Moderator Gliscor has detailed everything you need to know about the newest Pokémon TCG expansion set Emerging Powers in his latest article below. It will detail everything you need to know competitively about this set, while showing what cards you should trade for at your upcoming prereleases. Don't forget if you want to submit your own articles to be featured here, go to the Article Submission forum and post it there with the kind of high quality and detail that you see here in the portal!
Hello, readers. This is A Closer Look: Emerging Powers, an article created to inform you, the reader, all about the upcoming set Black & White Emerging Powers. Emerging Powers, or EP for short, is a 98-card set consisting of 87 regular Pokémon cards, seven Trainer cards, and two FA Legend cards. The cards that make up this set are cards that were not released in Black and White back in May are cards from the Battle Strength Deck, cards from the Black and White Boys and Girls Starter Kit, and other assorted Black and White Promo cards. This set also contains other English-exclusive cards, which could be released in the future in Japan. If that is the case, this is one of the few times where non-Japanese cards are printed outside of Japan first.
One thing that makes Emerging Powers more "different" than the other sets are actually in the reverse holo cards, excluding the FA Legend cards. All reverse holo cards have their type symbol on them, where Trainer cards have Poké Balls on them. For example, here is a reverse holo Great Ball and a reverse holo Gothitelle. Their "symbols" are a part of the foil.
Speaking of how cards look, Emerging Powers also has beautiful card artwork. I, for one, love the Joltik artwork.
By looking at the set list, Emerging Powers does not prove to be a stellar set. However, there are several cards that shine above all of the other cards in this set. In this section of the article, we'll be covering the "better" cards of Emerging Powers, or the hyped cards, and why they deserve a mention. Note that there is no order to this list.
1. Beartic (30/98)
It's been hyped somewhat late, but can Beartic live up to its hype? What gives Beartic its shine is its first attack, Sheer Cold, where for three Energy (two with DCE), you do 50 damage, and prevent the Defending Pokémon from attacking during your opponent's next turn. In short, Beartic can prevent your opponent from attacking, thus locking him or her. This strategy, however, can be played around by Retreating the Defending Pokémon back to the Bench. Low-retreaters such as Yanmega Prime can Retreat out of the attack lock to another Yanmega Prime, and the new Yanmega Prime will be able to attack. Other ways to play around this is to use Switch, or play Dodrio from HS-Undaunted to help Retreat your Pokémon. This completely stops Beartic, who is now really doing only 50 damage for a rather high Energy cost. Players have also considered using Vileplume from Undaunted with Beartic, to prevent Item cards from being played. This way, your opponent cannot play Switch anymore, and must resort to retreating. If your opponent can't retreat out of Sheer Cold's effect and consistently attack it, Beartic and its 130 HP will dominate in that match.
2. Gothitelle (47/98)
Although Gothitelle might not be the best card of the set, the Astral Body Pokémon comes with one of the coolest Abilities in the game: Magic Room. Similar to certain Poké-Bodies in past releases, Magic Room prevents your opponent from playing any Item cards (Trainer cards in any set released before Black & White), while the Ability still allows you to play your own Item cards. However, there's a catch to this Ability, and it's that Gothitelle must be your Active Pokémon in order to prevent your opponent from playing any Item cards. Because of this, Gothitelle can work both for and against you. In this format, where Item cards play a big role in setting up and getting KOs, by being able to lock them, it makes it harder for your opponent to get KOs on your Pokémon due to the inability to play cards such as PlusPower or Pokémon Catcher, and can also nerf your opponent's recovery and setup since he or she cannot play Pokémon Communication, Rare Candy, or Junk Arm. Since you are still able to play your own Item cards, you'll begin to get a slight advantage over your opponent as you can still setup, recover, and get easier KOs.
However, as stated before, Gothitelle must be the Active Pokémon in order for this Ability to come into effect. This means Gothitelle must be targeted by most, if not all of the attacks being used, limiting its effectiveness. On top of that, Gothitelle is not the best attacker either. Gothitelle's Madkinesis attack requires three Colorless Energy to be used, and does 30 damage plus 20 more damage for each Psychic Energy attached to Gothitelle. This isn't a good attack. Since most Pokémon in the metagame have 110 HP or higher, you must attach four Psychic Energy to Gothitelle just to reach 110 damage, and it will take five Psychic Energy just to KO the bulkier Pokémon such as Reshiram. This also means recovering a Gothitelle after is was KO'ed is sluggish, as you must reattach all of those Energy cards. There are ways to attach Psychic Energy quickly on to Gothitelle, however, and that's by using either Shaymin and Jirachi or by using Electrode Prime. However, both of them are inconsistent, as Shaymin and Jirachi depend on coin flips while Electrode Prime gives your opponent a prize card, and is dependent on the top seven cards of your deck. So, while Gothitelle does have a neat Ability, due to having to be Active in order to lock Items, Gothitelle is at the moment a double-edged sword.
