Ancient Origins [8/15, aka Bandit Ring]

GadgetJax said:
Already compiled a list of the XY-onwards options...

"I might as well take this time to cover all of the Abilities in XY-onwards that can't get through Theta Stop. Ones listed in * represent ones that are especially more common. I would like to note that the Ability seems to only stop effects done to the Pokemon WITH the trait, so damage reduction Abilities like Furfrou XY and Aurorus FUF would still reduce. Let me know if I missed one.
-
Chesnaught XY
Greninja XY
Swellow XY
Qwilfish FLF
Forretress FLF *
Dragalge FLF *
Victreebel FUF
Hawlucha-EX FUF
Pyroar PHF
Golbat / Crobat PHF *
Chandelure PHF
Malamar-EX PHF *
Ludicolo PRC
Crawdaunt PRC *
Bouffalant PRC
Team Aqua's Muk DCR
Absol RSK * "
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That's not what I meant but anyway... I mean what threats would there be if there was no Theta Stop out of the abilities that are stopped by it.
 
This might seem unrelated but I just got an email from an online trading card store, (one that sells pokemon, magic, yu-gi-oh etc...) with pictures of the different card games. For Pokemon they had pictures of a Sceptile EX metal tin. A Blaziken EX metal tin and a Swampert EX metal tin. The email mentions these as being called "Hoenn Power tins". These have the same average cost as the normal metal tins you can buy, and a release date for mid June.
I hope I don't get in trouble for saying all this as I'm not sure if it is old news or new news. If you wanted the actual price and release date I can by all means mention it, or provide a link or some kind of copy and paste link thing, to this said email. But I don't know if Pokebeach has any rules for advertising things people have seen, which are not on the site. Or rather I should forward this on to an actual admin or so on.

However, the artwork on the Sceptile EX card inside its respective tin, is the same as the one revealed on Pokebeach earlier today.
Edit. I'm an idiot. I didn't check the other news from today: http://www.pokebeach.com/2015/05/sceptile-ex-promo-leaked-early
and the Blaziken and Swampert where revealed back in April.
 
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bbninjas said:
That's not what I meant but anyway... I mean what threats would there be if there was no Theta Stop out of the abilities that are stopped by it.
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M-Sceptile EX blocks all ability induced bench damage with Theta-Stop. So M-Gallade EX becomes much more difficult to use against him since he blocks all of the sneaky bites of Golbats and Crobats and the damage spread from Forretress. M-Sceptile EX cannot be trapped in the active by Dragalge or poisoned/confused by Victreebel so mirror match scenarios could be interesting to see play out. It can't be put to sleep by Malamar EX or have its energy denied by Crawdaunt.

None of those cards are specific counters to M-Sceptile EX as ability stoppers could be to theta-stop Pokemon but those are some really nice perks of this ancient trait.
 
Primal Clash Ninetales can shutdown this Stadium before your opponent has a chance to use it to evolve their Oddish into Vileplume as it's already the go to counter for it in Seismitoad currently since it doesn't need to be Active in order to use it's Ability.
 
I hope Flareon will offer up the same ability as Jolteon because that would open up a lot of grass counter chances and make this a bit less one-sided.
 
Athena said:
Wasn't that expected anyway? That's how the shinies were done in BW and even CoL, and there's even more recent precedent with the Shiny Rayquaza EX promotion. Not to say that I wouldn't have welcomed shinies as brand new cards, but I think reprints is what most people assumed anyway.
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if you see in the video at the end you see mega rayquza shiny or regular shiny rayquaza ex on the posters if you can see
 
