Black Bolt, White Flare GLC Set Review
The block that marks the beginning of the modern nomenclature of the Pokemon TCG has gotten a set dedicated to celebrating it and its 156 Pokemon from the Unova region! Many a TCG player knows of these iconic years for the game, and many of the cards in this set are spiritual successors or even identical functional reprints of them! We also will be getting Illustration Rares of each of these cards, so you’ll have plenty to look for in packs to swag out your GLC lists! As always, we are looking at things from a Gym Leader Challenge perspective, focusing on new optimal Basic evolving Pokemon, meta-relevant cards, or absolute gimmicks!
Grass
Petilil - Grass - HP60
Basic Pokemon
[C] Hide: Flip a coin. If heads, during your opponent's next turn, prevent all damage from and effects of attacks done to this Pokémon.
[G] Leafage: 10 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Petilil is a Pokemon with some rather interesting evolutionary cards in GLC. Most notably, the Sunny Day Lilligant we got in Journey Together has been used in conjunction with Fluffy Barrage Jumpluff and Festival Lead Dipplin to add damage to each attack these multi-attackers use, racking up damage super quick! However, Petilil also has a Hisuian Lilligant that spreads damage to each of your opponent’s Pokemon with its Twister Lutz attack. Grass Spread has never really been all that good, always feeling like its missing one or two pieces, and Hisuian Lilligant often felt too slow (especially now with the Double Colorless Energy and Twin Energy bans). However, if you really wanted to, you could play that card and it would further your gameplan. Every other Petilil with a relatively okay attack on an evolving Basic had 50 HP, so the 60 HP on this one is a nice little bonus, albeit likely having a weaker effect all around (60 HP also doesn’t save you from Raging Bolt so…)
Karrablast - Grass - HP60
Basic Pokemon
Ability: Exciting Evolution
If you have any Shelmet in play, this Pokémon can evolve during the first turn or during the turn it was played.
[C] Horn Attack: 10 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Shelmet - Grass - HP60
Basic Pokemon
Ability: Exciting Evolution
If you have any Karrablast in play, this Pokémon can evolve during the first turn or during the turn it was played.
[C] Headbutt Bounce: 10 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
This one is kind of cool, albeit it’s gonna take someone with a far larger brain than mine to figure this one out properly. I’ll start by saying this Karrablast is dookie and bad, since there are no Escavalier legal in Grass GLC decks. Realistically ANY Karrablast can fit this slot, thanks to Shelmet’s Exciting Evolution Ability! Exciting Evolution allows you to evolve Shelmet immediately the turn it is played, similar to Adaptive Evolution. The Catch? You have to have a Karrablast in play in order for this Ability to be online. Once that is set up though, you can go for a tried and true BW Era Classic with Deck and Cover Accelgor! In Standard, Deck and Cover used to be used to Paralyze the opponent in the Active and shuffle Accelgor in to promote Magic Room Gothitelle. With multiple Shelmet in play, you’d basically aim to carry this out every turn, not allowing your opponent to attack over many turns. In GLC however, this is practically an impossible feat to pull off- but note I said practically. With any 2 card combination of Sun-Drenched Shell Grotle, Sunshine Grace Grovyle, and Turffield Stadium, you can pull this off easily with Karrablast on the Bench. Search for Shelmet with the Pokemon Ability, use the other part of the combo to search Accelgor, and you just have to find a way to your Special Energy. But since Accelgor Shuffles into the deck as a result of the attack, this allows you to continuously use Triple Acceleration Energy and the new Ignition Energy from this set to pull this off for 1 Energy attachment. Double Turbo Energy is also solid, despite the Damage Reduction. If these 3 are the last 3 cards of your deck, you can sequence this properly with your upcoming draw for turn, a Sundrenched Shell/Sunshine Grace, and Sawsbuck’s Seasonal Blessings Ability, allowing you to always get all 3 cards required. At the end of the turn once you pull off Deck and Cover, you’d simply be at 3 cards again and wouldn’t deck out! Unfortunately, the most disruptive “Active sitter” in Grass is Shifty Substitution Shiftry, so we don’t get any oppressive Ability or Item lock. Still, this concept seems like it could be a lot of fun, and people have already been messing around with Self-Mill Grass packages thanks to Hazardous Greed Wo-Chien.
