Japan's XY9 Set: 'Rage of the Broken Sky,' New 'Battle Strengthening Sets'

Well, they must really want to get rid of things that hog Special Energy like Toad and Giratina to have printed this.
 
*facepalm*

why not let you discard it from any pokemon

or if you discard a special energy this attack does 60 more or 120 more
 
people are complaining about this, but it's a pretty good card, it destroys vespiquen, seismitoad, and can keep up with giratina, and on top of all that, metal was pretty good already. I might get a couple and playtest with them just to see how good they are
 
Yes! finally a playable mega card! my most of the recent ones have only been slightly good but not worth putting into a deck. I also like that scizor, being one of my favorite Pokemon was the one to be a good mega card.
 
I personally like how the artists are venturing into incorporating the words with the actual card artwork, which is nice to see.
 
I Could See scizor as being playable maybe with a volcorona Combo (Fire Rebirth) maybe like Scizor Volcorona and Metal Links Bronzong with Sheild Energy And Assault Vest. this thing could Definitly Live Against Decks like Vespiqueen and Seismetoad.
 
hmm... I think it'd a decent card. Sure, it's not going to OHKO a lot of things but a solid 120 for only 2 [M], is good with the option to choose between 2 effects. Give it Shield Energy, the new Stadium, and what other things there are to reduce or heal damage (like pairing it with Bronzong and Max Potion) to endure attacks...
 
people are complaining about this, but it's a pretty good card, it destroys vespiquen, seismitoad, and can keep up with giratina, and on top of all that, metal was pretty good already. I might get a couple and playtest with them just to see how good they are

It doesn't really destroy Vespiquen. You're OHKOing them anyway but they've got Flareon to get easy kills on the Scizor. Plus they'll be more consistent than the Scizor. Giratina v Scizor is a bad comparison because Scizor can't even touch the Giratina.
 
Last edited:
It's a solid 2HKOer for a good price. It just seems like there are stronger options at this point. Maybe we get some more metal support it can use, it's cheap enough that Bronzong isn't a staple partner.
 
The video games sometimes take inspiration from the animation (Pokémon Yellow, anyone?); yes, that which they inspired sometimes inspires them. Some of the decisions with the TCG seem at least potentially inspired by them as well. Pokémon is a multi-media franchise; past experience with both Pokémon and other such things has taught me that while some things have much more influence than others, it isn't always a one-way street.

Now, does that mean the animation affects the TCG? I'm not sure; a lot of art from (especially) the early games gets tweaked for the animation and which the TCG aligns with seems to vary. Of course some of it might be a lack of data: Copycat has had at least four major printings and the art is different between the oldest two and the two most recent. Said older versions have a green haired Trainer that looks very much like the animation's character "Duplica". Unfortunately I can only find her over world sprite for Gen 1 games, and while it is so simple that either the animation or the TCG may have interpreted it as Duplica's animation model, the idea that both did so separately is highly improbable. Now if her Trainer "battle" sprite looks exactly like that... well I'm wrong. My Google Fu failed me and I couldn't find said image. I think I found every other Trainer's look in the game except hers. @_@
Oh come on, Pokémon Yellow was created with this purpose, but it was just a slightly modified version of the original Pokémon Red and Blue! ;) Of course it is not always a one-way street, but anime characters simply don't appear in the TCG... We have never seen Ash, as a prime example, and I'm happy with that :D Copycat's card artwork could be inspired by Duplica (or, at least, her hair color) only because there is no trainer battle sprite, since you can't battle her ;)
 
I love this artwork! The colouring, with the blue, green and grey, makes it look like it is one of the Team Plasma Pokemon from the BW era, and I love how it's actually breaking the card!
 
wow. not what i expected at all. i like the card and its probably still playable but... it seems very detatched from what metal is good at. i woulda liked to see something like:

(M)(M)(M): 130 damage. You may discard up to 3 (M) energy from this pokemon. For each energy discarded, this attack does 20 more damage and this pokemon takes 20 less damage from attacks during your opponent's next turn.

retreat cost: 1

that way we can play with both the energy discarding aspect of metal links and also metal's survivable playstyle. 2 retreat cost is kinda a pain too. discarding stadium also clashes with the new metal stadium which only has damage reduction effect during your opponents turn..
 
Hmm.. this isnt very good. It definitely should have been any Pokemon not just active. I dont think there is much reason to play this card when Jirachi exists but I hope Im wrong.
 
I CALLED IT! I knew there would be a 2 energy attack cost. And 120 damage for 2 metal energies is good. I think Its the most a mega does for two energy. I think this may see some play. Maybe more than mega aggron. I'm going to say the full art is going to crush the words like crazy sort of how mega glalie and mage glalie full art eat the mega evolution rule.
 
On the matter of M Scizor-EX:

Why is it every card has to be blatantly broken or else it is dismissed? I'd laugh except I worry this mentality spreads so easily, to the point where the-powers-that-be can't miss it and mistake it as what "the customers" want, instead of people that make guys like me appear competent at card critiquing. With the current card pool give or take new additions, this seems like a satisfactory Mega Evolution. Do I think its going to be the star of the next big deck? No, but that is okay as not only is that something almost no cards manage but the ones that do have a nasty habit of making me hate the game lately.

