Yes, but all the Supporters are red, and the items are blue. Plus, Supporters are almost always humans and not, well items. This wouldn't be the first time that the front page has gotten something wrong, and it's no big deal. 
'Wild Blaze' Leaking: Scans and Translations! [3/12]
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
- Start date
Ohh I was thinking he meant evolving Flabebe into Floette. Sorry about that!Skeleton Liar said:
EDIT: Electrode BW76 + Protect Cube would be a good counter to Yveltal with 100dmg and no recoil for LCC, but not sure how accessible the card is to people. I myself only have 1 because it was in a Plasma Freeze blister at Target that I happened to pick up..
Frost Mage said:Yes, but all the Supporters are red, and the items are blue. Plus, Supporters are almost always humans and not, well items. This wouldn't be the first time that the front page has gotten something wrong, and it's no big deal.
True. It is an item upon close inspection. On the Japanese supporters the number 1 can be seen in the footnote text, but Pal Pad doesn't have the 1. And yes, it's blue. This is very good news.
I was thinking, it would be weird if there was a Supporter that recycled Supporters. Perhaps we can lighten up on our Supporter lines now!
Perhaps we can lighten up on our Supporter lines now!
Carpey said:
Oh yeah, that's right! Also I have only one Electrode BW76 (I ordered the blister from England because I'm from Italy and they haven't translated these promos) but maybe more of these Electrodes in a deck could work countering Yveltal EX, just because people do not expect it
Evaluations are assuming a more or less "competitive" environment; a lot of these should be a blast to play at Pokémon League, but that's a different set of criteria. Also... I was in a hurry reading the thread and know I missed or failed to retain a lot of content; if it reads like I "ignored" someone's comment or was directly rebutting them, it probably isn't intentional.
Grass Types:
Caterpie/Metapod/Butterfree: Butterfree is the first of many cards that needed their first attack to be an Ability to matter... and even then it really doesn't mesh with its lower Stages. Caterpie and Metapod can justify having "bad" to merely "acceptable" everything else because of their Abilities; if lower Stages are going to just be stepping stones, a cost for playing the Stage 2, this is one of the best ways to do it. Butterfree fails to capitalize on this by combining two questionable tactics into its "small" attack; accelerating a single Energy at the cost of... a single Energy (sometimes works on a Big Basic) and healing less than half the damage you take on average this format (works in hypothetical specific circumstances). Yes, the lack of restrictions on that Energy is good (if it last through translation revisions), but not enough. If you go first you can't use it even though Butterfree can get into play that turn. If you go second... there are very few ways for your opponent to have damaged any of your Pokémon, and you'll only open with a Caterpie if you must because of its Ability. The big attack is bland and underpowered, only saved from being a total fail in that it can use Double Colorless Energy.
Pineco: While it won't be as good once Heavy Ball rotates, for now "fattening it up" to a three Retreat Cost would have been useful (Forretress has a three Retreat Cost, contrary to the text spoiler on Pokébeach). Attack is underpowered but serviceable... had it been the same Ability as Caterpie, we'd have had a new archetype and I might be complaining it was overpowered.
Seedot/Nuzleaf/Shiftry: Call For Family (and similar) attacks were nerfed by the current First Turn rules and even if not this would still have been underpowered (though better than a vanilla 10 for [C]). Speaking of which, Nuzleaf is vanilla filler that does one thing right; its overpriced attacks are friendly to Energy acceleration, including Double Colorless Energy which also works with Shiftry. Shiftry is a "tweaked" Empoleon, but probably not for the better: three times the Energy to hit twice as hard on a strategy that largely worked because it was a single Energy attack, and discarding [G] Energy (which from hand means basic Grass Energy cards) to draw just three cards instead of discarding anything to draw two. Being a Fire Weak Pokémon debuting in a set that beefs up Fire-Types when there is already some demand for a strong Fire Type deck to counter other Fire Weak Pokémon is pretty bad as well. Lastly... imagine if this had been a Darkness-Type discarding Darkness Energy. Actually, even if everything else was the same and it had discarded Darkness Energy... what might have been?
Maractus: Kind of fun gimmick but totally not worth it unless... actually if you just love coin flips there are still better choices. If the first attack was an Ability... the attack would still average 60 for (CC) with the potential for 0 damage, 120 damage, and a few other scores in between. No where near enough in this format, especially when its averaged out over two turns with an easy to disrupt "attack combo".
Fire-Types:
Charizard EX (11/80): This is the "bad" Charizard EX. Using a coin flip based attack to accelerate Energy to the Pokémon attacking means your opponent can get at least one attack in before Charizard EX can get off a shot for 120 points of damage. Even if Emboar was being used so that you could just attack directly, Charizard EX wouldn't actually be that special; Inferno Fandango decks count on scoring OHKOs and this Pokémon doesn't do that. I know you can use Victinit with Victory Star to improve the odds on that opening acceleration and Blacksmith can put the discard cost to use (plus save you running Emboar) but if you're scoring 2HKOs, you just need to average 90 points of damage per turn, and other cards can do that while getting a bonus, like Entei EX.
M Charizard EX: 300 points of damage is overkill outside of a few exceptions generally not viewed as competitive and easily dealt with by discard Pokémon Tools. Overkill is wasteful and potentially dangerous (we've had effects that "reflect" damage back at the attacker before). It slams itself hard enough to remove its HP advantage over most other Pokémon-EX, and while there is a Tool for that, this set just made Pokémon Tools even easier to discard.
Ponyta/Rapidash: Two so-so supporting attacks but no "big boom" or "awesome Ability" to seal the deal means this is another fragile Stage 1 that is just glass and not even a cannon.
Litleo/Pyroar: Lot of hype going into this. Litleo has "okay" HP and a really bad vanilla attack; it exists just to Evolve. Pyroar has a great Ability but a bad attack; you hit the "three for 90" threshold only when you use the optional effect to discard an Energy from itself. The good news is that you can use Double Colorless Energy with it plus the new Fire support. There are a lot of ways to deal with Intimidating Mane. Shut off the Ability and it shatters almost as easily as Rapidash. Effects of attacks still work, so you're not totally shutting down some opponents: Sableye can still Junk Hunt for Item Spam or try Confuse Ray just for Confusion. Even if you run something to counter Special Conditions (which creates a target that Basic Pokémon can try to force up and KO, plus a resource burden), other effects still apply (including ones that just bypass effects on the Defending Pokémon)... oh yeah, and a decent amount of decks either already include an Evolution that in this circumstance is worth attacking with or can work them in. In spite of all of this, Pyroar is probably a good addition to the game and it should have a presence... just not as Quad Pyroar (which only wins if a significant chunk of the field is unprepared or unlucky and those are all its match-ups).
Charizard EX (1/21): The "good" Charizard EX, relatively speaking. This is a format with decent Energy acceleration, and this set brings us more. It is also a format with a lot of ways to change out Active Pokémon or do spread damage or boost effective damage done. If I am using Inferno Fandango, would I drop Rayquaza EX for this? No; even with a Muscle Band you won't KO 180+ HP Pokémon. This might be a candidate for "different" Energy acceleration, the obvious being Blacksmith: one Blacksmith and one Double Colorless Energy means you're a Hypnobank or Muscle Band/Hypnotoxic Laser combo away from OHKOing anything that sees competitive play. Switch and then Switch again or repeat the set-up combo. Toss in some healing cards (probably not Max Potion) and at least you have a "fun" deck, and maybe something effective.
