ORAS (XY 5) and What It Might Mean for the TCG

The whole let's both stage 2 things is a mess. They gave us a stadium that let's you use attacks from lower evos. Well most viable stage 1 and 2 pokemon have horrible basic and stage 1s, so why is that needed.

They gave Stage 1 and 2 pokemon good effects(what are they called like delta growth or alpha heal), but that is negated by having EX pokemon with the same effect.

The only good card that helps stage 1 and 2 pokemon is Silent Lab which negates the abilities of all Basic pokemon, but it can be counter stadium'd easily, and a lot of meta basics don't have abilities.
 
Mr.Muffin said:
The whole let's both stage 2 things is a mess. They gave us a stadium that let's you use attacks from lower evos. Well most viable stage 1 and 2 pokemon have horrible basic and stage 1s, so why is that needed.
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The point of Memory Shrine (the stadium card in question) is as a replacement to Celebi-EX, which will be going out of format in the next rotation. The have the same effects. Celebi-EX, while not used very much, did have sparing roles in some decks, including as a means of allowing certain Mega-Pokemon-EX to use their less costly or situationally useful attacks from their base forms. It's a niche, but it may as well be there.

And Silent Lab is an excellent card in my mind in terms of balance. It is easily splashable, only really helps Stage 1/2/Mega decks, doesn't hurt any of them, and still manages to not be overpowered. I don't think it will see overtly much play, but it is great in taking the edge off certain EX Pokemon (like Virizion, Genesect, Lugia, Deoxys, Darkrai, etc.)
 
Scorching earth + blacksmith/landorus FUF are two pretty decent acceleration engines for R/F decks to use. Its definitely a good addition to the fire decks, although fighting decks might prefer fighting stadium... I can see primal groudon much preferring scorching earth though since 200 damage hardly needs a damage boost.
 
For Stage 2 decks, I think everyone here forgot about Teammates. Faster EX decks are going to take out your weak basics in the early game, which gives you a great opportunity to take advantage of Teammates. Teammates can get you a Stage 2 and a Rare Candy, or even if your opponent used Quaking Punch last turn, you can take the Stage 1, and either another Stage 1, another basic, or another Teammates. The unfortunate part about this card is Hypnotoxic Laser doesn't activate it. But if you use Pokemon with the right amount of HP (or that have Omega Barrier), Hypnotoxic Laser shouldn't cause any trouble for you. Even better, you can combine it with Robo Substitute (I'm pretty sure this works), and you won't even have to lose prizes over it.

With Teammates, Dive Ball, Memory Shrine Silent Lab, and several great Evolutions in this set, I think they'll definitely start appearing more in tournaments. We'll just have to wait and see which ones will be the best.
 
Teammates will also be absolutely nuts in Donphan. "Oh, you knocked out my Robo Subsitute. Sorry, no prize for you, but I'm going to go ahead and search for any two cards I want anyway." Setting up multiple Donphans quickly was easy enough thanks to Korrina. I don't hink that deck will be going anywhere any time soon.

Waillord-EX could be another interesting toy for Donphan to play with. With 240 HP, it's a damage sponge, and I cuold see a Donphan build running Max Potions to exploist it. The only competiive cards that could hope to one-shot it are Genesect (definitely an issue) and possibly Leafeon.
 
I guess night march will love teammates too, getting knocked out every turn and being able to grab another pokemon + DCE without losing pace
 
Ancient Trait Swampert/Slurpuff FUF will definitely be a thing, full control of your deck plus all the water support from the next set.

Also, how will the new Ancient Trait Kingdra run? I'm very curious.
 
Thoughts on new cards!

Here is a few cards that sound pretty cool. Deck possibilities? Heck, just comment on what you think of these cards!

-Repeat Ball

-M Aggron EX

-Teammates

-Weakness Policy

-Maxie's Secret Weapon

-Memory Shrine

-Dive Ball

-Professor's (Sycamore's?) Observations

-Wonder Energy

Here's a link to the set: http://pokebeach.com/2014/12/tidal-storm-gaia-volcano
 
RE: Thoughts on new cards!

