(1) First BW5 'Dragon Blade / Dragon Blast' Cards Revealed! [2/2]

Garchomp + Altaria, anyone?

If Altaria stacks and if it's ability is exactly how we're reading it then Garchomp looks very playable. 1 for 80 and 2 for 120 (at a cost). Ninetales seems ok but with Pokemon Catcher in the format (possibly being reprinted in our May set) i don't see any danger from that card apart from being able to work under trainer lock, but it's a one time-effect. All we need now is a reprint of Dark Electrode TRR and DragTrode can be reborn, seeing as Hydreigon has an Ability which is a word-for-word copy of Dark Dragonites Poké-Power.

That Special Dragon Energy better be something amazing but at the same time balanced because these attack costs look troublesome. Maybe a DRE that can only be attached to Dragon Pokemon but it reduces there attack by 20?
 
Devolution spray = further domination by big basics. We don't need anything else to cripple evolution, we've got plenty already thank you very much. I mean think about it. Twist mountain to put down archeops and then devolution spray everything. Total lock out.
 
Hydreigon - Dragon - HP150
Stage 2 - Evolves from Zweilous

Ability: Dark Trance
As often as you like during your turn, you may choose one [D] Energy card attached to one of your Pokemon and attach it to another of your Pokemon.

[P][D][D][C] Dragon Blast: Discard 2 [D] Energy cards attached to this Pokemon.

Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3

and dark patch for the win
 
Oops
Forgot the 'Shuffle your deck afterwards' in the Gabite ability.

Also I can read Ninetales' attack
Cursed Flame 20+.
This attack does 20 plus (?) more damage for each Special Condition on the Defending Pokemon.

Hydreigon #2:

Devour: 40 damage. Remove damage from this Pokemon for the damage done to the Defending Pokemon.
Destroy Beam: 80 damage. Flip a coin. If heads, discard an Energy card attached to the Defending Pokemon.


Roserade

Ability: Le Parfum

You may use this Ability once during your turn, when you play Roserade from your hand to evolve one of your Pokemon. Search your deck for any one card and put it in your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards.
 
petertclo said:
Oops
Forgot the 'Shuffle your deck afterwards' in the Gabite ability.

Also I can read Ninetales' attack
Cursed Flame 20+.
This attack does 20 plus (?) more damage for each Special Condition on the Defending Pokemon.

Hydreigon #2:

Devour: 40 damage. Remove damage from this Pokemon for the damage done to the Defending Pokemon.
Destroy Beam: 80 damage. Flip a coin. If heads, discard an Energy card attached to the Defending Pokemon.


Roserade

Ability: Le Parfum

You may use this Ability once during your turn, when you play Roserade from your hand to evolve one of your Pokemon. Search your deck for any one card and put it in your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards.

Someone said that Cursed Flame's effect is:
This attack does 20 plus 50 more damage for each Special Condition on the Defending Pokemon.
 
Oh, oh man. Bright Look on a Ninetails. This is going to be great. I'm liking a lot of the cards out of this set so far, they have decent potential, especially if the Roserade translation above this post is correct.
 
I'm so disappointed in this set. I think it's garbage that we aren't getting attacks that require Dragon Type energy. Isn't the point of creating this new type is so that we can get away from that, since there has never been a Dragon type until now? What makes it worse is that it seems like the energy requirements are just arbitrarily assigned based on the color of the Pokemon.

Keep the multi energy attacks for all I care, but make one of those energies be a Dragon type energy.

As far as how good the actually cards are, I'm somewhat impressed. Some of them seem pretty durn playable. But seriously, deevolution spray? Because 180hp basics already didn't have their own stadium, pokemon tool, and energy to help them out as it is.
 
AmishEskimoNinja said:
Devolution spray = further domination by big basics. We don't need anything else to cripple evolution, we've got plenty already thank you very much. I mean think about it. Twist mountain to put down archeops and then devolution spray everything. Total lock out.
As far as how good the actually cards are, I'm somewhat impressed. Some of them seem pretty durn playable. But seriously, deevolution spray? Because 180hp basics already didn't have their own stadium, pokemon tool, and energy to help them out as it is.

Devolution spray devolves your own pokemon, unless I'm thinking of a different card.

72-devolution-spray.jpg
 
^Lol, everyone thinking it's going to ruin evolved pokémon even more when in fact, that may actually be useful (if they keep the same effect)... You can devolve Ninetales for example and use its Bright look again... like a Pokéturn for Luxray GL... This is just an example, it can work with all those other stage 1s or 2s that have those type of abilities...