Water Types:
Qwilfish: Another Pokémon that wishes First Turn attacks were legal (not that I am advocating the format returning to that - long story). As is, it just isn't worth it; the Ability only works while Qwilfish is active and only responds to being damaged by an attack. 20 and a flip for Poison isn't bad for (CC), but isn't sufficient when its your only attack and you're Ability is Counterattack Needle. I do appreciate that this one looks like it was designed with some effort and an honest attempt at being competitive; if only they'd added a swarming mechanic and had Counterattack Needle respond to just about anything. I guess there is one use for it, but its a use covered by several other cards; attacker in a Vileplume deck, where a Silver Bangle secures a OHKO against Pokémon-EX that are Water Weak while a Muscle Band handles anything smaller.
Feebas/Milotic: Just like Magikarp and Gyarados, Feebas exists solely to Evolve into Milotic, and to be so bad that its a bigger burden than normal. =P Milotic brings an interesting form of Energy acceleration and the potential to manipulate your own Prize count, plus it excludes Pokémon-EX from directly benefiting from its Energy acceleration. At first glance I was amazed by this card but now that I've had time to think about this, while I still expect at least one deck to find a good use for it, I realize that you can't spam the effect which hurts some of the uses I imagined (like N for control decks). Feebas really is feeble; you risk an opponent winning via a first turn Hypnobank combo should you be forced to start with it, and many forms of Bench damage will take it down in one hit... or prevent Ditto from safely becoming it if you were trying to reduce the danger that way. Don't forget you also need the Energy in the discard for the effect to be of use. None of these are deal breakers, but each chips away at its potential; I am much less optimistic about it now.
Spheal/Sealo/Walrein: We see an example of "It could have been worse" with Spheal; that's the best I can say about it. Sealo is marginally better, but at least it looks a bit more like they tried as one of its overpriced attacks isn't vanilla and its HP and Retreat Cost make it a legal choice for both Heavy Ball and Level Ball. Walrein... isn't completely translated. What we can guess is that its impressive 150 HP and DCE friendly attacks will lack effects useful enough to make them competitive. Useful means more than something like "The Defending Pokémon is now Asleep." My computer isn't working the best so I can't really try for a quickie translation. The second attack has a minus (-) sign after the damage, and a x10 in the effect clause, so I am guessing it is something like "does 10x the number of damage counters less damage". Love to be wrong here, though without a good source of Energy acceleration that isn't another Stage 2, not seeing much hope even if I am.
Luvdisc: ...this may be an example of "Coin flips do not balance out really strong effects". I can't say I would play it, but this could be the final piece for lock deck. Obviously a lock that has a 50% chance of failing isn't good... but you've got the new Prank Scoop and the old Victory Star Victini to help with that. Just gotta neutralize (not necessarily eliminate) the opponent's hand while minimizing (again, not necessarily eliminating) his or her offense before going for the imperfect lock.
Buizel/Floatzel: See Rapidash; small Pokémon that is too fragile for what it does, and honestly what it does isn't very impressive regardless.
Bergmite/Avalugg: Way overpriced attacks, even factoring in that it can make solid use of DCE or similar Energy acceleration. Bergmite discarding the top card of the opponent's deck is a small change of pace, but seems kind of random and nothing else justifies risking it in attacking.
Lightning Types:
Shinx/Luxio/Luxray: No. Shinx isn't entirely bad (HP is better than I expected, at least its first attack might keep it alive long enough to Evolve) but that is stretching to find good things about it. Luxio just needed its second attack to require [LCC] or to make it a more than just the token Stage 1 you sometimes run in case of Item lock; well, that or higher damage. As is, you still probably should run 1 with the rest of the line for the usual reasons and in case you are really fortunate and Electric Counter can give you a game winning OHKO (or similarly vital hit). Of course, all of this is for not because Luxray itself isn't worth playing; appreciate discarding an Item, but just let me see my opponent's hand and choose since its an attack, on a Stage 2, that requires [LC] to use, and only does 40 points of damage besides said discard. Which still wouldn't make it "good", just gives it a bit better potential. Wild Tackle might be worth considering if it required [LCC] instead of [LLC], but probably not: even though we can deal with the self-damage, said tricks are more vulnerable to being discarded now plus you can't use Muscle Band with them (meaning we can't get the overall damage to meaningful levels).
Magnezone EX: As stated, unless we get an odd situation akin to what happened with Kyogre EX, this is just a bad deal... and I really don't see that happening as we've got better Bench hitters, protection against hitting the Bench, and better Lightning-Type attackers/overall lack of space for this kind of play.
Helioptile/Heliolisk: See Rapidash and Floatzel.
Psychic Types:
Duskull/Dusclops/Dusknoir: The lower Stages are important simply because they were likely to be absent from the card pool after the next rotation. Resurrection (on Duskull) is also interesting, but probably will cost you a Prize to use. Dusclops gets a single thing right; its Energy costs are in line with Dusknoir so that both can utilize Energy acceleration like DCE; its attacks and Stats are otherwise wanting. Dusknoir is Fossil Slowbro done right... or at least better. You can move damage counters from your other Pokémon to it... in a format with Max Potion and Super Potion, which Slowbro only wishes it had had (well, modern Super Potion). Paindrops is not only a fun name, but a decent attack; it should require a lot of work to use as a main attacker given the HP on Dusknoir, but I like it for the Ability anyway. Decent synergy with our currently available Dusknoir as well.
Toxicroak EX: This card... gets so much wrong. If it was a Fighting-Type, it would enjoy exploiting Weakness against about half of Colorless-Type Pokémon, and most Darkness-Type and Lightning-Type Pokémon. The HP is good, the Weakness and lack of Resistance are what you'd expect, and the Retreat Cost is good (but not great). Unfortunately the "meat" of the card, the attacks, are both really bad. Trioxic inflicts "triple Poison" status... in a format that is all about dealing with Poison damage. Since it does this by an attack. Trioxic is "Not! Blow Through", but with a specific Stadium requirement (Virbank City Gym and places three (or five) damage counters instead of doing actual damage. Unlike the Poison from Hypnotoxic Laser (which replaces the "triple Poison" effect if used afterwards), your opponent's Active needs to remain Poisoned for this to "stack" with attacks. So far this card doesn't sound that bad, but then you get to the "big" attack. [PPC] is not easy to pay and should yield at least 90 points of damage plus a solid effect to be competitive. 80 points of damage and a "dud" effect doesn't cut it. Remember... Resistance has become an almost superfluous game mechanic as damage has risen faster than HP. This card would so much better just hitting for 100 points of damage; same end effect (80 vs Pokémon w/Resistance) but would score OHKOs against almost any Psychic Weak Pokémon and 2HKOs against anything neither Weak nor Resistant.
Espurr/Meowstic: I may be fond of cats and puns, but this duo just doesn't "do it" for competitive play. Well it might have, but the attacks are far too expensive for what they do. Espurr otherwise has the sense to try to Paralysis (maybe buying it enough time to Evolve) and Meowstic is a Glass Cannon... but too expensive to bother using with a first attack that does what so far is really only good as an Ability and a second that (for the third time this paragraph) requires way to much Energy to use.
