefully if you gather 3+, and attach them to your Pokemon, namely Kyurem. When Kyurem gets energy this quickly, he can begin pumping out glaciates for 30 damage to ALL of the opponents Pokemon, which can seriously impact their set-up. Since your opponent takes a prize card due to Electrode dying, you can then use
Twins to search for any two cards you want, further enabling your drawing power. In addition to both of these, you can also use
N to harm your opponent's hand, since you forced them to take prize cards.
3. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?
Electrode Prime can be used in a variety of other decks that may need acceleration, but since he takes up 6 card slots in a deck (If you run 3-3), you may not want to fit him into certain matrices that have better forms of energy support, such as Eelektrik for example.
I have previously mentioned that Electrode Prime may be good for drawing power against the trainer lock decks, Vileplume, however, you will be unable to abuse Twins and N against her, since she locks out all forms of trainers, rather than just Gothitelle's item lock. Still, due to decks revolving around Vileplume taking a while to set up, and hoping to fall behind and abusing twins to fully set up, Electrode can hinder their metagame as well, and you may not run into a trainer lock problem when the opponent can't even set up correctly.
To summarize; Electrode Prime has great energy acceleration, in addition to being able to exploit Twins and N for more drawing power (as well as disable your opponent from using their own Twins). The downsides are that your opponent takes a free prize card, which may not be favorable in decks that can't overcome a prize card disadvantage, and relying on the large luck chance that you may NOT get any energy cards from Energymite.
4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating.
I would rate Electrode Prime an
8/10. While he does indeed provide great energy acceleration for decks that need it, such as CaKE, it is not reliable in this manner, without coupling with cards such as
Research Record. Still, the chance of a great draw is likely, and he allows the abuse of N and Twins to fully set up further, while preventing your opponent from using their own N and Twins.
Electrode Prime is a great card that can be run in many decks, as he requires zero energy, is a Stage 1 pokemon, and does not ever need to be in the active slot, and decks using him should revolve around high-energy cost basics.
