Pokémon Flute – Mythical Island
Date Reviewed: March 26, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Note: This review was written before I’d seen most cards from the next expansion, Shining Revelry a.k.a. set A2b. This article will not intentionally spoil anything about the new set, and the card was actually supposed to have been reviewed before today; I’m just playing “catch up”.
Pokémon Flute (A1 064) is a Trainer-Item that let’s you select a Basic Pokémon, from your opponent’s discard pile, and play it to your opponent’s Bench. Pokémon Flute is only currently available as a ♦♦ rare.
There are no card effects that reference “Trainers” in general. To be fair, they used to be somewhat common in the full TCG, but by the time I stepped away, they’d become somewhat rare because they tended to be very potent. No card effects in Pocket refer to “Items”; those tended to be uncommon in the full TCG when I played. They weren’t always potent, but when they were, they really were. Perhaps that is why they don’t exist in Pocket?
The only “cost” to running and using an Item card is the Item card itself, plus anything the Item card itself specifies. There aren’t really any costs printed on Item cards in Pocket, however. Yes, I keep referencing the full TCG, but what is common there – like a particular Item requiring you discard a card or cards to use it – just don’t exist in Pocket. Perhaps this is part of keeping Pocket simple and streamlined?
Item cards in Pocket do sometimes have conditions that must be met, in order for them to be played, and Pokémon Flute does have two of those. You cannot use Pokémon Flute if your opponent has a full Bench, or if they have no Basic Pokémon in their discard pile. Is that worth the payoff of forcing your opponent to have the Basic of your choice, from their discard pile, on their Bench?
Not often. It absolutely can win you the game, though indirectly. In general, you may be able to use this to fill an opponent’s Bench, preventing them from putting a different Basic they wanted or needed into play. Or you may be able to put something on the Bench that is easy to OHKO, either through a Bench-hitting attack, or by using another card effect to then force that Pokémon into the Active position.
Probably the best use for Pokémon Flute, however, is with Pokémon of your own that do extra damage based on how full your opponent’s Bench is. Beheeyem (A1 035) and Pidgeot ex (A1a 059, 079) are two such Pokémon, with the latter having a deck that flirted with being competitive, but which didn’t deliver or else didn’t stay competitive for long.
Pokémon Flute released in the full Pokémon TCG as Pokémon Flute (Base Set 087/102), with a more modern Echoing Horn (SWSH – Chilling Reign 136/198, 223/198) as an update. Echoing Horn is also a “Rapid Strike” card; I don’t know if that made it any better. Pokémon Flute was that card that seemed good, since you could recycle a small Basic, force it into the Active Position with Gust of Wind (Base Set 093/102; Base Set 2 120/130), but it just was not worth it.
Rating: 1.5/5
Pokémon Flute is not good. With how Pocket differs from the full TCG, it’s probably better here than there, but it’s still grossly underpowered. It is one of the two (sort of) “anti-Basic Pokémon” cards in the game right now, so I added it to the review roster before I knew I needed to squeeze in more metagame relevant cards.
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