New gym promo cards have been revealed in Japan. Players who attend Japan's gym tournaments can receive these cards from promo packs starting April 18, 2025.
Here is the promo Psyduck. This Basic Water Pokemon has 70 HP, one retreat cost and Lightning weakness. The attack is not great as it requires 2 Colourless Energy to deal 20 damage (translation screenshot is incorrect).
The Damp ability is a very interesting ability. On both sides of the field, any Pokemon with an Ability that Knocks Out itself does not have that ability. The two popular ability Pokemon in the metagame are Dusclops & Dusknoir. Psyduck shuts those abilities off.
Golduck is the Stage 1 evolution of Psyduck. It has one retreat cost and Lightning weakness. This also has the same Damp ability as Psyduck.
The attack on Golduck requires 3 Water Energy to do 60 base damage. The screenshot has an incomplete translation. It looks like the Golduck does 20 more damage for each Water Energy attached to it. Three Water Energy attached would be 120 damage.
Here is Team Rocket's Kangaskhan ex. This one has 230 HP, two retreat cost and two attacks. The first attack of Comet Punch requires 2 Colourless Energy or one Team Rocket Energy. Flip 4 coins and deal 30 damage for each Heads.
The second attack of Dark Impact requires 3 Colourless Energy in its attack cost. It does 120 base damage plus 100 more damage if you played a Team Rocket Supporter card during this turn. Playing a Team Rocket Supporter in a turn to deal extra damage is not that difficult of a requirement.
This Hypnosis Device Tool card is compatible only to Team Rocket's Pokemon. Whenever a Team Rocket's Pokemon is attacked by an opponent's attack while holding this Tool card, the attacking Pokemon is now Asleep.
The Pokemon TCG does not have Trap cards like an Yu-Gi-Oh. There are no face down cards in Pokemon TCG but this Hypnosis tool card is one of those counter-attack trap style card effects. There is a drawback in attacking.
One hard counter to this Hypnosis Device is the Jamming Tower stadium card. Another alternative that is weaker is Ruffian.
Thank you for reading.
