Electivire FB Lv. X Electivire Lv. X (2009)

Ahh, Electivire. Unlike other eras with special pokemon cards there aren’t too many Lv. X cards comparatively so it only makes it more unfair when you think about the pokemon that got 2 different Lv. X cards in the era. Any pokemon would be lucky to get one let alone two. That’s the case with Electivire though, and while Luxray GL Lv. X was easily the strongest and most dominant lightning pokemon in the era we’re gonna be looking at a deck centred around Electivire Lv. X today, more precisely a deck featuring both of them. Unlike Luxray that can deal high damage quickly and on the cheap, Electivire FB Lv. X is slower and needs a lot of energies on your field to shine, however there is a reward at the end becoming stronger than Luxray eventually. Here’s what the card list looks like:

Electivire FB Lv. X x1 Electivire FB x3 Electivire Lv. X x1 Electivire x3 Electabuzz x4 Uxie Lv. X x1 Uxie x2 Dragonite FB x1 Bronzong G x1 Crobat Gx1

Roseanne’s Research x3

Felicity’s Drawing x4

Cynthia’s Feelings x1

Professor Oak’s Visit x1

Cyrus’s Conspiracy x3

Energy Gain x3

Poke Turn x3

Sp Radar x2

Sunyshore City Gym x2

Luxury Ball x1

Premier Ball x1

VS Seeker x1

Pokemon Rescue x1

Energy Switch x2

Switch x1

Call Energy x3 Lightning Energy x10

With enough energies on your field this card becomes quite the power attacker but even without too many energies it’s still easy to hit between 60-70 damage, especially when you factor Energy Gain allowing Electivire to hit those numbers for 2 energies. This means you’re hitting for around that while having some energy presence on the bench too which is solid. As an SP, if this card gets hit but doesn’t get KOed you can scoop it up with Poke Turn, promote another Electivire FB and then level up again. With only 2 energies attached and a Gain you do 50 for 2 which is just okay, but that’s the trade off for the potential of more damage. Its poke-power serves to boost your attack as it allows you to attach up to 3 of any energies from your discard pile to your pokemon as you like. Normally this would be incredible but it’s balanced out since if you use this effect your turn ends. For this reason we won’t be exploiting this too often, but in a very passive position where you wouldn’t be able to do much anyway it can be a very handy power to have. Outside of just gathering more energies to boost Powerful Spark, getting a bunch of free energies like this is useful to just power up other pokemon in general and it also works from the bench.

In many ways the regular Elective FB might just be more incredible than the Lv. X even. Its stats are excellent for a basic SP but it also serves as a great aid for your necessary set up. Dump and Draw will allow to discard up to 2 energies of any kind and draw 2 cards for each one discarded. Getting a few energies in the discard pile is important for this deck and it’s great that we can do this while drawing cards. Energy Current is also decent, as it conserves a lightning energy by moving it on a benched pokemon. Being a forced effect can backfire when you don’t want to move an energy but it’s rarely that big of a problem from my experience. Worst case scenario this card will usually be able to get both attacks off once if you decide not to save it, doing a decent amount of damage while only losing 1 energy.

If this card had a non gimmick attack it would have been perfect, and would also make this deck a lot more potent. The main reason we have this card is for Motor Drive, allowing us to attach discarded lightning energies to this card. Using a bunch of these poke-powers every turn grants quick and easy energy acceleration and of course will boost Powerful Spark on Electivire FB Lv. X. That’s why I say its attack is somewhat disappointing, as it’s a coin flip attack based on all the lightning energies attached to this card. You discard all of them and flip a coin for each. Every heads nets you 50 damage, so quite honestly just getting 2 heads on this attack makes it strong. I say this because 100 damage definitely puts in work in the era, it’s just that you’re discarding energies either way and will have to rebuild and it obviously conflicts with us trying to gather energies and keep them around on the field. Regardless, it won’t be uncommon for this Electivire to be your main attack force so be prepared to flip some coins. The Lv.X fixes this a little bit giving us a conventional attack with amazing bonus potential hence why it’s a great inclusion. Your best practice with this card will be sitting on the bench piling up energies and only used if you don’t have a choice, but that random unlimited damage potential could be your key to an easy OHKO and a sweet victory.

This is the regular and original Electivire Lv. X and has a few things going for it too. It needs to be active for its poke-body to work but the effect is certainly useful, putting 2 damage counters on your opponent’s pokemon every time they attach an energy to them. This effect is also not once per turn. Pulse Barrier does a decent 50 for 2 but if your opponent has any tools or stadiums, you’re in luck as this attack will discard all of them while making Electivire immune to everything next turn including damage. This is an excellent benefit to reap given the advantage you gain so definitely take the opportunity if your opponent gives you that opening. If they realize you have this card they might be wary, but this also means they don’t get to utilize their tools and stadiums which is still a great bonus. Obviously, snipe attacks and pulling will play around this effect; a bit sad seeing as that’s what Luxchomp specializes in, but if your opponent can’t play around this effect it’s going to be great for you.