Skrelp: At least it does something, but its small and can't even reliably Poison. Obviously only play it if you are using the Evolved form.
Fighting Types:
Geodude/Graveler/Golem: Geodude is not pure filler if there is a good "Use attacks from lower Stages" mechanic available. Otherwise, its attacks are no where near good enough for justify using a small, Evolving Basic as an offensive attack and won't help it survive to Evolve. Graveler on the other hand is, though at least its not as bad as it could have been as it can still be searched by Heavy Ball (for as long as that matters). Both can use DCE which is good, because so can Golem. Golem sports solid Stats with a first attack that is probably underpowered: [FCC] for 60+ damage, but no translation for the effect yet which means it would have to make up for being 30 points too low on the "base damage". This Golem blows itself up for 150 damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon and "only" 100 to itself, but without a good source of Energy acceleration (beyond DCE) that probably won't mean much. Yes, you can use Protect Cube to completely avoid the self-damage, but besides it being even easier to ditch Pokémon Tools as of this set, you still need another 20-30 points of damage to score a OHKO. Yes, Hypnobank can provide that but... you have room for all of that? While being fast and reliable enough to be competitive? Yeah. =/
Binacle/Barbaracle: Binacle is just there to Evolve, but at least it has a Heavy Ball friendly Retreat Cost for as long - say it with me now - "as long as it matters". Barbaracle has an overpriced vanilla second attack, but you'll only play it for its first; 30 points of damage per [F] Energy you choose to discard from your hand (currently that means basic Fighting Energy). The catch is it requires Evolving from Binacle and having [FF] attached to use the attack. Can be done, but won't be easy. Also remember that if your opponent's deck can set-up replacement attackers effectively, Barbaracle itself will be OHKOed.
Darkness Types:
Sneasel/Weavile: It almost feels like some attacks were swapped around. Flash Claw (Sneasel) requiers [DC] to discard 1 card from your opponent's hand (opponent's choice); definitely overpriced and unlikely to keep Sneasel around long enough to Evolve. Weavile though has Call For Family to get two Basics onto your Bench and at a price of [C]... and attack that would have been serviceable on Sneasel but is pretty bad on a fragile Stage 1. Flash Claw (if it was cheaper and stronger0 would be similarly decent for Weavile. Then again, they'd still fail to be worth the effort given that the "big" attack on Weavile is overpriced and/or underpowered as well. Attacks that do more damage if the Defending Pokémon is already injured really need to be delivering the follow up KO.
Stunky/Skuntank: Smokescreen provides Stunky with some form of Defense, so while it isn't good at least it makes some sense... but every other attack is underwhelming and/or overpriced, even considering the acceleration available. Discarding Energy only works right now when its massive and/or not limited to the Defending Pokémon, while also doing decent damage (if not discarding multiple Energy)... and the attack needs to be on a good sized Basic Pokémon and very inexpensive, such as on Cobalion EX.
Metal Types:
Forretress: Ignore "Ironfall" as it is bad as we keep getting ways to zero out or lower Retreat Costs, and never something effective at raising them. The Ability has potential while we have Devolution Spray (or a similar effect available) and Lysandre is the "worst" decks have to deal with for Bench disruption. You'll need something up front absorbing hits and another Bench sitter in case of Escape Rope, and the frontmon had better be be real good at absorbing hits or else competent at dealing damage, stalling, etc. Its a long shot with how delicate the set-up will have to be, unless we get an easy method of repeatedly Evolving and Devolving.
Durant: If there is ever a way to repeatedly and reliably flood your opponent's hand during your own turn so that you'll be discarding at least five cards per attack (creating a "mill" deck), then "maybe"; otherwise "no".
Fairy Types:
Flabebe/Floette/Florges: All but ignore the Stage 2, focus on the Stage 1 as that +20 to Grass-Type Pokémon is something I've more than once wished for while reviewing cards. Start looking for combos where that will put something over-the-top. Thanks to Rainbow Energy, one Florges probbaly wouldn't be a bad piece of TecH if you're already using Floette in multiples.
Carbink: Clutch final attacker singleton for Fairy Transfer decks; a successful "glass cannon".
Dragon-Type:
M Charizard EX: Somehow worse than the other version; this one ends up with the easier to exploit Dragon-Type Weakness (so much for Mega Pokémon-EX durability), an Energy cost of [RRDCC], and discards five cards from the top of your own deck in order to... do wasted damage overkilling targets that probably have 200 HP tops.
Druddigon: The Dragon-Type counterpart to Terrakion, hitting for that key 90 points of damage if something was KOed by an opponent's attack the turn before. Exploiting Dragon-Type Weakness isn't as profitable as exploiting Fighting-Type Weakness, but its definitely a factor and this time can be fueled by a lone DCE. Mind the Fairy-Type Weakness and tricks to bypass triggering the extra damage clause that people learned with Terrakion.
Dragalge: We have Abilities, Trainers and even some attacks to bypass manually retreating. We also have Snorlax [Plasma] that can prevent retreating regardless of Poison, even if only while Active. Yes "from the Bench" will often be better as you probably want to Poison the Defending Pokémon anyway, but it isn't always an option and the main thing is Snorlax [Plasma] means players are already used to dealing with this kind of thing. The attack is of course overpriced and Dragalge is fragile.
Goomy/Sliggoo/Goodra: The healing is underpowered compared to the offensive capacity of the line, especially for the lower Stages (which probably just should have had the same Ability). Can you build a deck around this? Yes, but even sacrificing Milotic for additional speed doesn't seem likely to make this a "competitive" deck; functional but not competitive.
Colorless Types:
Pidgey/Pidgeotto/Pidgeot: No. Just "no". Its all overpriced attacks that don't have synergy, or at least any worth mentioning.
Kangaskhan EX: This Pokémon wishes it could attack first turn granted that would also mean dealing with things like Landorus EX first turn. Its mediocre in a format where only "great" Pokémon-EX can cut it, but it can use any Energy and of course, it can Mega Evolve. For once, that might matter.
M Kangaskhan EX: This may be the best Mega Pokémon-EX we've got, but that isn't saying much. The attack has the potential to OHKO anything, but needs help to make that reliable enough to bother. It can use any Energy to attack, which is also a bonus, but will never enjoy hitting Weakness. Run it with Victory Star Victinit and Muscle Band and maybe Aspertia City Gym... or some tactics of which I haven't yet thought; just for not being so obviously bad and outclassed, its worth a look.
Snorlax: My favorite Pokémon comes sort of close to being worth using. Snooze obviously has to be dealt with, but even if you have to rely on coin flips, you do get them (unlike Paralysis). Collapsing Breath hits hard enough to justify the Energy and set-up for an easy 2HKO... a OHKO if you can stack Hypnobank and Muscle Band/Silver Banlge on top. The healing for the self is the problem; its a nice bonus, but with the massive Energy investment you can't afford to boost damage while also running the usual "tricks" to accelerate Energy... which means you need to heal all the damage off of this card so that it only fears OHKOs or being stuck Asleep. Oh well, at least it isn't boring. Hopefully I'll be wrong about this one.
