Table of Contents
Hey everyone! As we gear up for the release of the Triumphant Light (A2a) mini set, a few leaked cards have given us a glimpse of what to expect. While some cards seem underwhelming, a few have the potential to shake up the meta, possibly even redefining how we play Pokémon TCG Pocket. This will be an early first impression, as the rest of the set will determine how strong each of the leaked cards, especially the Ex Pokémon really are.
There's a lot to talk about, especially with the Arceus ex playstyle, which might be a new direction Pokemon Pocket is taking, let's get to discussing!
Arceus Ex
I'm kicking things off with Arceus ex, for obvious reasons. This is a 140 health Colorless Pokemon with the ability, Fabled Luster, preventing your Pokemon from being affected by any Special Conditions. So anything like Asleep or Confused won't work on Arceus ex.
Ultimate Force requires 3 Colorless Energy to deal 70 damage, and it gains 20 damage for each of your Benched Pokemon. So you're dealing up to 130 damage with Ultimate Force.
Arceus ex itself isn’t overpowered, it feels like a fairly standard ex Pokémon. However, its strength comes from its ability to synergize with different Energy types through its “Link” mechanic. It makes sense that Arceus ex would have some sort of synergy with different Energy types since it's considered the creator of the Pokemon world. This makes Arceus ex a key enabler for many Pokémon in the new set, with some heavily reliant on Arceus ex to function in a deck. While having a built-in deck strategy around "one" Pokemon is fine, I’d rather not see too many new cards that are overly dependent on a specific ex Pokemon to be viable.
It creates less deck building innovations, as you're basically handing a somewhat prebuilt strategy to players. But if it's a specific thing for only Arceus ex, then sure, I can't get behind. It can be a unique aspect in the game, which we'll see how it turns out once the cards are out.
The Link ability requires you to have Arceus ex or Arceus in play for it to activate, and we have 5 different Links, Vigor, Resilience, Power, Speed, and Cunning that offer different abilities.
All 8 of these Pokemon can be played for their full potential if you have Arceus ex in play. Many of them are underwhelming if played without an Arceus Ex in play, but Rotom, for example, is a versatile card that can be played in any deck and isn't tied to Psychic or Arceus Ex. For 1 Colorless Energy, you can deal 20 damage with its Dash Attack, and since it only has 1 Retreat cost, you can easily get out of the Active spot without needing the Speed Link ability for the retreat cost reduction. The Dash attack targets the opponent's Benched Pokemon, so it proves useful if you're trying to knock out a damaged Pokemon on the Bench.
On the other hand, Heatran has a retreat cost of 3 Energy, so activating the Speed Link ability can be a game changer to get it out of the Active spot for free. For 2 Fire Energy, you can attack with Ragin' Mad Strike, dealing 40 damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon. Any damage on Heatran bumps its attack to 80 damage, so with 110 health, it might deter opponent from attacking it early on. A card that can ping damage your Heatran would also be a busted synergy, so we'll see if the new set has that in store!
Resilience Link adds more survivability for your Pokemon, so Raichu and Magenzone will be tough to knock out if Arceus ex is in play. This is honestly one of the strongest ability links that you just can't pass out on, and I can't see players trying to run these two Pokemon in a deck without Arceus ex.
The same can be said about Power and Cunning Links, giving you more damage to your attacks. Power Link gives Pokemon like Carnivine and Tyranitar +3 damage to their attacks, making it easier for them to knock out an Active Pokemon.
Carnivine only needs 1 Energy to start going for 50 damage attacks, similar to a2-111-skarmory. The main difference is in Grass type decks, you can use cards like a1-219-erika to keep your Grass-type Pokemon from getting knocked out.
I'm not too sure about Tyranitar, it has a heavy attack, dealing 160 damage with the help of Arceus. But being a 4 Energy attack will take a lot of time and resources to get it ready, and you're heavily relying on a ramp card like a1-224-brock to speed up Tyranitar's attack. So this Pokemon's success in the upcoming meta will be dependent on what supporting cards we'll have in the set.