Amoonguss - Grass - HP120
Stage 1 - Evolves from Foongus
[C] Dangerous Reaction: 30+ damage. If your opponent's Active Pokémon is affected by a Special Condition, this attack does 120 more damage.
[G][C] Seed Bomb: 60 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 2
Special Condition Grass as a concept gets a relatively solid attacker in this Amoongus! Low to the ground 1 Energy attacks are great, and meeting the requirement isn’t too hard with the Victreebel line! Victreebel’s Wafting Scent ability allows you to discard a Basic Grass energy to leave your opponent Poisoned and Confused! The evolving Dangerous Mucus Weepinbell also leaves your opponent’s Active Burned and Poisoned, allowing the status conditions to be plentiful and potentially reused with Scoop Up Net! We also have fun alternative attackers like Lost Origin’s Roserade and its Assassin’s Rose attack allowing for some fun bench sniping! Ultimately, you could also opt for a small lock package with Swaying Strangle Cradily, locking your opponent in the Active as you set up the next optimal attacker!
Swadloon - Grass - HP80
Stage 1 - Evolves from Sewaddle
Ability: Leaf Heal
Once during your turn, you may heal 20 damage from your Active Pokémon.
[G][C] Bug Buzz: 40 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
This Swadloon is the best supportive Swadloon in Grass if you choose to use Blanket Weaver Leavanny, allowing it to Heal your active and hopefully keep it out of KO range if you happen to not get Leavanny out (or better yet, heal it before evolving to gain an effective 60HP for the turn!!) I personally really excited to run this in my Saving Private Torterra deck- a deck fully focused on making Torterra an unkillable menace. Getting utility when Leavanny is taking a little time to get to work will probably be more relevant than one would think at first glance.
Fire
Volcarona - Fire - HP120
Stage 1 - Evolves from Larvesta
Ability: Heat Wave Scales
Once during your turn, you may discard a Basic [R] Energy card from your hand in order to leave your opponent’s Active Pokémon Burned.
[R][C][C] Fire Wing: 70 damage.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
Now this is some role compression! Burned Fire has been BEGGING for the support that it has gotten these past couple of sets! Volcarona here allows you to discard a Fire energy to leave the opponent’s Active burned, and with cards like the newer Magma Surge Magmortar, Flaming Fighter Infernape, or Scorching Aura Pyroar. Prior to this we only had Mystical Torch Delphox to burn the active with anything other than an Attack, but now we have other options (and quicker to set up ones at that!). Burn can be one heck of a damage modifier, allowing you to bypass KO triggers like Teammates, Raihan, Wishful Baton, Splash Energy, etc., so a deck revolving around it could prove to be very good!
Tepig - Fire - HP70
Basic Pokemon
[R] Tackle: 10 damage.
[R][R] Rollout: 30 damage.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Pignite - Fire - HP110
Stage 1 - Evolves from Tepig
[R] Combustion: 30 damage.
[R][R][C] Heat Crash: 80 damage.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Emboar - Fire - HP180
Stage 2 - Evolves from Pignite
Ability: Inferno Fandango
As often as you like during your turn, you may attach a [R] Energy card from your hand to 1 of your Pokémon.
[R][R][R][C] Heat Crash: 120 damage.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 4
These are all together, so I’ll be quick with the prevos. This is the best 70HP Tepig we have in order to have Buddy-Buddy Poffin synergy, sporting the same damage for the same Energy cost and no additional downside. Pignite is arguably better, as some people will still opt for the 90HP version due to Level Ball. Personally, I run Heavy Ball in my Fire lists with Emboar in it, and it feels like almost always I’m using Level Ball for either a Basic or to get Magcargo out- everything else is secondary. Thus, having a bit more HP and doing a bit more damage in case you are forced to attack with it is a worthwhile trade.
But OOOOOOOO BOY am I excited to finally not get one shot by everything in the format. This Emboar is functionally just a strict upgrade to our tried and true Black and White era copy, having the same Ability and Retreat Cost as its ancestor, but sporting more HP and having the ability to swing for 120 if the game requires it for tempo. Its previous 150 HP left much to be desired, as I feel like more and more Big Basics in the format are hitting for 160 damage on average, up from the old days of Magic Number 130. Having such a pivotal stage 2 Pokemon under that new threshold felt so bad, especially against types like Dragon and Psychic who can hit 160 with ease. 180 on the other hand is much tougher to deal with, usually requiring the right tools from your opponent or causing them to overextend in order to get the pivotal KO. I’m looking forward to this Emboar adding ease of use to my Don’t Doubt the Boar list, and to buying a set of the Illustration Rares for this evolution line to swag the deck out further (rest in peace my Shiny Emboar, you will always be remembered).
