Today we review Emolga the new adorable basic Electric Lightning-Type Pokémon. Apparently TPC thought we needed another. The one Pokémon Black&White episode I’ve seen even was about catching it. @_@
Stats
Emolga is a Basic Pokémon that does not Evolve, so the onus of being played rests squarely upon its rounded shoulders. The good news is that Basic Pokémon are very easy to search, to play from hand (inherently), deck (various easy to play cards), and discard (easy to play cards). The Lightning-Type is reasonably good right now, though much of that is due to specific Type members already being part of prominent decks: the type has no true inherent support. The closest is support for the Energy-Type which technically does not have to match-up to the Pokémon-Type, which comes in the form of Pachirisu (Call of Legends 18/95). Type-matching isn’t as favorable as I’d like because we’ve it’s been multiple formats with strong Lightning-Type Pokémon: Weakness is minimized and Resistance has been maximized by those trying to counter their popularity.
70 HP is solid for a Basic Pokémon; first turn it isn’t an easy OHKO for the majority of decks. By your opponent’s second turn it’s a probably OHKO, and by said opponent’s third turn it is almost certain. This will definitely constrain its use, but it again it’s pretty good for a smaller Pokémon. What is not good is Fighting Resistance. This card was 10 HP outside of Donphan Prime’s (unaided) OHKO-zone, but not when you factor in Weakness. Even random supporting Fighting Pokémon for various lines could be a threat, especially past the first turn when they’d have access to their better attacks. What makes this so tragic that in the video games, Emolga is a Flying/Electric-Type hybrid. In the video games this means that it takes double damage from Ice and Rock. So why am I so steamed?
Most of you already know the answer: this type combination takes no damage from Ground attacks and is naturally resistant to Grass, Fighting, Flying, Bug, and Steel. The TCG Fighting-Type is composed of Fighting, Ground, and Rock video-game types. It just doesn’t make sense to use this Weakness: you’d think it would “average out” or the fact of total Ground immunity and Fighting Resistance would even result in the Rock Weakness “being ignored” and the card ending up (TCG) Fighting resistant! Alternatively, Water would have been interesting (many Water Pokémon are weak to Lightning-Type) and appropriate (Water in the TCG is composed of both Water- and Ice-Types from the video games). No Weakness would have also been nice.
Then there is the fact that a card with so many forms of Resistance in the video game not only ignores the most obvious, but it has no Resistance at all. Normally I say this doesn’t matter, but not in this case. It was a small, situational advantage but unless the rest of this card is phenomenal, that was probably exactly what this card needed, barring leaving Emolga with neither Weakness nor Resistance. The card strongly favored having Fighting Resistance, Metal Resistance, or even Grass Resistance: now that the video game Poison-Type was shunted to the TCG Psychic-Type, the TCG Grass Type is nothing but video game Grass- and Bug-Types. While that Resistance wouldn’t have been especially useful, at least it would have been something.
So why am I so fired up? The last stat is the perfect Retreat score: zero! This is low enough to give the card a certain level of utility so that it would take truly wretched effects to be useless. Basic Lightning-Type Pokémon with a free Retreat Cost aren’t unheard of, but ignoring classical Baby Pokémon they are quite uncommon: I’m only showing eight examples from the entire history of Pokémon! Having completely blank bottom stats or a solid Resistance/tolerable Weakness would have made this a handy card to have on your Bench in general, since it just gives you options. Options when you need to shed an effect on your Active (just drop a Switch, bring up Emolga, and Retreat back), and letting you decide your “true” Active by promoting Emolga after your current Active is KOed: you then get to draw, play out your turn, and Retreat to what you really want Active. It also requires your opponent think carefully about targets, and gives them another potential “wrong choice”: sure they can use Pokémon Catcher to force it up for an easy OHKO… but sometimes you’d rather they do that trying to reduce your “options” than another more important combo piece. Despite my rant I should mention that I am happy they did remember that Flying-Types should really have noticeably low Retreat costs.
Effects
The card has two solid attacks. For (L) you get the default 10 points of damage with Paralysis if you can get “heads” on a coin toss. This is an annoying early attack, though not very threatening unless you are a) Paralyzed by it and b) can’t easily shake it. The second attack requires two coin flips, and if you get two tails it’s a waste: you only do 10 points of damage. One heads and one tails results in a decent 30 points of damage, enough to OHKO a baby Pokémon. If you get both heads, you score 50 points of damage, not enough to OHKO a lot of non-baby Pokémon, but its still solid damage. What makes this second attack work is that it requires (CC). So you actually can use it quickly: any Modified-legal Energy acceleration (including Double Colorless Energy) means it’s ready to go in a single turn, including first turn.
Usage
As covered in my rather lengthy Stats section, having a free retreating Pokémon is often quite handy, and one that has 70 HP is just durable enough that it will require a “main” attack or hitting its Weakness to OHKO (better than pretty much any attack as would happen with a baby Pokémon). By no means am I saying to strip out your Cleffa: their other uses are completely different. If we see some strong Lightning-Weak decks being to crop up, then a single copy could be a handy splash to exploit Weakness. The inexpensive attack is risky, but the payoff seems worth it: 20/60/100 split against Weakness, with 60 being the most likely result. Early game this is enough to FTKO Lightning-Weak Basic Pokémon 75% of the time. Mid-to-late game it is enough to finish off or soften up those Pokémon.
Unfortunately that Fighting Weakness is quite a blot on its resume, and I repeat it is made worse by the fact that it really should have been neutral or even Resistant. Even though it wouldn’t have been any good as an attacker against Donphan Prime (due to Donphan Prime’s Poké-Body and Resistance), at least it would have required effort to bypass or OHKO. The Weakness really does drop the card down a peg, and since it was looking borderline playable for Modified, that is tragic.
The Weakness also ruins it for more casual Unlimited play (as highly competitive probably wouldn’t need it anyway). Tyrogue from Neo Discovery might not OHKO it, but it comes awfully close, and while in a laid back game your opponent won’t be trying to spam Crobat G to donk you first turn, it doesn’t mean they’d ignore it completely. In a more casual deck there is at least a chance it could have proven useful, though. Had it been Fighting Resistant it might have become a Lightning-Type Scyther, perhaps even better since while not reliable, it does have an easier to pay, potentially harder hitting big attack.
In Limited play this seems like a top pull. Its Fighting Weakness is a bit of a concern, but Lightning Weakness is also present and if you’re not facing either you still enjoy a 70 HP Pokémon with a free Retreat that has a solid attack that can use any Energy! The only reason not to run it is if you have improbably good pulls.
Ratings
Unlimited: 2/10
Modified: 4/10
Limited: 10/10
Summary
Emolga is a card that could almost see play just by being simply useful. Not brilliant or dynamic, but handy. The Fighting Weakness is the part that sours the deal, since it needs more HP or better effects to compensate. I must warn you that despite being sick of what seems like Pikachu rehashes, I have grown to find this one rather cute. Plus the fact that it is a hybrid makes it a little more novel as well.