Cunning Link! The scariest link of all! Crobat can activate Cunning Link to deal 30 damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon. You don't even need to have Crobat in the Active spot to activate Cunning Link, and I expect many Arcues ex decks, even non Darkness decks, to add Crobat to their lists for the added damage. This Pokemon doesn't need to attack with Darkness Fang, even though the 50 damage isn't half bad, but we can sacrifice it to run it in different Energy type decks.
Lastly, Vigor Link reduces the cost of Abomasnow's attack by 1 Colorless Energy, so you'll only need 2 Water Energy to attack with Mega Punch and deal 80 damage. A great aggressive attacker that I can see performing well along with Arceus ex.
Leafeon ex
Leafeon ex is the new Pokemon I'm hyped up for! Evolving from Eevee, this Pokemon wants to be on your Bench early in the game and activate Fores Breath, ramping 1 Grass Energy and attaching it to your Grass-type Pokemon. So you can attach it to Leafeon ex, going for the Solar Beam's 70 damage a turn earlier. Or, you can play it with a a1a-3-celebi-ex deck, speeding up your Powerful Bloom win condition.
With only 1 Retreat cost, you can easily get Leafeon ex out of the Active spot to prevent your opponent from knocking it out and get another Pokemon in its place to carry the late game.
Glaceon ex
Another Eevee evolution Pokemon, Glaceon ex's Snowy Terrain deals 10 passive damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon, and with its 90 damage Freezing Wind attack, you're knocking out a 110 health Pokemon with ease.
Irida
Irida is why Glaceon ex will have a better standing in the meta, healing 40 damage from each of your Pokemon that has a Water Energy. So your Pokemon doesn't need to be Water type, it only needs to have a Water Energy to get the 40 damage healing, which makes a2-50-manaphy an even better card in the upcoming meta, capable of giving two of your Pokemon Water Energy to set up an Irida later in the game.
a2-50-manaphy and Irida aren't tied to Water-type Pokemon only, but can be used alongside other types of Pokemon with a Colorless Energy attack cost, making a Water Energy perfectly fine attached to them.
Adaman
More Metal support! Adaman is giving a protection layer to your Metal Pokemon, taking 20 less damage from the opponent's upcoming attacks. This can be played with the new Probopass ex Pokemon, and a new addition to a2-119-dialga-ex decks.
Probopass ex
Probopass ex can join forces with a2-119-dialga-ex, benefiting from the ramp effect to get Defensive Unit attack online. You're dealing 90 damage and reducing the opponent's upcoming attack by 20. So a 160 health Pokemon that takes 20 less damage can be tough to remove, especially if you have Adaman and a2-148-rocky-helmet as backup cards.
Garchomp ex
The new Garchomp ex, moving from the Dragon-type to the Fighting-type, where it has more supporting cards to make it work! Let's take a look at the ex Pokemon first, it's a 170 health Pokemon, so a beefy tank, and it can start attacking for 1 Fighting Energy. Linear Attack deals 50 damage to one of your opponent's Pokemon, targeting the opponent's Benched Pokemon. This can be great to snipe a Pokemon and knock it out, or to combo it later with a2-150-cyrus.
As for its Dragon Claw attack, it's a 3 Energy attack that deals 100 damage, it's not half bad, and you can knock out almost anything with Dragon Claw + Linear Attack.
Fighting decks have many attackers that can carry the early game as you work on evolving into your Stage 2 Garchomp ex. a1-154-hitmonlee and a1-155-hitmonchan would fit in perfectly as early attackers until Garchomp ex is ready to take over.
Anything potential Pokemon to play with Garchomp ex is 2-92-lucario, boosting the damage of Garchomp ex's attack by 20 through Fighting Coach.
Bad Cards
Snorlax and Giratina are underwhelming, and I don't expect them to find play in the upcoming Pocket meta. Giratina's Crises Dive deals 120 damage but forces you to discard 2 random Energy from it, isn't very appealing. The only way I'd see this card playable is if we get a new card that lets us attach discarded Energy to Giratina.
However, I'm hoping there's a Giratina ex that is set to release in A2a expansion, which hopefully looks way better than this.
Closing Words
This article is an early first impression on the leaked cards, and many of those cards already show huge potential to be meta performers in Pokemon Pocket. However, for the other cards, they could still have their own support cards that haven't been leaked, which gives them a push in the upcoming meta, we'll just have to wait and see!
