Discussion "Ultra Prism" and their new Prism mechanic?

[Firewyn]

Hi Pokebeachers,

Earlier in the week we were given info in regards to our February set called, "Ultra Prism"


"The set will introduce a brand new mechanic called Prism Star cards. Six of these Prism Star cards will be made for the set. No further information is known about them.

“Prism” is often a type of holo rare in other card games, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this new mechanic is also a new type of rarity. We’ve had prism-esque holos before (like Starmie BREAK) and “star” cards before (like Mudkip ☆). “Prism” almost certainly refers to Necrozma, the Prism Pokemon, so its two forms will likely get Prism Star cards." - Quoted from the article

I have a few ideas on how this "Prism" mechanic may work,
1) It can be like the "Legend" cards in the past in which you'll need both sides of the card to play it
2) It could also be like the Ace-Spec Cards (1 per deck)
3) I'm curious if any of these might be specific to the Ultra Beasts
4) OR some type of NEW rarity (maybe like the gold-plated full arts shown off last week)

I'd like to hear what you guys think about the new set in February! I'm super excited!
- Firewyn

 

[Duo]

Since they are advertising it as a "brand new mechanic," I expect it to be something we've never had before. It could be a revival of Ace Spec cards, but that wouldn't be a "brand new" mechanic. That would just be a rebranded mechanic.

Pokemon GX and Pokemon EX are very different due to mega evolutions for EX and the fact that all EXs are basics while GXs still need to evolve up. GX Pokemon also received GX attacks which are akin to Z-moves to match the theme of SuMo, so Pokemon GX are, in fact, a "brand new" mechanic even if they do share things like the 2 prize reward upon KO like EXs.

Now, if "brand new mechanic" is just a buzz phrase to get everyone hyped, then the return of something similar to Ace Spec would be pretty reasonable assumption.

I think we can count out the possibility of special tools for Ultra Beasts since we already have the whole Silvally thing going on, so once again that would not be a "brand new" mechanic.

My first guess is that it's going to be Necrozma-centric. Necrozma is kind of a wild card right now since it has Solgaleo & Lunala forms since revealed in the covers for Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon and is, to my knowledge, not confirmed or denied to be an Ultra Beast itself. I would not be surprised at all if Necrozma had forms for all of the other Ultra Beasts as well. This could end up being something like Polymerization but for Pokemon where if you have a Solgaleo and a Necrozma on the bench and then you play the appropriate Prism star card, you can "evolve" them together into Dusk Mane Necrozma. If that's the case, these cards would be akin to Spirit Links for Mega Evolutions strictly in the sense that they are a card that supports a very specific evolution. If this is true, then we would be seeing Solgaleo Prism Star, Lunala Prism Star, and Prism Stars for every Ultra Beast.

Alternatively, this could just be playing Necrozma, then playing the different Prism Star cards to "evolve" it into Dusk Mane or Dawn Wing. If you read up a bit about Necrozma, it has the most relations to prisms and light, so one way or another I'm absolutely convinced that it's going to be a mechanic revolving around Necrozma. His first attack is called Prismatic burst for starters, and he is a completely colorless attacker making him one of the most versatile cards to "evolve" into other forms and take on new typings.

We know that this upcoming set has 10 GX Pokemon, 5 of which are Ultra Beasts, and 3 of which are likely to be the 3 new ultra beasts that we know about. My initial reaction to this GX count was "that's pretty low for a 150+ card set." If you want to consider 6 Prism Star cards and the fact that 5 of 10 GX Pokemon are supposed to be Ultra Beasts, that doesn't leave room for 6 GX Pokemon that would combo off of the Prism star mechanic assuming that everything I'm assuming is how it's going to sort of be like. We might be getting new PRISM type Pokemon, so instead of something like Dusk Mane Necrozma [GX], we will have Dusk Mane Necrozma [PRISM].

This is really as deep as I can go before I feel like I'm spouting complete nonsense. I am absolutely convinced that it will be related to Necrozma, and if it isn't then I'll be darned.