Well more accurately Thunder Knuckle and Spiral Force (you never know which cards will be added or left out in the English expansion). I compiled a list of what I think are the top 12 cards of the new set.
12. Frozen City
Frozen City – Trainer
Stadium (Team Plasma)
When either player attaches an Energy to their non-Team Plasma Pokemon, place 2 damage counters on that Pokemon.
This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this card if another Stadium card comes into play. If another card with the same name is in play, you can’t play this card.
One in a long list of plasma support cards. Anything that can do free damage is good. When that damaege is tied to something like energy attachment, which is the PTCG equivalent of breathing, there’s no way around it. Keep in mind, this isn’t just manual attachments, it includes other acceleration methods (eels, dark patch, blastoise). Aside from counter stadiums, the only way to avoid the damage is to play all plasma pokemon, something you can easily control. Of course your opponent may also be playing plasma pokemon, but if that’s the case, than at least your opponent doesn’t end up benefiting from this, a problem with many stadiums.
11. Dragonite
Dragonite – Dragon – HP150
Stage 2 – Evolves from Dragonair
[C][C][C] Pierce: 60 damage. During your opponent’s next turn, your opponent cannot play any Item cards from his or her hand.
[G][L][C][C] Heal Wing: 90 damage. Heal 30 damage from this Pokemon.
Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
I started a thread on what I think the card can do.
http://www.pokebeach.com/forums/thread-garbador-dragonite-deck-thunder-knuckle
In a nutshell, this may be the best item lock pokemon we have. With Garbador out, you can really limit your opponents options, which will give you more options. It may not be the best card of the set, but it’s the one I am most anticipating.
10. Chandelure (plasma)
Chandelure – Fire – HP130
Stage 2 (Team Plasma) – Evolves from Lampent
Ability: Flare Navigation
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may search your deck for a Fire Energy and attach it to one of your Pokemon. Place 1 damage counter on that Pokemon. Shuffle your deck afterwards.
[R][R][C] Absorb Life: 70 damage. Heal 30 damage from this Pokemon.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Anything that provides easy energy acceleration deserves a mention. Chandelure doesn’t look as appealing as Emboar. You can only accelerate one per turn and you deal damage to yourself, but Chandelure accelerates from the deck. This is easily the best form of acceleration since you don’t need to have the energy in hand or in the discard pile. Unlike the similar typhlosion prime from HGSS, you don’t have a reusable energy source which hurts some, but running more superrod can easily put energy back in the deck for Chandelure to accelerate. It’s why energy acceleration from the deck is so strong.
It should also be mentioned that while the attack is pretty bad, it does take care of Plasma Klang and will heal the damage you’ll take from using the power. So you could easily use this in an all EX deck (or combo it with Darmanitan BC for an easy 120). I quite a few deck possibilities with this. Don’t know if they’ll be good, but they should be interesting.
9. Kyurem (plasma)
Kyurem – Water – HP130
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)
[W][C] Frost Spear: 30 damage. This attack does 30 damage to one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon (don’t apply Weakness and Resistance to Benched Pokemon).
[W][W][C] Blizzard Burn: 120 damage. During your next turn, this Pokemon cannot attack.
Weakness: Metal (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Spoilers!
I hear this is big in japan. At first I wasn’t sure why. I mean, it’s certainly a good card, but it doesn’t seem like it would be huge. Well it all comes down to two words “Team Plasma”. Because of it being plasma, it gets some advantages. Frost spear seems like a more expensive version of Landorus EX hammerhead that you can’t use on turn one, but then you realize you can use Colress machine to power this up turn one. With the new Deoxys EX, the attack becomes even more powerful and it’s not on an EX! Blizzard burn isn’t bad either. The drawback sucks, but you’d probably use this as a finisher, and on a non EX, it’s pretty good. Basically, it comes down to being a team plasma basic. More importantly, a non EX basic that doesn’t give up two prizes and isn’t stopped by Plasma Klang or Sigilyph. Since it has solid HP and strong attacks, it earns a spot.