There are soooo many good cards in this set.

-Repeat Ball is going to be a huge boost to evolution decks Decks which run 4-4 lines. It can grab basics and evolutions.

-M Aggron EX seems like it has a lot of potential, but it needs the help of cards like Fliptini or Trick Coin to ensure 240. A Mr Mime wouldn't hurt either and I'd consider a Celebi EX or the new Memory Shrine to take advantage of Aggron's raging hammer on a 240 EX body.

-Teammates is essentially twins from the HGSS era, but with a different activation condition. Really, I think this is just the kind of consistency card the format needs.

-Weakness Policy: Very useful. How many otherwise good decks have an autoloss to their weakness? This should be a great tech for those decks (especially on a Pokemon with G Barrier)

Maxie and Archie (They're the same thing): Potentially broken. One of the few cards which lets you cheat the evolution rule while filling up your hand at the same time. Water and Fighting decks get a huge boost (if they haven't all ready).

Memory Shrine: Celebi EX in stadium form. I love this mechanic and this set gives us a lot of cool combos. Though until Celebi EX is rotated, I think that might be the better play. There are too many other good stadiums (plus Celebi is searchable)

Dive Ball: Just the boost water decks need. Nice to see our search options are expanding.

Professor Birch's Observations: Better than Shauna by 0.5 card. Flip heads, and your reward is much greater, flip tails and it's not the end of the world.

Wonder Energy: Enhanced Hammer makes this a risky play unfortunately. :(
 
RE: Thoughts on new cards!

That's what I was thinking for wonder energy. But a virizion fairy deck could be potentially unstoppable. Definitely going to be a fun set! :)
 
Maxie and Archie have the condition of them being the only card in your hand which in my opinnion stops them from being broken cards. I like alot of the cards in the set and have a few deck ideas in mind but not sure which one I want to try and make first. Dive ball is great for water decks and repeat ball is just a good overall card.
 
I feel like Repeat Ball deserves more attention than it's getting. Some decks really don't like having to discard 2 cards every time they want to search out a Pokemon, and there is no other good alternative to it right now. It may not be as consistent as Ultra Ball, but after turn 2 or 3, it should get you most of the important Pokemon in your deck. Evolution decks should especially like it, due to needing several of their basic form in play, or for decks like Pyroar and Bronzong that needs to set up multiple of the Evolution, it's even better. This, along with Teammates should make Evolution decks a lot stronger.

M Aggron's HP is just so dang high. Donphan can't even 2 shot you! And Reshiram shouldn't be a problem, since Megaton Slam + Muscle Band knocks it out in one hit. Most other decks also have difficulty 2-shotting it, such as Vir/Gen, Fighting, and Seismitoad. I feel like with Bronzong and Max Potion, this card could be very strong. Memory Shrine might be pretty strong in here, too. However, that is a lot to fit into one deck, so it may become a bit inconsistent.

I feel like Professor Birch's Observation is good, but I'm not 100% on that. Shuffling in and draw 7 is very solid, but only having 4 cards in your deck may hurt you too much. Several times have I drawn 5 with Shauna or 4 with N and just drawn nothing for the rest of the game. I feel like it'll work well in decks with an alternative draw engine, such as Swampert, Jirachi, or Electrode, to bail you out of those 4 card hands.

Archie and Maxie seem good, but not broken. It's not very likely to have them as the only card in your hand, but their effects are so strong that I think they will see play anyway. I'm gonna start playing a Maxie in my Machamp deck right when it comes out.

Wonder Energy seems incredibly weak. There are barely any effects that this would actually block. The only things I can think of are Gengar EX and Ancient Trait Sceptile's poison damage, both of which are pretty low-tier Pokemon. It also works very poorly with Aromatisse and Xerneas. Aromatisse can't move it to non-Fairy Pokemon, and Xerneas can't get it from the deck with Geomancy. It just seems like a terrible card, honestly.
 
