Raichu BREAK -- BREAKthrough Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Raichu BREAK from the BREAKthrough Pokemon Card Set.  The way a BREAK card works is that you place it on top of the Pokemon with the exact name, so this card would be placed on top of Raichu, so basically this card is a Stage 2 card.  It is placed horizontally on the card it evolves from and can use that Pokemon's Abilities and Attacks as well as what is on the BREAK card.  Raichu BREAK is a BREAK (essentially a Stage 2), lightning type Pokemon card, with an hp of 130.  It has the same weakness, resistance and retreat cost as the Raichu you're evolving it from.  Raichu BREAK does not have an Ability and it only has one move called Grand Bolt which requires three energy cards, two colorless and one lightning, and does 170 damage, however you must discard all energy attached to Raichu after using.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, since Raichu BREAK is a stage 2 Pokemon card, you'll first have to get Pikachu into play and evolve it into Raichu before you can evolve Raichu into Raichu BREAK.  I have reviewed both Pikachu and Raichu from this set the past couple of days on my blog.  I thought Pikachu was an average Basic Pokemon card, it had a solid HP, a low retreat cost, and two moves, the only downside on Pikachu was that it could only do a maximum of 10 damage.  Raichu from this set I thought was extremely good, it had a free retreat cost, plus both of its moves were very good, one did 50 damage to each of your opponent's EX in play and the other move did above average damage for three energy cards.  So knowing this about the first two Pokemon in this line and looking at this Raichu BREAK card, if you already have a line of Pikachu and Raichu in your deck it is definitely worthwhile to use this Raichu BREAK card with this line.  Not only does it increase Raichu's HP by 40, if you're using the Raichu from this set, but you can then do 170 damage in one turn if you need to knock out a Pokemon in one move, and since you can still use all of Raichu's moves, there is no harm at all on using Raichu BREAK in your deck.  But because this card really isn't that great, I wouldn't use more than 1 of these in a deck.

Pokemon Card Rating:
I would give this card a 3 out of 5 rating.  In my opinion this is an average BREAK Pokemon card from the BREAKthrough set.  On its own, this card can do 170 damage for three energy cards which is well above average, but since you have to discard all energy attached to it, this move really isn't that great.  Paired with Pikachu and Raichu from this set, this card is definitely worth using and I would give this entire line a 4 out of 5 rating, it is definitely one worth considering when building a lightning type deck.

Tomorrow's Pokemon Card:
So thanks for reading today's Pokemon card review of Raichu BREAK from the BREAKthrough set, stay tuned for tomorrow's card review of Magnemite, which is from this same set.  Make sure to check below for the Free Pokemon TCG Online Codes!

Free Pokemon TCG Online Code Cards:
Today's Quiz for a Pokemon TCG Online Code Card --
True or False?  This is the only lightning type BREAK card in the BREAKthrough set.
Please respond by including your YouTube username and link to your YouTube channel.  If the question is quite tough, the first correct comment will win, otherwise I'll use a random number generator to choose a winner.