8. Tornadus EX
Tornadus-EX – Colorless – HP180
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)
[C] Streamers: Shuffle your hand back into your deck, then draw six cards.
[C][C][C][C] Jet Burst: 60+ damage. This attack does 30 more damage for each Plasma Energy attached to this Pokemon.
When Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 2
And here we have another Tornadus EX. Unlike a lot of EXs which are used for their raw power, this Tornadus plays a different role as a hand refresher. This doesn’t seem like something you’d want on an EX, but when you take into account Lugia EX OHKOing weak basics, having this on a 180 HP EX is more desirable. Cleffa was successful back in the HGSS days, but this has 6 times more HP and doesn’t put itself to sleep. Tornadus can also hit for big damage. Just like Lugia EX, a DCE and a couple of colress machines can score you a first turn 120. You don’t take an extra prize, but at least you don’t have to discard a plasma energy.
7. Thundurus EX
Thundurus-EX – Lightning – HP170
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)
[L] Thunder Knuckle: 30 damage. Attach an Energy card from your discard pile to one of your Benched Team Plasma Pokemon.
[L][L][C][C] Thunder Route: 90 damage. If this Pokemon has a Plasma Energy attached to it, discard an Energy card attached to the Defending Pokemon.
When Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Thundurus is another EX pokemon which is better as a support pokemon than a main attacker. Thunder knuckle can donk some lightning weak starters like Emolga with the right damage boosters, but the real application is the built in energy acceleration. We’ve seen this type of attack on many other pokemon, but they don’t see play. What stands out on this one (aside from being on a basic pokemon) is that you’re not limited to basic energy. Thundurus can retrieve double colorless, blend, prism, and most importantly, plasma. This has many uses, but the main beneficiary is Lugia EX. You can easily set up 3 prize knock outs by powering up Lugia with thunder knuckle and then having Lugia sweep on your next turn.
Thunder route isn’t as good. 4 energy for 90 damage is too expensive (even with proper energy acceleration), but it does one shot Lugia and energy discarding is a nasty side effect, making it much easier to 2 shot everything else. You could even use one to power up the other.
6. Shadow Triad
Shadow Triad – Trainer
Supporter (Team Plasma)
Search your discard pile for a Team Plasma card, reveal it to your opponent, and put it into your hand.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
Simple effect, but a good one. You retrieve one team plasma card from your discard pile and put it into your hand. This can be a trainer, pokemon, or plasma energy. Of course it is your supporter for a turn, but late game this can get you just what you need to win. I don’t see people running 4 of these in their plasma decks, but I can see them putting 1 or 2 in for insurance.
5. Metagross
Metagross – Psychic – HP140
Stage 2 (Team Plasma) – Evolves from Metang
Ability: Plasma Search
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may search your deck for a Team Plasma card, show it to your opponent, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards. You can’t use more than one Plasma Search ability each turn.
[P][C][C][C] Psycho Trip: 60 damage. The Defending Pokemon is now Confused.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
I normally don’t like stage 2s that only help you set up faster. Stage 2s require a set up just to get them out so the time you could most use them is before you get them into play. If you’re going to devote the resources to get it in play, then it should do something extraordinary. Fortunately, Metagross does more than enough to justify a spot in team plasma decks. Not only can Metagross fetch an arsenal of powerful pokemon, but can get you ANY team plasma card. Team plasma already has a nice collection of trainers, supporters, and energy that metagross can fetch. You can get colress machine to get that energy acceleration, you can grab a TP supporter for more draw or disruption (ghestis), and laser is also a TP card. The card is like a deck specific version of computer search. The only difference is that you can use it every turn and don’t have to discard any cards. Getting him out might be a hassle, but the ability to get exactly what you need at the right time could prove to be worth it.
4. Float Stone
Float Stone – Trainer
Item
Pokemon Tool: Each Pokemon can have only 1 Pokemon Tool attached to it at any time.