Looking at M Scizor-EX you get something designed for 2HKOs. As impressive as OHKOs? Nope. Strong enough to still be viable for competitive play? Possibly (and "possibly" is about as good as something can do this soon before it is released). The Metal Typing grants it a few tricks to edge up its durability; not in a major way (well, at least not with effective deck design and strategy) but enough that it mostly just has to worry about the universal threats, the decks that OHKO everything and the decks that can exploit its Weakness.

It won't be able to OHKO many things, but we need to consider it not only against what "is" but what "might be" and for both Standard and Expanded play. Hypothetically (again it is too far out to know for certain), M Scizor-EX is fast for a Mega Evolution: you don't even have to rely on Bronzong (PHF) if you would prefer to use Mega Turbo, but if you do use the former then you probably can use Max Potion so that damage that isn't a OHKO gets wasted. Throw in the durability and when something isn't able to OHKO it, it has a strong likelihood of securing the exchange for 2HKOs. Now if your opponent is awfully reliant on Special Energy cards or Stadiums, then I anticipate things swinging in favor of M Scizor-EX. Remember that smaller targets are OHKOed, and not just by this but Scizor-EX; if you don't need to Mega Evolve, then you don't. XP You are really only out of luck when facing Fire-Types (though you may run something else to deal with those) and when facing decks that don't rely (or rely heavily) on either Stadiums or Special Energy. That does not mean every other match-up is easy (they don't need to be), just that they should have something going for them so that they either are slightly in favor of, neutral towards or against M Scizor-EX.

Oh come on, Pokémon Yellow was created with this purpose, but it was just a slightly modified version of the original Pokémon Red and Blue! ;)

You say that like it somehow invalidates the point. ;) The initial question was whether or not the animation could influence the TCG. There are two ways to demonstrate that it can: show something from the animation that directly transitioned to the TCG or something from the animation that made the jump to the video games (as something can go Other Source => Video games => TCG). You kind of need a good justification for why things like this "don't count". Though not relevant to the TCG, even though it was simply another tweaked version of the Gen 1 Pokémon game, Pokémon Yellow took something from the animation (Pikachu following Ash around) and turned it into a mechanic the video games would eventually embrace... or did they cut that after finally making progress towards it again (I kind of gave up on the video games with Pearl).

Of course it is not always a one-way street, but anime characters simply don't appear in the TCG... We have never seen Ash, as a prime example, and I'm happy with that :D

...but we actually have, they just never were released outside of Japan as far as I know. Plus there is the matter of Jesse and James and Duplica still. Jesse and James have also appeared in TCG artwork, even though the characters are native to the animation. Once again I am asking; I realize they are based originally off of male and female Team Rocket Grunts, but they don't look like the original sprites that I remember or could quickly Google Search.

Copycat's card artwork could be inspired by Duplica (or, at least, her hair color) only because there is no trainer battle sprite, since you can't battle her ;)

Thank you for letting me know you can't battle her; I haven't played through Pokémon Red, Blue or Yellow since High School (for me, that would be at least 15 years ago) so I didn't remember if you did or did not. Although Duplica is hardly some Jojo's Bizarre Adventure character with a unique and iconic outfit, hair style and flair for poses, she's not so generic that Occam's Razor doesn't tell us that looking at the original in game sprite, the original card art and then the later card art that said original art wasn't using Duplica.

Likewise, unless I've missed the correct sprite art from which they were derived, then Jesse and James also made the jump from the animation to the TCG. While not named, Here Comes Team Rocket! (Team Rocket 15/82, 71/82; EX: Team Rocket Returns 111/109) features James and James quite prominently; the older version has them in black but with Meowth, while the newer features them in their white Team Rocket uniforms. There are other characters that don't look like them on different cards. The preconstructed theme decks for EX: Team Rocket Returns were the "Jesse" and the "James" decks. Not fan names either; instead of a Pokémon and the kind of deck name, the boxes the decks were sold in were clearly labeled with these character's names and had them for the art (in their white uniforms). There is also Team Rocket's Meowth (WotC Black Star Promos 18). This should not be mistaken as a coincidence; later a card named Rocket's Meowth was released, but in homage to this earlier card and following the typical naming conventions of the time. Other Team Rocket affiliated Pokémon at the time it was released needed to be fully Evolved and were known as "Dark" Pokémon or were non-Evolving Basics denoted as "Rocket's [Insert Pokémon name/]" with an image of a generic Team Rocket's Grunt where the other similarly "owned" Pokémon had a Gym Leader's face.

Now as this has gone on so long, just a reminder; yeah, this is all a tangent from discussing something else where we more or less agreed. XD
 
I think MegaScizor is very fair. it more than justifies not being a broken powerhouse by way of having utility in its attack. You have to realize, they're releasing this card under the image they have of the current format; We now have a special energy for every type along with a number of potent stadiums. MegaScizor is meant to remove some of the advantage your opponent can create for themselves.
 
Back
Top