Water
Samurott - Water - HP160
Stage 2 - Evolves from Dewott
Ability: Strong Currents
Once during your turn, you may switch your Active Pokémon with 1 of your Benched Pokemon. If you do, your opponent switches their Active Pokemon with 1 of their Benched Pokemon.
[W] Energy Slash: 30+ damage. This attack does 50 more damage for each Energy attached to this Pokemon.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
This Samurott is probably not good for most meta Hydro Pump Water GLC lists. Being a Stage 2 in Water is already really hard to contest, having to make space for the Shady Dealing Inteleon Line, Baxcalibur/Blastoise as one if not both of your Rain Dancers, and all the other Stage 1s like Wailord, Octillery, and Frosmoth you have to set up as well. Still, this Samurott is quite impressive in its own right, and for all intents and purposes IS playable for my Oshawott lovers. It’s Ability is Escape Rope… if Escape Rope had you pick your Pokemon first. A lot of times Rope is played, it’s pretty evident what you’re putting into the Active anyways: either a loaded up Attacker, or a free retreat pivot because you’re about to slam your Attacker to load up and swing with that same turn. So while the Ability is worse than Rope objectively, most of the time it’s probably gonna result in similar boardstates and assumptions your opponent is gonna make about what’s about to happen next. However this Samurott also boasts the strongest Hydro Pump attack in all of Water GLC, tied with Wailord on its multiplier AND beating it out on its base damage and that if you don’t need 4 Energy to net a KO, you don’t have to overcommit thanks to Energy Slash’s singular Water Energy minimum attack cost! If you’re an Oshawott Enthusiast, you’ll be happy to have this card as your pay off… you’ll just have to make some tough decisions as to what you’re cutting from the list.
Alomomola - Water - HP110
Basic Pokemon
Ability: Gentle Fins
Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, you may put a Basic Pokémon with 70HP or less from your discard pile onto your bench.
[W][C][C] Waterfall: 70 damage.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
Super weird card that I initially wrote off, but as I looked at it more the more I thought “I actually don’t hate that”. Alomomola has an Ability that only works in the Active Spot, and as such I’m usually looking for one of two REALLY KEY THINGS about a card that is restricted to using its Ability and has no other usage: 1.) Is the Ability absolutely busted and it doesn’t matter how I get them out of the Active afterwards because it’s that good, or 2.) does this Pokemon have a low enough retreat cost to warrant being in my Active (ideally synergistic with U-turn Board). Alomomola falls under the second category, and as such we now get some interesting recursion of our 70HP evolving Basics. Not every deck gets to abuse of this in similar fashion, but imagine your deck run Palafin, gets Knocked Out, and you don’t have much recursion left in your hand. You can use Alomomola as your Pivot, put Finizen back on your Bench, and later when you find your recursion tool like Night Stretcher, Rescue Stretcher, Nessa, etc, you can just snag the Palafin from discard. This also allows cards like Super Rod to only have to shuffle in Palafin (or insert here any important evolution Pokemon), allowing you to still shuffle in Energies into the deck if you so need. It’s super interesting, although I don’t know just how much play it’ll get. Having your recursion restricted behind an Ability in the Active is a hard pill to swallow when you have so much other consistency in the type.
Lightning
Tynamo - Lightning - HP40
Basic Pokemon
[C] Hold Still: Heal 10 damage from this Pokémon.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 0
Eelektrik - Lightning - HP90
Stage 1 - Evolves from Tynamo
Ability: Dynamotor
Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic [L] Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your Benched Pokémon.
[L][L][C] Electric Ball: 50 damage.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
This one isn’t really a review moreso than me just being happy the Eel is gonna be accessible instead of potentially being priced out of people’s budgets in some future. New free retreat Tynamo with 40HP instead of 30 is also a nice little, probably minimal, upgrade. However, you now get the evolution line with pretty Illustration Rares to swag out your decks, so you can thank TPC if only for that, Lightning Gym Leaders!