The Pokemon this card is attached to has no retreat cost.
You can use any number of Item cards during your turn.
This card couldn’t have come sooner. High retreat cost is something that holds a lot of pokemon back. It makes them the ideal catcher target, forcing you to waste energy on retreating. We have switch, but we’re only allowed four. Escape rope also helps, but it’s not always ideal to switch your opponents pokemon, especially when they get to choose. This leaves only Darkrai and Keldeo to provide your pokemon with free retreat. Darkrai requires dark energy and Keldeo only brings himself out. Only certain type of decks could have a consistent way of switching in and out of their attackers.
That ends now because float stone works with any pokemon and lets them retreat in and out consistently. You could put this on Keldeo to allow you to get out of any lock easily. With two of them you could switch in and out of attackers easily, allowing you some crazy combos with eels. Of course there are limits. It does not save you from stasis lock. You can’t use this on pokemon who already have tools attached to them and your opponent can always catcher out the pokemon without the float stone. But what the card does is provide you with another way to retreat for free. Even if you get tool scrapped next turn, the card served it’s use as an alternative to switch. But if they don’t, this becomes a reusable switch. Whether it’s used for combo purposes or just a way to give you free retreat, this is one tool I expect to see a lot of.
3. Ghestis
Ghetsis – Trainer
Supporter (Team Plasma)
Look at your opponent’s hand. Your opponent shuffles all Item cards back into his or her deck. Draw 1 card for each Item card shuffled in this way.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
This is a risky one. You’re counting on your opponent having items in their hand to make the best use of this. You may end up only getting one card, or worse none at all, essentially wasting your supporter for the turn. If you’re going to play this, you’re going to want to play it when your opponent has a huge hand size, but even then you’re still not guaranteed to get your moneys worth. Those factors hurt the card, BUT when you do play it and you do get it off, it can be more disruptive than N. Not only do you get rid of their items, limiting their options next turn, but you get cards off of it. It’s like playing two supporters in one!
Of course, I wouldn’t rely on this as a draw card. Sure, it can get you some cards if you play it first. It might win you the game right there. What Ghestis does best is disrupt. If it’s late game and you fear your opponent has a catcher, you can play this to make sure. If they do, you got rid of a threat, but if they don’t, you at least get to look at your opponents hand and know you’re safe (unless they draw into it next turn). It’s a card that must be used with caution, but smart players can take advantage of it. I expect this to have a huge impact on how people play their hand.
2. Deoxys EX
Deoxys-EX – Psychic – HP170
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)
Ability: Power Connect
All of your Team Plasma Pokemon (excluding Deoxys-EX) do 10 more damage to the Defending Pokemon.
[P][C] Spiral Force: 30+ damage. If this Pokemon has a Plasma Energy attached to it, this attack does 30 more damage for each Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon.
When Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
And here it is, the card that spells doom for any deck that needs to take even one turn to set up. We already have the laser/virbank combo for additional damage, we have colress machine for acceleration, and now we have this, a pokemon that powers up your plasma pokemon even more. TP Kyurem can easily hit 40, 50, 60, or even 70 damage on the first turn while dealing 30 to the bench. Thunderus EX can put even more pressure on opponents, possibly paving the way for Lugia EX to take 3 prizes off of an EX. And with 3 of these, 2 colress machine, DCE, and a Tornadus or Lugia EX, you can deal 180 damage on your first turn! That’s enough to Donk an EX!!!!
Speaking of EXs, this is Mewtwo EXs worst enemy. Since Deoxys only needs two energy, a Mewtwo/DCE counter attack will do 160 (thanks to weakness), 10 damage short of killing Deoxys. Meanwhile, Deoxys hits a fully powered Mewtwo EX for 180, enough to take it out. So in addition to having the damage boosting ability, Deoxys has a powerful attack if you need something to attack with. This is the card that’s going to change the metagame for the worst. Be afraid, be very afraid.