Glad no one notice my earlier mistake lol. Altaria is #36 (I saw #37 at http://google.com/). Still, it makes me confused about the pokémon line-up... Won't there be Lati@s-EX anymore in these sets? Well, we all saw how that Dark Rush propaganda about being focused on Dark-types actually ended but still...

Btw, like Broken Pokémon EX said, I also think the energy costs aren't random at all, they seem to be attributed based on the final stage pokémon's colors (and I actually like that but I'd prefer Dragon Energy instead too)...

Plus, this set is looking similar to EX Dragon to me (not that I think that's a bad thing). But they're both based on dragons, with two half decks focused on the main set dragons (back then, it was Salamence and Flygon, now it's time for the more recent dragons), some legendary Dragon EXs, the return of various energy requirements for the dragons, etc... Which ultimately makes me think the Dragon-type could have been introduced in that set, instead of just now...
 
Porygon-X said:
Devolution spray devolves your own pokemon, unless I'm thinking of a different card.

Ah you're right. Well if that's the case then it could actually be really useful (assuming that the evolutions go back to your hand instead of being discarded like the original spray).
 
(It seems I'm late to point this out due to typing for so long, but...) First off, about Devolution Spray, if it's anything like the one in Base set or even Hyper Devolution Spray in Neo Discovery, it says you choose one of YOUR Evolved Pokemon, not your opponent's Evolved Pokemon.

Trust me, I was scared too for the same reasons that Broken Pokemon EX listed. (180 HP Basics with their own Stadium, Tool, AND Energy.) So unless there's a change in text that DOES affect your opponent, there's nothing to fear. Hopefully this is more like Hyper Devolution Spray because THAT doesn't discard the evolution card. And since this affects YOUR Pokemon, I can see a few uses for this. There's pesky status conditions that can get removed by this. There's also the ability to reuse those Abilities that say "Once during your turn, when you play [this Pokemon] from your hand to evolve one of your Pokemon..." The cards that come to mind are the new Roserade and Ninetales, and Amoongus; and even though it depends on a coin flip, Shiftry's also a possibility. So you could use the effect one turn, and the next turn, use Devolution Spray and use it again. OR, if you already have a second Vulpix/Roselia/Foongus/Nuzleaf in play, you could use it again that same turn. And the last possible use (that I can think of) is a bit situational. Let's just use... Reshiphlosion for example, I guess. Let's say you have both a fully evolved Typhlosion (you evolved using Quilava, not a Rare Candy) and a Cyndaquil on the Bench. You get a Rare Candy without any way to search for a Typhlosion. Well, if you also have a (Hyper) Devolution Spray, you could devolve Typhlosion back to Quilava, and then use the Rare Candy and evolve Cyndaquil into Typhlosion. (The advantages of that are being able to use a hand refresher without getting rid of the Rare Candy and possibly getting the Typhlosion you need in those cards you drew, and also, if anything you're going against is sniping, both Pokemon probably have a better chance of surviving now.)

Also, would devolving effect Abilities that say "Once during your turn (before your attack)..." and allow you to use that Ability a seoncd time? Like, the one I'm the most curious about is Chandelure (assuming Trainer lock isn't an issue), but I'm sure there are others that would be useful IF devolving did reset the effect of "once during your turn". Again, not sure about that, but I'm curious.

So moving onto the other cards, Garchomp looks really good! Especially paired with Altaria. Quite honestly, I'm not sure how devistating discarding 2 cards from your deck actually would be. (Unless, of course, you're going against Durant.) I mean... I know there's a difference, but it seems a lot of people like all those cards that discard stuff (usually from the hand) in order to do something. (Juniper, Junk Arm, Sage's Training, and Ultra Ball.) Again, I know there's a difference between choosing what's discarded and not knowing what's discarded, but still. Also, in my opinion, wouldn't Garchomp's second attack only be used once against the defending Pokemon, then you'd use the first attack? (Assuming they didn't switch or something.) I just don't think it'd be used as often as the first attack, so its effect shouldn't be that devistating.

