Today's episode of Pokemon Smash showed a short new teaser trailer for Kyurem vs. the Sacred Swordsman - Keldeo. The trailer shows Kyurem chasing Ash and Pikachu, who appear to be in some sort of train or mining vehicle within a cave. An extended trailer will probably be released soon. Thanks goes to Playerking95 from our forums for the heads up on this story!

"Battle Strength Deck Keldeo" will be released on April 20th in Japan and will come with 30 cards, damage counters, a coin, and a play guide. A deck box and sleeves featuring Keldeo will also be released at the same time. In March 2011, the Musketeer Trio each were in their own Battle Strength Deck, so now Keldeo joins them too. We'll post images and translations as soon as they are released!

CoroCoro magazine revealed in its current edition that next month's issue will contain something important. The teaser below says, "There will be a surprising announcement of more than Keldeo?!" Thanks goes to DorianBlack for the translation!

CoroCoro has a history of hyping unimportant information, but in this case, the statement could be referring to a new forme for Kyurem. The December and January editions hinted that Kyurem has an "unseen" power and that there is a secret to Kyurem's ice, both of which have yet to be revealed by the magazine. Additionally, we just discovered a placeholder for a Kyurem forme in Black and White's coding, meaning a new forme will more than likely exist. So now seems to be the appropriate time to reveal a new forme for Kyurem if it's going to get one, especially since it would be featured in the movie.

Anime artwork of Keldeo has also been released, as you can see below. It looks like its hooves have holes in them - that's how it shoots out its own water to glide across bodies of water. The first image below is of its full Ken Sugimori artwork.

Photos of CoroCoro magazine have leaked on to the Internet several days before its release, revealing Keldeo's full artwork, as you can see below. Keldeo is the fourth member of the Musketeer Trio, is known as the Colt Pokemon, and is a Water/Fighting type. Click the thumbnail below to enlarge it.

The magazine also revealed, as expected, that the 15th movie's full name is now Kyurem and the Sacred Swordsman - Keldeo. Now to wait a few months for Kyurem's new forme and a "Pokemon Gray" announcement... (speculation, of course).

Black Pokedex Entry: By blasting water from its hooves, it can glide across water. It excels at using leg moves while battling.

White Pokedex Entry: It crosses the world, running over the surfaces of oceans and rivers. It appears at scenic waterfronts.

As predicted, the upcoming issue of CoroCoro will be revealing Keldeo, or at least its silhouette. You can see it on the magazine's front cover, pictured below. We'll post scans from the rest of the issue once they're leaked by the Japanese. Usually, they'd be leaked next week, so this is a bit early; as it stands, we're not 100% sure this is real, but we'll keep you posted. If it is real, Keldeo will obviously be starring in the 15th movie with the Musketeer Trio and Kyurem, who itself may be getting a new forme soon.

With the release of Hail Blizzard and Psycho Drive in Japan (and soon to be officially released in the USA), our game as we know it is about to change a great deal. With these sets, the mechanic of "EX" Pokemon has been brought back, bringing along with it new factors to our meta game. Now, we don't know exactly how these cards will impact our meta game in States, Regionals, and beyond, but they are already making big waves in Japan. We won't know for sure what happens when EXs hit our meta game, but we can look at these cards, as well as their pros and cons to see how they could potentially revolutionize our game.

Read the article...

The Mewtwo Collection Box was officially released yesterday. It comes with a jumbo Mewtwo-EX card, a reverse holo Battle City promo (BW39), three Next Destinies booster packs, a Mewtwo figurine, and a TCGO card. The box costs $15.98 at Wal-Mart. As posted before, a regular-sized Mewtwo-EX is NOT included, which means its price is going to remain ridiculously high for the foreseeable future. Thanks goes to Omahanime for the scans below!

The Bolt Badge season will be starting at many Pokemon Leagues soon: you can earn reverse holo Zebstrika and Lightning Energy reprints as well as a Bolt Badge pin, as you can see below. Thanks goes to PK6 for the scans; click them for larger images. To see a list of all the promos you can earn this League year, check out this news story.

The first cards from BW5 Dragon Blade / Dragon Blast have been revealed! The card images below were collected by Viper.Fox from the official TCG site and translations are also below thanks to Dorian Black. The sets and their 30-card decks will be released in Japan on March 16th.

Garchomp (#040/050), Altaria (#036), Emolga, Slaking, and their pre-evolutions will be in Dragon Blade while Hydreigon (#040/050), Ambipom, Durant, and Devolution Spray will be in Dragon Blast. Yes, it looks like Devolution Spray from Base Set is returning, though the text is too small to read to see if it is exactly the same card as before. Cards from the set's two 30-card theme decks were also revealed: Hydreigon, Roserade, Devolution Spray, and Rare Candy will come in the Hydreigon deck while Garchomp, Gabite, and Rare Candy are confirmed in the Garchomp deck. If you buy a booster box of either set from stores, you can get a Ninetailes promo, which will also be in one of the sets but with different artwork.

As usual, the Dragon Pokemon have completely random Energy costs. We're supposed to get a new Energy in this set - if we get a Dragon Energy, who wants to bet it'll be a sort of Rainbow Energy for Dragon-types? How else are these going to be viable?

These cards reference the Dragon-type in their text for the first time. Since "D," "R," "G," are all taken for Energy-types, we have decided to use "N" for these card spoilers.

