Team Rocket’s Ampharos Line Revealed, References EX Team Rocket Returns!

By: Water Pokémon Master · Posted Posted onMar 25, 2025 at 5:37 AM · 30 Comments

The daily reveals for The Glory of Team Rocket have commenced — Team Rocket’s Mareep, Flaaffy, and Ampharos have been revealed featuring Ariana! The set will release in Japan on April 18th and become part of May’s Destined Rivals.

Team Rocket’s Mareep – Lightning – HP60
Basic Pokemon

[C] Provision: Search your deck for an Item card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

[L] Petibolt: 10 damage.

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

Team Rocket’s Flaaffy – Lightning – HP90
Stage 1 – Evolves from Team Rocket’s Mareep

[L][C] Thunder Shock: 50 damage. Flip a coin. If heads, your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Paralyzed.

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

Team Rocket’s Ampharos – Lightning – HP140
Stage 2 – Evolves from Team Rocket’s Flaaffy

Ability: Darkest Impulse
When your opponent plays a Pokémon from their hand to evolve 1 of their Pokémon during their turn, put 4 damage counters on that Pokémon. The effect of Darkest Impulse doesn’t stack.

[L][C][C] Head Bolt: 140 damage.

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

Team Rocket’s Ampharos is a direct callback to Dark Ampharos from 2004’s EX Team Rocket Returns:

View thread (30 replies)
So Mewtwo ex gets more dangerous. I suspect that the seemingly mid amount of damage it does (although 280 is actually heaps considering it’s HP and that it is basic) will in time be shown to be a devastating attack. In this current example Dragapult can be one shotted by Mewtwo ex with Ampharos in play.
 
Genuinely very cool callback, but this card is extremely garbage. Setting up a stage 2 to punish evolution with only 4 damage counters makes no sense. Just use Gravity Mountain, with Hawlucha if you really need 4 damage counters, not this clunky stage 2 line with an effect you can’t control. It’s even countered by effects like TM Evolution and Grand Tree. It’s hardly better than the 2 decade old card it’s referencing, despite the immense amount of power creep that has taken place since.
 
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Wish they could've made it put on more damage counters if the Pokemon evolves into an ex or something. It's cool and I love the reference, but I doubt this will see play.
koala cub said:
in EX Team Rocket Returns, a single-prize ampharos was 120 HP. twenty years later, a single-prize ampharos is only 140 HP.
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The difference in power creep between 1-prize and 2-prize Pokemon is utterly staggering!
 
Grim Thoughts said:
Genuinely very cool callback, but this card is extremely garbage. Setting up a stage 2 to punish evolution with only 4 damage counters makes no sense. Just use Gravity Mountain, with Hawlucha if you really need 4 damage counters, not this clunky stage 2 line with an effect you can’t control. It’s even countered by effects like TM Evolution and Grand Tree. It’s hardly better than the 2 decade old card it’s referencing, despite the immense amount of power creep that has taken place since.
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You're discounting that this ability can pair with TM Devo, so you absolutely can control it to a degree. Is this a card that will be great by itself? I don't think so, but I can certainly see it be useful with other things. Devo, Uxie, Rocket Ttar...
 
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