November's XY4 Set: 'Phantom Forces;' Introduces New 'Spirit Link' Cards [7/31]

[ThunderSloth]

I feel like a Zygarde EX might be a possibility as they already have Xerneas and Yveltal so why not add Zygarde to the mix? Unless they are planning a form change of some kind. Hopefully Zygarde will be fighting type in the card game and not dragon so will get the benefits of Furious Fists and not just be another useless dragon.(Although the dragon type is more likely.) But I just hope it won't be as useless as it is in the VG if they ever print it. But don't forget we'll probably get some more promo EX boxes so all the popular pokemon will get slightly unplayable card forms.

 

[pokedan24]

"Spirit link" sounds like something from Yugioh.

 

[Stefernal]

OMG... Some of you people just... seriously...

Dude, being rude to people who dont know the specifics of an unreleased set isnt a good look. They were just adding to the discussion in this thread. For all we know Dialgia and Aegislash ex could be full art, shining, team rocket cards. No need to be elitist, we are all on a pokemon forum.

Like most other posters, I'm not that stoked about Manectric. Doesent make much sense for the set, and I think Houndoom would have been perfect for the theme. That being said, lightning ex makes the most sense for balancing issues atm because it doesent have much going for it. We just had flashfire with Charizards, and dark still has Yveltal, so maybe they thought houndoom was repetitive and Gengar was popular enough to carry the set itself. It will be interesting to see if Manectric is actually good and if psychic gets as much support as fighting did. Maybe they will do a kind of duel set and give lightning and psychic both support.

Maybe the ultra lame, secret rares will be changed. PLEASE MAKE THE SECRET RARES FULL ART MEGAS.

 

[Pikachu6319]

Can someone please explain why M Houndoom would have been better for this set? At least three posters have said that and honestly I just don't get it.

Hey, if we really want unexpected secret rares, full arts of Dialga and Aegislash would be great. Not that I think full art megas would be bad but I think we should have had that since day one and to use it on M. Gengar and M. Manectric when the last two sets featured the Kanto final evos (ie three Pokemon that started this ALL) would be kind of a let down.

 

[daisukereds]

The fact that Psychic and Electric are coming next.. probably thinking on balancing the newly released Fighting set, as well as giving a needed support to Electric types (also, against Yveltal).

No idea about M Houndoom.. I mean, we don't even know what M Gengar does, and it could suck. I just hope Manectric is not a Magnezone-Ex and has an ability or something useful. Because then, I would agree that a Houndoom would be better, haha.

When there's been new sets for new games.. how after the release did they come out? I would like a Zygarde indeed, but seeing as how it could have been part of the Fighting set and didn't, makes me think we won't see it. Who knows.. I see it as a Water/Fight Dargon Ex.

Finally, a Metal Deck and a Psychic Set.. Definitely getting a new Dialga. I don't believe reprinting the Plasma one would be a good idea at all, it would be a wasted opportunity to be combined with whatever the deck brings.

 

[OmniPoke]

Honestly looking at how we are receiving these sets, we won't get every single mega in a card form, especially with ORAS hosting a while new roster of Megas at a similar time to this sets release. Therefore there's no reason to say we won't get Houndoom-EX in the set whatsoever. And after the Dark semi-boost in XY I'm not surprised they're giving the type a rest for a while. Dark was one of the only types that really got a boost in the BW era and we've only just lost Dark Explorers to the September rotation so I feel like whilst it's a shame that we didn't get Mega Houndoom as the subsidiary Mega along with Gengar, it's a well deserved rest for the type itself. And with FlashFire being a 'Fire' type set to certain extents I feel like Houndoom perhaps may have to wait in the wings at least for a while.

Based on what Pokemon did for XY and it's release relating to the games I feel it is relatively certain that the English February set, XY5, will be the first ORAS set as that was the set that launched the XY era after the games had been released in the months before. It's nice to see more electric EXs and here's to hoping that Manetric is playable, both for the modified and extended formats.

Regarding Aegislash and Dialga, I feel 99% sure both will be Metal types as they are both in the Japanese Metal based deck, however with psychic getting support then we could see Aegislash being an alternative type.

The final two EXs could be absolutely anything (as seen with Toxicroak and Seismitoad in FlashFire and Furious Fists respectively) and therefore there is nothing to go on other than gut feeling.

