Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Raichu Prime

Sabett

Sabett

Active Member
So here's the card:

Raichu - Lightning - HP100
Stage 1 - Evolves from Pikachu

Poke-Power: Voltage Up
You can use this power any number of times during your turn. Move 1 Lightning Energy attached to one of your Pokemon to this Pokemon. This Power can't be used if this Pokemon is affected by a Special Condition.

[L][L][C] Mega Thunderbolt: 120 damage. Discard all Energy attached to Raichu.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Steel (-20)
Retreat: 1

Now I've been liking this card ever since I saw it, (on a casual level of course), but something disturbs me now that I realize something. This won't be in the format with Electivire SW, and if that's happening, then I fail to see the big prime part this raichu has over the GS one. The power loses a lot of utility once electivire is out of the picture. It doesn't even get to keep the energy and toss it on to a new Raichu. The GS Raichu has free retreat, and for 20 less damage and an energy less you essentially get the same attack. There are only a few things I can really stretch in mind for the prime, one is the Pachi from LL. When you lay it down on the bench you get to attach 2 lightning energy to it, and the other is rayquaza C Lv.X. Other than that, I don't see much reason to run the Prime over the GS Raichu, I mean if damage is an issue, you could just run Crobat G, which you should be doing anyway with the Lv.X's attack, and the only time you'd really need it is for like a bronzong G on the bench, which I hardly see anymore, and the extra 10 on the luxray and garchomp Xs. The only thing that really comes to mind that's a big issue on the damage part is donphan prime, with it's body and resistance, it's knocking 40 damage off of raichu's attacks, however with a stadium that more than likely should be in here, Sunyshore City Gym, not only does it combat Raichu's weakness, but also skirts by Donphans resistance. At this point The GS raichu would be doing 80, and the Prime would be doing 100, and if we add an expert belt, 100 and 120, giving raichu an elaborate OHKO against Donphan. So an extensive, but not terrible, OHKO against donphan, and two sub par pokemon to use for acceleration. This doesn't sound so hot for a prime to be literally outclassed in an identical manner design wise.

Also, a bit of a tangent, why does every raichu have to have good attacks that involve discarding energy? I know it's kind of Electric's thing, but the Luxray from AR found a way to not do it, and make a great a attack. Why couldn't a Raichu, a Prime Raichu at that, be given a different attack than one that makes him discard all energy cards attached to him?

EDIT: thank you mods
 
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They might bring the SW Electivire back in some form. I mean....To always be discarding energy is a big draw back that they can't leave unchecked for too long. For fire it was Typhlosion, fighting is Regirock, water has Fergie and Starmie and so on and so forth. Right now you can use the Magnezones since they are not getting rotated but they add a damage counter and you have to be active to attach it which would defeat the point of having the prime.

As for the matchups, anything fighting is always bad for any electric type. And as you've stated it, that's a lot of work trying to get a OHKO, not to mention putting yourself in danger next turn. Especially against Donphan.

The Raichu will have it's time. They have to bring some type of recovery back to the electric side of things. Besides if they didn't, all they would have on the electric/metal side would be the zones, and Amphy Lock.(?)
 
Even with Electivire, it'd just be too slow. Remember SF Raichu? He worked perfectly with Electivire - but the energy guzzler that Raichu is (With all of its attacks) just cannot compensate for his low HP and mediocre speed. Then sure, you could go for Voltage Shoot, but how are you going to get enough energy reliably in your hand?
Raichu is doomed to a life in mediocre town.
 
Magnezone SF anyone? I'll give you the best case senario:

1. Get Raichu and 3 Magnezones on the bench. Use Regice, Engineer's, or Bannette PL To discard energies.

2. Use magnezone's power to move the energies onto Raichu

3. Heal 30 damage some way.

4. OHKO whatever is in your way.

5. Take 6 Prizes in 6 turns. You win!

The worst case scenario is if your opponent is dropping a bunch of mesprits while they OHKO your raichu. Or they donk your lone pikachu start. And a bunch of other things.

I think it has a lot of potential. I'll give it a 10/10 once it comes in the cotd:thumb:
 
I like it with Pachirisu from the Lost Link set, if we ever get that.

It also can go pretty well with Hunter so you can return the Pachi. The only thing is Power Spray is a punk.
 
First of all, I've made a terrible mistake of not reading Raichu Lv.X correctly. The OP was written with the idea that the Lv.X made you discard two energy cards from Raichu, not hand. In this case, the Prime is better than the SF version, because both make you discard all energy cards, but the prime gives you 20 more damage, and to use the Lv.X's attack you need 3 energy attached to raichu, so the energy difference between them is unimportant in the initial attack. I'd say the prime is better in this instance, for the occurance of OHKOing Donphan in the example I described. I apologize. Also after researching Raichu for a bit, here's some fun facts about Raichu Lv.X:

If you Level Max a Raichu Lv.X, you can use it's pokebody that turn.

If you KO a Dialga G Lv.X woth Voltage Shoot, you can use Raichu's second attack from the pokebody.

You can use Voltage Shoot twice in a row, and you also draw a prize before the second attack if you KO'd something with the first attack, meaning you could potentially draw into another electric energy needed to use the second Voltage Shoot.


