Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG Pocket I give my thoughts on the upcoming Extradimensional Crisis Set featuring Ultra Beast Pokemon.
The upcoming TCG Pocket mobile game is having a new set on May 29, 2025. It does seem a bit soon. Personally, I have not finished getting digital cards from the recent Celestial Guardians set.
Certain cards will have the label Ultra Beast to indicate that they are Ultra Beast Pokemon. In addition, certain cards will have effects exclusive to Ultra Beast cards.
Pheromosa is a somewhat beefy Basic Grass Pokemon with 70 HP. You can use Leafy Cape to boost its HP by 30.
The Jump Blues attack for 1 Grass Energy deals 20 damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon plus 20 damage to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. Dealing damage to a Benched Pokemon does open the possibility of using Cyrus for a later turn.
Buzzwole ex is a bulky Basic Pokemon ex card. Add Leafy Cape to it to turn it into 170 HP. Both of its attack are somewhat costly for its damage output.
Kartana is a dangerous Grass Basic Pokemon attacker. It is very similar to Farfetch'd. For one Grass Energy you deal 40 damage with its Thrash Metal attack.
Zeraora is a bulky Basic Lightning Pokemon. If you get lucky and have this in play on your first turn then you can attach 1 Lightning Energy from your Energy Zone and attach it to Zeraora. I am guessing that if you have 2 in play then both Zeraoras gain 1 Lightning Energy each.
The Lightning Claw attack requires 2 Lightning Energy to deal 50 damage. It is a decent attack for a Basic Pokemon.
Zurkitree is a bulky Basic Lightning Pokemon with 100 HP. The Electronica attack is costly at one Lightning Energy plus 2 Colourless Energy to deal 60 damage plus Confusion.
Tapu Koko ex is a strong Basic Pokemon. It has 130 HP, 1 retreat cost and Fighting weakness. The first attack of Plasma Hurricane for 1 Lightning Energy deals 20 damage plus it accelerates 1 Lightning Energy from the Energy Zone to itself. This allows you to set up Mach Bolt for the next turn.
Mach Bolt requires 2 Lightning Energy and 1 Colourless Energy to deal 90 damage. Overall Tapu Koko ex is an okay beatstick attacker that can two hit knockout most Pokemon ex out there.
Shiinotic is an interesting Stage 1 Psychic Pokemon. The Gentle Slap attack is okay at 2 Colourless Energy to deal 40 damage. Its Illuminate ability allows you to fetch a random Pokemon from your deck into your hand once during your turn. Even if you do not get the desired Pokemon from your deck it thins out 1 card from your deck. In theory, any deck can run this Shiinotic evolution line but is it worth the deck space??
Guzzlord ex is a very bulky Dark Basic Pokemon ex. This has 170 HP, 4 retreat cost and Grass weakness. Grindcore is the first attack that requires 2 Colourless Energy. It deals 30 damage with an additional Energy removal effect. Flip a coin until you get Tails. For each Heads discard a random Energy from the opponent's Active Pokemon.
The Tyrannical Hole second attack is costly at 3 Dark Energy and 1 Colourless Energy. It deals 120 damage.
Naganadel is the Stage 1 Dark evolution of Poipole. This has 100 HP, two retreat cost and Psychic weakness? (hard to see)
The Electro House attack deals 40 damage plus automatic Poison.
Nihilego is a Basic Dark Pokemon. This has 70 HP, 1 retreat cost and Fighting weakness. The More Poison ability adds 10 more Poison damage in between turns for the opponent's Active Pokemon. Instead of 10 Poison damage in between turns it is 20 Poison damage. I am guessing this is stackable. Adding a second Nihilego would be 30 Poison damage in between turns. (10 + 20) Watch out for Poison decks now.
Hmm, Alolan Diglett. If you get lucky then you hit 40 damage. I'd avoid this card unless you want Alolan Dugtrio.
Stakataka is a strong and bulky Metal Basic Pokemon. It has 110 HP, 3 retreat cost and Fire weakness. The Brass Rock attack requires one Metal Energy and one Colourless Energy to deal 40 damage plus it takes 20 less damage from attacks during your opponent's next turn.
Type: Null is a Basic Colourless attacker with 80 HP, 2 retreat cost and Fighting weakness. The Quick Blow attack requires 1 Colourless Energy to deal 20 damage plus a coin flip chance of doing 20 more damage if you get Heads. It is an okay attacker in the early game.
Celesteela looks interesting. The Moombahton attack sucks as it is costly and you need a Heads to make the attack work. What makes up for its random attack is its ability. Ultra Thrusters can be used once during your turn. You may switch your Active Ultra Beast with 1 of your Benched Ultra Beast Pokemon. This is a free Switch ability for Ultra Beast Pokemon.
Lusamine is a powerful Supporter card that supports Ultra Beast Pokemon. There are conditions with this card. First you need your opponent to have at least 1 point (or 1 Knockout). The second condition is that you need Energy from your discard pile in order to attach Energy from discard to 1 of your Ultra Beast Pokemon. Discarding Energy can be done by retreating, discarding Energy from an attack or losing Energy from a Knocked Out Pokemon.
While meeting requirements, Lusamine attaches 2 random Energy from your discard pile to 1 of your Ultra Beast Pokemon. If you play a single type of Energy then the random Energy attachment is not really random. For those who play 2 or more types of Energy then the random Energy attachment could be a potential issue if you need to power up an Ultra Beast Pokemon for its expensive attack.
The Rowlet art card is colourful and kind of cute. If it was a physical card it would be pretty popular.
Blacephalon is a powerful Basic Fire Pokemon attacker. For 2 Fire Energy and 1 Colourless Energy the Beat Punk attack deals 130 damage with 70 recoil damage to itself. 130 damage is kind of high and it can deal a 1 one hit knockout on some Basic Pokemon ex.
Ultra Necrozma ex is a promo Ultra Beast attacker. It is of the Dragon type with unknown Weakness and retreat cost. This big Basic Pokemon has 150 HP with two attacks.
The Photon Claw requires 3 Colourless Energy to deal 60 damage.
Shoegaze is the second attack. (What a weird attack name for such a menacing dragon.) This attack requires two Psychic Energy and 2 Metal energy to deal 120 damage. This attack's effect is discarding 5 cards from the top of each player's deck. Most cards in the Pocket game are non-retrievable so deck discarding is pretty powerful.
Note that in the TCG Pocket game you do not lose if you have no cards in deck. You just can't draw cards.
I think Ultra Necrozma ex is a powerful attacker provided that you can meet its hefty energy cost even with Lusamine available.
Poipole is a Basic 60HP Dark Pokemon needed to evolve into Naganadel. The 2-Step attack requires 1 Dark Energy to deal 20 damage for each heads flipped from 2 coin flips.
This set will shake up the game a bit. Poison decks get a boost with Nihilego and the already existing Poison Barb.
I think Lightning decks will shift away from Pikachu ex and go with Tapu Koko ex. Pikachu ex requires a full Bench of Lightning Pokemon to deal 90 damage. With Tapu Koko ex you don't need a full Bench.
Grass decks may want to include the Grass Ultra Beasts for early game pressure as they set up a Serperior, Celebi ex, Tsareena and/or Meowscarada.
I predict Ultra Beast decks will have different variants based on type and gameplay style. There is the Grass Pokemon version, Poison version, Dark type version or a mix.
Thank you for reading.
