Hop’s Zacian ex, Mamoswine ex, and More from “Battle Partners” Revealed!

ViridiVioletear said:
Zacian really isn’t going to be that threatening imo. Times are different than when we had Zacian V, and this lad while strong is definitely not THE strongest you can do with that much metal acc. I mean, he looks bland in comparison to your casual Chien-Pao.

Mamoswine is most probably WAY too slow (and deckbuilding restricted), but it’s cool. Sadly I just don’t see it working.

Dubwool is fire, I like broken supporter effects on S1s. It feels good for the game, reminds me of SM design philosophy.

Brock is no Roseanne’s Research, but I like it anyways. Probably too weak for play (Arven grabbing Trolley is just stronger), but a cool design anyways.

Why is Meowscarada the weakest of S1 starters? ;_; Why doesn’t it synergize with her ex version? Just why? ;.;
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Keep in mind that Hop can boost the damage of his guys by 90 using his stadium, tool, and a benched Snorlax. So it’s actually 330 for 3 metal. But that’s hard to reach to begin with, let alone ignoring all the damage ramp support you need on the board. You could probably make it work with Archaludon though, will probably be testing it myself
 
I'm a little disappointed in the selection of trainers, why does Iono have ALL the electric types (i know why, that was rhetorical), but also...couldn't any of those normal type cards have gone to Lenora or Cheren? Hop is cool but...blech 😑
 
Grim Thoughts said:
As sad as it is to say, Mamoswine will likely never see competitive play unless they, A. Print some actually good energy acceleration for Fighting energy beyond Koraidon ex (and Neo Upper in Mamo’s case) because the type has no support, and B. Print a Stage 2 Pokemon with an ability like “If you put this Pokemon from your deck into your hand using an Ability, you may put this onto your Bench from your hand”, or maybe a Ditto Prism Star-like card that actually lets you evolve with Rare Candy (please bring Ditto Prism Star back!). It’s sad that deck space issues and energy problems hold back this card so much, but I’m sure it will be a fun casual deck. Maybe with Blaziken ex, Pidgeot ex, and Quaquaval it would be a hilarious bricky mess
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We have a Garganacl from Paradox Riftthat accelerates basic F energy. Theoretically you can run Mamoswine, Garganacl, and Pidgeot with Grand Tree as Ace Spec and a mix of Colress Tenacity + TM Evo/Arven to help build up the board and make the deck less reliant on Candies, but I agree that it's still a super bricky mess. However once you've set up one Mamoswine or Pidgeot I think the deck could run. I will have to playtest some ratios.
 
The text of Exchange Ticket doesn’t specify that you have to shuffle the top cards of your deck that you put down as your prize cards right? If so, that means you can treat it like you used Town Map if you use one of those Trainer cards that looks at the top whatever cards of your deck before using Exchange Ticket. Very nice card.

Also who knew the Iono package’s main attacker was gonna be a Voltorb. That Dubwool is busted too. Imagine that in Terapagos.
 
Grim Thoughts said:
Keep in mind that Hop can boost the damage of his guys by 90 using his stadium, tool, and a benched Snorlax. So it’s actually 330 for 3 metal. But that’s hard to reach to begin with, let alone ignoring all the damage ramp support you need on the board. You could probably make it work with Archaludon though, will probably be testing it myself
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I’m aware it can, at the same time we’re looking at 4 card synergy/combo + Archaludon AND placing energy in the discard… i just feel that these are too many hurdles to go through. I would be a fan of just spamming the first attack for 90+30, but the format is likely to just have more powerful options. I just feel that with the amount of work that has to be done to make Zacian a true beast, we’d need too much prep and linearity. Maybe I’m wrong, but unless you have a Secret Box in hand, finding toys for Zacian would already be incredibly tough. Even if we make it work, it’s still a 230HP body that just gets smacked by almost anything.
Cool card though, if it’s good then it will be because of the first attack. I don’t understand why TPCI didn’t increase these default damage ranges to 40+40 with power creep.
 
Alex Hesketh said:
Omg it’s been so many centuries finally another Sprigatito line cards that Floragato absolutely ridiculous good art. And hey it’s nice to see Mamoswines first UR. I personally don’t mind there’s non trainer pokemon here and I wasn’t expecting it to be full trainer set either
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kinda hard to believe it took this long for Mamoswine to get anything. Lv.X, Prime, EX, GX, V, etc. Better late than never I guess...
 
It's good to know that not all of the Pokémon will have a Trainer in its name. They've definitely got the balance right this time.
 
Why do we need a balance of trainer and non-Trainer Pokemon in a set promoted as the return of Trainer Pokemon? Entire set seems like a bait and switch tbh. That's not even touching on the fact there's only an assortment of four random Trainers who have nothing to do with each other.
 
MagnaDrake said:
Oh wait that Mamoswine looks decent. Master Ball each turn and doesnt have a hard OPT limit. Could a stage 2 box deck work with this?
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Swelling Flash Luxray and Emergency Rotation Klinklang both can be played out of hand on certain conditions. Put a couple of those in to boost damage and you could get to 260 or 300 quickly.
 