3. Crushing Hammer
Any player that has been playing for several years now may have noticed that Crushing Hammer is a reprint of Energy Removal 2, except with a different name (thus, Energy Removal 2 is unusable in Modified Tournaments). While Crushing Hammer is flippy, the result of a lucky coin flip is the ability to discard one of your opponent's Energy cards in play. Although there are several cards that depend on very little Energy to attack (for example, Donphan Prime and Yanmega Prime), Crushing Hammer can slow down setups and recoveries on Pokémon that require multiple Energy to attack, such as Zekrom. However, as stated before, the sole problem with this card is that some Pokémon require little-to-no Energy to attack, and cards such as Typhlosion and Emboar can shrug off Crushing Hammer's effects. Overall, expect to see some Crushing Hammer being played, but not too much.
4. Max Potion
Whereas Crushing Hammer is a poor card to use on your opponent's low-Energy attackers, Max Potion is somewhat of the opposite, being a great card to use on your low-Energy attackers. Max Potion essentially acts as Blissful Nurse from Blissey Prime, except that the effects are only on one Pokémon. By discarding all Energy cards from the Pokémon you use Max Potion on, Max Potion lets you remove all damage counters from that Pokémon. Competitive players can see how effective this card is, as two of the most popular cards in the format, Donphan Prime and Yanmega Prime, require very few Energy to attack. Once you use Max Potion on that Pokémon, you can already start attacking with that same Pokémon during the same turn. In any deck that runs Yanmega, or some decks that run Donphan, there might be a copy or two of Max Potion in that deck.
5. Pokémon Catcher
Aw man. This is the card everyone's been waiting for, and just because of this card alone, Emerging Powers isn't a terrible set. Pokémon Reversal and Luxray GL Lv.X, two cards that have a very similar ability as Pokémon Catcher, and two cards that were heavily played, aren't nearly as good as Pokémon Catcher. Pokémon Catcher's effect is very straightforward: you simply switch your opponent's Active Pokémon with one of his or her Benched Pokémon. Unlike Pokémon Reversal, you don't have to flip a coin to switch the Pokémon, and unlike Luxray GL Lv.X, you don't have to Level Up Pokémon Catcher. This makes Catcher an insane card, as you can get cheap prize cards off of any low-HP Pokémon sitting on your opponent's Bench. Catcher also kills any Pokémon that are in the deck just to sit on your opponent's Bench that isn’t meant to attack (a tech card). These cards include Magnezone, a card that takes a lot of time to setup and Typhlosion or Emboar, two cards that are important for Reshiram's recovery. So many decks will be impacted by this card, as it the matchup against these decks thanks to Pokémon Catcher is greatly improved. In just about every deck that does not have Vileplume in it, expect three Pokémon Catcher, but expect more to be played since this card can be reused thanks to Junk Arm. Also expect a higher Switch count in decks that do run Bench-sitting techs.
6. Tornadus
Available as both an FA Legend and regular Holo card, Tornadus has received a small amount of hype. Coming in with 110 HP, a Lightning weakness, and a Fighting resistance, players have looked at Tornadus to be a check for Donphan decks. Tornadus resists Donphan thanks to its Resistance, forcing Donphan to three-hit KO this genie without the use of PlusPowers, while Tornadus can two-hit KO Donphan. So all-in-all, Tornadus acts as a tech against Donphan. Players have decided that Tornadus could be a solid play in decks such as Zekrom, where it is much easier to put into the deck. It covers Zekrom's Weakness while being able to charge it up thanks to Hurricane's effect.
Overall, with only six cards that have been hyped, a few of which can be easily countered, as stated before, Emerging Powers is not a great set from a competitive standpoint. While collectors will enjoy getting this set with its beautiful artwork and cool reverse holo cards, competitive players would be better off buying singles to get the cards that they like. However, this doesn't mean Emerging Powers won't affect the metagame, as with the release of Pokémon Catcher, expect decks to run more copies of Switch, or decks with high-retreat Bench sitters to lose some popularity.