Galvantula - Lightning - HP90
Stage 1 - Evolves from Joltik
[L] Discharge 50x damage: Discard all [L] Energy from this Pokémon. This attack does 50 damage for each card you discarded in this way.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
Honestly, not THAT great of a card BUT I bring it up because it fits into an Archetype that doesn’t have many attackers that scale like this one. LightningZone is an archetype that abuses of Lightning’s Rain Dancer, Magnetic Circuit Magnezone, and with it gets to play Water but with slightly worse everything. Lightning doesn’t have many “Hydro Pump” oriented attackers that do good damage, most notably Shining Body Raikou being the standout choice. However, it does have access to some “Discard Energy” attackers that tend to scale into better damage per Energy attachment, however have to be discarded after the attack cost. Cards like this Galvantula and Discharge Zeraora are prime examples of this kind of attacker, and since they’re so frail they don’t necessarily care about discarding the energies, as they were probably going to go into the discard anyways after the Pokemon gets Knocked Out. If you can manage to loop these attackers AND properly recycle energies back into the hand either with cards like Klara, Lana’s Aid, and Superior Energy Retrieval or your 1 or 2 Dynamotors in the list with Eelektrik and Flaaffy, you could be swinging devastating numbers into some of the tankiest Pokemon in the format!
Psychic
Gothitelle - Psychic - HP150
Stage 2 - Evolves from Gothorita
Ability: Twisted Future
Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, you may have your opponent shuffle their hand into their deck and draw 3 cards.
[P][C] Synchro Shot: 90+ damage. If you have the same number of cards in your hand as your opponent, this attack does 90 more damage.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 2
This here is a pretty nasty card that can be played in arguably two different archetypes. The first lends itself heavily to Gothitelle's Twisted Future Ability, constantly limiting your opponent's resources turn after turn and on occasion comboing it with something dastardly like Delinquent, leaving your opponent with zero cards in hand. This could work great in a control build, and doesn't necessarily force Goth to always stay in the Active, allowing you to then Retreat to some other oppressive Active sitter like Bide Barricade Wobbuffet or Forest’s Curse Trevenant. However the other, arguably more fun build would be a deck aimed at abusing this card's synergy with Iron Boulder's Adjusted Horn Attack. Both of these cards care about having the same number of cards in hand as your opponent does, and can deal some very respectable damage for minimal energy attachments (as low as a singular Energy with Dimension Valley in play!). While also disrupting your opponent's hand at critical moments, this deck can be very oppressive. I also think it would be a fun deck building challenge and sequencing challenge mid game to constantly be trying to get yourself to 3 cards (since you wouldn't want to use cards like Marnie or Judge since it leaves them with more cards in hand), leaving you opting for decisions like Supporters that require you to discard in order to activate, or more items that discard as well.
Frillish - Psychic - HP80
Basic Pokémon
[P] Sea Shadows: 20 damage. During your opponent's next turn, they can't play any Item cards from their hand.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 3
So this card is pretty darn obnoxious. Maybe people have complained about Budew as a concept in general, and this card holds many things similar to it, but a few key differences. Firstly, it has more HP, so in the early scramble turns you will get KO'd less often by a stray 1 or 2 energy attack compared to Budew, allowing you to keep the Item lock going on longer. However, it also has a Retreat cost of 3 compared to Budew's free retreat, which means positioning out of it once you're finally ready to play could become difficult, allowing your opponent more time to get their out. Lastly, dealing 20 damage is sometimes worse as you'll end up knocking out your opponent quicker, potentially getting them out of the lock even if you don’t want to. It's unfortunate but probably for the best that there isn't any other Psychic Jellicent for this to eventually evolve into after it's done terrorizing the match, but perhaps they'll give it one at some point. After all, they could give it one and it still be a pretty God awful card.
Fighting
Conkeldurr - Fighting - HP140
Stage 2 - Evolves from Gurdurr
Ability: Craftsmanship
This Pokémon gets +40 HP for each Fighting Energy attached to it.
[F][C][C][C] Swing Around: 100+ damage. Flip 2 coins. This attack does 50 more damage for each heads.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
So I’ll start this off by saying that Fighting does not have the tools required to make this worthwhile.
