Energy Cards

[Tyros]

So, I'm getting into the Pokemon TCG again after playing for maybe three years when it first started, and not touching it for over six years after that. I've been looking around online at deck lists and I noticed immediately that some things have changed since I've played. Makes sense, of course. Most of it, I understand, but something I can't really quite get is this:

I've noticed that it's a pretty common trend to use an incredibly low amount of energy in decks. Where 20 and above was acceptable back in my days of playing, it seems like the common number is 12 and lower today. What I want to know is how does this work? What is the reason for it? Are there just staple cards that let you grab the energy you need without any problem now? How do you guarantee that you're going to draw those staple cards that let you grab the energies?

I'm a little lost on this, so thanks for any and all answers.

- Tyros

 

[Sydian]

There's tons of cards nowadays to fetch your Energy cards out of the discard pile, search your deck for them, and transfer them to benched Pokemon, etc. Not to mention that with more powerful cards now, battles don't last as long as they used to. However, I might be corrected on that. I haven't played in a while, and I don't know the new rules like the back of my hand as I do the old rules.

It's not a big deal, though. I still go with older rules and I do perfectly fine with them. So if you want to have 20 Energy cards, go right ahead. Ain't no shame in it. Besides, I know I'm frustrated when I can't even use those Supporter cards that let me use discarded Energies because there are none in the discard pile to retrieve. Smarter move to go with the older 20, or get in between the two (15-17 Energies).

 

[Darokkian Magmortar]

Decks now attack with 1 energy, becouse speed is the most important factor atm.
Example decks are: Kingdra, Charizard, Shuppet, Gyarados, Jumpluff etc.
Also almost every deck runs roseanne research, and ALL the SP variants runs 4 Cyrus Conspiracy.

 

[donavannj]

The staple cards that fetch energy from your deck, particularly Roseanne's Research, are roughly $3 apiece, since just about every deck could use one. Some Pokemon powers are designed to get energy attached to your Pokemon quickly, too. Most people run 3 or 4 Roseanne's Research in a deck, it's that good, since it also fetches Basic Pokemon for you.