Sentret/Furret: Stage 1 Pokémon are really bad at being "attacking" set-up Pokémon, and yet the card designers keep doing that. Sentret is pure filler, extra ironic as having it aid in set-up would make sense and be much more effective. None of the attacks hit hard enough to be remotely worth it as a offensive attacker. Sure it can get by on just DCE, but you still aren't getting what you "pay" for (in terms of resources invested).
Miltank: This is a decent attacker for any deck with a Stage 2 (and room). You'll never hit Weakness but you can set-up for a 2HKO. Greninja (something I didn't think of myself) seems like an especially good partner: while most decks should be able to score a OHKO against it if they have a half decent set-up, Miltank is Energy efficient so a back-up shouldn't be far behind, all of which allows your spammed Greninja swarm to rain death upon your opponent's field (and probably setting up for OHKOs of Pokémon-EX).
Buneary/Lopunny: Is Lopunny mistranslated? If not, I've got no idea what the designers were thinking. Pokémon isn't like TCGs where you can bounce something (especially on your turn) to avoid an opponent's card effect, causing it to miss and be wasted. It doesn't have the HP to survive a hit or an Energy efficient attack, so what point is there in returning it to your hand save to make space for something better... which means not running it at all. The attack is too weak and there's a chance you can't use it again the next turn? At least Buneary attacks and then gets to the Bench for added Safety.
Trainers:
Prank Scoop: Lots of potential here; the main drawback is that it doesn't directly contribute to a KO or add to your hand or anything like that, and occasionally some decks will have something where leaving it on top or discarding it are both good deals for your opponent... or at least you won't know which is worse. This could be an important piece for future control decks.
Sacred Ash: I'd rather it was Pokémon or Energy, but it is at least plausible some deck would need to reclaim just Pokémon that badly; for example decks that just don't run Basic Energy to begin with... plus last I checked, Super Rod was likely to rotate out at the next format shift so it might be the best option at that point.
Surprise Megaphone: Hate. You. (The card, not you the reader). Pokémon Tools were already hurt by Tool Scrapper being "too good"... and Tool Scrapper was a nerfed Windstorm! It is now dangerous to use any Item that doesn't provide an instant return, meaning we are either "speeding up" the game or dumbing it down; neither is good. Well, Surprise Megaphone itself is great. Yippee. -_-
Flame Torch: Great for decks that can run enough basic Fire Energy to use it. We might even be able to see a few decks that use few or no draw Supporters between this, Bicycle and Roller Skates given we've got a few non-draw Supporters worth using... but that's a long shot. Mostly this will just help more conventionally built Fire-Type decks, especially those using heavy Superior Energy Retrieval and/or Blacksmith.
Protect Cube: This would have been niche usage only even if Surprise Megaphone wasn't present; cards that hit for 40 (or less) points of self damage should stick to Eviolite if it is an option. For Evolutions and/or cards that hit harder... need to actually be worth the effort, and so far that doesn't appear to be happening. Really scary using something that depends on Protect Cube when it can be discarded so easily, though if you can attack right away at least you can trade damaging yourself for the Pokémon Tool. Yeah, thinking self-healing (a la Gold Berry) might also have been better; your Pokémon has to hit its self insanely hard (see Golem) to justify the investment (ignoring whether or not the Pokémon itself is worth the effort).
Lyasandre: Slightly underpowered, I think, but good to have. I always hated how people blamed Pokémon Catcher for issues with Pokémon balance. Protip: if you can't score a OHKO, you can't force something Active and OHKO it, but if you can't force something Active but can still score a OHKO... you can still score a OHKO. It is very easy for the Bench to be "too safe", and expending a Supporter is just a bit expensive to reliably force something up: even if you did think that an Item wasn't costly enough, your Supporter use significantly more valuable. A small, secondary effect would have been nice, especially if it were balanced to avoid the primary concern people have (enabling easy KOs of formerly Benched Pokémon, especially OHKOs, that prevents most Bench strategy): the effects of Lysandre and Team Flare Grunt on the same Supporter, for instance (discard happens to the promoted Pokémon or the one forced to the Bench). That kind of effect would totally be worth not discarding my hand to draw seven cards. Enough CaC though.
Pokémon Center Lady: Underwhelming. The old Pokémon Nurse Supporter wouldn't make sense to bring back; she had the same effect as Max Potion. A "Super Potion sans Energy discard plus Full Heal" is weak for a Supporter... which right now often equals "discard hand, draw seven" or similarly potent effects that "drive" your deck. Healing 90 and Special Conditions would have been about right, or functioning as the old Pokémon Center effect (heals all damage from every Pokémon you have with damage on it, anything healed discards all its Energy) plus maybe the Full Heal effect (removing Special Conditions is still not that valuable as a one-time effect, even in this format). Oops, playing CaC again: this still could see some play because healing is unexpected and 60 (while not even equal to the average attack) is still enough to turn some OHKOs into 2HKOs, 2HKOs into 3HKOs, etc. Tank decks that can't afford any Energy discards (especially if they lack other anti-Special Condition features) might make use of it.
Pokémon Fan Club: Two Basic Pokémon for your Supporter sounds a bit steep in a format where you have massive draw power and several excellent search Items, but a lot of people are telling me I am wrong; given past performance, I almost agree with them. Maybe not every deck, but certain ones? Bet this annoys the alternate-format crowd.
Magnetic Storm: Does Resistance really matter? The last few formats, only very rarely. This is probably more valuable in that it is an almost totally "neutral" Stadium you can safely run to discard other Stadiums. If your Pokémon have no Resistance there is no potential to help your opponent with it and if Resistance to the Type(s) of your own Pokémon exist, you may even benefit from the actual effect. Also... again tweaking an older card, but this time I don't think it should really be an issue.
Blacksmith: While no where near as easily abused as Dark Patch, this should enable a new kind of Fire Deck, hopefully more than one. Ultra Ball, Flame Torch, and Professor Juniper (or Professor Sycamore) should help set-up for it (the first two even on the same turn). It might even be of use to Inferno Fandango decks, one or two copies as a "back up" if something sabotages Emboar itself. Yes, Garbodor can be handled by Suprirse Megaphone even better than it was by Tool Scrapper, but there is also shooting for a Second Turn KO, not having Emboar in play, and all your Energy being in the discard pile already.
Also... I was in a hurry reading the thread and know I missed or failed to retain a lot of content; if it reads like I "ignored" someone's comment or was directly rebutting them, it probably isn't intentional.Grass Types:
Caterpie/Metapod/Butterfree: Butterfree is the first of many cards that needed their first attack to be an Ability to matter... and even then it really doesn't mesh with its lower Stages. Caterpie and Metapod can justify having "bad" to merely "acceptable" everything else because of their Abilities; if lower Stages are going to just be stepping stones, a cost for playing the Stage 2, this is one of the best ways to do it. Butterfree fails to capitalize on this by combining two questionable tactics into its "small" attack; accelerating a single Energy at the cost of... a single Energy (sometimes works on a Big Basic) and healing less than half the damage you take on average this format (works in hypothetical specific circumstances). Yes, the lack of restrictions on that Energy is good (if it last through translation revisions), but not enough. If you go first you can't use it even though Butterfree can get into play that turn. If you go second... there are very few ways for your opponent to have damaged any of your Pokémon, and you'll only open with a Caterpie if you must because of its Ability. The big attack is bland and underpowered, only saved from being a total fail in that it can use Double Colorless Energy.
