COTD – 11th August 2011 – Rescue Energy

Today’s Card of the Day is Rescue Energy from the HS: Triumphant set and is one of the many Special Energy cards we currently have available in the format.

Rescue Energy provides the Pokemon it is attached to with a single Colourless Energy, but when that Pokemon is knocked out by damage from attacks, you put that Pokemon and all stage below it back into your hand leaving anything attached to it behind and put it into the discard pile.

Now this card originally sparked a huge rise in play of Gyarados when Triumphant was released last format with its ability to recycle the only attacker you had multiple times per game to keep on the offensive throughout the whole match, but where does Rescue Energy fit in now?

Well, it pretty much does exactly the same job as it did in Gyarados, recycle your cheap attackers to keep attacking turn after turn, even after suffering a KO yourself. Where the use is pretty much identical is when used in conjunction with Yanmega Prime. This Pokemon is another free attacker that is set up in a matter of turns for fairly high damage across the board. Attaching Rescue Energy to this Pokemon allows you to bounce Yanmega back to the hand with another Yanma already benched so that you can put it back down the next turn and start attacking again.

This helps immensely in the Yanmega mirror match by giving you the advantage of that extra Yanmega use over you opponent. Usually, the person who gets the first ‘Sonicboom’ in will KO the first Yanmega and get the advantage, but you can turn this around by having that Rescue Energy to keep Yanmega’s flowing for that extra turn more than your opponent, hopefully allowing you to win out the war in the end.

Yanmega isn’t the only use for this since it can be used in anything that has a Pokemon which is easily recycled or takes a while to recover. Pokemon such as Reshiram and Zekrom can benefit from this card as well as some stage 2s like Machamp Prime and possibly even Typhlosion so that you can get them back to the field and stay attacking for as long as possible.

Overall, Rescue Energy is a really nice card to use if you can fit it in. I would suggest that you definitely try this card out if you are running a thick Yanmega line and predict to face a lot of Yanmega at whichever event you attend, but any other can also make full use of its effect. Unfortunately, this card usually becomes one of those that you want to fit in, but just can’t find room for. One of those 61st cards in a list which is nice to have, but not always missed. I’m going to give Rescue Energy a fair 6.5/10. A very widely used card in many decks, but can you find the room for it?

Artwork: This is actually one of my favourite looking energy cards we have at the moment and comes in the same sort of ‘painted’ style as Double Colourless from the HS Base Set. The swirling balls of light suggest the returning of a Pokemon like in the TV Series or games which is a very nice touch and the orangey tinge to the whole thing really gives it a nice, warm feeling. I’m going to give the artwork a nice 7/10. There isn’t much you can do with an energy card, but they certainly made it work here.

Thanks for reading today’s COTD and please comment below what you think