Given its unique nature as a basic pokemon that didn’t initially have any evolutions, Electabuzz is on a slightly stronger class than your typical basic pokemon. I put all 3 of the available Electabuzz options in this era as they all have perks between them. Modelled after the original Base Set Electabuzz, the Platinum secret rare reprint is a direct reprint in every way as far as I can see. It has a nice blend of a 1 and 2 energy attack so if you start with it you can do 10 with a chance for paralysis and then next turn follow up with 30 for 2 or possibly even 40. This makes this card the most offensive of the 3 but it also is the worst defensively; having a x2 weakness to fighting and no metal resistance which can be handy against Dialga G. The weakness probably doesn’t matter that much but it should be noted as a special secret rare this is the hardest one to get out of the 3 options and it might not be that worth it seeing as we have this card mainly to evolve to Electivire. Secret Wonders Electabuzz is the one I personally run 3 of as it shares the exact same first attack with the Platinum print and does have the handy metal resistance. If you get the chance to fully power it, doing 60 for 3 can also be handy in a pinch and might just be even more reliable than Motor Drive Electivire since you don’t have to flip coins.

The original Diamond and Pearl Electabuzz could also be a nice option. It also ironically shares an attack with the Platinum one but for Thunderpunch instead of Thundershock. If you were going to use the effect of Call Energy on your first turn anyway it makes this card the most well rounded of the 3 as you’d still be doing more damage than the Secret Wonders Electabuzz with Thunderpunch on the second turn and this card also has the best weakness of the 3 at only +10 with Secret Wonders Electabuzz having one for +20. Again, the weakness probably doesn’t matter much, especially since Stormfront Machamp will always kill these guys in one shot as basic pokemon. However, I should also note that Shock Wave is the worst attack for our circumstances here since we don’t run Elekid so ultimately the other 2 prints still have advantages over this one. A 3-1, 2-2 or just running a mix of all of them might be okay.

We’re running 2 Uxies anyway and Premier Ball to grab Lv.X pokemon so having this card in here as well makes sense given the utility factor. Zen Blade 60 for 2 is solid and the psychic type coverage is also useful against Machamp and other psychic weak pokemon. It isn’t the perfect solution as Uxie still is a basic pokemon and will still be taken out by Machamp but it’s still an attacker you can use to put that pressure. If we are unfortunate enough to open with Uxie then searching this card out fast might be a good call, letting you put some serious damage in early while also getting to draw some cards with Trade Off.

The draw potential of this card is clearly phenomenal, and since we don’t want to bother with Claydol in this deck (at least for my version here) netting a few cards with Set Up while we’re in the process of setting up is important. I touched on this with Uxie Lv. X but this card isn’t the worst opener if you can access the Lv. X quickly enough. Sure, if you open with it you lose your Set Up draw but it least it can start putting up some damage.

Dragonite FB is our dedicated Garchomp C killer and a good SP counter in general. After all 80 for 2 on just a basic with an Energy Gain is powerful. My favourite part about it though is that 100 HP. That alone makes it a great opening wall pokemon against strong and fast damage pokemon and we can then use Poke Turn to get it out of the way and negate that damage. That high HP does come with drawbacks though, as the 3 retreat can leave Dragonite stuck and your opponent might aim for this to happen too. The other issue is that if you’re not fighting against SP being a wall is the only thing it can do as Mach Blow becomes a bad attack then and Giant Tail is even more useless needing a guaranteed coin flip heads to do damage. If you can, don’t even bother benching it once you realize your opponent isn’t playing SP pokemon.

This guy is usually found in all SP decks as it acts as an Energy Switch on foot. In our deck here Bronzong G is even more important as gathering and moving energies is what we do. It can’t sadly move energies from Secret Wonders Electivire to other pokemon but this is still a good effect to use to save an energy attachment on the field if we’re going to scoop up a pokemon with Poke Turn anyway. Also, even though you can’t move energies from non SP pokemon you can move them the other way around; you can still get energies from an SP pokemon to the regular Electivire cards.

This card is similar to Felicity but more forgiving, letting you draw 3 cards and then putting 1 card from your hand at the bottom of your deck instead of discarding. Nothing extreme but reliable.

This supporter is important for the early collection of basic pokemon, we clearly need a bunch for our strategy and can work as a draw card too if we add Uxie in hand. If you have Electivire FB active but no energies in hand Roseanne also covers you in this regard letting you grab basic energies. I won’t be as important late and maybe even mid game but it all depends on our set up.

SP Radar can fetch us any SP pokemon so this is another easy card to include here.

This card ignores resistances when our lightning pokemon are attacking but even more important than that is it removes the weaknesses on our lightning pokemon. This will make regular Electivire Lv. X stand a fair chance against Machamp but it’s also a bait card too. Instead of conserving this, you can throw it early and even if your opponent removes it for their own stadium they’re playing into the hands of Pulse Barrier which is great.

An instant scoop up card without any cost... Yeah, this card is definitely overpowered. You can make a lot of plays and combos with this card but a huge thing it provides is denying your opponent prizes on pokemon they’ve almost killed. 120 HP on Electivire FB Lv. X makes great use of this combo.