However, this is a funny card that can very much be abused if the set up occurs. Conkeldurr’s Craftsmanship Ability gives itself +40HP for each Fighting Energy attached. Thankfully, that doesn’t read Basic Fighting Energy Card, so we can use good ol’ Reversal Energy to attach 3 “Fighting” Energies at once, bumping this guy up from a measly 140 HP Stage 2 to a whopping 260HP. Additionally, Garganacl’s Energizing Rock Salt Ability also aids this strategy, by adding another Fighting Energy from the Discard (so long as you have one) to Conkeldurr, effectively giving him 70 effective HP if you heal. This could be a heck of a stall concept, similar to Leviathan. However, without all the consistency in both deck searches and draw support that Water has, I find this to be very difficult to pull off consistently. Also, unlike Wailord, Conkeldurr is a Stage 2 AND isn’t all that tanky UNTIL it gets going, where as Wailord could tank a few hits, heal it off, and then go to the races.
Crustle - Fighting - HP150
Stage 1 - Evolves from Dwebble
Ability: Sturdy
If this Pokémon has full HP and would be Knocked Out by damage from an attack, it is not Knocked Out, and its remaining HP becomes 10.
[F][C][C] Stone Edge: 80+ damage. Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 60 more damage.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
This card breathes life into an (probably bad) annoying Fighting GLC concept between this card and Guts Hariyama, attempting to offset the prize trade by always requiring 2 or more hits to Knock them Out. The problem for both cards is that despite being tanky, they are not the greatest attackers, so even if you aren’t netting KOs on them… it’s unlikely they’re gonna net one back at you. It’s a concept, but the lack of offensive pressure really makes it lackluster.
Gigalith - Fighting - HP170
Stage 2 - Evolves from Boldore
[F] Revenge Cannon: 20x damage. This attack does 20 damage for each damage counter on your Benched [F] Pokémon.
[F][F][F] Heavy Impact: 160 damage.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Earthquake Fighting gets another pay off attacker that is honestly really good, but is stuck on a Stage 2. Even a simple Earthquake from Donphan early on in the game gets this Gigalith swinging for 200 damage if the Donphan hit your Bench full. Realistically that’d be more like 160 since the Gigalith itself was likely a Roggenrola and one of the Benched Pokemon, but still, this attack racks up damage incredibly quickly, and Earthquake is really good at doing that while applying rapid pressure on your opponent. Being a Stage 2 is most definitely an issue, and Earthquake will forever struggle with the fact that it wants the damage counters or is fine taking them as a byproduct, so it’s quite hard for your Pokemon to tank hits, since even though they have 170HP like this Gigalith or even 190 like Steelix, you likely already have damage on you so it’s hard to offset that Prize Race. Still, very fun card and archetype, and it has a killer Illustration Rare in the set so I’ll be looking at adding it to my list!
Terrakion - Fighting - HP140
Basic Pokemon
[F][C] Retaliate: 50+ damage. If any of your Pokémon were Knocked Out by damage from an attack during your opponent's last turn, this attack does 80 more damage.
[F][F][C] Land Crush: 100 damage.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
This Terrakion is kind of a menace! In Fighting lists of old, Cavern Tackle Terrakion was a premier attacker, especially in Coalossal Lists that could reasonably power it up in a singular turn. However this card needs a little less maintenance, allowing it to still be powered up in a singular turn (this time with no Energy attachment from hand) by Coal, while also being able to solely be powered up by Energizing Rock Salt Garganacl and an energy attachment from hand! If one could guarantee recover this Terrakion, it could become a very formidable attacker into certain matchups, especially when you can’t get Okidogi up again for a turn. I’ll probably look into cooking up a Dogi Terrakion loop list with Garganacl here soon, albeit it won’t be as good as some other Fighting lists in the format.
