With five cards already leaked from the upcoming Plasma Gale set in Japan, and with websites already having translations of them, let’s take a look and see what is coming. These will be simplified Card of the Days, with a text translation based on what has appeared on Pokebeach.com. As a reminder, despite my screen name I cannot speak or read any Japanese, beyond some random words that appear often enough in video games that I can figure them out when written in r­­­­­­­­omaji. This may lead to some embarrassing mistakes on my part; for example, the next paragraph is only guessing which characters represent “Team Plasma”. As pure conjecture, “Theorymon”, whatever you want to call it you shouldn’t treat this article as concrete fact. We’ve had wording change radically from text spoilers before, we have blurry scans of a few more cards so we know things like Team Plasma Ball are on the way, and beyond that the rest of the set! All of my suggestions and analysis may turn out to be completely wrong. Still, I hope to make it informative and entertaining reading, regardless.

It should be noted that “Team Plasma” appears on all cards in the upper right hand corner of the artwork, if I understand the translations correctly. On a Special Energy card, this would be opposite the little text box that says “Special Energy”. For Items, it will be across and below from where an Item card’s actual name would appear. For Pokémon, it shows up underneath where the HP and Type information are located. Again, that is the same position for each card, and if you look at the scans yourself you’ll see the text of which I am speaking.

First we will look at the new Crobat (Team Plasma):

Name: Crobat

Category: Pokémon

Type: Psychic

Stage: 2 (Evolves from Golbat)

HP: 130

Weakness: Lightning x2

Resistance: Fighting -20

Retreat Cost: 0

Text:

Ability: Night Sight

Once during your turn (before you attack), you may

draw a card.

(PCC) Deadly Poison Fang [40]

The Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned. Put 4

damage counters on it instead of 1 between turns.

Crobat are not known for their HP, so while 130 HP is low it is also not a surprise. Some of the best attackers can OHKO this Pokémon without help, and the next tier below that will at most need a PlusPower or two. The Psychic-Typing (have I mentioned I’d like to see the “Poison” Type Pokémon over with Dark-Type Pokémon lately?) may help a little, but not much. Lightning Weakness could really hurt, but then again Psychic Weakness would have been just as bad if not worse as I see few Lightning-Type Pokémon splashed around as commonly as key Psychic Type Pokémon. The Fighting Resistance is nice to see and could come in pretty handy, or may simply end up as an annoyance; it depends on if you add in anything else to help with defense. The free Retreat Cost is the best possible, however, and lets us end on a cheerful note; unless your opponent runs something to mess with it, retreating is wonderfully easy.

The Ability is useful. Not brilliant on its own, but useful. The promise of Ether and more speed could justify using certain cards that stack the deck… if you can’t set-up for Ether at least you’ll know if you should draw now or after using an effect to shuffle your deck. Speaking of Supporters, if you do swarm Crobat (meaning three or four in play at once), then it is like you get a free, better version of Cheren each turn.

The attack is fun because Poison placing four damage counters between turns is so rare. “Multi-counter” Poison conditions aren’t anything new: we’ve had those that placed two instead of one since the game began, but they are still not the norm and naturally more potent. This really helps the cards otherwise pathetic damage; you hit for 40, but unless something blocks Poison or heals it between turns, you’ll effectively do 80. If your opponent doesn’t take care of it, that becomes 120 by the end of their turn, meaning even the biggest Pokémon need only a slight tap to be finished off by the time your next attack hits. If nothing was missed in the wording, then one should be able to stack Virbank City Gym (Freeze Bolt 57/59) for another two damage counters from Poison each turn!

Name: Klinklang

Category: Pokémon

Type: Metal

Stage: 2 (Evolves from Klank)

HP: 140

Weakness: Fire x2

Resistance: Psychic -20

Retreat Cost: CCC

Text:

Ability – Plasma Steel

Prevent all damage done to your (M) Pokémon by

attacks from your opponent’s Pokémon-EX.

(MMC) Heavy Bullet [70]

Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 20 points of

damage to one 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.

(Do not apply Weakness or Resistance for Benched

Pokémon.)

Well, looks like Klinklang decks might be getting some more support! We don’t know if “Team Plasma” Pokémon are considered totally separate Evolution lines from their unaligned counterparts, if they “branch off” from a common Basic like the old “Dark _______” Pokémon did, or if they are freely interchangeable like Pokémon δ. If it is either two of the latter, this is very promising indeed.

An adequate 140 HP may not hold up against Fire-Type Pokémon due to the Weakness, but against everything else it will be hard to OHKO… especially for Psychic-Type Pokémon due to the built in Resistance. Too early to know if Fire-Type Pokémon will be making a comeback or not, but I like the odds. The Retreat Cost of three can be a pain, but also makes it a legal Heavy Ball target; a nice consolation prize.

The Ability of course is why we care to know how the stats hold up: Plasma Steel is very nice looking indeed. Unless we get a lot more Pokémon EX with attacks like Shred that can bypass protective effects, this allows Metal Pokémon to shrug off all damage they would take (but not effects). So now Klinklang decks can not only run Klinklang (Black & White 76/114) to shuffle (M) Energy around in play, but possibly as a part of the same line, protect a good deal of what it runs from Pokémon EX.

