Most scans and translations now up!
Ancient Origins [8/15, aka Bandit Ring]
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
- Start date
Thanks for all the work you guys have done tonight!
Quick question: I can see the stop ancient trait being used as a shield to avoid things like damage coming from bats, for example, since sneaky and surprise bites are clearly effects of abilities on your opponent's pokémon. On the other hand, Rebellious Wave, Giratina's ability, has an effect over Giratina itself, and not over any mon attacking it. I mean, apparently if M Sceptile tries to attack it, the "damage prevention" part in the description of Giratina's ability refers to an effect over Giratina's card, not over Sceptile, right?
This sounds very similar to using a lysandre to try to bring a Primal Groudon to the active spot: you can even play and discard the supporter, but since PGroudon's trait negates the effects of trainers, the mon stays on the bench. So, am I mistaken to think that M Sceptile can attack Giratina-EX, but the damage is going to be prevented anyways?
PS: Another example that I just thought of: attacking a safeguard pokemon using Virizion would prevent the damage caused by the attack, but the extra effects of it (energy acceleration) would still work, since this extra effect is not applied to the safeguarder, but to a fellow benched mon. On the other hand, if the target of the energy coming from the deck through Virizion is a safeguarder, and it's ability is still valid, the energy could not be attached to it (because safeguard prevents ALL effects coming from EX's attacks).
Also, I can't believe I jokingly said some weeks ago that Giratina's ability could be "prevent any damage from Megas" =O haha
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So many beautiful artworks...I guess I'm collecting this set, too. Oh, my poor wallet. 
Surpised Rayquaza-EX, Kyogre-EX, Groudon-EX aren't included here? Still that's a LOT of Ex's, surely no other set has this many?
I forgot them, they're in there now.
Yeah I really like Vespiquen with Eevees after seeing the scans. Here's why I think the deck has some serious potential.
- Everything is searchable via Level Ball as they all have 90HP or less. While Ultra Ball seems better given that you put things in the discard pile, in the format without Lysandre's Trump Card and Exeggcute, you only want to discard what you have to as there's little way of actually getting them back. We'll still have Battle Compressor and Sycamore to discard Pokemon for Vespiquen, and with all of your types, you really don't need too many discards.
- As an attacker, Vespiquen is ideal as it runs on a single DCE. This is especially awesome with the Giant Plant Forest Stadium, meaning you can attack turn one. Flareon was a very fast deck, but it wasn't nearly as fast as Vespiquen could be. With Giant Plant Forest, we could be reaching Night March levels of speed here, which is critical given how frail Vespiquen is (as a consequence of being Level Ball searchable). Golurk variants will struggle here due to the much larger cost of energy Golurk requires.
- The flexibility. On her own, Vespiquen covers Seismitoad incredibly (though whether or not it'll remain a viable meta deck without Trump Card remains to be seen). As I brought up earlier, a Muscle Band and 5 discards (not unreasonable given Battle Compressor and Scyamore, although item lock is a thing) will OHKO Seismitoad after weakness. Jolteon will allow you to hit Mega Rayquaza for weakness, though the discard requirement is higher (I think it's 7, if my math is right). Flareon will hit the sure to be popular Mega Sceptile deck and Vaporeon, while by far the least necessary, can be used if any Fire decks come up to fight Mega Sceptile.
- Related to the Flexibility and Attacker points, Vespiquen's Double Colorless requirement means anything can be splashed in this deck. Any decks (Fairy and Manectric are the main ones) you need to cover but can't cover with Eevees, can be thrown in as tech cards. Any energy requirements they have can be accomodated, as your main attacker can use whatever energy the rest of the deck needs.
So yeah, I'm super curious about what can be done with this card. I think it's one of the most interesting in the set (alongside Vileplume and M Sceptile).
- Everything is searchable via Level Ball as they all have 90HP or less. While Ultra Ball seems better given that you put things in the discard pile, in the format without Lysandre's Trump Card and Exeggcute, you only want to discard what you have to as there's little way of actually getting them back. We'll still have Battle Compressor and Sycamore to discard Pokemon for Vespiquen, and with all of your types, you really don't need too many discards.
- As an attacker, Vespiquen is ideal as it runs on a single DCE. This is especially awesome with the Giant Plant Forest Stadium, meaning you can attack turn one. Flareon was a very fast deck, but it wasn't nearly as fast as Vespiquen could be. With Giant Plant Forest, we could be reaching Night March levels of speed here, which is critical given how frail Vespiquen is (as a consequence of being Level Ball searchable). Golurk variants will struggle here due to the much larger cost of energy Golurk requires.
