We have the first set of Pokemon card reveals from Japan's Heat Wave Arena. The Japanese set is set to release on March 14, 2025. For the international and English audience it is estimated that cards from Steven's Metagross ex deck, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex deck and this Heat Wave Arena set will be a part of May's Team Rocket set.
In my opinion I think the Team Rocket set will be mega. These days people go crazy for anything nostalgia related. Look at Prismatic Evolutions and Pokemon 151 where the scalpers are back.
Sacred Ash is a powerful item recovery card that lets you shuffle up to 5 Pokemon from your discard pile into your deck. It is similar to Super Rod where Super Rod allows you to put up to 3 of a combination of Pokemon and Basic Energy cards into your deck. This Sacred Ash card is for Pokemon only.
Certain decks that are heavy on Pokemon discarding would run this card.
Misty's Psyduck is a 70HP Basic Water Pokemon with one retreat cost and Lightning weakness. The single attack of Sprinkle Water does 30 damage for one Water Energy. Any Basic Pokemon attack that does 30 damage for one Energy is good in the early game.
The Psyduck's ability is kind of weird. Slapstick Jump can be used once during your turn. If Misty's Psyduck is on your Bench then you may discard the bottom card of your deck. If you do, then discard all cards attached to this Misty's Pokemon and put it on the top of your deck.
This ability on its own is not great but it has to combo with something else in order for Misty's Psyduck to be useable.
Misty's Magikarp is a weak 30 HP Basic Water Pokemon. Magikarp is known to be weak until it evolves into Gyarados. The ability of Misty's Magikarp allows it to be protected on the Bench from damage and effects of attacks from the opponent's Active Pokemon. This does not stop Munkidori's ability though.
Misty's Gyarados is a bulky single prize Stage 1 Water Pokemon. It has 180 HP, four retreat cost and Lightning weakness. The Waterfall attack is not great at 120 damage for the 2 Water Energy and 1 Colourless Energy cost. The Splashing Panic attack requires one Water Energy for its attack. After discarding the top 7 cards of your deck, the Splashing Panic attack does 70 damage for each Misty's Pokemon discarded from this attack.
In theory you can hit large numbers like 280 (from 4), 350, 420, and 490 damage. In practice how likely is it to hit numbers like 210 damage? You would have to mix Misty's Psyduck with Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking and something like Academy At Night to pull this off.
Ethan is the main protagonist and playable character from Pokemon's Gold & Silver handheld video game. Ethan is also in Pokemon Crystal, HeartGold and SoulSilver.
Here is Ethan's Ho-Oh ex. It has 230 HP as a Fire Basic Pokemon with two retreat cost and Water weakness.
The Shining Feather attack is costly at four Fire Energy to do 160 damage and heal 50 damage from each of your Pokemon. However the ability does make up for the high attack cost. Golden Flame's ability allows you once during your turn attach up to 2 Basic Fire Energy from your hand to 1 of your Benched Ethan's Pokemon. You can't attach Fire Energy to this Ethan's Ho-Oh ex if it is in the Active Spot but you can combo this with Latias ex to use this ability.
This Ethan's Supporter card is built around Ethan's Pokemon and Fire Energy. Search your deck for any combination of Ethan's Pokemon and Basic Fire Energy and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.
This Supporter card is much stronger than Jacq where Jacq searches for 2 Evolution Pokemon. Plus you can search for Basic Fire Energy which synergizes with Ethan's Ho-Oh ex and the other Ethan's Pokemon.
Ethan's Pichu is a Baby Basic Pokemon with 30 HP, zero retreat cost and Fighting Weakness. It does 30 damage for a zero energy cost plus you draw 1 card. The draw power is not as great as Cleffa but you do deal damage and draw a card. Maybe this Ethan's Pichu is a counter against Budew?? I can see some decks run one copy for early game when the hand is bad.
Ethan's Cyndaquil is a 70 HP Basic Pokemon with one retreat cost and Water weakness. The Ember attack requires 1 Fire Energy to do 30 damage with the drawback of discarding one Energy from it.
Ethan's Quilava is the Stage 1 evolution of Ethan's Cyndaquil. The Combustion attack is okay at 1 Fire Energy for 40 damage. The Adventure Bound ability is pretty good. Once during your turn the ability allows you to search your deck for one Ethan's Adventure Supporter card and put it into your hand. (The shuffle your deck) A Stage 1 Pokemon that does a direct search is pretty good. Once you get Ethan's Adventure from the Quilava then you can get more Ethan's Pokemon and Fire Energy.
The final evolution form Ethan's Cyndaquil is Ethan's Typhlosion. It has 170 HP, two retreat cost and Water weakness. The second attack of Steam Artillery is generic as a 160 damage attack for two Fire Energy and one Colourless Energy. The first attack of Buddy Blast requires one Fire Energy for 40 base damage. Buddy Blast does 60 more damage for each Ethan's Adventure card in your discard pile. The max damage is 280 (from 4 Ethan's Adventure in the discard pile).
Ethan's Typhlosion seems okay but I would put 1 in an Ethan deck. Two could be okay but I don't know.
Ethan's Slugma has 80 HP, two retreat cost and Water weakness. For one Fire Energy the Steady Firebreathing attack does 20 damage. It is okay.
Ethan's Magcargo is the Stage 1 evolution of Ethan's Slugma. It has 130 HP, three retreat cost and Water weakness. The ability of Melt and Flow allows Magcargo to have zero Retreat Cost if it has no Energy attached to it.
The Lava Burst attack requires 3 Fire Energy for its attack cost. You can discard to 5 Fire Energy from Ethan's Magcargo. The damage you deal is 70 times the number of cards discarded in this way. The maximum damage you can do is 350 from 5 discarded Fire Energy.
This Ethan's Magcargo can be combined with Ethan's Ho-Oh ex.
There are more card reveals to be released. The other two trainers from the Heat Wave Arena set are Cynthia her Garchomp and Arven and his Mabostiff.
With the Misty cards it is too early to say if it is good or not. There is potential for Misty's Starmie ex and maybe a Misty's Corsola. Time will tell to see if the Misty cards will help Water Pokemon. Irida from the F regluation block was a staple card for Water decks. Maybe a new Misty supporter card will help with Water Pokemon.
With the Ethan cards the Ethan deck archetype seems okay. The Ethan Adventure Supporter card is really good for setup purposes.
Thank you for reading.