Pineco: While it won't be as good once Heavy Ball rotates, for now "fattening it up" to a three Retreat Cost would have been useful (Forretress has a three Retreat Cost, contrary to the text spoiler on Pokébeach). Attack is underpowered but serviceable... had it been the same Ability as Caterpie, we'd have had a new archetype and I might be complaining it was overpowered.
Seedot/Nuzleaf/Shiftry: Call For Family (and similar) attacks were nerfed by the current First Turn rules and even if not this would still have been underpowered (though better than a vanilla 10 for [C]). Speaking of which, Nuzleaf is vanilla filler that does one thing right; its overpriced attacks are friendly to Energy acceleration, including Double Colorless Energy which also works with Shiftry. Shiftry is a "tweaked" Empoleon, but probably not for the better: three times the Energy to hit twice as hard on a strategy that largely worked because it was a single Energy attack, and discarding [G] Energy (which from hand means basic Grass Energy cards) to draw just three cards instead of discarding anything to draw two. Being a Fire Weak Pokémon debuting in a set that beefs up Fire-Types when there is already some demand for a strong Fire Type deck to counter other Fire Weak Pokémon is pretty bad as well. Lastly... imagine if this had been a Darkness-Type discarding Darkness Energy. Actually, even if everything else was the same and it had discarded Darkness Energy... what might have been?
Maractus: Kind of fun gimmick but totally not worth it unless... actually if you just love coin flips there are still better choices. If the first attack was an Ability... the attack would still average 60 for (CC) with the potential for 0 damage, 120 damage, and a few other scores in between. No where near enough in this format, especially when its averaged out over two turns with an easy to disrupt "attack combo".
Fire-Types:
Charizard EX (11/80): This is the "bad" Charizard EX. Using a coin flip based attack to accelerate Energy to the Pokémon attacking means your opponent can get at least one attack in before Charizard EX can get off a shot for 120 points of damage. Even if Emboar was being used so that you could just attack directly, Charizard EX wouldn't actually be that special; Inferno Fandango decks count on scoring OHKOs and this Pokémon doesn't do that. I know you can use Victinit with Victory Star to improve the odds on that opening acceleration and Blacksmith can put the discard cost to use (plus save you running Emboar) but if you're scoring 2HKOs, you just need to average 90 points of damage per turn, and other cards can do that while getting a bonus, like Entei EX.
M Charizard EX: 300 points of damage is overkill outside of a few exceptions generally not viewed as competitive and easily dealt with by discard Pokémon Tools. Overkill is wasteful and potentially dangerous (we've had effects that "reflect" damage back at the attacker before). It slams itself hard enough to remove its HP advantage over most other Pokémon-EX, and while there is a Tool for that, this set just made Pokémon Tools even easier to discard.
Ponyta/Rapidash: Two so-so supporting attacks but no "big boom" or "awesome Ability" to seal the deal means this is another fragile Stage 1 that is just glass and not even a cannon.
Litleo/Pyroar: Lot of hype going into this. Litleo has "okay" HP and a really bad vanilla attack; it exists just to Evolve. Pyroar has a great Ability but a bad attack; you hit the "three for 90" threshold only when you use the optional effect to discard an Energy from itself. The good news is that you can use Double Colorless Energy with it plus the new Fire support. There are a lot of ways to deal with Intimidating Mane. Shut off the Ability and it shatters almost as easily as Rapidash. Effects of attacks still work, so you're not totally shutting down some opponents: Sableye can still Junk Hunt for Item Spam or try Confuse Ray just for Confusion. Even if you run something to counter Special Conditions (which creates a target that Basic Pokémon can try to force up and KO, plus a resource burden), other effects still apply (including ones that just bypass effects on the Defending Pokémon)... oh yeah, and a decent amount of decks either already include an Evolution that in this circumstance is worth attacking with or can work them in. In spite of all of this, Pyroar is probably a good addition to the game and it should have a presence... just not as Quad Pyroar (which only wins if a significant chunk of the field is unprepared or unlucky and those are all its match-ups).
Charizard EX (1/21): The "good" Charizard EX, relatively speaking. This is a format with decent Energy acceleration, and this set brings us more. It is also a format with a lot of ways to change out Active Pokémon or do spread damage or boost effective damage done. If I am using Inferno Fandango, would I drop Rayquaza EX for this? No; even with a Muscle Band you won't KO 180+ HP Pokémon. This might be a candidate for "different" Energy acceleration, the obvious being Blacksmith: one Blacksmith and one Double Colorless Energy means you're a Hypnobank or Muscle Band/Hypnotoxic Laser combo away from OHKOing anything that sees competitive play. Switch and then Switch again or repeat the set-up combo. Toss in some healing cards (probably not Max Potion) and at least you have a "fun" deck, and maybe something effective.
Water Types:
Qwilfish: Another Pokémon that wishes First Turn attacks were legal (not that I am advocating the format returning to that - long story). As is, it just isn't worth it; the Ability only works while Qwilfish is active and only responds to being damaged by an attack. 20 and a flip for Poison isn't bad for (CC), but isn't sufficient when its your only attack and you're Ability is Counterattack Needle. I do appreciate that this one looks like it was designed with some effort and an honest attempt at being competitive; if only they'd added a swarming mechanic and had Counterattack Needle respond to just about anything.
I guess there is one use for it, but its a use covered by several other cards; attacker in a Vileplume deck, where a Silver Bangle secures a OHKO against Pokémon-EX that are Water Weak while a Muscle Band handles anything smaller.Feebas/Milotic: Just like Magikarp and Gyarados, Feebas exists solely to Evolve into Milotic, and to be so bad that its a bigger burden than normal. =P Milotic brings an interesting form of Energy acceleration and the potential to manipulate your own Prize count, plus it excludes Pokémon-EX from directly benefiting from its Energy acceleration. At first glance I was amazed by this card but now that I've had time to think about this, while I still expect at least one deck to find a good use for it, I realize that you can't spam the effect which hurts some of the uses I imagined (like N for control decks). Feebas really is feeble; you risk an opponent winning via a first turn Hypnobank combo should you be forced to start with it, and many forms of Bench damage will take it down in one hit... or prevent Ditto from safely becoming it if you were trying to reduce the danger that way. Don't forget you also need the Energy in the discard for the effect to be of use. None of these are deal breakers, but each chips away at its potential; I am much less optimistic about it now.
Spheal/Sealo/Walrein: We see an example of "It could have been worse" with Spheal; that's the best I can say about it. Sealo is marginally better, but at least it looks a bit more like they tried as one of its overpriced attacks isn't vanilla and its HP and Retreat Cost make it a legal choice for both Heavy Ball and Level Ball. Walrein... isn't completely translated. What we can guess is that its impressive 150 HP and DCE friendly attacks will lack effects useful enough to make them competitive. Useful means more than something like "The Defending Pokémon is now Asleep." My computer isn't working the best so I can't really try for a quickie translation. The second attack has a minus (-) sign after the damage, and a x10 in the effect clause, so I am guessing it is something like "does 10x the number of damage counters less damage". Love to be wrong here, though without a good source of Energy acceleration that isn't another Stage 2, not seeing much hope even if I am.