1.
Team Plasma’s Poke Ball – Trainer
Item (Team Plasma)
Search your deck for a Team Plasma Pokemon card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards.
You can use any number of Item cards during your turn.
Sometimes the best cards are the simpliest ones. Take Team Plasma Pokeball. It has a simple effect of letting you get a plasma pokemon from your deck and putting it into your hand. It sounds simple, but when you take into account how many unique plasma pokemon there are, you can see how versatile this is. The big card this can get out is Deoxys EX. Having an easy way to get that out makes donking EXs a very real possibility. But you can get any plasma pokemon you need. Thunderus for energy acceleration, Tornadus for a new hand, Lugia to take two prizes, Kyurem for snipe, metagross to snag a one of the many useful plasma trainers. The list goes on.
The best thing about this is that it comes with no cost or limits. There’s no coinflips (pokeball), no discards (ultra ball), no need for a pokemon in hand (pcom), you’re not limited to low HP pokemon (level ball), or catcher targets (heavy ball). The only limit is that it must be team plasma. Considering you’re going to want to get that anyway, that’s not much of a limit.
And now for some honorable mentions.
http://pokebeach.com/2012/12/bw8-spiral-force-and-thunder-knuckle (for some scans and translations)
Exeggcute: Not sold on it because anything with 30 HP can be donker by Virbank/Laser alone. But it has the ability to return to your hand if it’s in the discard pile. Or for those yugioh players, it’s the same as sinister serpent, a card that eventually had to be banned. I don’t think the ability will be as good in pokemon as it was there, but someone should find a use for it.
Glaceon: Reduces the retreat cost for team plasma pokemon by two. Many plasma pokemon have a retreat cost of 2 so this essentially gives them free retreat. It’s problem is that it’s a stage 1 with only 90 HP which makes it hard to stay on the field very long.
Cofagrigus: Gets points for being interesting. Ability lets you blow yourself up to put 3 damage counters on your opponents pokemon in anyway you like. It may not sound worth the prize exchange, but when you’re taking out an opponents EX, it could be well worth it. The attack is also interesting. The damage output isn’t the greatest (70), but it does make all their coin flips tails. At the very least this should grant you immunity to lasers and hammers for a turn.
Absol: Mostly for it’s typing, it’s a dark basic, team plasma pokemon. Has easy access two of the best forms of energy acceleration, is not stopped by sigilyph and Plasma Klang, and can do 120 if they have a full bench.
Mr Mime: Ability protects your bench. A great tech as long as Darkrai and Landorus are in the format.
Kingdra: Second attack is like next destinies Chandelure, one energy for 30 to 3 pokemon. First attack does 20 times the number of water and lightning energy in your discard pile before shuffling those energy into your deck. Has more HP than Chandy and is a dragon.
Raticate: HP sucks at 70, but the first attack gets you back 3 TP cards from your deck (a pokemon, trainer, and energy).
Rock Guard: It’s a Rocky Helmet in ace spec form, but it does 60 damage. Ace spec tool cards are not the most reliable, but any deck that can take advantage of rocky helmet might want to consider this.
Beedrill: First attack does 20 base for 1, but if you have no damage on you, that becomes 60 plus poison and confusion. With Virbank that’s atleast 90 damage for 1 energy! Also has free retreat.
Vanilluxe: First attack is similar to next destinies darmanitan. You flip a coin for each energy attached and do 60 damage times the number of heads. 3 heads takes out an EX and it can work with any energy type. Victini and Blastoise could make this a fun deck.
Umbreon: Ability gives all team plasma pokemon 20 more HP. It also stacks (as far as I know).
Latias EX: Has an ability that protects it from other pokemon with abilities. Attack isn’t the best, dealing 70 for 3, but it gets around effects.
Life Essense: Opponent takes one less prize when knocking out the pokemon this is attached to. Too useful of an ability not to be on this list, but it’s an ACE spec tool.
