Voltorb, Electrode, Illustration Rare Snorlax from “Pokemon Card 151!”

JustInBasil

JustInBasil

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Three cards were revealed from Pokemon Card 151! The set will release in Japan on June 16th and internationally as a special set this fall.

Voltorb – Lightning – HP60
Basic Pokemon
[L] Tumbling Attack: 10+ damage. Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 20 more damage.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1

Electrode – Lightning – HP90
Stage 1 – Evolves from Voltorb
[L] Boom Boom Chain: 20+ damage. Before doing damage, you may discard any number...
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So we got a successor to the Whimsicott from Vivid Voltage. It does 10 more damage, but it's a shame we don't even have Air Balloon anymore to double up as both more damage and a free pivot for Celebrations Mew Oranguru V every time an Electrode is KO'd to help have a steady supply of tools. You can increase the damage cap with Honchrow V, but it is dead weight with Path in play and you then have a huge sitting duck that can cost you your 1 prize deck momentum, still probably worth running a copy or two to hit key OHKO's.

I had a lot of fun using the Whimsicott deck in Expanded with U-Turn Board allowing it to maintain high damage turn after turn, so I might mess around with this in Expanded using Zoroark with this Electrode and Whimsicott to hit 2 different weaknesses (using Rainbow and Luminous Energy). Even though U-Turn Board has more synergy with pivots like Mew Audino and ability lock doesn't stop you from retrieving it, Snorlax + Leftovers does have a huge advantage over U-Turn in a post-Iono world... in Expanded I can see myself using both actually.

All that said this also competes with the Pachirisu from Brilliant Stars, which is a basic and does 30 damage for each tool attached to all of your Pokemon but without discarding the tools, the drawback being that the multiplier is 10 lower, it has no base 20 damage, and cost 1 more (colorless) energy. If you're aiming for 2HKO's, then the Pachirisu deck is probably better, using Electric Generator and Raihan to fuel its attack cost and being able to attack first turn going second. Could also run both, but Electrode becomes clunkier as a result since it doesn't need Generators or Raihan, and Pachirisu is unplayable without them.
 
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I like it.

Recoverable with carrier, single energy attack cost. We also have Honchkrow V and Snorlax in this set. Someone will make a rogue deck with this.
 
Ok, now that I have my morning coffee and not saying completely wrong things (completely forgot what Snorlax was for, which was Leftovers recycling).

Whimsicott was a deck that was... well overestimated when it was trying to do the same thing in SwSh. You are now less vulnerable to hand disruption compared to Whimsicott, but depending on how many Snorlax you run, ways to recycle him, and ways to get him out of the active you might be more susceptible to Boss. I don't really think susceptibility to boss is that important when it has a much bigger issue.

10 damage doesn't really change the role Electrode has other than a slightly easier time with some 2-prize basics. You'd have to play Honchkrow V to make that damage higher, and there's a big bench problem with this idea in standard.

You are now also dedicating 2 spots of your bench to Snorlax. This initially doesn't sound like the end of the world since you think you just need to fill your bench anyways, but it is worse in that you are essentially playing with 4 pokemon in play maximum otherwise. 1 of those 4 spots is an attacker, 1 of those 4 is your follow up attacker, and 1 of those 4 can very well end up being Manaphy depending on the opponent since Electrode is a prime target for bench snipe. Want that Honchkrow V now? That's pretty much your whole bench clogged and you now live and die by your supporter flow.

You also don't have some of the draw support pokemon that made Whimsicott more sustainable, such as Oricorio GX and Dedenne GX. That last spot on your bench isn't going to be generating as much value as those did back then, and you have way less room to play that support stuff. Bibarel is the only thing that can keep your hand afloat and that's another stage 1.

Even though it is way less dead to Judge than Whimsicott ever was, its gameplan still feels worse by inherently giving up 2 if not 3 of its benched spots immediately and having a worse pokemon pool to support it for what little room it has left in play.
 