Finally the 'Spirit Link' cards. I feel that as they have been advertised as a plural, we will be getting more than just a single card related to 'Spirit Link' and on top of that I feel it's probably been part of Pokemon's plan all along to wait a few sets before introducing us to what these Mega Pokemon can really do. I think that there will be something to do with the Mega items the in-game characters have to have to be able to Mega evolve their Pokemon and I think it will involve a reduced penalty for Mega evolving. I feel like there will be some sort of standard 'Spirit Link' stadium which will have to be in play to begin this process and you will then have to sacrifice cards from your hand to be able to Mega Evolve without having to end your turn. The Mega Ring/Bangle/etc. I think will be a one time use item to be able to reduce the amount of sacrificed cards for your Mega Pokemon in that turn by a single card or something. And if that is the direction that Pokemon go with these cards, the 'Spirit Zone' will be much the same as the Lost Zone. I highly doubt the process will be called sacrificing however. And on a side note, if this is the case I feel it would be very unlikely that we didn't see some sort of attack boosted by the amount of cards/a certain card type in the 'Spirit Zone' with either Gengar-Ex or Mega Gengar-EX, most likely the Mega as they would fit in nicely together.

Just a few thoughts!

~ Jack, OmniPoke

 

[Frost]

Forget Houndoom. Where's my Alakazam EX? He only has so many opportunities to appear thanks to his blacklisted pre-evolution. ;_;

 

[MrSquarepants]

Oh it's confirmed to have 6 Pokemon EX, in addition with two Mega Pokemon... I read it as "There will be 6 Pokemon EX, 2 of which are Mega Pokemon". Hahaha... well... I hope the other two are something cool. But seeing as how last sets went... my money's on Watchog EX and Mr. Mime EX.

Or they could blow my mind and make a Salamence EX. OMFG Salamence full art would make me buy a box or 2.

 

[OmniPoke]

Oh it's confirmed to have 6 Pokemon EX, in addition with two Mega Pokemon... I read it as "There will be 6 Pokemon EX, 2 of which are Mega Pokemon". Hahaha... well... I hope the other two are something cool. But seeing as how last sets went... my money's on Watchog EX and Mr. Mime EX.

Or they could blow my mind and make a Salamence EX. OMFG Salamence full art would make me buy a box or 2.

What draws you to Watchog and Mr.Mime? Both would be pretty cool honestly and if we finally got a playable Watchog card I would be pretty happy as all of the cards have had quirky attack so far so why not make a quirky Watchog-EX with some crazy attack that forms it's own deck? I love the idea I just wondered why you chose those to

And as for Salamence, I would love a Salemence Full Art but unfortunately, I think we will haven to wait until the ORAS sets for it. Though I think we will get a Salamence at some point and therefore that idea in itself just makes me look forward to the future sets even more. Again I just hope it is playable too

~ Jack, OmniPoke

 

[EricDent]

Sounds interesting, hopefully some cool cards to add to my decks.

So did they immediately switch from Diamond & Pearl/Platinum to HeartGold/SoulSilver?

I don't think they are going to rush Ruby & Saphire into the TCG.
I mean by then we will only have 4 X & Y sets?
When HeartGold/SoulSiver came out, there was a bunch of sets.

 

[MrSquarepants]

Oh it's confirmed to have 6 Pokemon EX, in addition with two Mega Pokemon... I read it as "There will be 6 Pokemon EX, 2 of which are Mega Pokemon". Hahaha... well... I hope the other two are something cool. But seeing as how last sets went... my money's on Watchog EX and Mr. Mime EX.

Or they could blow my mind and make a Salamence EX. OMFG Salamence full art would make me buy a box or 2.

What draws you to Watchog and Mr.Mime? Both would be pretty cool honestly and if we finally got a playable Watchog card I would be pretty happy as all of the cards have had quirky attack so far so why not make a quirky Watchog-EX with some crazy attack that forms it's own deck? I love the idea I just wondered why you chose those to

And as for Salamence, I would love a Salemence Full Art but unfortunately, I think we will haven to wait until the ORAS sets for it. Though I think we will get a Salamence at some point and therefore that idea in itself just makes me look forward to the future sets even more. Again I just hope it is playable too

~ Jack, OmniPoke

I picked those 2 because there's been a trend of unpopular Pokemon getting EX cards randomly. Like Emolga, Toxicroak, and Seismitoad. So I picked the Pokemon I like the least out of what I remembered.

 

[Luispipe8]

Sounds interesting, hopefully some cool cards to add to my decks.

So did they immediately switch from Diamond & Pearl/Platinum to HeartGold/SoulSilver?

I don't think they are going to rush Ruby & Saphire into the TCG.
I mean by then we will only have 4 X & Y sets?
When HeartGold/SoulSiver came out, there was a bunch of sets.

Well, that happened because Platinum was released right after Diamond and Pearl, giving more time for D/P/Pt to show up. What's happening here is similar to the ex-Era/3rd Gen: 2 Main games, a remake game pair and then the improved 3rd version of the first two. In that time, the set distribution was very similar to how it would be this time around.