So those are the cards that stick out. Feel free to post your own list or prediction on what will be the big cards of this next set.
12. Frozen City
Frozen City – Trainer
Stadium (Team Plasma)
When either player attaches an Energy to their non-Team Plasma Pokemon, place 2 damage counters on that Pokemon.
This card stays in play when you play it. Discard this card if another Stadium card comes into play. If another card with the same name is in play, you can’t play this card.
One in a long list of plasma support cards. Anything that can do free damage is good. When that damaege is tied to something like energy attachment, which is the PTCG equivalent of breathing, there’s no way around it. Keep in mind, this isn’t just manual attachments, it includes other acceleration methods (eels, dark patch, blastoise). Aside from counter stadiums, the only way to avoid the damage is to play all plasma pokemon, something you can easily control. Of course your opponent may also be playing plasma pokemon, but if that’s the case, than at least your opponent doesn’t end up benefiting from this, a problem with many stadiums.
11. Dragonite
Dragonite – Dragon – HP150
Stage 2 – Evolves from Dragonair
[C][C][C] Pierce: 60 damage. During your opponent’s next turn, your opponent cannot play any Item cards from his or her hand.
[G][L][C][C] Heal Wing: 90 damage. Heal 30 damage from this Pokemon.
Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
I started a thread on what I think the card can do.
http://www.pokebeach.com/forums/thread-garbador-dragonite-deck-thunder-knuckle
In a nutshell, this may be the best item lock pokemon we have. With Garbador out, you can really limit your opponents options, which will give you more options. It may not be the best card of the set, but it’s the one I am most anticipating.
10. Chandelure (plasma)
Chandelure – Fire – HP130
Stage 2 (Team Plasma) – Evolves from Lampent
Ability: Flare Navigation
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may search your deck for a Fire Energy and attach it to one of your Pokemon. Place 1 damage counter on that Pokemon. Shuffle your deck afterwards.
[R][R][C] Absorb Life: 70 damage. Heal 30 damage from this Pokemon.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Anything that provides easy energy acceleration deserves a mention. Chandelure doesn’t look as appealing as Emboar. You can only accelerate one per turn and you deal damage to yourself, but Chandelure accelerates from the deck. This is easily the best form of acceleration since you don’t need to have the energy in hand or in the discard pile. Unlike the similar typhlosion prime from HGSS, you don’t have a reusable energy source which hurts some, but running more superrod can easily put energy back in the deck for Chandelure to accelerate. It’s why energy acceleration from the deck is so strong.
It should also be mentioned that while the attack is pretty bad, it does take care of Plasma Klang and will heal the damage you’ll take from using the power. So you could easily use this in an all EX deck (or combo it with Darmanitan BC for an easy 120). I quite a few deck possibilities with this. Don’t know if they’ll be good, but they should be interesting.
9. Kyurem (plasma)
Kyurem – Water – HP130
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)
[W][C] Frost Spear: 30 damage. This attack does 30 damage to one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon (don’t apply Weakness and Resistance to Benched Pokemon).
[W][W][C] Blizzard Burn: 120 damage. During your next turn, this Pokemon cannot attack.
Weakness: Metal (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Spoilers!
I hear this is big in japan. At first I wasn’t sure why. I mean, it’s certainly a good card, but it doesn’t seem like it would be huge. Well it all comes down to two words “Team Plasma”. Because of it being plasma, it gets some advantages. Frost spear seems like a more expensive version of Landorus EX hammerhead that you can’t use on turn one, but then you realize you can use Colress machine to power this up turn one. With the new Deoxys EX, the attack becomes even more powerful and it’s not on an EX! Blizzard burn isn’t bad either. The drawback sucks, but you’d probably use this as a finisher, and on a non EX, it’s pretty good. Basically, it comes down to being a team plasma basic. More importantly, a non EX basic that doesn’t give up two prizes and isn’t stopped by Plasma Klang or Sigilyph. Since it has solid HP and strong attacks, it earns a spot.