Grim Thoughts said:
Keep in mind that Hop can boost the damage of his guys by 90 using his stadium, tool, and a benched Snorlax. So it’s actually 330 for 3 metal. But that’s hard to reach to begin with, let alone ignoring all the damage ramp support you need on the board. You could probably make it work with Archaludon though, will probably be testing it myself
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Snorlax is easy to find and likely to stay on the board once out. It's a low value KO with relatively high hp for a single prize basic (out of range of even trifrost and obsidian). Unless more tool hate is printed to replace vacuum, the choice band is likely to last until Zacian is knocked out, and can be found with Arven. The stadium is the most fragile and hard to find piece, but even without it, 300 is still a really good number to hit.

The Snorlax is also a relatively threatening attacker in its own right: Snorlax with the band hits 210 200 for double colorless.

Hop's Zacian also happens to be a pretty good budew swatter.

edit: number hard
 
We don't know yet but to me it feels like they would have revealed any potential Brock's Pokemon along with his Trainer card.
 
jdubs4lief said:
To all the people who said Bellibolt didn't have anything to attach and attack with, enter Voltorb. Also assuming all of the damage modifiers are in place, Hop's Zacian deals 420 damage on 3 metal energy. Not easily doable but you can slim down on 2 Lax or the stadium. Exchange Ticket might be an interesting way of snagging prizes. If you're at 3 prizes, Ciphermaniac and Academy at Night are enough to put 3 dead cards in the prizes and have your entire deck full of useful cards. Mamoswine is a unique little guy, but I see getting enough Stage 2s on board with TM Evolution and Rare Candy being doable, but not reasonable. Meowscarada's bad, next topic. Honestly Borck is so bad, if I wanted double basic snagging I'd play Buddy Buddy Poffin, and if I wanted evolution snagging I'd play Jacq. Banished to the GLC mines with you.
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How did you reach the 420 damage from zacian?
 
gigano34 said:
The text of Exchange Ticket doesn’t specify that you have to shuffle the top cards of your deck that you put down as your prize cards right? If so, that means you can treat it like you used Town Map if you use one of those Trainer cards that looks at the top whatever cards of your deck before using Exchange Ticket. Very nice card.

Also who knew the Iono package’s main attacker was gonna be a Voltorb. That Dubwool is busted too. Imagine that in Terapagos.
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If it doesn't specify shuffling both ends, and if the English release keeps the original wording, then that means Ciphermaniac's codebreaking can take advantage of such no shuffle of top 6 deck to prizes if your opponent's active is due for a ko after your turn's attack by the top 2 being known on user end after effect of codebreaking. That could give you what you need come the 4 prize mark...

Also, TEF Metang will be a popular addition to the hop's zacian deck if his 2nd attack can 1HKO 330 hp exes, and as for pokemon like torterra ex, you could also include brute bonnet + capsule to take care of the last 10 hp, at the cost of poisoning hop's zacian ex. But if metang and brute bonnet are included, does that wipe out the need for the hop's choice band, as you could use binding mochi instead in that scenario, as metang can accelerate metal enough so that the "1 less C required" on the former tool can be filled by an easy 4th metal energy from metang's ability?

Charizard fan said:
How did you reach the 420 damage from zacian?
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I wonder if he included the SVI Dark kingambit that ups basic damage by 30 for each one on user's side of board. But is setting up more than 2 stage 2s at one time harder and more turn-consuming w/o more than 1 accessible board area to evolve from(board area examples: hand, deck, discard pile, abilities)?
 
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I wish that Meowscarada could work as a Cornerstone counter ;w;

Mamoswine looks like it might be a fun deck to try! It's ability could help deal with the issue stage 2s have with getting up, but it also makes me hope we get a proper counter to Pidgeot EX because I can see it getting a bit broken and annoyiing to deal with. Just Mamo for a stage 2 + Pidgeot for a rare candy and you're golden. Right now we have Gastrodon which won't work if either is in the active and Iron Thorns which is weak to Mamo.

I also love Hop's gimmick of buffing his otherwise weaker Pokemon! Plus that Cram art is so adorable. I liked him as a character and I'm happy he's in this set, and he uses a gimmick I've loved doing in other card games but haven't quite seen a way to work in Pokemon TCG.

Exchange Ticket I could see helping with a few decks that are Ace Spec reliant or would prefer to run 1-1 evolution lines and need a backup option in case any of their needed cards are in the prizes.

So far this set has me going "oh I want to try that as a deck!!" a lot more than most other sets haha
 
Hop's cards are mega based as it should be. Haters stay mad forever and get a Behemoth Blade to the face, Hop is one of the only good things to come out of gen 8 and I'm glad they are putting some much due respect on his name with this set.
 
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Bishlarp said:
I'm a little disappointed in the selection of trainers, why does Iono have ALL the electric types (i know why, that was rhetorical), but also...couldn't any of those normal type cards have gone to Lenora or Cheren? Hop is cool but...blech 😑
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Always amazed when people make comments without understanding set makeup.

Sure, you can complain, but there would have never been random one-offs just sprinkled in for no reason.
 
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