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- ↓ 3.25
- ꩜ 6.45
- ↑ 50.00
{C} → Genetic Memory
Use any attack from Kingdra’s Basic Pokémon card or Evolution card. (Kingdra doesn’t have to pay for that attack’s Energy cost.)
{W}{W}{C}{C} → Twister : 50
Flip 2 coins. For each heads, choose 1 Energy card attached to the Defending Pokémon, if any, and discard it. If both are tails, this attack does nothing (not even damage).
illus. Mitsuhiro Arita
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It sleeps deep on the ocean floor to build its energy. It is said to cause tornadoes as it wakes.
feyblade
I love the concept of Genetic Memory, but to date there hasn’t been a single Seadra that possesses an attack that would be potent at [C].
Warnock 2022
Someone noted in a comment on GEN #RC5 that this card was used with Pokémon Center and Recycle Energy. That actually sounds like a phenomenal strategy!
Ambassador
The name of Genetic Memory in Japanese is [りゅうのいでんし 𝐑𝐲𝐮𝐮 𝐧𝐨 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢] – best translated as “Dragon’s Genes”. The attack showed up again on EX Dragon Kingdra 𝒆𝒙, and also had a interesting successor in MT Gyarados, who had the Poké-Body [ドラゴンDNA 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐍𝐀], which allowed it to use any attack from the Basic Pokémon it evolved from (and do an extra 30 damage as well).
The mechanic has shown up under different names and slightly different stipulations – sometimes you need to have the Energy to pay for the attack, sometimes you don’t, etc. – in later eras of the TCG, sometimes as Pokémon (e.g. SM79 Celebi‘s Time Recall), sometimes as Tools (Memory Berry), sometimes as Stadiums (Shrine of Memories), and so forth, but it started off as a dragon thing and that slowly got lost with time. Maybe PCL will remember to bring it back to them one day.
Ambassador
And there is also Neo Revelation Aerodactyl in this same set, whose Pokémon Power Prehistoric Memory [げんしのきおく 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢 𝐧𝐨 𝐤𝐢𝐨𝐤𝐮] (“Primitive Memory?”) is essentially “Memory for all”. I don’t think it’s really a thing anymore(?), but Aerodactyl was an ‘honorary gragon’ in the early days of the franchise the same way Gyarados was (and still is) an ‘honorary dragon’ in spite of lacking the typing.