Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG post I cover the upcoming Pokemon TCG set reveal. It is called Paradise Dragona. This set is to celebrate the Year of The Dragon. Alolan Exeggutor ex is one of the featured Dragon Pokemon in this set.
I write this in early August 2024. This is a scheduled post.
This Gouging Fire is a single prize Ancient Basic Fire Pokemon with 130 HP. It has two retreat cost and Water weakness. The first attack does 30 damage for one Fire Energy. The second attack requires two Fire Energy and one Colourless Energy to do 100 damage plus 70 damage if your opponent has 4 or fewer Prize cards remaining.
I think this card is missing something to be an alternate Fire attacker in Fire decks. In a Fire deck I would use something like this Moltres or Chi-Yu as a backup single prize attacker.
Here is Latias ex. It is a Psychic Basic Pokemon with 210 HP, two retreat cost and Dark weakness. Its attack requires two Psychic Energy and one Colourless Energy to do 200 damage. Once the attack is used Latias ex cannot attack in the next turn unless you switch it out from the Active Spot.
What stands out from Latias ex is its Ability. The Skyline ability allows your Basic Pokemon to have zero retreat cost. This ability is quite useful. You can combo this with Tatsugiri with the Attract Customers ability to get a possible Supporter for the turn. Latias ability allows for free retreat of Big Basic Pokemon with large retreat costs.
This Latios is not very useable. The Energy costs for its attacks are a bit high for average damage.
Passimian is a 110 HP Fighting Basic Pokemon with one retreat cost and Psychic weakness. Its only attack of Coordinated Throw does 20 damage for each of your Basic Pokemon in play. As Passimian is a Basic Pokemon the minimum damage you can do is 20 (before Resistance & Weakness) and the maximum damage is 120 damage.
I don't think this is a great attacker due to the lack of good Fighting Energy acceleration in the format.
This Klefki is a Metal Basic Pokemon card. It has 70 HP with two attacks. The first attack discards one card and then draw 2 cards while the second attack is weak. Use the other Psychic Klefki as the ability is useable and impactful.
This Dialga is a 130 HP Basic Dragon Pokemon with two attacks. The first attack does no damage but it allows you to search your deck for 2 cards, shuffle your deck and put those 2 cards on top of it in any order. This attack is like the Supporter Card Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking.
Dialga's second attack of Buster Tail is costly in terms of Energy to do 160 damage. Overall this Dialga is not really useable.
Swablu is a 50 HP Colourless Pokemon with a somewhat annoying weak attack. For one Colourless Energy you do 10 damage and cause Confusion to your opponent's Active Pokemon.
This Altaria is a single prize 120 HP Dragon Pokemon that evolves from Swablu. The first attack of Humming Charge does no damage but it provides Energy acceleration where you can search for 2 Basic Energy cards and attach them to your Pokemon in any way you like.
The second attack of Cotton Wings does 100 damage for one Water Energy & one Metal Energy. This second attack has an additional effect where you prevent all damage and effects done to this Altaria if you get Heads on the coin flip.
Dusk Ball is like Great Ball but with Dusk Ball you look at the bottom 7 cards of your deck. Not the top 7 cards. Reveal a Pokemon you find there and put it into your hand then shuffle the other cards into your deck.
I am not sure if Dusk Ball would see play. This could be kinda useful if you know there is a Pokemon you need at the bottom of the deck after the opponent uses Iono.
This Dragon's Potion Item card is a better Potion healing type card for Dragon Pokemon. You heal 60 damage from your Active Dragon's Pokemon. One combination I can think of is using this with Hisuian Goodra VSTAR, Radiant Tsareena and this card. Otherwise I don't think this card will see much play.
Drayton is one of those gamble Supporter cards which makes it bad. Look at the 7 cards from your deck and reveal a Pokemon and Trainer card you find there and put it into your hand. If you don't find a Pokemon nor a Trainer card then you have wasted your Supporter Card that you can play for the turn. I view this as a high risk, low return Supporter card.
Lisia's Appeal is a Supporter Card similar to Boss's Orders. With this card you switch in 1 of your opponent's Basic Pokemon into the Active Spot and then it becomes Confused. This card cannot be used on an opponent's Evolution Pokemon.
What makes this Lisia card not that good is that when people typically use Boss's Orders the target Pokemon would be Knocked Out from an attack. The confusion effect of Lisia's Appeal is not needed.
I think there may be an art version of this card. It would be a popular Waifu card.
Rich Energy is an interesting ACE SPEC Special Energy card. This provides one Colourless Energy and you can draw 4 cards when this card is from hand to a Pokemon. The drawing 4 cards is a powerful effect that is better than the Supporter Card Nemona.
Decks that rely on a large hand size like Tinkaton ex can benefit from this card. This is not the worst ACE SPEC card but it is far from the best ACE SPECs like Prime Catcher and Unfair Stamp.
This Exeggcute card is a 30 HP Grass Pokemon with one retreat cost and Fire weakness. I am not sure why it has 30 HP which is quite low. It could because its only attack has a good Evolution type effect. This attack costs one Colourless Energy and this attack can be used if you go first during your first turn. Search your deck for a card that evolves from this Exeggcute (e.g. Alolan Exeggutor ex) and put onto this Pokemon.
This Alolan Exeggutor ex is a 300 HP Stage 1 Dragon & Stellar Tera Pokemon with 3 retreat cost and no weakness. This having 300HP for a Stage 1 Pokemon is quite big as many Stage 1 Tera Pokemon have 260, 270 HP.
Tropical Fever is the first attack. For one Grass Energy and one Water Energy you do 150 damage and choose any number of Basic Energy cards from your hand and attach them to your Pokemon in any way you like. This first attack is good as you do okay damage and provide Energy acceleration from hand.
The second attack of Swinging Sphene (or Sphere?) requires one Grass Energy, one Water Energy and one Fighting Energy. This attack is one hit knockout type of attack depending on the coin flip. If heads, you Knock Out the opponent's Basic Active Pokemon. If tails you Knock Out 1 of your opponent's Benched Basic Pokemon. This second attack is not good if your opponent has no Basic Pokemon in play or the target is not a Basic Pokemon.
This is one of those cards where I am not sure how this can play out. Regidrago VSTAR decks could maybe use this card.
Thank you for reading.