Garchomp - Dragon - HP140
Stage 2 - Evolves from Gabite

[F] Sonic Cutter: 60 damage. Choose 1 Special Energy card attached to the Defending Pokemon and discard it.
[W][F] Dragon Blade: 100 damage. Discard 2 cards from the top of your deck.

Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1

---

Altaria - Dragon - HP70
Stage 1 - Evolves from Swablu

Ability: Battle Song
As long as this Pokemon is in play, your [N] Pokemon's attacks do 20 more damage.

[W][M][C] Glide: 40 damage.

Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1

---

Hydreigon - Dragon - HP150
Stage 2 - Evolves from Zweilous

Ability: Dark Trance
As often as you like during your turn, you may choose one [D] Energy card attached to one of your Pokemon and attach it to another of your Pokemon.

[P][D][D][C] Dragon Blast: Discard 2 [D] Energy cards attached to this Pokemon.

Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3

---

Hydreigon - Dragon - HP150
Stage 2 - Evolves from Zweilous

[D][C][C] Devour: 40 damage. Heal from this Pokemon the amount of damage done to the Defending Pokemon.
[P][D][C][C] Destroy Beam: 90 damage. Flip a coin, if heads, discard an Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon.

Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3

---

Roserade - Grass - HP90
Stage 1 - Evolve from Roselia

Ability: Le Parfum
You may use this Ability once during your turn, when you play Roserade from your hand to evolve one of your Pokemon. Search your deck for any one card and put it in your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards.

[G][C] Tighten: 30+ damage. Flip 1 coin. If heads, this attack does 30 damage plus 20 more damage, and the Defending Pokemon is now Paralyzed.

Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: Water (-20)
Retreat: 1

---

Garchomp - Dragon - HP140
Stage 2 - Evolves from Gabite

[C] Jet Head: 40 damage.
[W][F][C] Sand Tomb: 80 damage. The Defending Pokemon can't retreat during your opponent's next turn.

Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 0

---

Gabite - Dragon - HP80
Stage 1 - Evolves from Gible

Ability: Dragon Call
You may use this Ability once during your turn. Search your deck for a [N] Pokemon, show it to your opponent, and put it in your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards.

[W][F] Dragon Slice: 20 damage.

Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1

---

Ninetales - Fire - HP90
Stage 1 - Evolves from Vulpix

Ability: Bright Look
Once during your turn (before you attack), when you play Ninetales from your hand to evolve one of your Pokemon, you may switch the Defending Pokemon with one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon.

[R] Cursed Flame: 20+ damage. This attack does 50 more damage for each Special Condition on the Defending Pokemon.

Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1

A month of research has gone into this news story, and with the joint efforts of MeroMero and Jade, both ROM editors who visit our site, we can now post this: a placeholder for Kyurem's forme has been found deep in the game coding of Black and White. The games keeps a "chart" of all Pokemon who have formes, which we have compiled below. Notice anyone who shouldn't be on the list right now?

The first column is the National PokeDex number of the Pokemon, which is how the game keeps track of each species (I have put the name of the Pokemon in parenthesis). The second column is the ID number of the alternate forme, used only when something besides the Pokemon's sprite changes (for example, in Deoxys' case, its stats change between its formes, while in Unown's case, only the sprites do). The third column refers to another chart in the coding which contains the sprites of the alternate formes to display. And the final column is the total amount of formes for the Pokemon, including its original design (so Shaymin has its regular forme and its Sky Forme, meaning "2" designs).

In Kyurem's case above, we see a "1" in the data. All Pokemon either have 0 for no additional formes (like Pikachu, Mewtwo, etc.) or a number for its original design plus the amount of its alternate formes (such as a "4" for Deoxys, Deoxys Attack, Deoxys Defense, and Deoxys Speed). So a Pokemon will either have a "0" for nothing or a number above one for something. Kyurem is the only Pokemon to have a "1," which is the placeholder - no other Pokemon has a "1," meaning it was intentionally put into the data. The sprite for Kyurem's alternate forme (in the other table, not listed here) refers to Meloetta's sprite. This just means that Meloetta's sprite is a placeholder. The third column for Kyurem, which would denote what stats to use for the forme, is set to 0. This does not mean its future forme will not have its own stats - it just means that in the coding of Black and White, the stats do not exist.

Going back to Diamond and Pearl's game data, we have also found the same forme chart. It shows that Rotom, Shaymin, and Giratina had placeholders for new formes (a "1"), meaning Gamefreak planned their formes long before the release of Pokemon Platinum. No one knew to look for the chart at the time because no one expected any other Pokemon to have new formes back then. Just as we know how to find "hidden" Pokemon in the game coding like Keldeo, Meloetta, and Genesect, we now also know how to find out if a Pokemon will have a planned future forme.

The reason for the delay in this news story is that we did not know exactly why Gamefreak would put this information into the game coding. And unfortunately, we still do not know why. After all, it would reveal that there is going to be a future game ("Pokemon Gray?") with Kyurem's forme in it. Perhaps they did it for compatibility purposes. Or perhaps Gamefreak creates a chart for all Pokemon and formes they plan in a generation, then remove the data they will not be including in the first set of games (in this case, the stats and sprite for Kyurem's forme). Once we were able to confirm Shaymin and Giratina also had the same placeholder treatment in Diamond and Pearl, we felt confident enough to post this story.

Kyurem's new forme will probably be revealed within the next few months when we learn more about the Kyurem VS. the Sacred Swordsmen movie, just like Giratina's new forme and the Shaymin movie, if that is indeed when it will be introduced in the anime.