A handy free retreat and a free damage counter will enable KOs we otherwise would fall short on. That’s why this card is here. While it is a hasty approach to overuse Poke Turn on Crobat to achieve a certain KO, depending on the game state it might just be the best option to put that pressure and hopefully make quick work of your opponent.

Grab any pokemon that’s not a Lv. X. Since I don’t even bother running Bebe’s Search in this deck Luxury Ball will usually be used to get Motor Drive Electivire since we don’t have any other way to add it from the deck without drawing it.

Without the bonus draw Cynthia’s Feelings is a very average supporter, but with the bonus she becomes the best supporter in the era. Shuffling your hand to draw 8 cards is amazing, but the condition also makes it a bad supporter to have in the set up process. Some pokemon are really aggressive, but realistically you don’t want to be in a position where you’re losing prizes so easily, especially at the start of the game so you won’t be getting her full effect. For this reason I’d rather not favour her so much.

As an SP pokemon Electivire FB gets this card to help out so we’re using it. No drawback or cost, Cyrus’s Conspiracy will always give us a basic energy, a Team Galactic’s Invention and another supporter card, ensuring you have something good to use next turn too. The second pick gives this card a lot of utility, as he becomes a completely different supporter depending on the Galactic Invention you choose every time.

With 3 different Lv. X pokemon in the deck Premier Ball will always have some searching use. The utility of getting them from the discard pile makes it even better so there’s no way I wouldn’t have this in.

Decreasing the attack costs for SP pokemon it almost acts as energy acceleration and you don’t want to go without it. Huge role on why SP pokemon are fast and as a result strong.

This card is risky thanks to lots of trainer lock but the utility of having this as opposed to another copy of other supporter cards in here is pretty good too. With VS Seeker you can use a fifth Felicity if you really want too, a second Cynthia or even your first Cynthia if you had to discard it and now have the chance to use it with the full draw bonus. The list goes on.

I’m a little wary having this instead of Night Maintenance but we really don’t have space for a few different cards in this deck. The idea is I’m not too worried about running out of energies given Poke Turn and Motor Drive Electivire and Pokemon Rescue allows me to add the recovered pokemon in hand so it’s faster. Premier Ball could also be used to recover a precious Electivire Lv. X so it’s possible to get by without Night Maintenance.

Felicity is easily the most important supporter card in this deck. Discarding energies is essential to make use of Secret Wonders Electivire and possibly even Energy Recycle on Electivire FB Lv. X. Because of this the discarding costs aren’t even costs at that point and either way mid to late game we’ll have cards we don’t need and are better off discarding altogether.

Energy Switch eats up some of our valuable space but is important for some of our plays particularly getting an Electivire FB Lv. X powered up out of nowhere. As explained earlier if we can, we don’t want to rely on Motor Drive Electivire to attack and Energy Switch allows us to move the recovered energies from that pokemon to any other better attacker.

You can’t go wrong with a plain old switch and you never know when it might be handy. With Energy Switch and some of our other cards here it could also very well act as a combo enabler, retreating a damaged pokemon and still pulling off an attack.

What I like about Call Energy in this deck compared to many others is the added utility we get besides its effect of grabbing us basic pokemon. It is perfectly compatible to be discarded and recovered with Electivire FB and all of our attacking pokemon can utilize it as an actual energy attachment even after you use it to get basic pokemon down. For a lot of other pokemon it’s a wasted attachment if they don’t have colorless energy requirements in their attacks but thankfully it isn’t a problem in this deck.

You need enough lightning energies for your manual attachments but also enough spares to discard for Motor Drive Electivire. Lots of energies on your field is the key to success so we don’t want to miss a manual attachment even if we’re getting a few energies per turn with our poke-powers.

This concludes my very comprehensive rundown on why all the cards are chosen in this deck. As a hybrid SP deck, there are lots of other cards you can include and experiment with but the cards chosen for this list give Electivire FB the best chance to be in the spotlight. Ultimately, it’s impossible to have space for everything so the omission of Unown G leaves Electivire FB with no protection against Machamp, but this where the regular Electivire line can be used as an answer. Machamp decks commonly will have Broken Time-Space down so we can counter Machamp with Pulse Barrier. If we throw down our own stadium we can get rid of our weakness and if they try to remove it with another Broken Time-Space then Pulse Barrier becomes a problem for them again. Water decks weak to lightning obviously have a disadvantage, but you still need to be careful as Kingdra hits very hard and fast.

Trainer lock decks can obviously be trouble too, but if they rely on Spiritomb to slow the game down they also give us an opportunity to gather more energies on our field. The nice thing about Electivire is that it can put damage up quickly, but it also doesn’t mind playing against slow decks as it only becomes better the more time we have to gather lost of energies. For this reason while DialgaChomp is tough it also gives us time to toughen up are our offences and hopefully still put enough pressure against their tanking. The metal resistance greatly helps too. Overall, the deck isn’t perfect because it doesn’t hit the hardest without a lot of energies and fast decks could be too much to handle. However, we have a lot of advantages here too with more eventual damage output, the SP engine, temporary invincibility with Pulse Barrier and the chance to power up pokemon out of nowhere with Energy Switch. Thank you guys for reading and I’ll see you on the next article.