Luvdisc: ...this may be an example of "Coin flips do not balance out really strong effects". I can't say I would play it, but this could be the final piece for lock deck. Obviously a lock that has a 50% chance of failing isn't good... but you've got the new Prank Scoop and the old Victory Star Victini to help with that. Just gotta neutralize (not necessarily eliminate) the opponent's hand while minimizing (again, not necessarily eliminating) his or her offense before going for the imperfect lock.
Buizel/Floatzel: See Rapidash; small Pokémon that is too fragile for what it does, and honestly what it does isn't very impressive regardless.
Bergmite/Avalugg: Way overpriced attacks, even factoring in that it can make solid use of DCE or similar Energy acceleration. Bergmite discarding the top card of the opponent's deck is a small change of pace, but seems kind of random and nothing else justifies risking it in attacking.
Lightning Types:
Shinx/Luxio/Luxray: No. Shinx isn't entirely bad (HP is better than I expected, at least its first attack might keep it alive long enough to Evolve) but that is stretching to find good things about it. Luxio just needed its second attack to require [LCC] or to make it a more than just the token Stage 1 you sometimes run in case of Item lock; well, that or higher damage. As is, you still probably should run 1 with the rest of the line for the usual reasons and in case you are really fortunate and Electric Counter can give you a game winning OHKO (or similarly vital hit). Of course, all of this is for not because Luxray itself isn't worth playing; appreciate discarding an Item, but just let me see my opponent's hand and choose since its an attack, on a Stage 2, that requires [LC] to use, and only does 40 points of damage besides said discard. Which still wouldn't make it "good", just gives it a bit better potential. Wild Tackle might be worth considering if it required [LCC] instead of [LLC], but probably not: even though we can deal with the self-damage, said tricks are more vulnerable to being discarded now plus you can't use Muscle Band with them (meaning we can't get the overall damage to meaningful levels).
Magnezone EX: As stated, unless we get an odd situation akin to what happened with Kyogre EX, this is just a bad deal... and I really don't see that happening as we've got better Bench hitters, protection against hitting the Bench, and better Lightning-Type attackers/overall lack of space for this kind of play.
Helioptile/Heliolisk: See Rapidash and Floatzel.
Psychic Types:
Duskull/Dusclops/Dusknoir: The lower Stages are important simply because they were likely to be absent from the card pool after the next rotation. Resurrection (on Duskull) is also interesting, but probably will cost you a Prize to use. Dusclops gets a single thing right; its Energy costs are in line with Dusknoir so that both can utilize Energy acceleration like DCE; its attacks and Stats are otherwise wanting. Dusknoir is Fossil Slowbro done right... or at least better. You can move damage counters from your other Pokémon to it... in a format with Max Potion and Super Potion, which Slowbro only wishes it had had (well, modern Super Potion). Paindrops is not only a fun name, but a decent attack; it should require a lot of work to use as a main attacker given the HP on Dusknoir, but I like it for the Ability anyway. Decent synergy with our currently available Dusknoir as well.
Toxicroak EX: This card... gets so much wrong. If it was a Fighting-Type, it would enjoy exploiting Weakness against about half of Colorless-Type Pokémon, and most Darkness-Type and Lightning-Type Pokémon. The HP is good, the Weakness and lack of Resistance are what you'd expect, and the Retreat Cost is good (but not great). Unfortunately the "meat" of the card, the attacks, are both really bad. Trioxic inflicts "triple Poison" status... in a format that is all about dealing with Poison damage. Since it does this by an attack. Trioxic is "Not! Blow Through", but with a specific Stadium requirement (Virbank City Gym and places three (or five) damage counters instead of doing actual damage. Unlike the Poison from Hypnotoxic Laser (which replaces the "triple Poison" effect if used afterwards), your opponent's Active needs to remain Poisoned for this to "stack" with attacks. So far this card doesn't sound that bad, but then you get to the "big" attack. [PPC] is not easy to pay and should yield at least 90 points of damage plus a solid effect to be competitive. 80 points of damage and a "dud" effect doesn't cut it. Remember... Resistance has become an almost superfluous game mechanic as damage has risen faster than HP. This card would so much better just hitting for 100 points of damage; same end effect (80 vs Pokémon w/Resistance) but would score OHKOs against almost any Psychic Weak Pokémon and 2HKOs against anything neither Weak nor Resistant.
Espurr/Meowstic: I may be fond of cats and puns, but this duo just doesn't "do it" for competitive play. Well it might have, but the attacks are far too expensive for what they do. Espurr otherwise has the sense to try to Paralysis (maybe buying it enough time to Evolve) and Meowstic is a Glass Cannon... but too expensive to bother using with a first attack that does what so far is really only good as an Ability and a second that (for the third time this paragraph) requires way to much Energy to use.
Skrelp: At least it does something, but its small and can't even reliably Poison. Obviously only play it if you are using the Evolved form.
Fighting Types:
Geodude/Graveler/Golem: Geodude is not pure filler if there is a good "Use attacks from lower Stages" mechanic available. Otherwise, its attacks are no where near good enough for justify using a small, Evolving Basic as an offensive attack and won't help it survive to Evolve. Graveler on the other hand is, though at least its not as bad as it could have been as it can still be searched by Heavy Ball (for as long as that matters). Both can use DCE which is good, because so can Golem. Golem sports solid Stats with a first attack that is probably underpowered: [FCC] for 60+ damage, but no translation for the effect yet which means it would have to make up for being 30 points too low on the "base damage". This Golem blows itself up for 150 damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon and "only" 100 to itself, but without a good source of Energy acceleration (beyond DCE) that probably won't mean much. Yes, you can use Protect Cube to completely avoid the self-damage, but besides it being even easier to ditch Pokémon Tools as of this set, you still need another 20-30 points of damage to score a OHKO. Yes, Hypnobank can provide that but... you have room for all of that? While being fast and reliable enough to be competitive? Yeah. =/
Binacle/Barbaracle: Binacle is just there to Evolve, but at least it has a Heavy Ball friendly Retreat Cost for as long - say it with me now - "as long as it matters". Barbaracle has an overpriced vanilla second attack, but you'll only play it for its first; 30 points of damage per [F] Energy you choose to discard from your hand (currently that means basic Fighting Energy). The catch is it requires Evolving from Binacle and having [FF] attached to use the attack. Can be done, but won't be easy. Also remember that if your opponent's deck can set-up replacement attackers effectively, Barbaracle itself will be OHKOed.
Darkness Types:
Sneasel/Weavile: It almost feels like some attacks were swapped around. Flash Claw (Sneasel) requiers [DC] to discard 1 card from your opponent's hand (opponent's choice); definitely overpriced and unlikely to keep Sneasel around long enough to Evolve. Weavile though has Call For Family to get two Basics onto your Bench and at a price of [C]... and attack that would have been serviceable on Sneasel but is pretty bad on a fragile Stage 1. Flash Claw (if it was cheaper and stronger0 would be similarly decent for Weavile. Then again, they'd still fail to be worth the effort given that the "big" attack on Weavile is overpriced and/or underpowered as well. Attacks that do more damage if the Defending Pokémon is already injured really need to be delivering the follow up KO.
