Cynthia – Space-Time Smackdown
Date Reviewed: April 24, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Cynthia (A2 152, 192) is a Trainer-Supporter. Until the end of the turn it is played, attacks from your Pokémon named “Togekiss” or “Garchomp” do +50 damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon. Cynthia is available as a ♦♦ and ★★ rare.
You’re probably tired of hearing it, but once again: there are no card effects in Pocket that refer to Trainers (in general), and only three that specifically pertain to Supporters. Gengar (A1 122) and Psyduck (A1 057) each have single Energy attacks that do a little damage, with an effect that prevents your opponent from using a Supporter until the end of their next turn. Gengar ex (A1 123, 261, 277) has an Ability that, while it is your Active Pokémon, prevents your opponent from using Supporters.
Don’t worry; those three don’t really see competitive play. As such, the real concern is how many Supporters you dare to run in your deck. Unlike in the full TCG, Pocket isn’t usually worried about “wasting” (not using) your Supporter use for the turn. It’s also not as worried about Supporters building up in your hand. As such, there’s only a little more competition between Supporters for deck space, than between Supporters and other card Types.
Cynthia buffs damage done. As her effect plainly states, you can only increase the damage being done to your opponent’s Active Pokémon. As her effect does not state, attacks must do at least 10 damage before their damage can be boosted. Attacks that don’t do damage in the first place, or have conditional damage (and the conditions make the damage “zero”), or have their damage done set to zero by another card effect, can’t gain damage bonuses.
Those that have their damage reduced to zero or less, however, can receive damage bonuses, potentially allowing them to do damage (again). You can use Cynthia when you don’t have Garchomp or Togekiss in play, if you want to take the chance you can field her later, or just want to “burn” a card from your hand. You can even play Cynthia from your hand when you don’t even have any Garchomp or Togekiss in your deck! I don’t know why you would, but it can be done.
Cynthia provides a massive 50 point damage bonus, albeit it only for Pokémon named “Garchomp” or “Togekiss”. To give you an idea, Giovanni (A1 223, 270) is the OG damage-increasing Supporter of Pocket, and he provides +10 for anything, to anything Active. Another OG damage boosting Supporter, Blaine (A1 221, 268), provides triple that (+30) but only for Pokémon named “Magmar”, “Ninetales”, or “Rapidash”. Blaine does not affect Pokémon that evolve into or from those named, either.
Cynthia buffing by 20 more than even Blaine sounds great, but Blaine was working with one (evolving) Basic and two (fully evolved) Stage 1 Pokémon. Cynthia only works with two Stage 2 Pokémon. As such, +50 might actually be underpowered. A good enough Stage 2 Pokémon can and will see play. I’ll also note here that the card’s names must exactly be “Garchomp” or “Togekiss”. Cynthia will not help Garchomp ex (A2a 047, 084, 093).
Garchomp (A2 123, 175) is a Dragon-Type Stage 2 Pokémon with 140 HP, no Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “Reckless Shearing”, and the attack “Dragon Claw”. Reckless Shearing can be used once per turn per instance of it you have in play. This Ability requires you discard a card from your hand in order to use it; Reckless Shearing then has you draw one card from your deck. Dragon Claw costs (W)(F) and does 100 damage.
Togekiss (A2 065) is a Psychic-Type Stage 2 Pokémon with 140 HP, (M) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Overdrive Smash”. Priced at (P)(P), Overdrive Smash does 60 damage, while placing an effect on the Pokémon that used Overdrive Smash. That effect states that, during your next turn, Overdrive Smash does +60 damage. This effect is only good for the next turn, so it does not stack. If Togekiss leaves the Active position, it should reset this effect (I haven’t tested it firsthand).
Can you guess why Cynthia sees almost no competitive play? At first, I thought Garchomp looked promising. Ir originally made my Top Pokémon Picks list for Space-Time Smackdown. Thankfully, I had enough time to revise the list (twice!) and replaced Garchomp with that first revision. Reckless Shearing looked so good at first glance… because I forgot that Pocket has smaller decks, and both slower and less reliably setting up of Stage 2 Pokémon.
Meaning, by the time you have one setup you probably have a lot less deck to draw through. Plus, having to discard a card from hand can be a hefty cost. Stage 2 decks don’t have a lot of room for optional plays, after all. Dragon Claw, as an attack, is good. Not great, but good. 100 damage for two Energy would normally be very good (maybe even great) but you’ll notice that pesky Energy cost; needing to supply two different Types of Energy can be challenging in Pocket.
Togekiss might be worse. 60 for (P)(P) is bad. While Psychic has some Energy acceleration, it has better attackers to use that Energy acceleration. Plus, Togekiss only needs it when it has to go from “zero” to “attacking” in one turn. The real concern, besides the general demands of running a Stage 2, is that cards like Cyrus (A2 150, 190) or Sabrina (A1 225, 272) reset Smash Overdrive’s effect. Togekiss isn’t likely to get off more than one or two Overdrive Smashes even before that.
Rating: 1.5/5
Garchomp is really, really popular. I could be mistaken, but in the full TCG, it’s track record is also pretty good. Perhaps, out of all of these cards, it may have the best chance of a later, more competitive Garchomp coming along, and making Cynthia great. Which almost led me to rate it as another two-out-of-five Trainer, but hoping for a better version of even a popular Stage 2 isn’t the most confidence inspiring. If Pocket ends up following the full TCG, by having set rotation… then it becomes unlikely.
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