Hello everyone. It is another Pokemon TCG post. On May 19, 2024 two more cards have been revealed from Japan's Night Wanderer set to be released in early June. Here are the cards and my thoughts on them.
Xerosic's Plan
The Bulbapedia page has this as Xerosic's Scheme as the name instead of Plan. Same thing pretty much.
I guess the Hand Trimmer item card did not see too much playability so the card creators decided to make this Xerosic's Plan card. This card is quite powerful in terms of hand disruption. Iono is quite popular and is pretty much a staple in almost every deck for hand disruption and comeback potential. Having this Xerosic's Plan Supporter card can really impact games. Decks that tend to run large hand sizes will get severely punished by this supporter card. This card alone can really change how people play and the popularity of decks.
One big counter to this type of discarding effect card is this Stage 1 Pokemon card called Amoonguss.
Pros
- Punish opponent large hands and decks that rely on large hand size like Tinkaton decks.
- Stronger than Hand Trimmer item card.
- Many item cards and tools are not likely to be retrieved when discarded.
Cons
- Opponent chooses the cards to discard until three in hand.
- Not playable if opponent has 3 cards or less or even if they have four or 5 cards.
- Opponent can still keep a draw Supporter like Professor's Research in hand.
Inkay and Malamar
Inkay
Inkay is a basic 60HP Dark Pokemon needed to evolve into Malamar. Both the attacks are nothing too crazy. One retreat cost is not too bad and the 60 HP makes it compatible with Buddy Buddy Poffin to go from deck to Bench.
Malamar
This Malamar card is a Stage 1 Dark Pokemon with 120 HP, three retreat cost and Grass weakness. The second attack named Spinning Attack does 90 damage at the cost of one Dark Energy and two colourless Energy.
The first attack of Conspiracy Tentacles is kind of interesting. You do need to play the supporter card Xerosic's Plan (see above) or otherwise this attack does nothing. For the cost of one Dark Energy you can switch in 1 of the opponent's Benched Pokemon into the Active Spot. Then you do 120 damage to the new Active Pokemon.
The 120 damage amount is good to one hit knockout key Support Pokemon on the opponent's side. These include:
- Bibarel (120HP, popular draw engine)
- Manaphy (70 HP, Prevents Bench sniping attacks)
- Bidoof (60 HP, needed to evolve into Bibarel)
- Drakloak (90 HP)
- Metang (100 HP, Metal Energy acceleration)
I think Malamar's first attack also hits Mew ex for weakness resulting in 240 damage for a one hit Knockout. I have used Magnezone V for online testing with its Magnetic Tension attack which is similar. It does do 40 damage x 2 on a Manaphy which is a Water type with Electric weakness.
Malamar Pros
- Switch opponent Pokemon and hit for 120 damage if conditions met.
- Low cost first attack.
- Compatible with Dark Patch item card.
Malamar Cons
- Need to play Xerosic's Plan for first attack.
- Grass weakness
- Costly second attack.