Hello, readers. This is A Closer Look: Emerging Powers, an article created to inform you, the reader, all about the upcoming set Black & White Emerging Powers. Emerging Powers, or EP for short, is a 98-card set consisting of 87 regular Pokémon cards, seven Trainer cards, and two FA Legend cards. The cards that make up this set are cards that were not released in Black and White back in May are cards from the Battle Strength Deck, cards from the Black and White Boys and Girls Starter Kit, and other assorted Black and White Promo cards. This set also contains other English-exclusive cards, which could be released in the future in Japan. If that is the case, this is one of the few times where non-Japanese cards are printed outside of Japan first.
One thing that makes Emerging Powers more "different" than the other sets are actually in the reverse holo cards, excluding the FA Legend cards. All reverse holo cards have their type symbol on them, where Trainer cards have Poké Balls on them. For example, here is a reverse holo Great Ball and a reverse holo Gothitelle. Their "symbols" are a part of the foil.
Speaking of how cards look, Emerging Powers also has beautiful card artwork. I, for one, love the Joltik artwork.
By looking at the set list, Emerging Powers does not prove to be a stellar set. However, there are several cards that shine above all of the other cards in this set. In this section of the article, we'll be covering the "better" cards of Emerging Powers, or the hyped cards, and why they deserve a mention. Note that there is no order to this list.
1. Beartic (30/98)
It's been hyped somewhat late, but can Beartic live up to its hype? What gives Beartic its shine is its first attack, Sheer Cold, where for three Energy (two with DCE), you do 50 damage, and prevent the Defending Pokémon from attacking during your opponent's next turn. In short, Beartic can prevent your opponent from attacking, thus locking him or her. This strategy, however, can be played around by Retreating the Defending Pokémon back to the Bench. Low-retreaters such as Yanmega Prime can Retreat out of the attack lock to another Yanmega Prime, and the new Yanmega Prime will be able to attack. Other ways to play around this is to use Switch, or play Dodrio from HS-Undaunted to help Retreat your Pokémon. This completely stops Beartic, who is now really doing only 50 damage for a rather high Energy cost. Players have also considered using Vileplume from Undaunted with Beartic, to prevent Item cards from being played. This way, your opponent cannot play Switch anymore, and must resort to retreating. If your opponent can't retreat out of Sheer Cold's effect and consistently attack it, Beartic and its 130 HP will dominate in that match.
2. Gothitelle (47/98)
Although Gothitelle might not be the best card of the set, the Astral Body Pokémon comes with one of the coolest Abilities in the game: Magic Room. Similar to certain Poké-Bodies in past releases, Magic Room prevents your opponent from playing any Item cards (Trainer cards in any set released before Black & White), while the Ability still allows you to play your own Item cards. However, there's a catch to this Ability, and it's that Gothitelle must be your Active Pokémon in order to prevent your opponent from playing any Item cards. Because of this, Gothitelle can work both for and against you. In this format, where Item cards play a big role in setting up and getting KOs, by being able to lock them, it makes it harder for your opponent to get KOs on your Pokémon due to the inability to play cards such as PlusPower or Pokémon Catcher, and can also nerf your opponent's recovery and setup since he or she cannot play Pokémon Communication, Rare Candy, or Junk Arm. Since you are still able to play your own Item cards, you'll begin to get a slight advantage over your opponent as you can still setup, recover, and get easier KOs.
However, as stated before, Gothitelle must be the Active Pokémon in order for this Ability to come into effect. This means Gothitelle must be targeted by most, if not all of the attacks being used, limiting its effectiveness. On top of that, Gothitelle is not the best attacker either. Gothitelle's Madkinesis attack requires three Colorless Energy to be used, and does 30 damage plus 20 more damage for each Psychic Energy attached to Gothitelle. This isn't a good attack. Since most Pokémon in the metagame have 110 HP or higher, you must attach four Psychic Energy to Gothitelle just to reach 110 damage, and it will take five Psychic Energy just to KO the bulkier Pokémon such as Reshiram. This also means recovering a Gothitelle after is was KO'ed is sluggish, as you must reattach all of those Energy cards. There are ways to attach Psychic Energy quickly on to Gothitelle, however, and that's by using either Shaymin and Jirachi or by using Electrode Prime. However, both of them are inconsistent, as Shaymin and Jirachi depend on coin flips while Electrode Prime gives your opponent a prize card, and is dependent on the top seven cards of your deck. So, while Gothitelle does have a neat Ability, due to having to be Active in order to lock Items, Gothitelle is at the moment a double-edged sword.