On top of Garchomp being nice, Gabite's really nice too. Basically, it's Sunflora (HGSS) for Dragon Pokemon. (And if anyone has used Sunflora, you'd know how fast you can set things up.) Roserade's Ability is nice as well. How often have you been in a jam where you at least just needed this ONE card? Well, Roserade will get that card for you! (Should it be used in all or most decks? Probably not. But it's a nice tech.) And I would argue that if its Ability is indeed the same as Lurxray GL Lv.X's, Ninetales is actually a little bit better (as far as the Ability goes). As long as it doesn't say Ninetales has to be Active, you can just sit it on the Bench and even (Hyper) Devoltion Spray it to use it again another turn. And last but not least, Hydreigon. As a Pokemon, I love Hyreigon. But all the cards so far have only been on the verge of being really good, but in the end, probably aren't. I mean, there's the Ability to move Darkness energies around, which would be nice in Dark decks, but that's a Stage 2 as a tech. Not sure how useful that is. (Pair it up with Darkrai EX?) And the way I can see the other one being okay is for the first attack with Altaria on the Bench, assuming petertclo's translation is right. (Dealing 60 and healing 60? Sounds pretty neat.)

Oh! And I sort of skimmed over it, but of course Altaria sounds great! The way it's worded right now, it sounds like the Ability stacks.
 
Skeleton Liar said:
And last but not least, Hydreigon. As a Pokemon, I love Hyreigon. But all the cards so far have only been on the verge of being really good, but in the end, probably aren't. I mean, there's the Ability to move Darkness energies around, which would be nice in Dark decks, but that's a Stage 2 as a tech. Not sure how useful that is. (Pair it up with Darkrai EX?) And the way I can see the other one being okay is for the first attack with Altaria on the Bench, assuming petertclo's translation is right. (Dealing 60 and healing 60? Sounds pretty neat.)

Its kinda a shame that Hydreigon isn't dark. If it was, it could've done up to 80 damage with sp. dark energy (100 with Altaria) and healed 80 (or 100) with its attack! :p
 
I love these cards, as I love all dragons. GIVE US MORE.

So far, Garchomp is looking to be pretty playable, especially with the Gabite to help out. Altaria is the icing on the cake, and who knows what other dragons/dragon support we might get? Hydregion (the Dragon Blast one), Ninetales, Roserade, and Devolution Spray all look cool as well.

On a side note, I think that the EX's for these sets will go something like this: Rayquaza, Giratina, Suicune, Thundurus, and either Latios/Latias or Dialga/Palkia. That lineup makes sense, since it features various dragons and fills in the gaps that Dark Rush left open. But IDK, Dark Rush's selection was weird, so I don't know what to expect at this point. I just hope that Rayquaza EX is good so I can kick Mewtwo's butt with a dragon. ;)

Can't wait for this set!!!
 
Videoland said:
Its kinda a shame that Hydreigon isn't dark. If it was, it could've done up to 80 damage with sp. dark energy (100 with Altaria) and healed 80 (or 100) with its attack! :p

Yeah, I thought it was a shame too because there's also the Darkness Claw that could've given an additional 20 damage. So assuming only 1 Special Dark is attached, with everything, Hydreigon would be dealing 90 and healing 90. But oh, well. The only way this would be possible is if they made a Pokemon with Weavile SW's PokePower. Ha ha.
 
Also, would devolving effect Abilities that say "Once during your turn (before your attack)..." and allow you to use that Ability a seoncd time? Like, the one I'm the most curious about is Chandelure (assuming Trainer lock isn't an issue), but I'm sure there are others that would be useful IF devolving did reset the effect of "once during your turn". Again, not sure about that, but I'm curious.
You could use it repeatedly, because if you evolve/devolve, it's considered to be a different Pokemon. So, assuming you used a card to pick up the highest-stage Evolution on your own Pokemon, and then used BTS or something to drop it again, you could use the power again.

Just remember, boys and girls - you can't evolve a Pokemon on the same turn you devolve it!
 
DNA said:
You could use it repeatedly, because if you evolve/devolve, it's considered to be a different Pokemon. So, assuming you used a card to pick up the highest-stage Evolution on your own Pokemon, and then used BTS or something to drop it again, you could use the power again.

Just remember, boys and girls - you can't evolve a Pokemon on the same turn you devolve it!

Wow! I was actually onto something. Ha ha. Thanks for letting me know. =)

And since we haven't really had anything like Devolution Spray for a long time, I was unaware you couldn't evolve after devolving. (I was only a kid when it first came out! I sure didn't know the rules. "Who evolves, plays Trainers, and uses energies anyway?!" Ha ha.) Can you devolve a Pokemon you evolved on the same turn? If so, that doesn't really ruin the strategy for the Pokemon like Roserade, Ninetales, Amoongus, and Shiftry. My plan for Chandelure is ruined, though. lol But oh, well. What the text actually says isn't known yet, so it's possible it IS a reprint of the Base set version and not the Neo Discovery version.
 
Does Altaria's Ability mean 20 extra damage for Dragon Types only?
I like Gabite. It would be VERY useful early game.
 
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