Dark
Purrloin - Darkness - HP60
Basic Pokemon
[D] Evil Invitation: Search your deck for up to 3 [D] Pokémon, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
ITS THE BEST PURRLOIN (unless you’re terrified of Lost City, Double Dragon Raging Bolt on the first turn. When that happens to me I simply elect to forget that game ever happened)! It’s rather slow, but in a type with minimal consistency support we will take everything we can! The Purrloin allows you to search for any 3 Darkness Pokemon and add them to your hand, allowing you to snag your Liepard for next turn, as well as any of your evolving Stage 1 attackers for the next turn (Weavile, Zoroark, etc). Or you can be like me and be on extreme copium and use this to snag Darkness’s Rain Dancer, Dark Squall Hydreigon to hopefully Rare Candy into it the next turn so you can play the game. Obviously this card has the downside that it’s an attack, so you’re going to struggle with getting hand disrupted, but that’s true for most evolving Basic’s attacks that let you do something of a similar nature. Especially since we were already going to be playing A Purrloin in the deck, I personally think this is the best one under most circumstances (Raging Bolt doesn’t exist and cannot hurt you, that is only a nightmare and you need to wake up).
Zoroark - Darkness - HP120
Stage 1 - Evolves from Zorua
[D] Mind Jack: 30x damage. This attack does 30 damage for each of your opponent's Benched Pokémon.
[C][C][C] Foul Play: Choose 1 of your opponent's Active Pokémon's attacks and use it as this attack.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
Everyone who played during BW-XY era in TCG, or has utilized those older prints in GLC, knows exactly what this card is referenced from. The child of Foul Play Zoroark from BW and Stand In, Mind Jack Zoroark from XY, this Zoroark loses the Stand In Ability in exchanged for having both of these iconic attacks. They were shifted a bit in order to fit within the upcoming standard meta game (Foul Play is synergistic with this set’s Ignition Energy, whereas it used to be synergistic with Double Colorless Energy), but it’s still a super solid attacker. Especially in the current low to the ground Dark Attackers list, using Mind Jack for a singular Dark energy especially after the Double Colorless/Twin Energy bans is super good for linking attackers back to back, which is what the deck aims to do. Still, losing Stand In synergy with Hoopa is sad.
Scolipede - Darkness - HP160
Stage 2 - Evolves from Whirlipede
Ability: Poison Point
If this Pokémon is in the Active Spot and is damaged by an attack from your opponent's Pokémon (even if this Pokémon is Knocked Out), the Attacking Pokémon is now Poisoned.
[D][C] Venoshock: 90+ damage. If your opponent's Active Pokémon is Poisoned, this attack does 90 more damage.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Honestly not a bad card for my Poison Dark Enjoyers, this Scolipede gives up a pretty high scaling Poison-based attacker for only 2 Energies! 180 Base into a simple +10 Poison tick KOs most big things in the format, and once you start stacking that damage up with Virbank City Gym/Perilous Jungle and More Poison Toxicroak, you can KO everything in the format at its “expected” HP besides the new Wailord! This Scolipede also gives you the added benefit on poisoning your opponent’s Active if they hit into it (even KOing it), which allows you to get some meaningful chip damage in between turns on your opponent’s new attacker after you KO their previous active. Ultimately, I think this card will be a fine include in Poison Dark lists, and the Whirlipede from this set while not worth showing also is a fine attacker if you’re forced to use it in a pinch!
Metal
Bisharp - Metal - HP120
Stage 1 - Evolves from Pawniard
[M] Cut Up: 40 damage.
[M][C] Finishing Blow: 60+ damage. If your opponent's Active Pokémon already has any damage counters on it, this attack does 60 more damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: Grass (-30)
Retreat: 2
Realistically, this card isn’t even all that good and I shouldn’t be putting it on here. Single Lunge Bisharp exists and does the same damage for an Energy less so long as you have no damage counters. However, this Bisharp synergistically plays like its final evolution: Strike Down Kingambit. That’s right baby, it’s Metal Spread copium time! Strike Down KOs your opponent’s Active so long as they have 4 Damage Counters on them, and that same Synergy is what we’ll use to mage Bisharp’s Finishing Blow actually an OK attack. Realistically even if you went all in on this strategy and tried making Metal Spread work, you would want to play Single Lunge simply because that archetype loses access to Metal Links Bronzong, as one of the only “okay” spread attackers in Metal is Pain Amplifier Bronzong. Getting that second energy on in the time of need then becomes that much more difficult. But hey, you could psych out your opponent into thinking they don’t have to worry about Single Lunge when in-fact Bisharp wasn’t going for a lunge, he was going for the Finishing Blow!