8. Tornadus EX
Tornadus-EX – Colorless – HP180
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)
[C] Streamers: Shuffle your hand back into your deck, then draw six cards.
[C][C][C][C] Jet Burst: 60+ damage. This attack does 30 more damage for each Plasma Energy attached to this Pokemon.
When Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 2
And here we have another Tornadus EX. Unlike a lot of EXs which are used for their raw power, this Tornadus plays a different role as a hand refresher. This doesn’t seem like something you’d want on an EX, but when you take into account Lugia EX OHKOing weak basics, having this on a 180 HP EX is more desirable. Cleffa was successful back in the HGSS days, but this has 6 times more HP and doesn’t put itself to sleep. Tornadus can also hit for big damage. Just like Lugia EX, a DCE and a couple of colress machines can score you a first turn 120. You don’t take an extra prize, but at least you don’t have to discard a plasma energy.
7. Thundurus EX
Thundurus-EX – Lightning – HP170
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)
[L] Thunder Knuckle: 30 damage. Attach an Energy card from your discard pile to one of your Benched Team Plasma Pokemon.
[L][L][C][C] Thunder Route: 90 damage. If this Pokemon has a Plasma Energy attached to it, discard an Energy card attached to the Defending Pokemon.
When Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Thundurus is another EX pokemon which is better as a support pokemon than a main attacker. Thunder knuckle can donk some lightning weak starters like Emolga with the right damage boosters, but the real application is the built in energy acceleration. We’ve seen this type of attack on many other pokemon, but they don’t see play. What stands out on this one (aside from being on a basic pokemon) is that you’re not limited to basic energy. Thundurus can retrieve double colorless, blend, prism, and most importantly, plasma. This has many uses, but the main beneficiary is Lugia EX. You can easily set up 3 prize knock outs by powering up Lugia with thunder knuckle and then having Lugia sweep on your next turn.
Thunder route isn’t as good. 4 energy for 90 damage is too expensive (even with proper energy acceleration), but it does one shot Lugia and energy discarding is a nasty side effect, making it much easier to 2 shot everything else. You could even use one to power up the other.
6. Shadow Triad
Shadow Triad – Trainer
Supporter (Team Plasma)
Search your discard pile for a Team Plasma card, reveal it to your opponent, and put it into your hand.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
Simple effect, but a good one. You retrieve one team plasma card from your discard pile and put it into your hand. This can be a trainer, pokemon, or plasma energy. Of course it is your supporter for a turn, but late game this can get you just what you need to win. I don’t see people running 4 of these in their plasma decks, but I can see them putting 1 or 2 in for insurance.
5. Metagross
Metagross – Psychic – HP140
Stage 2 (Team Plasma) – Evolves from Metang
Ability: Plasma Search
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may search your deck for a Team Plasma card, show it to your opponent, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards. You can’t use more than one Plasma Search ability each turn.
[P][C][C][C] Psycho Trip: 60 damage. The Defending Pokemon is now Confused.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
I normally don’t like stage 2s that only help you set up faster. Stage 2s require a set up just to get them out so the time you could most use them is before you get them into play. If you’re going to devote the resources to get it in play, then it should do something extraordinary. Fortunately, Metagross does more than enough to justify a spot in team plasma decks. Not only can Metagross fetch an arsenal of powerful pokemon, but can get you ANY team plasma card. Team plasma already has a nice collection of trainers, supporters, and energy that metagross can fetch. You can get colress machine to get that energy acceleration, you can grab a TP supporter for more draw or disruption (ghestis), and laser is also a TP card. The card is like a deck specific version of computer search. The only difference is that you can use it every turn and don’t have to discard any cards. Getting him out might be a hassle, but the ability to get exactly what you need at the right time could prove to be worth it.
4. Float Stone
Float Stone – Trainer
Item
Pokemon Tool: Each Pokemon can have only 1 Pokemon Tool attached to it at any time.
The Pokemon this card is attached to has no retreat cost.