Stunky/Skuntank: Smokescreen provides Stunky with some form of Defense, so while it isn't good at least it makes some sense... but every other attack is underwhelming and/or overpriced, even considering the acceleration available. Discarding Energy only works right now when its massive and/or not limited to the Defending Pokémon, while also doing decent damage (if not discarding multiple Energy)... and the attack needs to be on a good sized Basic Pokémon and very inexpensive, such as on Cobalion EX.
Metal Types:
Forretress: Ignore "Ironfall" as it is bad as we keep getting ways to zero out or lower Retreat Costs, and never something effective at raising them. The Ability has potential while we have Devolution Spray (or a similar effect available) and Lysandre is the "worst" decks have to deal with for Bench disruption. You'll need something up front absorbing hits and another Bench sitter in case of Escape Rope, and the frontmon had better be be real good at absorbing hits or else competent at dealing damage, stalling, etc. Its a long shot with how delicate the set-up will have to be, unless we get an easy method of repeatedly Evolving and Devolving.
Durant: If there is ever a way to repeatedly and reliably flood your opponent's hand during your own turn so that you'll be discarding at least five cards per attack (creating a "mill" deck), then "maybe"; otherwise "no".
Fairy Types:
Flabebe/Floette/Florges: All but ignore the Stage 2, focus on the Stage 1 as that +20 to Grass-Type Pokémon is something I've more than once wished for while reviewing cards. Start looking for combos where that will put something over-the-top. Thanks to Rainbow Energy, one Florges probbaly wouldn't be a bad piece of TecH if you're already using Floette in multiples.
Carbink: Clutch final attacker singleton for Fairy Transfer decks; a successful "glass cannon".
Dragon-Type:
M Charizard EX: Somehow worse than the other version; this one ends up with the easier to exploit Dragon-Type Weakness (so much for Mega Pokémon-EX durability), an Energy cost of [RRDCC], and discards five cards from the top of your own deck in order to... do wasted damage overkilling targets that probably have 200 HP tops.
Druddigon: The Dragon-Type counterpart to Terrakion, hitting for that key 90 points of damage if something was KOed by an opponent's attack the turn before. Exploiting Dragon-Type Weakness isn't as profitable as exploiting Fighting-Type Weakness, but its definitely a factor and this time can be fueled by a lone DCE. Mind the Fairy-Type Weakness and tricks to bypass triggering the extra damage clause that people learned with Terrakion.
Dragalge: We have Abilities, Trainers and even some attacks to bypass manually retreating. We also have Snorlax [Plasma] that can prevent retreating regardless of Poison, even if only while Active. Yes "from the Bench" will often be better as you probably want to Poison the Defending Pokémon anyway, but it isn't always an option and the main thing is Snorlax [Plasma] means players are already used to dealing with this kind of thing. The attack is of course overpriced and Dragalge is fragile.
Goomy/Sliggoo/Goodra: The healing is underpowered compared to the offensive capacity of the line, especially for the lower Stages (which probably just should have had the same Ability). Can you build a deck around this? Yes, but even sacrificing Milotic for additional speed doesn't seem likely to make this a "competitive" deck; functional but not competitive.
Colorless Types:
Pidgey/Pidgeotto/Pidgeot: No. Just "no". Its all overpriced attacks that don't have synergy, or at least any worth mentioning.
Kangaskhan EX: This Pokémon wishes it could attack first turn granted that would also mean dealing with things like Landorus EX first turn. Its mediocre in a format where only "great" Pokémon-EX can cut it, but it can use any Energy and of course, it can Mega Evolve. For once, that might matter.
M Kangaskhan EX: This may be the best Mega Pokémon-EX we've got, but that isn't saying much. The attack has the potential to OHKO anything, but needs help to make that reliable enough to bother. It can use any Energy to attack, which is also a bonus, but will never enjoy hitting Weakness. Run it with Victory Star Victinit and Muscle Band and maybe Aspertia City Gym... or some tactics of which I haven't yet thought; just for not being so obviously bad and outclassed, its worth a look.
Snorlax: My favorite Pokémon comes sort of close to being worth using. Snooze obviously has to be dealt with, but even if you have to rely on coin flips, you do get them (unlike Paralysis). Collapsing Breath hits hard enough to justify the Energy and set-up for an easy 2HKO... a OHKO if you can stack Hypnobank and Muscle Band/Silver Banlge on top. The healing for the self is the problem; its a nice bonus, but with the massive Energy investment you can't afford to boost damage while also running the usual "tricks" to accelerate Energy... which means you need to heal all the damage off of this card so that it only fears OHKOs or being stuck Asleep. Oh well, at least it isn't boring. Hopefully I'll be wrong about this one.
Sentret/Furret: Stage 1 Pokémon are really bad at being "attacking" set-up Pokémon, and yet the card designers keep doing that. Sentret is pure filler, extra ironic as having it aid in set-up would make sense and be much more effective. None of the attacks hit hard enough to be remotely worth it as a offensive attacker. Sure it can get by on just DCE, but you still aren't getting what you "pay" for (in terms of resources invested).
Miltank: This is a decent attacker for any deck with a Stage 2 (and room). You'll never hit Weakness but you can set-up for a 2HKO. Greninja (something I didn't think of myself) seems like an especially good partner: while most decks should be able to score a OHKO against it if they have a half decent set-up, Miltank is Energy efficient so a back-up shouldn't be far behind, all of which allows your spammed Greninja swarm to rain death upon your opponent's field (and probably setting up for OHKOs of Pokémon-EX).
Buneary/Lopunny: Is Lopunny mistranslated? If not, I've got no idea what the designers were thinking. Pokémon isn't like TCGs where you can bounce something (especially on your turn) to avoid an opponent's card effect, causing it to miss and be wasted. It doesn't have the HP to survive a hit or an Energy efficient attack, so what point is there in returning it to your hand save to make space for something better... which means not running it at all. The attack is too weak and there's a chance you can't use it again the next turn? At least Buneary attacks and then gets to the Bench for added Safety.
Trainers:
Prank Scoop: Lots of potential here; the main drawback is that it doesn't directly contribute to a KO or add to your hand or anything like that, and occasionally some decks will have something where leaving it on top or discarding it are both good deals for your opponent... or at least you won't know which is worse. This could be an important piece for future control decks.
Sacred Ash: I'd rather it was Pokémon or Energy, but it is at least plausible some deck would need to reclaim just Pokémon that badly; for example decks that just don't run Basic Energy to begin with... plus last I checked, Super Rod was likely to rotate out at the next format shift so it might be the best option at that point.
Surprise Megaphone: Hate. You. (The card, not you the reader). Pokémon Tools were already hurt by Tool Scrapper being "too good"... and Tool Scrapper was a nerfed Windstorm! It is now dangerous to use any Item that doesn't provide an instant return, meaning we are either "speeding up" the game or dumbing it down; neither is good. Well, Surprise Megaphone itself is great. Yippee. -_-
Flame Torch: Great for decks that can run enough basic Fire Energy to use it. We might even be able to see a few decks that use few or no draw Supporters between this, Bicycle and Roller Skates given we've got a few non-draw Supporters worth using... but that's a long shot. Mostly this will just help more conventionally built Fire-Type decks, especially those using heavy Superior Energy Retrieval and/or Blacksmith.