GadgetJax said:
I take neither side in this situation. On one hand, I agree that the whole idea of using an Evolution is to take your time in order to reach a huge powerhouse, but on the other hand, Evolution Acceleration has been in almost every era (I don't think there were any options from the E Series), so I see no design flaw in a card like Giant Plant Forest when we've had Broken Time-Space in the past, where Stage 2 decks were already better than most Basic decks - aside from Pokemon SP engines, anyway.
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You start with the premise that just because it has existed in a prior format, it is balanced. My own experience with the games contradicts this. While Evolution acceleration has indeed been present, I have reason to believe it has never been properly balanced. The short version is that it seems to result in Stage 2 Pokémon that have to be weakened ahead of time so that the acceleration doesn't break them, or it simply fails to be adequate (in part because in trying to avoid broken cards, the-powers-that-be tone down the Evolutions they know can tap the acceleration). Universal Evolution acceleration like Rare Candy, which allows you to skip a Stage, I suspect is why the designers and players are so accepting of Stage 1 filler. The faster you make the pace of the game, the more difficult it is to balance. If the game is unbalanced right now, making it faster will make it harder to fix. If it is balanced right now... why change anything?

thegrovylekid said:
My faith in Pokémon's ability to make good fair cards is restored.
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The problem isn't with them making "good" cards, it is with them making "balanced, good cards". They are quite able to go all "MOAH POWAH!" on us and have been doing so with alarming regularity for several years now. ^^'
 
I like the Ariados card and if the traslation holds true I can see this card seeing a lot of play. Both active pokemon are posioned except for grass pokemon.

I can see seismitoad EX/ Keledo EX/ Shaymin EX/ Ariados deck in the works. The Ariados card if it can be used at anypoint during the turn and not just when it evolves or something will completely replace hypnotoxic lasers in this deck.
 
Ironman131 said:
I like the Ariados card and if the traslation holds true I can see this card seeing a lot of play. Both active pokemon are posioned except for grass pokemon.

I can see seismitoad EX/ Keledo EX/ Shaymin EX/ Ariados deck in the works. The Ariados card if it can be used at anypoint during the turn and not just when it evolves or something will completely replace hypnotoxic lasers in this deck.
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That may be true, but when hypnotoxic laser and virbank city gym gets rotated out....

Anyway we'll have to look at the remainder of this set. Seems like there's a lot of love for grass pokemon, and more to come as the set gets revealed.
 
Oh I was waiting to see what one of my favorite bug type Pokemon had since I saw it had an ability from the commercial.

Artwork: Hajime Kusajima has done very solid art for a long time with the TCG. Hajime's hayday was back in the EX sets but he gets a few cards here and there in current sets and I have no major problems with the art style. His work on Sceptile (PRC) is significantly better than any Sceptile EX I've seen so far but that isn't saying much. I like this art, the perspective is a bit wonky but I imagine if you were to draw a giant spider wanting to eat your face you would be in a big hurry to sketch before you get dead. 8/10

Card text: So more Grass type support in the form of passive damage inbetween turns. I don't like that in a mirror match scenario this card is completely worthless and with Virbank City Gym rotating out his damage potential takes a huge drop. Being a stage 1 makes him quick to get into play to start poisoning everyone but can make decks like M-Sceptile EX a bit clunky and Ariados definitely isn't going to be a target for Jagged Saber any time soon. 5/10

Overall: 6/10 I like it, but I'm not expecting much to be seen from Ariados in the coming format. I could be wonderfully surprised however.
 
This could defenitely be good with the Basic Sceptile-EX, but if you're going to run Mega Sceptile-EX and Giant Plant Forest anyway, I think Victreebel is a bit better. It Confuses in addition to Poison, has more HP, an attack that does better damage, and can Poison Grass Types that oppose you. I think this could MAYBE be used in Seismitoad-EX/Hammers decks if they survive in the XY-on format, but the self-Poison is going to be hard to deal with since Keldeo-EX and Float Stone will be out of sight by next rotation.
 
Really late on a way to trigger Heatran EX's attack :rolleyes: (that will actually see a global release)
 
I really want to try Sceptile/Lugia/Vileplume now. Sceptile will accelerate Lugia and keep it healthy in the inevitable Lugia wars, while Vileplume provides the wonderful utility of item lock. Probably throw in a few Shaymin as draw support and it looks pretty good.
 
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