'Battle Style' is March's Set, Introduces New Single Strike and Rapid Strike Cards!

JustInBasil said:
I love that Houndoom, but I have to chuckle at the set's symbol. It's like someone took Darkness Ablaze's set symbol and slapped a line on the bottom.
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Funnily enough, the first thing that I thought of upon seeing the set symbol was that it was somewhat similar to Neo Revelation's. But I can see what you mean by how someone drew a line under Darkness Ablaze's.

The Fish said:
Also, just realised that Mustard can cheat the rather useful stage 1s and 2s into play.
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Much like the Archie and Maxie cards from Primal Clash. TPCi basically reskinned those two cards.
 
The Fish said:
Yep. I also love how he's just flying in the Rapid Strike poster (Kecleon hype woooooo). I wonder if they'll make a VMAX of the penguin boyo. Then again, the booster pack art doesn't have any red auras around it.


Also, just realised that Mustard can cheat the rather useful stage 1s and 2s into play.
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TBF Charizard and Centiskorch Darkness Ablaze pack art VMAX's didn't have the red aura either but Grimmsnarl did. (Cinderace didn't have any red clouds either).

Tyranitar and Empoleon seem ripe for VMAX though, they both tie into the dual special energies, neither are very good V's.

I guess it'd free up more chance of Zeraora VMAX if they don't get it.

I wonder if Blastoise VMAX and Venusaur VMAX will get folded into this set.
 
I swear to Christ, if they actually make Single/Rapid Strike Charizards, I will LEAVE the TCG. I have HAD IT with TPCI shoving Zards and scalpers down our throats...
 
rofl they hyped us up for this? It's not even a new mechanic. They just made two Ultra Beast-style tags and made them look like a set logo. Doesn't give me hopes that V-Union will be anything but Tag Teams by a different name.

The more interesting thing, though, is this "Pokémon with a Rule Box". It's good they finally found a way to lump EXes in with GXes and Vs where they belong, but I can't help but think they *really* didn't think this through all the way. This also targets Prism Stars and BREAKs, along with LEGENDs and Pokémon LV.X for those 4 people that play Unlimited. Prism Stars probably are good enough to be able to take it, but as soon as they start making cards that nerf "Pokémon with a Rule Box", BREAKs get punished even harder, and they're already struggling to stay relevant in expanded.
 
Neat mechanic, I guess... since they're still willing to give Pokemon tags, I hope this means we can see the return of Ultra Beasts soon.

Also... that Houndoom is weak to Grass??? lmao
 
Well, this feels reminiscent of the Team Magma cards, with Archie's Ace in the Hole and Maxie's Hidden Ball Trick being like the stances and the Special Energy is somewhat similar as well. They even have tools you can stick on the corresponding type Pokemon! I'm more scared for V-Union now though, imagine merging a Single Strike and Rapid Strike so that you can put the Single Strike Energy to get a buff for Gale Thrust... that'll be craziness. Empoleon could've been really good if only it could turn off all Basic Abilities. Well, I guess we'll just have to turn to Acension Koffing and Galarian Weezing for our Ability lock.
 
Getting major Primal Clash vibes from the pack artwork. I love it! The cards themselves... they're fine. It's neat that there's a lot of support for the new types of cards, but it doesn't do much for my interest in the TCG. But that's just me!

It is good that we finally have wording that targets V's, GX's, EX's, etc., now that we've had some casualties along the way. But as @CardPone mentioned, now there are even more casualties being targeted along with that wording. Funny enough, BREAK's don't get affected by this Empoleon's Ability, but they will be affected by future cards with this Rule phrase.

And my goodness, that Korrina artwork... In any other case, the focus of this kind of product is the artwork of the character and the Pokemon. And while that's done very well in this case... that background is stunning!
 
I have to say, I am excited about this.
Pokemon is really hitting it out of the ball park recently.
The past 3 sets I've been excited about.
First shedinja, then yveltal, then this.
 
Empoleon V exists, my favorite Pokémon of all time got a V. Nothing else matters. This is the best possible outcome. I can’t believe it!! First they did a bunch of stuff for (albeit Galarian) Darmanitan, now this?! Man... This is crazy.
 
Shinxed3 said:
Neat mechanic, I guess... since they're still willing to give Pokemon tags, I hope this means we can see the return of Ultra Beasts soon.

Also... that Houndoom is weak to Grass??? lmao
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This is because TCG Dark Pokemon who are originally Dark in the video games are weak to Bug, which is lumped in with Grass in the TCG. Still, Houndoom should have been weak to Fighting like before, as in the video games, it's weak to all of Fighting, Rock, and Ground.
 
JustInBasil said:
I love that Houndoom, but I have to chuckle at the set's symbol. It's like someone took Darkness Ablaze's set symbol and slapped a line on the bottom.
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Oh! I'd go even further back! Reminds me of Neo Revelations symbol just stretched.
 
Can't believe there are people actually underwhelmed by this, are you kidding me? This is awesome! About damn time we get this type of mechanic back, these are always fun. The only slightly underwhelming part is them not having different borders and such to differentiate them from regular cards, the stamp feels a bit lazy, I'll give you that...
 
The sooner we move away from the "gust 2 Dedenne-GX/Crobat-V to win" format, the better it will be for the game. The Empoleon V card doesn't really re-assure me tho. The fact that they went out of their way to put such an easy lock for non-rule basics tells me they want to push V pokémon as the face of the format - there are so many not-so-fast decks that rely on Oranguru, both versions of Jirachi and techs like Giratina to be able to gain some sort of consistency and try to slow down the game.

The best way to adress this would be to go back and allow V cards to evolve from stage 1 and basic Pokémon, but they're really entrenched into their basic paradigma it makes actually building a deck based around evolution Pokémon an effort in fruitlessness.
 
Is...is that really an umbrella term for 2-3 prizers? Wow, never thought they'd actually think about implementing that, considering how long the game has been going on without it. A little bit late for me though, but this might actually improve the game in the coming years for those who are still playing.

Single and Rapid strike are just another tag like team plasma, ultra beast, etc. but there seem to be a lot of different interactions at least. (Although the fact that both get a Maxie/Archie supporter kind of contradicts that - one of them should have had a different effect.)

Not a fan of Billowing Fan though - I hated Special Hammer because it was too easy to use, and even though Billowing Fan is not as strong, it's still easy to use special energy hate. Having the special energy removal effect on a pokemon that only triggers when you bench it (Giratina) is much more balanced imo.
 
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FINALLY they implemented an umbrella term for EX, GX, V, etc! I'm so happy.
Having said that, does this new term "Rule Box Pokémon" include 1 prizers like Break and Prism Star cards? They also have rules boxes.
This is the first SwSh set I'm honestly excited about!
 
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