Focusing on your own strategies is all well and good, but ignoring what the opponent is up to can be disastrous . They may have drawn a great starting hand and are close to unleashing their strongest weapon. Instead of suffering it, a trainer could throw a wrench into the enemy’s plans by causing their Active Pokemon to lose energy, forcing them to discard their hand, or even wreaking havoc on their Bench Poke
Since there’s usually a coinflip required to determine if an attack paralyzes the target, this can be a gamble. Shuckle from the Rebel Clash expansion has the attack Bind, which is a prime example of this strat
Here’s another card with good versatility. Crobat from the Skyridge set has a hazardous attack called Poison Flame, which can put the opposing Active Pokemon in a tight spot as it can leave them Burned and Poisoned following a single coin f
Poisoned is a special condition that applies 10 damage to an afflicted Pokemon each turn. Many Grass-types in the TCG , like Beedrill from the Champion’s Path expansion, can apply this status ailment with very little cost and sometimes while doing decent dam
One such card is the evolution of Vanillite found in the Darkness Ablaze expansion, Vanillish. For only a single water energy, this stage 2 pokemon can deal minor, but quick, 30 damage per attack with a chance to make the foe Paralyzed. With a bit of luck during the coin flips, this can leave the adversary crippled and weakened, unable to respond. Not only can this allow trainers to dominate the battle, but it can also give them time to draw and play Vanillish’s evolution, Vanilluxe; an ice pokemon that is even more adept at freezing f
Luxray is a stage two pokémon that belongs to the Ultra Prism expansion of the series and has a unique ability called Intimidating Fang. Intimidating Fang is extremely resourceful, as it allows players to protect their pokémon from the opponent’s attacks by receiving 30 damage less than what they would have originally received. However, Luxray needs to be in the Active Pokémon s
It is a normal attack as well, so, unlike Pokemon GX attacks, it can be used repeatedly. This kind of move, Slg game updates usually called “Hydro Pump”, has been seen on water type pokemon cards since some of the earliest sets featuring the very first water starter line . Blastoise was the original user of this watery weapon, though variants have flourished since its incept
Used as an offensive supporter, Jolteon EX is a terrific pokémon that provides players with comprehensive protection against most Basic Pokémon belonging to the EX or GX series with its ability Flash Ray; granted the opponent does not use tactical retreats or support cards like Float St
Legendary Pokemon are usually extremely powerful , though this is not always the case. Lugia, also from the Aquapolis expansion, proves this with its relatively low HP and mediocre attacks. Its Psychic can be useful against foes loaded with energy cards, though its Steam Blast attack can only realistically be used a couple of times before it becomes a burden to the trainer’s energy ne
There may be times when this strategy does not go as planned, due to it needing 4 specific cards for it to work, though there is another tactic that can be added on with minimal effort and resources. Including some Barraskewda cards, which Arrokuda can evolve into, can give one an excellent fallback strategy. If one’s Cramorant gets knocked out before they can use Continuous Gulp Missile, this will leave their trainer with a bunch of comparatively week Arrokuda, which would get knocked out fairly quickly. Evolving them into Barraskewda will result in a fast, moderate-HP card that can directly damage the active opponent or even assault their benched poke
Attacks and Abilities that result in more energy getting attached to one’s Active or Bench Pokemon can lead to a whole team being ready to attack at any moment. Spare energies can even be used as emergency retreat resour
Paralyzed is a special condition that renders a Pokemon unable to move or retreat for one turn. At their turn end, they lose this condition and return to normal. By itself, this effect simply locks a foe down for a turn, which can be very useful, though the best implementation of this ailment is to combine it with damage to widdle a foe’s health away while preventing them from fighting b
Things work a bit differently in the Pokemon TCG compared to the games or anime. There are 18 types of Pokemon overall but these get compressed into 11 types for the TCG. This means that some TCG types are combinations of multiple groups. Grass-type includes almost all Grass and Bug Pokemon as well as quite a few Poison Pokemon from Generation One up until Generation Th
Since most Electric-type pokémon require a strange combination of 2-electric and 1-colorless energy to mete out their attacks, having this stage one pokémon in the deck can prove to be extremely use