Machamp The Champion said:
Wonder Energy seems incredibly weak. There are barely any effects that this would actually block. The only things I can think of are Gengar EX and Ancient Trait Sceptile's poison damage, both of which are pretty low-tier Pokemon. It also works very poorly with Aromatisse and Xerneas. Aromatisse can't move it to non-Fairy Pokemon, and Xerneas can't get it from the deck with Geomancy. It just seems like a terrible card, honestly.
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It may be playable in Expanded, where it can stop the effects of DRX Accelgor's Deck-and-Cover, but Virizion-EX already filled this roll to some degree.

It can also block the effects of Dialga-EX's Chrono Wind, which may be useful for the Metal-weak Xerneas-, Florges-, and M Gardevoir-EX.
 
M-Aggron-EX looks like Steel's version of VirGen, if only slightly better, or at least temporarily...

In my opinion, I could see Bronzong Variants ditching all four Ns, both Lasers, all three Switches(and the one Escape Rope), both Cobalion-EX, both Dialga-EX, even both Aegislash-EX, to make room for Aggron-EX, M-Aggron-EX(plus Aggron Spirit Links) plus maybe PlasmaKlang, two Rare Candies, and two Keldeo, one Float Stone, one Startling Megaphone, maybe one of either LTC or Fliptini, among other cards that could be added to ensure the deck count is equal to 60...

^ The above could be the final BDIF(and an almost unbeatable, almost-guaranteed Worlds winning, one at that, since the only way to beat it if PlasmaKlang is fully set up and in play is by use of evolved Fire-type+Training Center or Emboar or BCR/LTR Charizard, as there are no non-EX Fire-type pokemon cards other than Emboar or BCR/LTR Charizard that have an HP total that's 150 or more w/o Training Center, and even then, that can be negated by Steel Shelter, and with PlasmaKlang, no bench damage to your steels if tails, as M-Aggron-EX's tails effect is blocked by Plasma Steel, and since you don't discard energy either way, unlike Dialga-EX's most powerful attack, that eliminates Emboar as a likely hope, as even with a Silver Bangle, it's not enough to OHKO M-Aggron-EX, and if it can Max Potion, your only likely hope for OHKO would be tails on the M-Aggron-EX flip and BCR/LTR Charizard's Scorching Fire, as nothing else can beat it in one hit) in the BW-era before all BW-era cards(bar Kalos Starter Set, if you count that as BW-era(since it was a sub-set within Legendary Treasures), since it consists of the first XY cards), minus reprints from XY-era cards, possibly rotate out next September, and in the process, making M-Aggron-EX likely losing his possible PlasmaKlang companion to the rotation void... But until then...
 
The new swampert with the a Growth thing could be pretty good. Attaching 2 energy a turn can be pretty good!
 
Let me tell you, I've been testing out a M-Aggron EX/ Klingklang list and it becomes a monster once it has set up. None of the decks I played against (Yveltal, Seismitoad, Donphan, VirGen, Aromatisse) could do a thing once it was up and running. Seismitoad was just an annoyance but easily beatable once you begin attacking and the only deck who even managed to get down to 2 Prizes was VirGen because of G-Booster. I am Highly confident this deck idea could become immensely strong once it comes out! Also, Aggron EX's Raging Hammer is very effective as well. A little hint from play testing: Dont focus on setting up Aggron EX, it will come with time ;).
 
@Zmayfire, Klingklang as in the Plasma one? The other one is rotated out of format. Also, the problem with M-Aggron is the energy costs. How are you going to accelerate then?
 
Yes i was refering to the Plasma Steel one. Its not so much about setting up really fast as it is slowing your opponent down. I have a few cards in my list that deliberately makes it harder for other decks to set up so in the meantime, I take my time setting up M-Aggron EX. Also note, two bronzong and a single DCE power up M-Aggron EX in one turn. After the first is set, the second is as simple as getting it out. Metal decks have one of the best forms of energy acceleration in the TCG (in my opinion) right now.
 
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