'Unbroken Bonds,' May's English SM10 Set!

Flygonite

Meta/budget player
Member
Waiting until the set where they focus on grass mons once again.

Also Fighting Dojo will be crazy good for those Hitmon family decks that have been making the rounds lately, alongside Garchomp (that bless God keeps everything post-rotation) and Lucario/Lycanroc decks.
 

starg09

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Where is the Venasaur-GX?
Pure speculating, but i wouldn't be surprised if that Japanese remix set coming in a couple months brings it. I'd be weird to only get charizard and blastoise as gxs, but no venusaur (and I think the same with blaziken and sceptile having a gx, but no swampert)
 

Lord Goomy

Got Goomies?
Member
Ah, I forgot that Magnezone/Zeraora is a thing, especially with Electropower nowadays.
Blastoise GX is underwhelming. A 60x as the modifier is super good, but the deck isn’t the most accessible place to have to pull Energy from again.
Whimsicott GX, while being a big meme, also has a really good GX attack. Beware!
How ironic that the Dusk Stone is going to be giving me nightmares.
Martial Arts Dojo? Eh, Fighting Dojo was better. I LOVE that Buzzwole can’t use this. That’s the best clause I’ve ever seen on any card ever.
Welder is going to be making an influence in the Blacephalon and other Fire decks meta for sure. If this card was for another type, say Fighting, I wouldn’t have stopped ranting by now.
Ah, TCE brings Evolution Pokémon back onto the scene! Silvally GX will surely be pumped up. Lickilicky can now meme for a single attachment. Awrodactyl can subvert the regular GX meta for a single attachment. Even Gardevoir GX can utilize this for an extra 90 damage! That’s a lot. So can baby Gardy from who knows what set can end up attacking for a single energy.
TCE is by far one of the most exciting cards in a while.
 

Lord Goomy

Got Goomies?
Member
Pure speculating, but i wouldn't be surprised if that Japanese remix set coming in a couple months brings it. I'd be weird to only get charizard and blastoise as gxs, but no venusaur (and I think the same with blaziken and sceptile having a gx, but no swampert)
Honestly Baby Swampert almost fills the GX slot because of its making waves in the meta.
 

boyishgoodlooks

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Does welder move the Charizard from Team Up up a tier? With the Roaring Resolve ability and Welder it can hit some big numbers. Or are stage 2 decks just too slow?
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
The translators missing that "Martial Arts Dojo" was supposed to be a location from the games and naming it something different for the TCG... some choices were made!
 

Catastrophia

PokéBeach Articles Editor
Articles Staff
Member
Does welder move the Charizard from Team Up up a tier? With the Roaring Resolve ability and Welder it can hit some big numbers. Or are stage 2 decks just too slow?
It's likely in my opinion - fire will be getting very strong in this new set, Blacephalon-GX will be getting the buff it needed to be a tier 1 deck in my books. It might just be worth playing water again.
 

Flygonite

Meta/budget player
Member
How exactly? Tapu Lele wasn't used for its attack 99% of the times (and I only say that because I used her to KO a Ditto this morning ha).
 

Flygonite

Meta/budget player
Member
It's likely in my opinion - fire will be getting very strong in this new set, Blacephalon-GX will be getting the buff it needed to be a tier 1 deck in my books. It might just be worth playing water again.

Is Blacephalon GX really getting that good though? I would say that baby Blacephalon is a much better contender, because while Welder allows for some crazy extra damage output (150 extra), you're only adding damage. Blacephalon usual problems (bricking with energy, dying to Judge/Marshadow plays since they really need big hands, needing time to up their damage output), are still as present as ever. Blacephalon is still a tier 1 deck anyway, simply by number of event points and tops.

I can see Baby Blacephalon variants actually overtaking the GX simply by virtue of it being a 1-prize attacker, synergizing well with Fire Crystal, Fiery Flint, Energy Recycler and also not needing to setup multiple Naganadels on bench, while also still being Beast Ring/Beast Energy compatible, and most important of all, lowering the ammount of Fire Energy needed on deck since you don't banish it. I guess we will end up seeing which variant does better.
 

Catastrophia

PokéBeach Articles Editor
Articles Staff
Member
Is Blacephalon GX really getting that good though? I would say that baby Blacephalon is a much better contender, because while Welder allows for some crazy extra damage output (150 extra), you're only adding damage. Blacephalon usual problems (bricking with energy, dying to Judge/Marshadow plays since they really need big hands, needing time to up their damage output), are still as present as ever. Blacephalon is still a tier 1 deck anyway, simply by number of event points and tops.

Don't get me wrong - I agree with all those problems the deck has (which is why I don't play it). The new cards in SM10 Unbroken Bonds (including the new Volcanion coming as a pre-release promo) just mean that it can get set up way faster, which makes it that bit stronger. It definitely won't be the new bdif though ;).
 

RiverShock

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Man, Dusk Stone combines a bunch of the wording traits I hate about Pokemon. Overexplaining things that should go without saying (the being able to play it the turn the Pokemon was played), and implying Honchkrow and Honchkrow-GX are the same name. Both of those can confuse newer players, and are just bad wording in general.
 

AuraJackle

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Man, Dusk Stone combines a bunch of the wording traits I hate about Pokemon. Overexplaining things that should go without saying (the being able to play it the turn the Pokemon was played), and implying Honchkrow and Honchkrow-GX are the same name. Both of those can confuse newer players, and are just bad wording in general.
The wording is necessary especially in regards to saying it works on the turn you play down the pokemon otherwise this item would only work on the players first turn. Ambiguous wording is much worse because it causes judges like me to have to spell it out to everybody. But if someone asked me what this card did I would tell them they need to read more carefully.
 
Top