Volbeat, Illumise from “Mask of Change”

JustInBasil

JustInBasil

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Volbeat and Illumise were just revealed from SV6 Mask of Change! The set will release in Japan on April 26th. It should combine with March’s Crimson Haze to form our Twilight Masquerade set in May.
Volbeat – Grass – HP70
Basic Pokémon
[C] Fast Sign: If you go first, you can use this attack during your first turn. Search your deck for up to 2 Basic Pokémon and put them onto your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck.
[C][C] Coordinated Strike: 20+ damage. If Illumise is on your Bench, this attack does 60 more damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1

Illumise – Grass – HP70
Basic Pokémon...
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Continue reading...
 
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Nice to see Volbeat & Illumise still appearing in the same sets and drawn by the same artist.

Solrock & Lunatone went strong until Solrock when solo in Primal Clash. They would then appear together in Burning Shadows, but they were drawn by different artists. Since then they have appeared together, some by the same artist, some not.

Plusle & Minun have always been in the same sets, however the same artist trend broke in Shining Legends. In fact, since then they have never been done by the same artist - except for their latest appearance in the Art Rare in Paradox Rift.
 
Miraidon has the effect of Volbeat's attack for free as an Ability. At least they could make it cost zero, to mimic the great Alolan Vulpix of yesteryear.
Illumise, on the other hand, has some troll potential. Sadly it cannot catch an over-extended opponent by shuffling their Charizard ex or Gardevoir ex.
 
Been waiting for this one prize fast carrier card to replace bombirdier. There was a Chatot with A Capella that came close but it can't be used on the first turn going first. I didn't lose hope tho. ??
 
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The Illumise is bad, but the Volbeat has a niche for Torterra decks. It is a Buddy Poffin searchable Grass pokemon that can first turn (going first or 2nd) get 2 Turtwigs out of your deck and onto your bench.

It slightly helps the deck's issues with setting up consistently. Doesn't do much to fix the lack of a meaningful payoff for all the restriction, though. (Seriously, 180 damage at most while Greninja ex hits for only 10 less but lets you search ANY CARD FROM YOUR DECK???).

I will say, the reveals seem very Grass-heavy so far with Sinistcha, two Teal Mask Ogrepon, Bug Catcher's Set, and now these two. It feels like an indication that this set is gonna try to put Grass types into the spotlight. Then again that's what? 6 Grass pokemon revealed so far and none of them look like anything you'd want to build your deck around, so maybe not?
 
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Yaginku said:
At least they could make it cost zero, to mimic the great Alolan Vulpix of yesteryear.
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That would break what I would think is the GMs unwritten rule as to what Pokémon can have zero-cost attacks.
Yaginku said:
Sadly it cannot catch an over-extended opponent by shuffling their Charizard ex or Gardevoir ex.
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But it can at least disrupt one Basic from being evolved next turn. It's a small silver lining.
 
Volbeat is not good. If you go 2nd that's completely dead card in your deck. Illumise's attack on the other hand is not bad. That's pretty strong against some stage 2 decks or even Lugia deck. If they put only 1 Lugia on their bench and active is not Lugia they are in trouble when you discard their benched Lugia
 
ZekromFan said:
Volbeat is not good. If you go 2nd that's completely dead card in your deck. Illumise's attack on the other hand is not bad. That's pretty strong against some stage 2 decks or even Lugia deck. If they put only 1 Lugia on their bench and active is not Lugia they are in trouble when you discard their benched Lugia
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Volbeat's attack to search out 2 Pokemon isn't restricted to only going first. If you don't go first, it is pretty much just a worse Basculin (which is an okay 1-of in decks that want to see their basic rulesbox Pokemon as quickly as possible). But being able to use the attack when going first at least gives it some niche situations where it is better than Basculin.

Illumise's application is way more niche. You don't discard the Pokemon, you shuffle it back into the deck. So it DOES slow the opponent down a turn. But you're also slowing yourself down a turn to do it. On only on your first turn going second, what are you shuffling back that is gonna be worth leaving a 70HP Pokemon who's only other attack is 30 damage for 2 energy in your active? If your opponent doesn't see it coming (meaning you can't start with Illumise in your active), they could overextend and put a bunch of energy onto something like a benched iron Hands ex with Electric Generator. Then shuffling back the cards would effectively waste their Electric Generators. But at that point, you're relying on the opponent misplaying and/or having bad opening for your card to have any value.
 
PkmnMstr10 said:
That would break what I would think is the GMs unwritten rule as to what Pokémon can have zero-cost attacks.

But it can at least disrupt one Basic from being evolved next turn. It's a small silver lining.
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So sad they stopped with the babies there were so many left out. Tho less so for the viability of these cards and more bc these pokemon rarely see the light of day
 
ElSilverWind said:
Volbeat's attack to search out 2 Pokemon isn't restricted to only going first. If you don't go first, it is pretty much just a worse Basculin (which is an okay 1-of in decks that want to see their basic rulesbox Pokemon as quickly as possible). But being able to use the attack when going first at least gives it some niche situations where it is better than Basculin.

Illumise's application is way more niche. You don't discard the Pokemon, you shuffle it back into the deck. So it DOES slow the opponent down a turn. But you're also slowing yourself down a turn to do it. On only on your first turn going second, what are you shuffling back that is gonna be worth leaving a 70HP Pokemon who's only other attack is 30 damage for 2 energy in your active? If your opponent doesn't see it coming (meaning you can't start with Illumise in your active), they could overextend and put a bunch of energy onto something like a benched iron Hands ex with Electric Generator. Then shuffling back the cards would effectively waste their Electric Generators. But at that point, you're relying on the opponent misplaying and/or having bad opening for your card to have any value.
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True. Still you lose a turn and 1 spot from your bench when play either of those 2. I don't see they are worth to play. Of course you need to get them to active spot if they are not in opening hand
 
I read somewhere that volbeat was joint least-popular pokemon in the entire game. Cool to see it get a bit of love with a decent attack
 
PkmnMstr10 said:
But it can at least disrupt one Basic from being evolved next turn. It's a small silver lining.
Click to expand...
This is very matchup dependent. It's not a full write-off, but it is rather oportunistic to go second, get a hand that can play this, and for the opponent to have a board where you massively profit from removing one of their pieces and that not be a knockout.

From there, you'd need to figure out which matchups it isn't just easier to KO the first pokemon aggressively, or simply wait for a 2-prizer to KO later on.

On paper, Illumise seems really, really good against Arceus decks, but you need a deck that can reliably get this out, cares about wanting to play this against Arceus, and can afford having a brick in any matchup this isn't useful in slowing board state.
 
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