All “Galactic’s Conquest” Scans and Translations!
We now have all of the Galactic’s Conquest scans and translations (click that link for the goods)! Thanks go to Toho for the scans, and Bangiras for spending hours and hours translating all of the cards! Later tonight or tomorrow, we will post the rest of the DPt Entry Pack DX translations (we already have several, but are missing some).
On to the analysis! I wrote this up pretty fast, so I might have missed some card combos.
The new Shaymin LV.X in combination with Torterra (DPt Entry Pack), Shaymin LV.X (IFDS; Land Forme) and Sceptile (GE) will make one of the most powerful decks of the format. With Land Forme, Torterra has 180 HP and its first attack (40 + 10 for each Grass you have in play) can be powered up with Shaymin’s Seed Flare (attach as many Grass from your hand as you want, damage dealt for each you attach). The new Shaymin LV.X can also shuffle around your Energy, and if your Torterra goes down, it can attack for 60 more damage. Sceptile is of course the heart of the deck, doubling your Grass Energy in play (so Torterra does much more damage). This kind of deck could run like: 4-3-4 Torterra, 2-2 Shaymin (1 Land, 1 Sky), 2-2 Sceptile. Shaymin Sky Forme might slow it down, so perhaps running 2 IFDS Shaymin LV.X for consistancy would be best.
Blastoise and Delcatty will be a new archetype. Blastoise’s Power takes the top 3 cards of your deck, and if they are Water Energy, you can attach them to your Pokemon. The other non-Water Energy are discarded. Delcatty takes discarded Energy and places them on top of your deck (for 2 damage counters total on Delcatty). Obviously, you use Delcatty to recover Water Energy to the top of your deck, then use Blastoise to attach them to your Pokemon. Blastoise then performs 20 damage plus 10 damage for every Water Energy you have in play. It’s like a dumbed-down version of Torterra in that respect. Double Launcher, Blastoise’s second attack, requires you to discard 2 Water Energy to do 60 damage to two of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon. Next turn, you recover them with Delcatty and do it again. This will probably be where Blastoise shines. Delcatty can be used as a back-up attacker, since it does 10 damage plus 10 more for each damage counter on it, which are accumulated through the use of its Power. It recovers itself by 2 damage counters as well. The new Blissey might also be useful in this deck, since you can discard one card from your hand (like a Water Energy, perhaps) to heal one of your Pokemon by 20 (like Delcatty, perhaps). So, Blastoise, Delcatty, and Blissey. Blistcatty? XD
Alternatively, you can play Blastoise, Delcatty, and Giratina LV.X. Blastoise damages the Bench, Delcatty provides the Energy lost, and Giratina LV.X does 30 damage to ALL of your opponent’s Pokemon. The juicy part to this is that if they are Knocked Out by Giratina, they and all cards attached to them are sent to the Lost Zone and can never be recovered. Giratina also makes your opponent discard a card from their hand to attack. Since with Blastoise you will most likely be discarding one card from the use of its Power (since Delcatty only recovers 2 Water, and you have to draw 3 cards and discard any non-Waters), Giratina helps to even-out the amount of cards you and your opponent have in your decks. Obviously, Giratina was (literally) made for Blastoise, especially since it finishes off its Bench damage permanently.
Banette was also made for another card: Kingdra! You can discard as many cards from your hand as you want using its Poke-Power, though you have to put damage on Banette for each card discarded. Then, Banette has an attack that switches the damage it has with that of the Defending Pokemon’s.
Mightyena’s Body turns off its attack Energy costs if it is affected by a Special Condition. Combo’ing it with Skuntank G, which poisons both your Active and the Defending Pokemon, means Mightyena can do 90 damage for free.
Gardevoir is not-so-great! Take that, evil GG!
Other notable Pokemon in the set: Ampharos (turns off Powers), Dialga G LV.X (turns off Bodies), Palkia G LV.X (sends 1+ opponent’s Benched Pokemon to the Lost Zone), Octillery (does lots of damage, though based on luck), Blaziken (does lots of damage), Dustox (annoyer).
The new Pokemon-SP (which are all Team Galactic Pokemon) will definitely be a new archetype. I don’t feel like going through all of them, but you can definitely see they were made for each other and work together.
Pokemon Card Laboratory is trying their best to make Team Galactic-based decks powerful. Team Galactic Base is obviously meant as an anti “non-Galactic Pokemon” Stadium. All SP-Pokemon are Basics, and the Stadium causes your opponent to put 2 damage counters on any of your opponent’s Pokemon that evolve. You obviously will not be evolving your own Pokemon in a Team Galactic deck. Poketurn is a Team Galactic Invention that is an automatic Super Scoop Up for your SP-Pokemon. Is your Pokemon about to be Knocked Out? Just scoop it up! Energy Gain, another Team Galactic Tool, reduces SP-Pokemon’s attack cost by one [C]. This allows some Galactic Pokemon to attack for free!
Team Galactic’s Invention G-103 Power Spray introduces a new mechanic – playing Trainers during your opponent’s turn. If your opponent uses a Pokemon Power, you simply play the card to cancel it out.
Time-Space Tear allows you to evolve your Pokemon the turn you play them, even if you have already evolved them that turn. The Stadium will be helpful in speeding up evolution, though if your deck already relies on Rare Candy and has no LV.X cards, it probably won’t be necessary (since Rare Candy gets you from a Basic to a Stage 2 in one turn anyway). If you do have LV.X’s, especially Stage 2 ones, then this card will greatly speed-up your deck.
Handsome’s Investigation gives you the option of shuffling your or your opponent’s hand into their deck, and draw 5 cards. Before that, you get to actually look at your opponent’s hand. This card will probably see a lot of play.