Note that this post is exactly the same as my Pokegym post. It was copied because it summed up my thoughts of the set as a whole, and rewording would still have the same idea anyway.
Hmm, this is looking like a very interesting set. Time to look at what I think are the cards that stand out.
Milotic- 110HP and an average lightning weakness, typical for a stage 1 water type. The first attack is what makes this thing interesting. For a single water, you can grab 3 cards of any kind from your deck. Now that's pretty cool! Only problem? Being a stage 1, it isn't so effective as a starter, and by the time it comes out, it will likely be KOd. Yep, not that good of a starter.
Manectric- Energy Crush is one very interesting attack. For one lightning, it does 20 times the number of energy attached to all of your opponent's Pokemon. In a format dominated with high energy attackers, this card can be very useful against Mewtwo/Eelectrik decks. Against these kinds of decks, you can be hitting for huge damage for a single energy. For one lightning and a DCE, you also have a Flash Impact that hits for 80 and 20 to one of your bench. HP is the big setback though; 90 is pretty low for a stage 1, making it easy to KO. Regardless, this Manectric is one very interesting attacker, and I'm curious to see what kind of impact it will have on the metagame.
Emolga- As a BW-on format approaches, the days are numbered for Pokemon Collector; it'll be rotated soon. With that, there will be no mass basic Pokemon search card in the future. Emolga, however, may be one of the few answers to this problem. A single colorless can let you grab 2 basic Pokemon from your deck onto your bench. In that kind of format, it will be a pretty good starter. With a free retreat and good HP to avoid most donks, Emolga may be pretty good, but we shall see what kind of impact it will truly have.
Tool Scrapper- A semi-Windstorm reprint? Yes Please! Sure it may not remove stadiums, but tools are big in this metagame (*cough* Eviolite *cough*). With a metagame thriving with tools, this will be pretty good to use.
Large Cloak- This is the Eviolite for Evolutions. It increases the HP of a Pokemon by 20 when attached. You could attach it to a basic too, but Eviolite is better for basics. With no Eviolite for evolutions as of now, however, Large Cloak can finally give some boost to evolutions when it comes to surviving more.
Ninetales- Bright Look is back baby! Sure you need to evolve in order to use it, but look at this; you don't have to have it active in order to use it, and more importantly, it can easily be reused with Devolution Spray (explained a little bit later, scroll down), making this card pretty effective. Pokemon Catcher, however, dominates over this card sadly because it is a trainer, and it doesn't take that much deck space. Ninetales won't see a large amount of play, but at least it has a neat ability that can actually work wonders.
Ampharos- The ability is fantastic. Placing 3 damage counters on an opponent's Pokemon that just receives energy can be very intimidating. With an attack that hits for 70 for a lightning and a DCE, it is a decent attacker; yet, 70 isn't a hard amount of damage. What kind of impact will this card have? Only time will tell.
Mew EX- The only real good Pokemon EX in this set IMO, and perhaps one of the best yet. It's literally a Mew EX reprint with higher HP. It can now even use the attack of any Pokemon in play. Oh my, that is one versatile attacker. For a single energy, it can even switch around your energies in any way you like. The HP is the only problem that bugs me. 120 is pretty low, and that 2-prize rule further sets this concept back. It is because of that I'm not sure about its impact; yet, I still have a good feeling it will be played a lot.
Drifblim- For a single colorless, you can do 50 times the number of special energies in your opponent's discard. Wow, interesting. With special energies playing a bigger and bigger role in the game, as well as no way to really recover them, this can be a fantastic late-game attacker, especially against Mewtwo because of its {P} weakness and the fact it abuses DCE.
Sigilyph- Yep, here's your anti-Mewtwo card right here. Safeguard returns; it can't be damaged by EXs. It even has an attack, for a psychic and a DCE, that does 50 and an additional 10 for each energy card attached to the defending Pokemon. Yep, that is one good Mewtwo counter, being able to 2-shot it at the most. Now if only if it said it can add another 10 for each energy instead of specifying energy card would this card be incredibly awesome.
Devolution Spray- And now we get to the big card in this set. This card allows you to devolve one of your Pokemon. Now what use does it have? Well, you know Pokemon that have powers and abilities that can only be used when a Pokemon evolves right? Well, that's where it comes to use. Take a Pokemon like Roserade (Theme deck version, scroll down), play it, use the ability, devolve with the trainer, play it on another Roselia, use the ability, and possible repeat the process several more times. This makes Devolution Spray very useful this way, and so I wouldn't be surprised if this card sees a lot of play.
Rescue Scarf- Well, looks like Rescue Energy lives BW-on... in a form of a tool. It might not have the recovery BW-on needed to use it multiple times, but at least we'll still have some nice recovery.
Blend Energy (Both versions)- One provides a rainbow energy limited to a single {W}{L}{F}{M} of your choice, the other provides a rainbow energy limited to a single {R}{G}{P}{D} of your choice. Not a bad card at all. There is no need to place damage when attached, and it can work pretty well with dragon type Pokemon, considering that they need different types of energies for their attacks. Expect these energies to see quite a large amount of play when released.
Roserade (Theme deck)- Drop it and grab any card of your choice. With Devolution Spray, this card can do literal wonders, possibly allowing you to search out 2 cards a turn. With that in mind, this can potentially become the new Pidgeot of next year's format. Catcher might be a problem though, considering it could KO other Roselias and possibly Roserade itself from being able to pull off such a neat combo a turn, so yet again I will wait in silence to see the impact this card will have.
As for my opinions on the set as a whole, the dragons in this set are pretty disappointing. There aren't a lot of them despite the sets' name, and many are mostly mediocre (Garchomp main set, Giratina EX, and Altaria). Oh well, let's just hope the next set will offer some better dragon Pokemon (and hopefully create a Dragon energy and Dragon energy costs too)
Whatever happened to the supporters and stadiums in the set too? Only 4 trainers? This stinks. At this rate, the new coming format will really lack many good supporters and stadiums. Supporter wise, only Juniper, Cheren, N will be the only good supporters around, and then we might have Bianca and Cilan rise up for some added support. Stadium wise, only Skyarrow Brigde will be the effective stadium. Again, I hope the next set offers a lot of supporters and stadiums. I would find it boring to see this format getting a little bit to lenient on trainers.
And yet again, no Gallade. Yep, they forgot to make a Gallade. What a shame. I don't even see it appearing in our next set; I'm calling it now. I guess this just means Gallade will probably appear in the TCG again some point in the undetermined future.
Otherwise, this set is pretty interesting. There are a lot of cards that certainly can make some sort of impact on the metagame later on. They even made evolutions a bit more viable in this set too, both as attackers and supporters. Keep in mind that by the time this set comes out in August, the rotation will already be underway, so it is time to look at this set from a BW-on perspective (which is what I was doing in this entire post). All I will do now is simply just wait in silence to see what impact will the cards truly make, like will Roserade truly be the new Claydol/Pidgeot of the coming format?