Klinklang - Metal - HP150
Stage 2 - Evolves from Klang
Ability: Gear Coating
Each of your Pokémon with any [M] attached takes 20 less damage from your opponent’s Pokémon’s attacks.
[M][C][C] Hammer In: 120 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: Grass (-30)
Retreat: 3
TWO TIME WWE WORLD CHAMPION MARK HENRY MAKES HIS WAY TO GLC IN THE FORM OF THIS NEW (and totally clunky) DECK CONCEPT: THE WALL! Klinklang makes it so that all of your Pokemon attached with any Metal Energy take 20 less damage from your opponent’s attacks. Honestly, it’s pretty sad the reduction number is so low given the stipulation of having a Metal Energy attached, but we’ll roll with it. Now, let’s add the ACTUAL Wall to the equation: Big Shield Aegislash, reducing damage your Pokemon take by 30! Let’s add never looked at (because it’s bad) Hair Wall Alolan Dugtrio to increase the damage reduction by 10! Now let’s add some Stadiums and Tools, such as Crystal Cave to heal 30 each turn or Full Metal Lab to increase the passive reduction by 30, and Metal Frying Pan and Metal Goggles to reduce the damage by yet another 30 (with added benefits). Lastly, let’s add our Premier Supporter: Jasmine’s Gaze, reducing the damage we take by yet ANOTHER 30!
Add all this together and you can reduce the damage your Metal Pokemon take by a whopping 150 DAMAGE! Now, you may ask, “Lucarin, how are we going to pull this off consistently, and how will we win the game once we do?” And my response is simply going to be a rather famous quote and meme: “That’s the neat part, you don’t.”
Dragon
Haxorus - Dragon - HP170
Stage 2 - Evolves from Fraxure
[C][C] Cross-Cut: 80+ damage. If your opponent's Active Pokémon is an Evolution Pokémon, this attack does 80 more damage.
[F][M][C] Axe Bomber: If your opponent's Active Pokémon is a Basic Pokémon, it is Knocked Out.
Weakness: none
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Dragon continues to give the same really cool iconic Evolution Dragons relatively playable copies, and keeping all the other ones in the catacombs. Haxorus already has a really playable copy in Shrouded Fable Haxorus, sporting the Dragon Pulse attack and hitting a whopping 230 damage at the cost of discarding the top 3 of your deck. As a result, that going to be really hard to beat, and I’ll be the first to say it- this does not beat it. However, if you hate discarding the top of your deck because you happened to discard your Colress’s Tenacity in the mirror matchup against a Gym Leader playing Kyurem after spending ALL GAME holding it in hand… then maybe you’re traumatized and wanna play this next copy instead (real story by the way). Unfortunately, this copy falls under the spell of many other Dragon Lists in where it realistically only ever hits for 160 damage. It does have the added benefit of being able to KO any Basic if you manage to attach 3 to it, but the only Basic relevant enough with over 160 HP is Okidogi, which the other Haxorus gets to KO anyways with its Bring Down the Axe attack due to Dogi usually needing a Special Energy attached to get the HP boost.
Colorless
Unfezant - Colorless - HP150
Stage 2 - Evolves from Tranquil
[C] Add On: Draw 4 cards.
[C][C] High Speed Flight: 120 damage. Flip a coin. If heads, during your opponent's next turn, prevent all damage from and effects of attacks done to this Pokémon.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 0
Finally, the Unfezant we’ve all been waiting for, the one to abuse Emergency Evolution Pidove is FINALLY HERE! And it’s… Double Colorless for 120 damage and Agility effect? Okay. Definitely lack luster, but it’s not ALL bad. If you manage to pull it off turn one, you can use this card’s Add On Attack to draw 4 whole cards, while also having a free pivot in the Active. This little combo is pretty doable off of a Guzma & Hala and somewhat from a Colress’s Tenacity. You can GuzHala for either Gapejaw Bog or Frozen City, a retreat tool like Float Stone, and any Special Energy card (we’re in Colorless, we’re playing those) such as Capture Energy. We bench the Pidove after from hand, activating Gapejaw and bringing us down to the 30HP threshold to activate Pidove’s Ability. Then we simply attach the Float Stone to Active, Attach Capture to Unfezant to search out another Basic we want, and pivot in to use Add On (we can also pull this off with just Frozen City/Gapejaw + Jet Energy to swoop Unfezant into the Active). Then next turn, we’re applying some level of pressure with 120 damage which can be boosted up to a meaningful 140 with a Powerful Energy. I don’t know if it’s super great, but it seems strong enough that surely at least our Birds Only Gym Leader Challenge Enthusiasts will get a kick out of such a combo
Trainers & Energy
Hilda
Supporter
Search your deck for 1 Evolution Pokemon and 1 Energy card, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn.