BigBattle said:
They might bring the SW Electivire back in some form. I mean....To always be discarding energy is a big draw back that they can't leave unchecked for too long. For fire it was Typhlosion, fighting is Regirock, water has Fergie and Starmie and so on and so forth. Right now you can use the Magnezones since they are not getting rotated but they add a damage counter and you have to be active to attach it which would defeat the point of having the prime.

As for the matchups, anything fighting is always bad for any electric type. And as you've stated it, that's a lot of work trying to get a OHKO, not to mention putting yourself in danger next turn. Especially against Donphan.

The Raichu will have it's time. They have to bring some type of recovery back to the electric side of things. Besides if they didn't, all they would have on the electric/metal side would be the zones, and Amphy Lock.(?)
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Yeah, the Magnezone's a good idea, but i_shika pointed out rayquaza, which is a basic, and gives reason to play the Prime, it also doesn't damage Raichu.

Donphan would be a struggle of course, but I'm glad it's that and not just auto-lose, I mean the situation I described isn't outside the realm of reality, and is a really nice play.

I don't really expect this to become competitive, I just wanted to make since of Raichu prime without electivire SW, which I've now done since I studied it more.

i_shikaXD said:
if your feeling lucky, theres always raqauza LA. is for casual play anyways right.
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I can't believe I forget about that guy, I really like that idea, since this is simply for fun, running two would eliminate the flip factor, and potentially become explosive. I wouldn't mind throwing the Warp Points in that would need.

Scipio said:
Even with Electivire, it'd just be too slow. Remember SF Raichu? He worked perfectly with Electivire - but the energy guzzler that Raichu is (With all of its attacks) just cannot compensate for his low HP and mediocre speed. Then sure, you could go for Voltage Shoot, but how are you going to get enough energy reliably in your hand?
Raichu is doomed to a life in mediocre town.
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Well, I wasn't really looking for a competitive deck with this, just a fun one, but with a competitive approach so it doesn't have just random stuff in it. And Fisherman will be more than enough to get energies back to hand, as well as a high energy count helping out with getting the energy into your hand in the first place.

Ralts4ever said:
Out of curiosity...what DOES pachi do?
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He has a power when you put him down on the bench you can attach two lightning energies to him, as I said in the OP.
travis3290 said:
did i miss something? how do you know about raichu prime? link?
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It's been on pokebeach for over 6 months.


So a new approach to this, I see the point of Raichu Prime, as apposed to the rest of the Raichu's, mostly, I see that utility in rayquaza. There's some minor plays, of the pokepower elsewhere, but Rayquaza's enough for me. Thing's like Fisherman, regice, or maybe that engineer's supporter that let's you discard energy. A staraptor engine would be interesting to use here as it can get you those supporters when you need them. The synergy with Level Max is interesting, as I could essentially make a Raichu Lv.X out of nowhere and attack twice. Hunter will definitely be an excellent addition once its out, as you can pick up the lv.x again to use two attacks again.
 
Don't play two Rayquaza LA on your bench, or else you don't get to flip at all!
 
honchvire said:
Don't play two Rayquaza LA on your bench, or else you don't get to flip at all!
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Oh wow, what an odd drawback, and it's even after the special condition clause. Thanks for pointing that out. :thumb: I guess adding one, and then energy pickups might balance that out, I'm just worried about the flippy thing.
 
I don't see how the new body would help Rai X, but I DO see how it helps other lightening decks.

Getting energy onto Raichu isn't really your issue. Getting/keeping energy in your hand for Voltage shooting is the issue.
 
Sabett said:
Oh wow, what an odd drawback, and it's even after the special condition clause. Thanks for pointing that out. :thumb: I guess adding one, and then energy pickups might balance that out, I'm just worried about the flippy thing.
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What about energy restore? Flip 3 coins anyone? I really like where this is going. Hope this deck becomes an archetype someday!
 
Rogue Archetype said:
I don't see how the new body would help Rai X, but I DO see how it helps other lightening decks.

Getting energy onto Raichu isn't really your issue. Getting/keeping energy in your hand for Voltage shooting is the issue.
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Do you mean the new Raichu Prime, or a pokebody? There isn't any direct synergy, with the Prime and the X, but a health increase and extra attack, alongside it's free retreat, pokepower and hunter for repeated pokebody attacks is nice. Like Let's say we've got our first Raichu Prime out, and we have another waiting in the wings, we level up the first guy, do the two attacks, then next turn we can use magnezone's/rayquaza's power to attach the energies to him, retreat him back, switch what we need to, to the new raichu, hunter the old raichu with the x, level up, do it all over again. I don't understand how the new Raichu helps other lightning decks though, he can only attach to himself.

Also, I was imagining to build Raichu with a Starapotor engine, so we could grab Fisherman or Interviewer's Questions as seen fit. Also, when the Fisherman and Magnezone/Rayquaza conflict, regice can help put the energies back. Like after the raichu's big shebang there will be 5 energies in there, let's say we go grab a fisherman, grab 4, now, we can discard two with regice.

FYI, I just woke up from a nap, and I feel like my words might be running together, so if this post is a bit incomprehensible.

Ralts4ever said:
What about energy restore? Flip 3 coins anyone? I really like where this is going. Hope this deck becomes an archetype someday!
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Holy snikes, I've forgotten about so many good cards with this archetype. I hope it does too.
 
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