- The flexibility. On her own, Vespiquen covers Seismitoad incredibly (though whether or not it'll remain a viable meta deck without Trump Card remains to be seen). As I brought up earlier, a Muscle Band and 5 discards (not unreasonable given Battle Compressor and Scyamore, although item lock is a thing) will OHKO Seismitoad after weakness. Jolteon will allow you to hit Mega Rayquaza for weakness, though the discard requirement is higher (I think it's 7, if my math is right). Flareon will hit the sure to be popular Mega Sceptile deck and Vaporeon, while by far the least necessary, can be used if any Fire decks come up to fight Mega Sceptile.
- Related to the Flexibility and Attacker points, Vespiquen's Double Colorless requirement means anything can be splashed in this deck. Any decks (Fairy and Manectric are the main ones) you need to cover but can't cover with Eevees, can be thrown in as tech cards. Any energy requirements they have can be accomodated, as your main attacker can use whatever energy the rest of the deck needs.
So yeah, I'm super curious about what can be done with this card. I think it's one of the most interesting in the set (alongside Vileplume and M Sceptile).
I believe your thought is correct. Giratina prevents the damage but you can still attack. And since M-Sceptile attack effect isn't directed at Giratina, it still works...
I'm not entirely sure of all this, tbh, but from my understanding of the rules, I think this is how it all resolves...
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Anyway, I don't remember the last time we had such a balanced set in terms of number of cards per type...
Fighting Wooper and Quagsire are not something you see everyday... The only time that happened before was in EX Unseen Forces.
Most of the AT cards are worse than their regular counterparts... Wth? Why make them anyway if they're not better? Just for the art? *shakes head*
Porygon Z and bats seems broken. bring all bats to the hand.
Vespiquen (The normal one. not the ancient trait one) is just as broken. 2 attacks which only cost Colourless and you get plasma Flareons attack.
Vespiquen will be a nice addition to Night march decks, since it's attack is based on the number of Pokemon in the discard pile, just like flareon.
Turn 1 GPF. Lots of battle compressor and a muscle band. Vespiquen is hitting for a butt load of damage.
Loving it.
Vespiquen (The normal one. not the ancient trait one) is just as broken. 2 attacks which only cost Colourless and you get plasma Flareons attack.
Vespiquen will be a nice addition to Night march decks, since it's attack is based on the number of Pokemon in the discard pile, just like flareon.
Turn 1 GPF. Lots of battle compressor and a muscle band. Vespiquen is hitting for a butt load of damage.
Loving it.
Volcarona translation added thanks to Michael S!
Yes! Beldum clay-ish art!
Continually adding scans. Ampharos and Kyurem FA's are now in the post.
Omg the Mega Tyranitar Ex FA looks like he ripped his shirt off and said "MY BODY IS READY!".
Disappointed. No Espeon or Umbreon? Come on. 3 Eeveelutions, 1 Eevee, and 1 of them holo ... same as Furious Fists. Sheesh.
Miss the days of Plasma Freeze - 2 Eevee, 7 Eeveelutions, 3 of them holo, and 2 of those the main Pokémon of a Theme Deck...
What are they going to do with Espeon and Umbreon then? 4 sets later (generally 1 set of 4 has Eeveelutions) we're going to see just Eevee and Espeon / Umbreon?
Some might say that the Umbreon came out as a Promo a while back (as a promo too), but me being in Hong Kong doesn't help things - very little promotional cards from either Japan or US. i.e. no Sylveon Trainer Kit, Umbreon upcoming promo, etc, etc...
Artwork is fine. Eevee looks nicest, though. I usually prefer the semi-DP style, realistic-with-colorful-background type of card.
Now I have crisis as to if I should buy the packs to get those few Eeveelutions or wait a few months (until August when school starts) for my friends to trade them. Long summer holiday...
Miss the days of Plasma Freeze - 2 Eevee, 7 Eeveelutions, 3 of them holo, and 2 of those the main Pokémon of a Theme Deck...
What are they going to do with Espeon and Umbreon then? 4 sets later (generally 1 set of 4 has Eeveelutions) we're going to see just Eevee and Espeon / Umbreon?
Some might say that the Umbreon came out as a Promo a while back (as a promo too), but me being in Hong Kong doesn't help things - very little promotional cards from either Japan or US. i.e. no Sylveon Trainer Kit, Umbreon upcoming promo, etc, etc...
Artwork is fine. Eevee looks nicest, though. I usually prefer the semi-DP style, realistic-with-colorful-background type of card.
Now I have crisis as to if I should buy the packs to get those few Eeveelutions or wait a few months (until August when school starts) for my friends to trade them. Long summer holiday...
Sunbath Volcarona PGood set up
Not necessarily. Using Eevee from FF, you could attack turn one as well with Flareon and a DCE. Plus Flareon has 10 more HP, and you don't need a Ball to pull it because of Eevee's Ability; and Flareon has an attack using one [F] more that has raw power in case you can't get the Pokémon in the discard pile. Only drawback is the retreat cost of Flareon ([C][C]). But given the support of the Bandit Ring Flareon (ability), you could actually run a combo of Vespiquen / Flareon instead!