RogueMike95 said:
Want that Honchkrow V now? That's pretty much your whole bench clogged and you now live and die by your supporter flow.
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You won't need Honch in every matchup. The ones you also need Manaphy for WON'T need Honch. Unless Urshi comes back again.
 
Saelria said:
You won't need Honch in every matchup. The ones you also need Manaphy for WON'T need Honch. Unless Urshi comes back again.
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Alright, while I jumped the gun on that, the point still stands that you have way too little benchspace to work with in this deck. That's still quite a few matchups where you have exactly 1 free space and nothing that pars up to Oricorio GX to work with.

You also need to run both to cover those weak points and there's the possibility of opening 1 of them unintentionally, which either then becomes a meatshield or a clogged benchspace.
 
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TheRainmaker said:
So we got a successor to the Whimsicott from Vivid Voltage. It does 10 more damage, but it's a shame we don't even have Air Balloon anymore to double up as both more damage and a free pivot for Celebrations Mew every time an Electrode is KO'd to help have a steady supply of tools.
Click to expand...

Agreed about the lost of Air Balloon, but mostly for Oranguru V, that thing could grab 2 tools for you and pivot using the Air Balloon. Mew cannot grab Tools anymore.

I've been playing Rotom VStar and this Electrode has a place in the deck. It also means I can use Single Strike Voltorb again yay.
 
Voltorb/Electrode - first time seeing this, I conclude that this card sucks. But the more I dig deep through it, it proves that I was right. Sure Snorlax lets you loop 4 Leftovers, assuming all are not prized (which is super impossible, with no ways to peek in prizes nowadays), but it gets screwed by Klefki early-game, and some decks will run it with Lost Box getting some love lately. Honchkrow could max out the dmg output, but then again, a 2-prized bench sitter, and Arceus and Lost Box run Path. Lastly, you're a single-prized Stage 1, meaning easy Sableye bait. Plus Cramorant can effortlessly KO Electrode. 3/3
 
To me, the Electrode is more in sync with Rotom Vstar, which does 80 damage plus 40 more for each tool card that's in the discard, and then sends them to the Lost Zone. This is a clever way to discard them while also using an attack to set up some damage or knock out a single prizer.

If you follow this thread of doing damage with tool cards, there's a Porygon2 that does 20x damage for each tool card in the Lost Zone. Having played Rotom Vstar quite a bit- I can say that this would be very tricky to pull off, but will I try it? YES.

The other options have to do with Honchcrow and Pachirisu, and there's probably lots of other combinations of these cards to try out. I like it when they keep picking up a theme like this, it becomes more likely something fun will come out of it.
 
This could be cool if we had several Unown in the format that could turn themselves into tool cards.

You would have acces to several niche tools that gives you a bit of versatility and easy late game recovery in the form of rescue carrier
 
N's Rhyperior said:
Voltorb/Electrode - first time seeing this, I conclude that this card sucks. But the more I dig deep through it, it proves that I was right. Sure Snorlax lets you loop 4 Leftovers, assuming all are not prized (which is super impossible, with no ways to peek in prizes nowadays), but it gets screwed by Klefki early-game, and some decks will run it with Lost Box getting some love lately. Honchkrow could max out the dmg output, but then again, a 2-prized bench sitter, and Arceus and Lost Box run Path. Lastly, you're a single-prized Stage 1, meaning easy Sableye bait. Plus Cramorant can effortlessly KO Electrode. 3/3
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Do you even play competitively? Or is the entire Meta to you only 2 specific decks? You have more negative comments without much positive insight than anyone on here. Try to have a more positive approach to how the card could be used instead of stating the obvious on its utility vs 2 decks... Some people don't need it to be the best card to have fun creating something from it. I understand some cards have 0 utility outside of being filler but Electrode-Honch V-Snorlax could be a fun deck for somebody and killing the idea because 2 decks have a good match up against it doesn't help them.
 
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