Pokemon Card of the Day #2030: Shield Energy (Primal Clash)
Shield Energy was an attempt to bring back the old Special Metal Energy. It could only be attached to a Metal-type Pokemon and only provided Metal Energy when attached, but when it was, the attacks of your opponent’s Pokemon did 10 less damage to the Pokemon it was attached to. Note that an errata made it apply after Weakness and Resistance, not before like stated on the card.
Shield Energy saw basically no play. 10 damage was only a small reduction, though even those could matter. The main problem was that the only Metal deck that saw any traction while this was legal was Bronzong. Bronzong couldn’t actually get Shield Energy since it wasn’t actually Metal when not attached to something, so that deck was simply better with the basic Metal Energy. Shield Energy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