You can use any number of Item cards during your turn.
This card couldn’t have come sooner. High retreat cost is something that holds a lot of pokemon back. It makes them the ideal catcher target, forcing you to waste energy on retreating. We have switch, but we’re only allowed four. Escape rope also helps, but it’s not always ideal to switch your opponents pokemon, especially when they get to choose. This leaves only Darkrai and Keldeo to provide your pokemon with free retreat. Darkrai requires dark energy and Keldeo only brings himself out. Only certain type of decks could have a consistent way of switching in and out of their attackers.
That ends now because float stone works with any pokemon and lets them retreat in and out consistently. You could put this on Keldeo to allow you to get out of any lock easily. With two of them you could switch in and out of attackers easily, allowing you some crazy combos with eels. Of course there are limits. It does not save you from stasis lock. You can’t use this on pokemon who already have tools attached to them and your opponent can always catcher out the pokemon without the float stone. But what the card does is provide you with another way to retreat for free. Even if you get tool scrapped next turn, the card served it’s use as an alternative to switch. But if they don’t, this becomes a reusable switch. Whether it’s used for combo purposes or just a way to give you free retreat, this is one tool I expect to see a lot of.
3. Ghestis
Ghetsis – Trainer
Supporter (Team Plasma)
Look at your opponent’s hand. Your opponent shuffles all Item cards back into his or her deck. Draw 1 card for each Item card shuffled in this way.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
This is a risky one. You’re counting on your opponent having items in their hand to make the best use of this. You may end up only getting one card, or worse none at all, essentially wasting your supporter for the turn. If you’re going to play this, you’re going to want to play it when your opponent has a huge hand size, but even then you’re still not guaranteed to get your moneys worth. Those factors hurt the card, BUT when you do play it and you do get it off, it can be more disruptive than N. Not only do you get rid of their items, limiting their options next turn, but you get cards off of it. It’s like playing two supporters in one!
Of course, I wouldn’t rely on this as a draw card. Sure, it can get you some cards if you play it first. It might win you the game right there. What Ghestis does best is disrupt. If it’s late game and you fear your opponent has a catcher, you can play this to make sure. If they do, you got rid of a threat, but if they don’t, you at least get to look at your opponents hand and know you’re safe (unless they draw into it next turn). It’s a card that must be used with caution, but smart players can take advantage of it. I expect this to have a huge impact on how people play their hand.
2. Deoxys EX
Deoxys-EX – Psychic – HP170
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)
Ability: Power Connect
All of your Team Plasma Pokemon (excluding Deoxys-EX) do 10 more damage to the Defending Pokemon.
[P][C] Spiral Force: 30+ damage. If this Pokemon has a Plasma Energy attached to it, this attack does 30 more damage for each Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon.
When Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
And here it is, the card that spells doom for any deck that needs to take even one turn to set up. We already have the laser/virbank combo for additional damage, we have colress machine for acceleration, and now we have this, a pokemon that powers up your plasma pokemon even more. TP Kyurem can easily hit 40, 50, 60, or even 70 damage on the first turn while dealing 30 to the bench. Thunderus EX can put even more pressure on opponents, possibly paving the way for Lugia EX to take 3 prizes off of an EX. And with 3 of these, 2 colress machine, DCE, and a Tornadus or Lugia EX, you can deal 180 damage on your first turn! That’s enough to Donk an EX!!!!
Speaking of EXs, this is Mewtwo EXs worst enemy. Since Deoxys only needs two energy, a Mewtwo/DCE counter attack will do 160 (thanks to weakness), 10 damage short of killing Deoxys. Meanwhile, Deoxys hits a fully powered Mewtwo EX for 180, enough to take it out. So in addition to having the damage boosting ability, Deoxys has a powerful attack if you need something to attack with. This is the card that’s going to change the metagame for the worst. Be afraid, be very afraid.
1.
