Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG post I cover Keldeo ex, Genesect ex, Fossil cards and more from the upcoming Pokemon sets Black Bolt and White Flare from Japan.
Virizion
Virizion is a 120 HP Basic Grass Pokemon with 1 retreat cost and Fire weakness. The Giga Drain attack requires 1 Grass Energy to deal 30 damage. It also heals the same amount of damage you did to the opponent's Active Pokemon.
Emerald Blade is the second attack. For 2 Grass Energy and 1 Colourless Energy this attack does 130 damage with the drawback of not being able to attack the next turn.
Antique Cover Fossil
This Antique Cover Fossil is a reprint of the one from Stellar Crown.
This Fossil card is needed to evolve into Tirtouga and into Carracosta. You can't use Nest Ball to fetch this card but you can use Arven to fetch this Item Fossil card.
Tirtouga
Tirtouga is the Stage 1 evolution of the Antique Cover Fossil. This has 100 HP, 3 retreat cost, Lightning weakness and is of the Water type.
The second attack of Surf costs too much at 1 Water Energy and 2 Colourless Energy to deal 80 damage.
What makes Tirtouga interesting is the first attack. Ancient Debris is a punish style attack where it does 30 damage for each Item card in your opponent's discard pile. I don't know the average amount of Item cards in decks but this attack can easily hit 210 damage if the opponent goes through their deck pretty fast. Examples of decks that go through their decks fast or have many Item cards include:
- Ceruledge ex
- Poison Decks with Roaring Moon ex + Squawkabilly ex
- Gholdengo ex
- Gardevoir ex
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A lot of decks these days run 4 copies of Nest Ball, 4 copies of Ultra Ball with some running 3 to 4 copies of Buddy Buddy Poffin.
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Stage 2 evolution decks also run 2 to 4 copies of Rare Candy. Other popular Item cards are Night Stretcher for retrieval, Super Rod, Counter Catcher, Earthen Vessel and some play Pal Pad and Pokegear.
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I would say a typical count of Item cards is from 10 to 15 in a 60 card deck. Tirtouga's Ancient Debris attack can hit for at least 300 damage off of 1 Water Energy.
A deck focused on this Tirtouga is possible. I don't know it would be a meta deck or even a anti-meta deck. It could work. One obvious usecase of this Tirtouga and the Ancient Debris attack is with a Slowking deck. Use Slowking's first attack as an option to attack the opponent for big damage.
Carracosta
Carracosta is the final evolution of the Antique Cover Fossil. This Stage 2 Water Pokemon has 180 HP, 3 retreat cost and Lightning weakness.
The Bite Down attack for 1 Water Energy and 2 Colourless Energy deals 150 damage with a retreat lock effect.
Its Mighty Shell ability prevent damage and effects from the attacks of opponent's Pokemon that have any Special Energy on them. In the current Journey Together format there are not many Special Energies being used. Dragapult ex decks do use Luminous Energy and sometimes Neo Upper Energy ACE SPEC so this Carracosta can serve as a wall.
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Stage 2 Pokemon are generally slow to get into play. This Carracosta has potential but I think there is too much work to get the attack going and for the ability to be useful.
Keldeo ex
Here is Keldeo ex. It is a 210HP Basic Water Pokemon with 2 retreat cost, Lightning weakness and two attacks.
Gale Thrust is the first attack. For one Water Energy and one Colourless Energy this attack has 30 base damage. If Keldeo ex moved from the Bench to the Active Spot this turn then Gale Thrust does 90 more damage (120 damage).
Sonic Edge is the second attack. It does 120 damage for the cost of one Water Energy and two Colourless Energy. This attack is also not affected by any effects on the opponent's Active Pokemon. Sonic Edge ignores wall Pokemon like Cornerstone Ogerpon ex, Mimikyu and the upcoming Crustle from Destined Rivals.
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Terrakion
Terrakion is a Basic Fighting Pokemon with 140 HP, 3 retreat cost and Grass weakness. The Land Crush second attack costs a bit too much at 2 Fighting Energy and 1 Colourless Energy to do 100 damage.
Retaliate is the first attack. It is a revenge style attack with 50 base damage from 1 Fighting Energy and 1 Colourless Energy. If any of your Pokemon were Knocked out by damage during the opponent's last turn then Retaliate does 80 more damage. (130 damage total in this case)
I don't think this is very useable. There are not many popular Pokemon right now that are weak to Fighting. Maybe things can change when the Black Bolt + White Flare special sets release.
Antique Plume Fossil + Archen
Antique Plume Fossil goes with Archen and Archeops the stage 2 Evolution. Wing Protection prevents all damage done to this Fossil by attacks from your opponent's Pokemon.
Archen is an okay attacker. If you get lucky you can do a maximum of 90 damage from 2 Heads.
Archeops
The previous Archeops that was popular with Lugia VSTAR decks was Colourless. This new Archeops is a Stage 2 Fighting type.
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From this new Archeops the Rock Throw attack is okay at one Fighting energy and one Colourless Energy to do 100 damage.
The Primal Wings ability only works if this Archeops is in the Active Spot. Once during your turn you may choose 1 of your opponent's evolved Pokemon and devolve it by putting the highest Stage Evolution card on it into your opponent's hand. This ability is very similar to the tool card Technical Machine: Devolution.
Devolving a Pokemon is useful if they rush the evolution with Rare Candy. One powerful strategy is to devolve an Evolution Pokemon with a lot of damage. You put the highest stage Evolution Pokemon into their hand and then knockout the underlying devolved Pokemon.
Cobalion
Cobalion is a 120 HP Basic Metal Pokemon with 2 retreat cost, Grass resistance and Fire weakness.
Holy Edge is the first attack with 1 Metal Energy. It does 20 damage and discard 1 Special Energy from 1 of your opponent's Active Pokemon.
The Metal Arms second attack requires 2 Metal Energy and 1 Colourless Energy. It deals 80 base damage plus 40 more damage if this Cobalion has a Pokemon Tool attached.
There are some nice features with this attacker but it is likely not enough for competitive play.
Genesect ex
Here is Genesect ex. This Metal Basic Pokemon has 220 HP, 2 retreat cost, Grass resistance and Fire weakness.
The Protect Charge attack requires 2 Metal Energy and 1 Colourless Energy to do 150 damage. During your opponent's next turn, this Genesect ex takes 30 less damage from attacks. This attack is kind of underwhelming in terms of damage output.
What makes up for its attack is its ability. The Metal Signal ability can be used once during your turn. You may search your deck for up to 2 Metal Evolution Pokemon, reveal them and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your deck. This search is like Jacq but for Metal evolution Pokemon. This is a very powerful search ability that can bypass Budew's Item Lock attack.
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Popular and usable Metal evolution Pokemon that can be searched from Genesect ex's ability include:
- Archaludon ex
- Gholdengo ex
- Metang
- Steven's Metang
- Steven's Metagross
- Scizor
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There are obvious pros and cons to this Genesect ex. The attack is not great and it can be targeted by Boss's Orders. The search ability for Metal evolution Pokemon is very powerful. I can see Metal themed decks that have evolutions run 1 copy of Genesect ex. Two copies would be too much I think.