 

[signofzeta]

Sounds interesting, hopefully some cool cards to add to my decks.

So did they immediately switch from Diamond & Pearl/Platinum to HeartGold/SoulSilver?

I don't think they are going to rush Ruby & Saphire into the TCG.
I mean by then we will only have 4 X & Y sets?
When HeartGold/SoulSiver came out, there was a bunch of sets.

In third gen, FRLG came out pretty much a year and a bit after RS. There were 5 ex series sets before ex FireRed Leafgreen. 3rd gen is different because every single set had this ex attached to it, like ex emerald, ex unseen forces etc.

In 4th, 5th, and 6th generation, it is different. The name of the video games are attached to every set name. Diamond and Pearl Great Encounters, HS Undaunted, Black and White Next Destinies, XY Furious Fists etc. In all of these situations, the name of the game was attached to the set so long as that game was the newest game, or close to being the newest game. Platinum came out after 7 DP series sets because Platinum the video game came out pretty much 2 years after Diamond and Pearl. A year after that HGSS the video games came out, which is why we have 4 Platinum series sets.

I think the February set next year will be the first ORAS set. If the XY series was instead called the Mega series, where they call it MEGA XY, MEGA Flashfire, MEGA Furious fists, MEGA Phantom Forces, MEGA ORAS etc, then it would make sense just like ex Ruby Sapphire, ex Firered Leafgreen, and ex Emerald, but so far, it is XY Flashfire, XY Furious fists,so it would suggest the name change to ORAS something. I predict the ORAS series would last 4 sets, and the February 2016 set would be the first Z set, assuming the 3rd game is called "Z".

Look at it this way, if ORAS was the February set, and we only have 4 XY sets, think about the video games. XY lasted for 1 year before ORAS came out, kind of like generation 3, where there were 5 ex sets before ex Firered Leafgreen.

 

[Maserati777]

I picked those 2 because there's been a trend of unpopular Pokemon getting EX cards randomly. Like Emolga, Toxicroak, and Seismitoad. So I picked the Pokemon I like the least out of what I remembered.

I'd have to add Houndoom to that list if they decided to make it into a full art. I'm pretty sure they're going to make most legendaries into ex's in upcoming sets, we'll probably see full arts of Zygarde, Diancie and the other 2 legendaries. (*cough* Arceus, Suicune, Moltres, Zapdos*cough*).

Right now I'm most worried about the artwork for these full arts, after disappointing Charizard I hope they don't mess up Manectric or Gengar.

 

[starbyte92]

So far, each set seems to have focused on 2 types...

XY: Fairy and Dark
Flash Fire: Fire and Normal
Furious Fists: Fighting and Grass(Sort of)
Phantom Force: Ghost and Electric

taking this into consideration, I'm assuming XY5 will feature any combination of Water, Metal, and Dragon.

Well going by that logic, the M-EXs for XY5 could very easily be some combination of Mega Gyarados, Mega Ampharos, Mega Garchomp, Mega Aggron and Mega Scizor.

I would think that a great combination would be Garchomp and Aggron, but they seem to have gone for one 'marquee name' Mega, with another lesser one, excluding Base Set.

I doubt an xy5 set. The set after phantom forces will be ORAS base set with the 2 primals being the 2 megas

 

[Carpey]

I sure hope there is no XY5. Anything would be better as secret rares than Mega Evolutions with a gold border.

 

[OmniPoke]

Well going by that logic, the M-EXs for XY5 could very easily be some combination of Mega Gyarados, Mega Ampharos, Mega Garchomp, Mega Aggron and Mega Scizor.

I would think that a great combination would be Garchomp and Aggron, but they seem to have gone for one 'marquee name' Mega, with another lesser one, excluding Base Set.

I doubt an xy5 set. The set after phantom forces will be ORAS base set with the 2 primals being the 2 megas

The only thing that may contradict that is the fact that only Kyogre and Groudon have Primal devolutions and therefore where will the concept go afterwards. Unless they then go back to Mega Evolutions the set after. It's gonna be really interesting as to how the change it up if at all for ORAS.

~ Jack, OmniPoke

 

[signofzeta]

I doubt an xy5 set. The set after phantom forces will be ORAS base set with the 2 primals being the 2 megas

The only thing that may contradict that is the fact that only Kyogre and Groudon have Primal devolutions and therefore where will the concept go afterwards. Unless they then go back to Mega Evolutions the set after. It's gonna be really interesting as to how the change it up if at all for ORAS.

~ Jack, OmniPoke

It's obvious that if you want to play Primal Groudon or Primal Kyogre, you have to play Devolution Spray on Groudon or Kyogre respectively lol.