Owner Pokemon Returning to the TCG and Team Rocket Set Teased at Worlds!

This is really going to change the game. Each year, we usually have only 2 or 3 archetypes at most (for example, last year we had Ancient and Future, and the Teracrystal Pokémon. We can also add United Wings and Festival Lead to the list, at a stretch). But with this, we can expect that a large portion of the cards (maybe even half if it’s like back in the day) will belong to a Trainer. And if that’s the case, we’ll have an enormous number of archetypes.

In the game, archetypes often create meta decks that are really fun (for the Ancient and Future Pokémon, we had several decks for each archetype). We can expect lots of new decks and ways to play. We already know there will be an archetype for N's Zoroark, which will have many different attacks, and one for Marnie, which will focus on the Dark type. But we also know that Lillie, Ethan, Misty, and Team Rocket will have their own archetypes.

Having decks that don't rely on a single card but on multiple cards that interact specifically with each other is always a good thing. I can't wait!
 
I like that these new owner's pokémon mixes elements from past cards. The trainer logos and placement are reminiscent of pokémon SP cards, while the card names themselves are more akin to the gym set cards.

Makes me wonder how many trainers will be featured, and how much pokémon type variability the trainers will have.

For instance, N has pokémon of different types and energy requirements, but is implied that the foundation will be N's Zoroark ex copying other N's pokémon.

Which makes me excited for what kinds of archetypes and engines the other trainers will have!
 
I feel like this took WAY too long to do. Would be nice if sets could randomly throw owners Pokemon into sets. Would love to see Ash's Pidgeot since he got it back and he seems to be canon now.
 
So the mechanic not being Basic-only like Pokemon SP or Tag Team has me doubtful that this is how they'll reincorporate Mega Evolution into the TCG. Which, combined with the lack of PLZA news at Worlds, is making it look more and more likely that it will release in the latter half of 2025, Mega Evo will be the TCG mechanic revealed at next Worlds, and the "Shattered Cells" 4chan leak is probably fake.

I was hoping they would be 3/4 art cards and feature the Trainer in the artwork rather than just slapping their stock art icon, though that was under the assumption that they were going to be final stage only or Basic-only. Being the full line, it makes sense to do it like this and only incorporate the Trainer into the artwork for IR/SIRs.

So far they seem to mostly be mainline lore-accurate teams, though I wouldn't seeing a few left field choices like how Cynthia had a Rayquaza in the SP era or some of the absolutely bonkers sync pairs we see in Pokemon Masters (the silliest probably being Wallace & Blacephalon).
 
Owner's Pokémon then Dark Pokémon? Alright. Ooh can we get Imakuni?'s Exploud ex reprinted please?
 
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Yaginku said:
So much for "learning from your mistakes", Marnie's Grimmsnarl is basically TCharizard ex on steroids, while forcing your deckbuilding to be more shallow by sticking exclusively to Marnie's Pokemon. Absolutely awful design.
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LMAO. Only reason that tzard is/was dominant is it's scaling attack. Grimmsnarl's attack is not nearly as useful as Tzard to be your main attacker. This means you need to allocate deck slots for your attackers, which was something zard didn't really need to do, on top of all the consistency cards you need for a stage 2 deck.

Yes, the 5 energy acceleration is strong but it's strength is limited to Marnie's pokemon. It is a balanced design...
 
angooseburger said:
LMAO. Only reason that tzard is/was dominant is it's scaling attack.
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There are many Pokemon in the format with actually scaling attacks. Charizard's attack isn't a true "scaling" attack, because the player has no control over the scaling beyond progressing the game. If your opponent doesn't take any prizes, Grimmsnarl will do more damage over the course of the game. Yes, in most cases Charizard's attack will be better, but the main strength of Charizard is it's ridiculous consistency and speed, and the ability to play very little energy.
Limiting the deck to only playing Marnie's Pokemon will hardly be a downside. I expect this set to have Trainer cards that are just overpowered versions of regular Trainers with a "Owner's Clause", like it happened before.
And, most importantly, even if it's a card that's "only" 90% of TCharizard ex's strength, that's still a dumb card that should not be printed. If the cards from the H-block forward continue to be relatively slower outside of this single card, in two years Grimmsnarl will be 90% of the meta.
 
Yaginku said:
There are many Pokemon in the format with actually scaling attacks. Charizard's attack isn't a true "scaling" attack, because the player has no control over the scaling beyond progressing the game. If your opponent doesn't take any prizes, Grimmsnarl will do more damage over the course of the game. Yes, in most cases Charizard's attack will be better, but the main strength of Charizard is it's ridiculous consistency and speed, and the ability to play very little energy.
Limiting the deck to only playing Marnie's Pokemon will hardly be a downside. I expect this set to have Trainer cards that are just overpowered versions of regular Trainers with a "Owner's Clause", like it happened before.
And, most importantly, even if it's a card that's "only" 90% of TCharizard ex's strength, that's still a dumb card that should not be printed. If the cards from the H-block forward continue to be relatively slower outside of this single card, in two years Grimmsnarl will be 90% of the meta.
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I don't understand where in Grimmsnarl's attack you're taking that its damage increases as the game progresses?
 
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