3. Crushing Hammer
Any player that has been playing for several years now may have noticed that Crushing Hammer is a reprint of Energy Removal 2, except with a different name (thus, Energy Removal 2 is unusable in Modified Tournaments). While Crushing Hammer is flippy, the result of a lucky coin flip is the ability to discard one of your opponent's Energy cards in play. Although there are several cards that depend on very little Energy to attack (for example, Donphan Prime and Yanmega Prime), Crushing Hammer can slow down setups and recoveries on Pokémon that require multiple Energy to attack, such as Zekrom. However, as stated before, the sole problem with this card is that some Pokémon require little-to-no Energy to attack, and cards such as Typhlosion and Emboar can shrug off Crushing Hammer's effects. Overall, expect to see some Crushing Hammer being played, but not too much.
4. Max Potion
Whereas Crushing Hammer is a poor card to use on your opponent's low-Energy attackers, Max Potion is somewhat of the opposite, being a great card to use on your low-Energy attackers. Max Potion essentially acts as Blissful Nurse from Blissey Prime, except that the effects are only on one Pokémon. By discarding all Energy cards from the Pokémon you use Max Potion on, Max Potion lets you remove all damage counters from that Pokémon. Competitive players can see how effective this card is, as two of the most popular cards in the format, Donphan Prime and Yanmega Prime, require very few Energy to attack. Once you use Max Potion on that Pokémon, you can already start attacking with that same Pokémon during the same turn. In any deck that runs Yanmega, or some decks that run Donphan, there might be a copy or two of Max Potion in that deck.
5. Pokémon Catcher
Aw man. This is the card everyone's been waiting for, and just because of this card alone, Emerging Powers isn't a terrible set. Pokémon Reversal and Luxray GL Lv.X, two cards that have a very similar ability as Pokémon Catcher, and two cards that were heavily played, aren't nearly as good as Pokémon Catcher. Pokémon Catcher's effect is very straightforward: you simply switch your opponent's Active Pokémon with one of his or her Benched Pokémon. Unlike Pokémon Reversal, you don't have to flip a coin to switch the Pokémon, and unlike Luxray GL Lv.X, you don't have to Level Up Pokémon Catcher. This makes Catcher an insane card, as you can get cheap prize cards off of any low-HP Pokémon sitting on your opponent's Bench. Catcher also kills any Pokémon that are in the deck just to sit on your opponent's Bench that isn’t meant to attack (a tech card). These cards include Magnezone, a card that takes a lot of time to setup and Typhlosion or Emboar, two cards that are important for Reshiram's recovery. So many decks will be impacted by this card, as it the matchup against these decks thanks to Pokémon Catcher is greatly improved. In just about every deck that does not have Vileplume in it, expect three Pokémon Catcher, but expect more to be played since this card can be reused thanks to Junk Arm. Also expect a higher Switch count in decks that do run Bench-sitting techs.
6. Tornadus
Available as both an FA Legend and regular Holo card, Tornadus has received a small amount of hype. Coming in with 110 HP, a Lightning weakness, and a Fighting resistance, players have looked at Tornadus to be a check for Donphan decks. Tornadus resists Donphan thanks to its Resistance, forcing Donphan to three-hit KO this genie without the use of PlusPowers, while Tornadus can two-hit KO Donphan. So all-in-all, Tornadus acts as a tech against Donphan. Players have decided that Tornadus could be a solid play in decks such as Zekrom, where it is much easier to put into the deck. It covers Zekrom's Weakness while being able to charge it up thanks to Hurricane's effect.
Overall, with only six cards that have been hyped, a few of which can be easily countered, as stated before, Emerging Powers is not a great set from a competitive standpoint. While collectors will enjoy getting this set with its beautiful artwork and cool reverse holo cards, competitive players would be better off buying singles to get the cards that they like. However, this doesn't mean Emerging Powers won't affect the metagame, as with the release of Pokémon Catcher, expect decks to run more copies of Switch, or decks with high-retreat Bench sitters to lose some popularity.