“Pokemon ex” Return, New “Scarlet & Violet” TCG Cards Revealed at Worlds!

By: Water Pokémon Master · Posted Posted onAug 21, 2022 at 8:28 AM · 125 Comments

The original “Pokemon ex” mechanic is returning to the Pokemon TCG! The first Scarlet & Violet cards were just revealed at Worlds:

The new cards include Koraidon ex, Miraidon ex, Mimikyu ex, Lucario ex, and Magnezone ex. The cards are incomplete to disguise any new mechanics and spoilers — they are missing their types, HP, stages, attack costs, and some words. This was also the case for previous reveals at Worlds.

These “Pokemon ex” work like the original Pokemon ex mechanic from 2003’s EX Ruby & Sapphire. They evolve from their regular unevolved forms, like Raichu ex evolving from Pikachu. This means there will be Pokemon ex for Basic, Stage 1, and Stage 2 Pokemon (like Basic Mimikyu ex, Stage 1 Lucario ex evolving from Riolu, and Stage 2 Magnezone ex evolving from Magneton). They give up two Prize cards when Knocked Out. The mechanic ran until 2007’s EX Power Keepers.

The next iteration of “Pokemon-EX” was actually an entirely different mechanic, though inspired by the original because of the two Prize penalty. It was introduced with Black & White’s Next Destinies in 2012 and continued until 2016’s Evolutions. Any fully evolved Pokemon would be a Basic Pokemon-EX, even if it evolved from a Pokemon in the games. For example, Blaziken-EX was just a Basic Pokemon that didn’t evolve from Combusken, unlike the original Pokemon ex mechanic. It was actually a shock to many TCG fans when the “EX” mechanic was revealed because the TCG began to ignore pre-evolutions.

Additionally, the text for both Koraidon ex and Miraidon ex hide some type of unrevealed Basic Energy and Pokemon type. This unrevealed mechanic may have something to do with the TCG’s version of the Terastal Phenomenon from the Scarlet & Violet games.

You can see the full announcement video here, which hasn’t been uploaded to Pokemon’s YouTube channel yet:

New cards and mechanics have been announced at every Worlds since 2016.

Koraidon ex – Unknown Type – HP???
Unknown Stage

Ability: Dino Cry
Once during your turn, you may attach up to 2 Basic […] Energy cards from your discard pile to your Basic […] Pokemon in any way you like. If you use this Ability, your turn ends.

[…] Wild Impact: 220 damage. During your next turn, this Pokemon can’t attack.

When your Pokemon-EX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: none
Resistance: none
Retreat: 0

Miraidon ex – Unknown Type – HP???
Unknown Stage

Ability: Tandem Unit
Once during your turn, you may search your deck for 2 Basic […] Pokemon and put them onto your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck.

[…] Photon Blaster: 220 damage. During your next turn, this Pokemon can’t attack.

When your Pokemon-EX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: none
Resistance: none
Retreat: 0

View thread (125 replies)
Neat to bring back the original multiprize cards – ??.


edit: yeah for people who don't remember Gen III TCG, the lowercase 'ex' is meaningful and indicates these cards are going to look more like ex and GX, not EX and V, w/r/t evolutions and stages and so on.
 
From the looks of things Mimikyu ex (basic) is 190hp, Lucario ex (stage 1) is 260hp, and the video showed Magnezone (stage 2) is 330hp. This is clearly to stay in line with the V era, but keeping HP in scale with the effort required to get them in. Having evolving 2-prizers again is pretty hype, allows for way more variety. The bike duo also look like good support, acceleration and basic search on what I presume are basics.
 
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Well, so the normal arts are no longer full arts.

The term "full art" didn't even make any sense when GX and V Pokemon were already full art, but this feels like a regression.

That Mimikyu art looks boring AF. More CGI we've already seen in its GX and V, except now, even less art.

I know this is a player site more than a collector one, but not a great reveal. Just got to hope that rainbows are dead and alt arts takeover all the full arts. Every Pokemon deserves artistry not just same old CGI.
 
I really actually like the transparency effect outside of the art, it makes the "reaching out of the card" effect of EXs more effective imo
 
zeph said:
They're trying really hard to not show us the types or evolution stages on the box legendaries here
Click to expand...
Could be a red herring, but leaks about the video games suggest that the box legendaries are either evolutions or alternate ('temporal') forms of the weird Normal/Dragon thing we saw in the trailer today. That kind of thing could easily get represented in the TCG.

Not sure why they're avoiding revealing their typings, though.
 
Man, these cards are going to be interesting. Maybe they'll make Stage 2's (Or at least Stage 2 ex's) more playable. (Although many are already playable in the current meta)
 
Poor Koraidon and Miraidon, they sucked the typing out of their cards!

Glad to see a return to old ex cards. I'm hoping they give a boost to Stage 2 ex pokémon, since I otherwise think they will be too slow.
 
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