Last up will be three cards reviewed together because they work together:

Name: Lugia EX

Category: Pokémon

Type: Colorless

Stage: Basic Pokémon

HP: 180

Weakness: Lightning x2

Resistance: Resistance -20

Retreat Cost: CC

Text:

Ability – Overflow

For each of your opponent’s Pokémon that is Knocked

Out by damage from Lugia EX’s attacks, take 1 more

Prize card.

(CCCC) Plasma Gale [120]

Discard 1 Plasma Energy attached to this Pokémon or

this attack does nothing.

When Pokémon-EX has been Knocked Out, your

opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Colress Machine

Category: Trainer

Type: Item

Text:

Search your deck for a Team plasma Energy and attach

it to one of your Pokémon with “Team Plasma” on its

card. Shuffle your deck afterwards.

You may play as many Item cards as you like during

your turn (before your attack).

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Plasma Energy

Category: Special Energy card

Type: Colorless

Text: This card provides 1 (C) Energy.

Lugia EX is a Basic Pokémon, so we know that part is good unless some unrevealed cards start penalizing them. It is a Colorless-Type Pokémon, so it should be able to tap the effect of Aspertia City Gym (Cold Flare 057/059). That would be a Stadium we haven’t gotten yet but which boosts HP of Colorless Pokémon by 20 points… and it already has the current Pokémon EX maximum of 180! The Lightning Weakness could really hurt if the metagame doesn’t shift, but likewise the Resistance should come in handy, making Lugia EX a hard 2HKO for Fighting-Type decks. The two Energy to Retreat seems a bit unfortunate; to high to be easy to pay, but too low to qualify for Heavy Ball.

The Ability will make or break this card; taking more Prizes than normal is phenomenal, but we’ve seen it before and if the card is too hard to play, it just won’t be worth it, which brings us to the attack. For four Energy of any Type, 120 is a decent return; yes many Pokémon hit harder for just three Energy, but those require specific Types. The only reason this can’t be easily paid for by just any acceleration is the effect of the card requires one discard a Plasma Energy or the attack does nothing. The discard makes the attack seem a little weak, but then we remember the Ability.

You see, while you won’t be able to OHKO a Pokémon EX or most Stage 2 Pokémon, only a few Basic Pokémon and Stage 1 Pokémon are safe, but now they are worth two Prizes. When you face a Pokémon EX player, they tend to play so that you have to take an extra Prize. That is to say, you’ll mostly need to be KOing those Pokémon EX, but sometime during the match (usually the open) you’ll face a non-Pokémon EX Pokémon since that Prize doesn’t functionally count; you’ll KO it and three Pokémon EX before you win. Take down that non-Pokémon EX and that advantage evaporates.

Trading blows with your average Pokémon EX is ill advised since you’d need to discard a total of two Plasma Energy, but nothing says you can’t finish an injured Pokémon EX off. Imagine your usual “Pokémon EX” war where one Pokémon EX is taking out another, with the survivor picked off by the other player’s next attack. Well now that means a clever player can bring up Lugia EX and that finishing blow again the other player’s Pokémon EX snags three Prizes instead of two. If Lugia EX is not OHKOed and another Plasma Energy is available, it just needs to then take out something with 120 HP or less and that is five total Prizes from one Pokémon EX, over a two for one trade!

Then we see we have an Item to help get those Plasma Energy into play; Colress Machine (no clue if the name is intentional or a typo) rips a Plasma Energy from your deck and attaches it to a Team Plasma Pokémon. This greatly ups the speed of Pokémon with Team Plasma in their names, at least while your Plasma Energy holds out; remember the best way we currently have to really recycle those is with… Recycle. That means a coin flip to put Plasma Energy on top of your deck, and if you don’t have Colress Machine handy you’ll want to use an effect to shuffle your deck so you don’t merely “top deck” it instead. We have no way of knowing if most “Team Plasma” Pokémon are going to be more like Lugia EX (dependent upon the Energy but with largely Colorless Energy requirements) or more like Klinklang (just one Colorless Energy requirement). For that matter, both could be exceptions and we may see a return to almost pure specific Energy requirements (whether they are mono- or multi-Type).

Plasma Energy itself appears to be an update of React Energy, because it does nothing but provide a single (C) Energy. This is good, because it has an Item that can both search it out and attach it, and the two Pokémon we’ve seen in full that can use it really shouldn’t get more help. Combined with Lugia EX and fleshed out into a deck with a secondary, non-Pokémon EX attacker that can tap similar support, Double Colorless Energy (or possibly some other compatible Energy acceleration), ample draw power and four copies of PlusPower could become a strong, aggressive deck that specializes in donking something first turn for two Prizes, or taking out a Pokémon EX by the second turn for three Prizes! You need the non-Pokémon EX attacker in case your opponent sets up fast and/or runs Sigilyph (BW: Dragons Exalted 52/124) or the new Klingklang I just mentioned).

So those are my thoughts on these new cards, and I would like to thank LegendCallerL (Pokegym screen name) for his help with this article.