Card is bonkers, card is nuts. However, it has to contest with a world of REALLY STRONG GLC Supporters, and unfortunately that means it won’t be an auto include in every deck, EVEN decks aiming to abuse of Special Energy and want more means to get to them. However, some decks are fine with the inclusion. Older versions of Dragon running the Dragon Call Gabite and perhaps the Fast Call Dragonite package are ecstatic for this addition to the deck, giving more outs not only to Special Energies but also Gabite to help set up the board. In a similar vein, Grass also doesn't hate it because it can snag Grotle/Grovyle, but the usual lists don't tend to run Special Energies. However, a list running Jumpluff has perfect synergy with this card, as you can grab Solar Evolution Skiploom (or Grotle to then grab Skiploom) and the Energy attachment for turn required to evolve it! Just like this there are other fun combos and just consistency upgrades this card can provide, so I recommend looking at it to see if it fits your deck (recommend looking for decks with notably Special Energies AND at least 2 evolutions worthwhile to grab that further your gameplan)!
Ignition Energy
If this card is attached to 1 of your Pokémon, discard it at the end of the turn.
This card provides 1 [C] Energy while it is attached to a Pokémon.
If this card is attached to an Evolution Pokémon, it provides [C][C][C] Energy instead.
Objectively better version of Triple Acceleration Energy by being able to be attached to Basic Pokemon in a pinch, Ignition Energy adds an interesting level of complexity to some decks. Outside of obviously mentioned candidates like Bulky Bump Ursaluna, Critical Bite Crobat, or the new Zoroark mentioned above now having yet another card to have access to their attacks in a single attachment, there’s one thing a lot of people haven’t really been mentioning (at least in the circles I’ve been paying attention to): This and Triple Acceleration Energy, alongside the sometimes active Counter Energy and Reversal Energy on these Pokemon, fulfills many Evolution Pokemon’s Double Colorless Energy costs with a single attachment. Sure, unfortunately we’re over capping on Energy and having to discard it, but if the effect is strong enough or you can opt to have some extra not as consistent recursion for Special Energies, this added redundancy and extra targets could give access to prior Double Colorless strategies that were hit heavily by the Double Colorless Energy and Twin Energy bans in April.
The one on my mind is an Active-locking spread focused Psychic list abusing Detention Gas Weezing in the Active. Properly getting a good gust in the Active for a number of turns in the ideal goal, and plopping Weezing in the Active to do damage to your opponent’s Basic Pokemon while attacking with it (now occasionally due to the bans) to do damage to the others. Move the damage counters around with Sinister Hand Dusknoir, and you can take some really strong multi-prize turns! Double Turbo Energy unfortunately doesn’t work, as it would reduce the damage Splattering Sludge does to the Benched to 0, so I was heartbroken when the bans occurred as I had just conceptualized the list (the bans were needed, just sad I didn’t even get to try the list out). Now I get to revisit that idea once more and hopefully pull it off for a couple of games! I urge you readers to look into similar concepts that can opt to use these triple energies to great effect, either by forcing them to be discarded but doing be damage, or by not always needing to get the attack off with slower, more passive strategies!
Final Thoughts
I’d like to thank everyone for reading through this article. I took a step back from doing these because Journey Together and Destined Rivals didn’t really entice me, as the Trainers’ Pokemon left much to be desired and I was really hoping for/expecting more. However, these sets (and the upcoming Mega Evolution set) reignited my spark, as the cards have been really interesting to think about how they can fit in this wonderful format we all love. As always, massive thanks to Cardboard Warriors for letting me take the mantle back up on these, as I really enjoyed writing this again. Also a massive thanks to translators JustInBasil and Toine L. for getting translations out to the community so quickly, it makes middle of the night reveals super fun and is where many of the unhinged cooks you read from me come from! Mega Evolution is looking to introduce some really cool, meta defining cards to our format, so expect to hear from me soon!