Protect Cube: This would have been niche usage only even if Surprise Megaphone wasn't present; cards that hit for 40 (or less) points of self damage should stick to Eviolite if it is an option. For Evolutions and/or cards that hit harder... need to actually be worth the effort, and so far that doesn't appear to be happening. Really scary using something that depends on Protect Cube when it can be discarded so easily, though if you can attack right away at least you can trade damaging yourself for the Pokémon Tool. Yeah, thinking self-healing (a la Gold Berry) might also have been better; your Pokémon has to hit its self insanely hard (see Golem) to justify the investment (ignoring whether or not the Pokémon itself is worth the effort).
Lyasandre: Slightly underpowered, I think, but good to have. I always hated how people blamed Pokémon Catcher for issues with Pokémon balance. Protip: if you can't score a OHKO, you can't force something Active and OHKO it, but if you can't force something Active but can still score a OHKO... you can still score a OHKO. It is very easy for the Bench to be "too safe", and expending a Supporter is just a bit expensive to reliably force something up: even if you did think that an Item wasn't costly enough, your Supporter use significantly more valuable. A small, secondary effect would have been nice, especially if it were balanced to avoid the primary concern people have (enabling easy KOs of formerly Benched Pokémon, especially OHKOs, that prevents most Bench strategy): the effects of Lysandre and Team Flare Grunt on the same Supporter, for instance (discard happens to the promoted Pokémon or the one forced to the Bench). That kind of effect would totally be worth not discarding my hand to draw seven cards. Enough CaC though.
Pokémon Center Lady: Underwhelming. The old Pokémon Nurse Supporter wouldn't make sense to bring back; she had the same effect as Max Potion. A "Super Potion sans Energy discard plus Full Heal" is weak for a Supporter... which right now often equals "discard hand, draw seven" or similarly potent effects that "drive" your deck. Healing 90 and Special Conditions would have been about right, or functioning as the old Pokémon Center effect (heals all damage from every Pokémon you have with damage on it, anything healed discards all its Energy) plus maybe the Full Heal effect (removing Special Conditions is still not that valuable as a one-time effect, even in this format). Oops, playing CaC again: this still could see some play because healing is unexpected and 60 (while not even equal to the average attack) is still enough to turn some OHKOs into 2HKOs, 2HKOs into 3HKOs, etc. Tank decks that can't afford any Energy discards (especially if they lack other anti-Special Condition features) might make use of it.
Pokémon Fan Club: Two Basic Pokémon for your Supporter sounds a bit steep in a format where you have massive draw power and several excellent search Items, but a lot of people are telling me I am wrong; given past performance, I almost agree with them. Maybe not every deck, but certain ones? Bet this annoys the alternate-format crowd.
Magnetic Storm: Does Resistance really matter? The last few formats, only very rarely. This is probably more valuable in that it is an almost totally "neutral" Stadium you can safely run to discard other Stadiums. If your Pokémon have no Resistance there is no potential to help your opponent with it and if Resistance to the Type(s) of your own Pokémon exist, you may even benefit from the actual effect. Also... again tweaking an older card, but this time I don't think it should really be an issue.
Blacksmith: While no where near as easily abused as Dark Patch, this should enable a new kind of Fire Deck, hopefully more than one. Ultra Ball, Flame Torch, and Professor Juniper (or Professor Sycamore) should help set-up for it (the first two even on the same turn). It might even be of use to Inferno Fandango decks, one or two copies as a "back up" if something sabotages Emboar itself. Yes, Garbodor can be handled by Suprirse Megaphone even better than it was by Tool Scrapper, but there is also shooting for a Second Turn KO, not having Emboar in play, and all your Energy being in the discard pile already.
It's impossible that the entire set plus theme deck is only 111 cards. They may want to fix that in the article description. We're still missing roughly 40 cards or so, I think, even with 7 confirmed reprints
Yeah, set looks nice, but I'm going to wait until we have a full spoiler to pass judgement. The individual cards are strong, and should lend a better balance to the format, but without a total spoiler, it's still up in the air.
Yeah, set looks nice, but I'm going to wait until we have a full spoiler to pass judgement. The individual cards are strong, and should lend a better balance to the format, but without a total spoiler, it's still up in the air.
Shinigami said:
-There ARE 111 cards counting both M Charizard-EX (the one form the set and the one from the deck) as different ones and both Lisandre as the same one. There are 90 cards in the set, and 21 Deck exclusive cards. Check the scans and you'll see that they are perfectly numbered one after the other.
-The only Reprint we'll see. from those cards from the deck that you mentioned, is Ultra Ball, because all the others were released either in the Kalos Starter Sets or in XY Base Set. Being printed in a deck does not guarantee that it'll be in the set, just in some cases, and even though, they don't reprint anything the just released 3 months ago.
Luispipe8 said:
Huh. It just seems like a really small set. Especially with the larger recent sets.
There has been a precedent for reprinting recently released cards, i.e. Super Rod in Noble Victories and again in Dragon Vault just a few months later (Night Maintenance saw THREE reprints during Diamond/Pearl, I believe.) I don't know. We'll see what happens.
Kind of a disappointing set, probably will skip this one. Especially disappointed in Charizard's artwork.
Shinigami said:
Yeah, but remember that some of those were 2 sets instead of one.
Shinigami said:
There were 6 months between Red Collection and Dragon Selection; and 11, yes, ELEVEN, between Noble Victories and Dragon Vault.
It was quite a while, and for Night Maintenance, that was quite a while ago too, because also Celio's Network got reprinted shortly after its original release.
Stu4488 said:
Yeah, I have to agree with you both.. I love Charizard but when I saw the full art I have to admit I was pretty disappointed. Blastoise and Venusaur looked awsome, but Charizard just looks off, and I don't like the pose or angle either.
I kinda hope they make a promo full art Charizard later just because I think he deserve better, but then again he already gotten way to many cards xD
Dissastified with the Full Art? Don't blame "them": blame Ryo Ueda instead! Anyways, I like all of the cards (except the ugly Binacle line)but maybe I'm just biased because I like Pokemon. Maybe when you pull that CharizardEX FA and gently slide your fingers across the texturing, inhale the new card scent, and see Charizard sneaking a peek at you with one eye, you will change your opinion on it. Or maybe you won't pull it and hate it more and jump up and down on the floor, accidentally slipping on your other 3 EX pulls so that they go flying into the street and run over by a garbage truck and pooped on by a dog and picked up by a homeless man and you will be sad until Dragonite FA comes out. Depends on your box. :>
AT LAST, MY FA SUPPORTER COLLECTION CAN GROW.
I'm also disappointed with all regular Charizard artworks, the FA is just bad... Why Ryo Ueda all of a sudden and not 5ban Graphics as usual?
I just like the artwork of the Megas but even then, they would look better if there weren't letters on the artwork and we could have a better shot of the whole body...
Speaking of which, why not FA Megas instead of these redundant URs? Seriously?
Toxicroak may seem a weird choice for a Mega but at least is not as dumb as Emolga from last set...
I just like the artwork of the Megas but even then, they would look better if there weren't letters on the artwork and we could have a better shot of the whole body...
Speaking of which, why not FA Megas instead of these redundant URs? Seriously?
Toxicroak may seem a weird choice for a Mega but at least is not as dumb as Emolga from last set...
Wait...
people are complaining about a Full Art...
that's not done by 5ban Graphics?
people are complaining about a Full Art...
that's not done by 5ban Graphics?