Team Plasma’s Poke Ball – Trainer
Item (Team Plasma)
Search your deck for a Team Plasma Pokemon card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards.
You can use any number of Item cards during your turn.
Sometimes the best cards are the simpliest ones. Take Team Plasma Pokeball. It has a simple effect of letting you get a plasma pokemon from your deck and putting it into your hand. It sounds simple, but when you take into account how many unique plasma pokemon there are, you can see how versatile this is. The big card this can get out is Deoxys EX. Having an easy way to get that out makes donking EXs a very real possibility. But you can get any plasma pokemon you need. Thunderus for energy acceleration, Tornadus for a new hand, Lugia to take two prizes, Kyurem for snipe, metagross to snag a one of the many useful plasma trainers. The list goes on.
The best thing about this is that it comes with no cost or limits. There’s no coinflips (pokeball), no discards (ultra ball), no need for a pokemon in hand (pcom), you’re not limited to low HP pokemon (level ball), or catcher targets (heavy ball). The only limit is that it must be team plasma. Considering you’re going to want to get that anyway, that’s not much of a limit.
And now for some honorable mentions.
http://pokebeach.com/2012/12/bw8-spiral-force-and-thunder-knuckle (for some scans and translations)
Exeggcute: Not sold on it because anything with 30 HP can be donker by Virbank/Laser alone. But it has the ability to return to your hand if it’s in the discard pile. Or for those yugioh players, it’s the same as sinister serpent, a card that eventually had to be banned. I don’t think the ability will be as good in pokemon as it was there, but someone should find a use for it.
Glaceon: Reduces the retreat cost for team plasma pokemon by two. Many plasma pokemon have a retreat cost of 2 so this essentially gives them free retreat. It’s problem is that it’s a stage 1 with only 90 HP which makes it hard to stay on the field very long.
Cofagrigus: Gets points for being interesting. Ability lets you blow yourself up to put 3 damage counters on your opponents pokemon in anyway you like. It may not sound worth the prize exchange, but when you’re taking out an opponents EX, it could be well worth it. The attack is also interesting. The damage output isn’t the greatest (70), but it does make all their coin flips tails. At the very least this should grant you immunity to lasers and hammers for a turn.
Absol: Mostly for it’s typing, it’s a dark basic, team plasma pokemon. Has easy access two of the best forms of energy acceleration, is not stopped by sigilyph and Plasma Klang, and can do 120 if they have a full bench.
Mr Mime: Ability protects your bench. A great tech as long as Darkrai and Landorus are in the format.
Kingdra: Second attack is like next destinies Chandelure, one energy for 30 to 3 pokemon. First attack does 20 times the number of water and lightning energy in your discard pile before shuffling those energy into your deck. Has more HP than Chandy and is a dragon.
Raticate: HP sucks at 70, but the first attack gets you back 3 TP cards from your deck (a pokemon, trainer, and energy).
Rock Guard: It’s a Rocky Helmet in ace spec form, but it does 60 damage. Ace spec tool cards are not the most reliable, but any deck that can take advantage of rocky helmet might want to consider this.
Beedrill: First attack does 20 base for 1, but if you have no damage on you, that becomes 60 plus poison and confusion. With Virbank that’s atleast 90 damage for 1 energy! Also has free retreat.
Vanilluxe: First attack is similar to next destinies darmanitan. You flip a coin for each energy attached and do 60 damage times the number of heads. 3 heads takes out an EX and it can work with any energy type. Victini and Blastoise could make this a fun deck.
Umbreon: Ability gives all team plasma pokemon 20 more HP. It also stacks (as far as I know).
Latias EX: Has an ability that protects it from other pokemon with abilities. Attack isn’t the best, dealing 70 for 3, but it gets around effects.
Life Essense: Opponent takes one less prize when knocking out the pokemon this is attached to. Too useful of an ability not to be on this list, but it’s an ACE spec tool.
So those are the cards that stick out. Feel free to post your own list or prediction on what will be the big cards of this next set.
