A weekly Pokédex Podcast from Bald Man in Japan Luke Summerhayes. A different Pokémon family every week.
I’m Luke Summerhayes, and I love Thundurus.
The ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto was modelled on the Chiniese capitals, deliberately built in a grid-like layout aligned to the four cardinal directions. These compass points are each traditionally guarded by a mythical creature; Black Tortoise of the North, Azure Dragon of the East, Vermilion Bird of the South and White Tiger of the West.
These creatures have appeared throughout mythology and symbolism in China since before 5,000 BC, so fully understanding their original meaning is impossible. Even in modern pop culture, it would be impossible to list all of their mentions. I first became aware of the four guardians in the episode of Digimon Zero Two in which the kids take a school trip to Kyoto and meet the four guardians’ Digimon equivalents. I also feel the turtle and its custody of a direction was a partial inspiration for the turtle Maturin which guards a beam in Stephen King’s Dark Tower.
Thundurus is an electric and flying type counterpart to Tornadus. It looks very similar, with slight differences; blue, rather than green, one horn instead of two, a spiky tail like Raijin’s drums instead of Fujin’s bag of wind.
White
The spikes on its tail discharge immense bolts of lightning. It flies around the Unova region firing off lightning bolts.
Black 2
As it flies around, it shoots lightning all over the place and causes forest fires. It is therefore disliked.
White 2
Thundurus is one of the most significant competitive Pokémon of all time, an incredibly powerful electric type able to paralyze opponents wildly with the Prankster ability.
Black
Countless charred remains mar the landscape of places through which Thundurus has passed.
Incarnate Forme
Legends: Arceus
They say this wielder of electricity has waged war with its nemesis, Tornadus, since time immemorial. The lightning bolts it hurls pierce the very earth and enrich the soil.
Like Tornadus, Thundurus gained a Therian form in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. The transformation into a dragon feels less extreme than the bird transformation of Tornadus, but the change in stats significantly changes the Pokémon’s usage, now hitting much harder.
Therian Forme
Legends: Arceus
Quick as a flash, it materializes out of nowhere. It pulverizes foes into nothingness with showers of devastatingly powerful lightning bolts launched from the string of orbs on its tail.
It wasn’t only in the videogame scene that Thundurus was a force to be reckoned with. Friend of the show Mikey from Pokémon Crossroads got in touch with this to say about its legacy in the trading card game:
During the Black and White era, a lot of Legendary Pokemon got some great cards. Who knew?
And the Forces of Natures found themselves receiving some great cards. Thundurus from Emerging Powers saw some play when it was first released. For three energy, Disaster Volt did 80 damage and all you had to do was discard a single card. Great early damage and synced well with Eelektrik’s Dynamotor ability that recycles energy from the Discard. Great for those who were new to the game or budget players who couldn’t get their hands on the better cards. I found myself using Thundurus when I first started to play more seriously. Though, it started to see less play as more powerful cards came into the game.
Still, Thundurus came crashing back into the game in the Plasma Freeze set with Team Plasma. This time as Thundurus EX in it’s Therian Form and as a Team Plasma Pokemon. Several Pokemon got the Team Plasma tag which allowed it to interact with other Team Plasma Pokemon and cards. Which is why Thundurus EX saw plenty of play!
For a single Lightning energy, Raiden Knuckle did 30 damage and it allowed you to put an Energy card from your discard on to one of your Team Plasma Pokemon. And by an Energy card, it was any Energy card including Special Energy cards like Rainbow Energy, Double Colorless Energy or Plasma Energy. This effect helped set up some powerful Pokemon such as Lugia EX and another card that will be mentioned in a future episode.
Still, Thundurus EX made a great Pokemon to start with. Lots of HP and an attack that cost a single energy. Though you will want to make sure you have Deoxys EX in your deck to help boost Thundurus EX’s attack power. That is because of Deoxys EX’s Power Connect ability. This ability allowed all Plasma Pokemon to do an extra 10 damage. Did I mention that this ability stacked with multiple Deoxys EX in play? So now a single energy attack that originally did 30 damage was now doing 60 to 70 damage if you set up successfully. This deck ended up being called a few things depending on what was played alongside with Thunderus EX. Some decks that used Thunderus EX were Plasma Box, TDK and TDL. It was the TDK version of the deck that took a World Championship title in the Junior’s division by Japanese player Haruto Kabayashi in 2014 and Yugo Sato in 2013.
Tornadus from Emerging Powers saw some play in decks thanks to its three energy attack that did 80 damage, Hurricane. Tornadus found itself out of decks once bigger and more powerful cards started to enter the game.
I’ve never followed the competitive game of Pokémon especially closely, but even I haven’t been able to escape the hype around Thundurus especially, as well as one of the other upcoming Forces of Nature. Even as power has crept higher and higher in subsequent generations, this monster has remained relevant. I’m sure we’ll see more and more of Thundurus in the years to come.
Original music for Luke Loves Pokémon is by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork is by Katie Groves. Funding is provided by listeners at Patreon. If you enjoy this podcast and want to check out other shows by me and my friends, head to podcastiopodcastius.org.
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Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much just for listening.
I love Thundurus. And remember, I love you too.