This week we are going to take a look at some awesome Trainer cards from Burning Shadows!
Last weekend was the start of prereleases for Burning Shadows. Plenty of new cards were tried out last weekend and many more this weekend! Last week we took a look at some Pokemon that you may want to get from Burning Shadows. This week we are going to take a look at some Trainers from the set.
There are many of great Trainer cards from the set. Some of them have some familiar effects while others are pretty new. I have picked five cards that will have a strong impression on the game and give a short description on why they are worth having a playset of.
Guzma
You may know Guzma as the big bad boss of Team Skull from the video. In the TCG, Guzma is the spiritual successor of Lysandre and Escape Rope. He will allow you to pick one of your opponent’s Pokemon to put in the active but you will need to switch your Pokemon too.
Lets be honest here. Nobody would care about Guxma if Lysandre wasn’t going to be rotated. If Guzma wasn’t created then a lot of games may see their results determined by a coinflip from Pokemon Catcher. That would have been horrible because nobody wants to lose a match because their opponent got lucky. We know a lot of players like to pick off weak Pokemon with Lysandre to take their last prize. When Lysandre rotates then the second best option to pick off weak Benched Pokemon was going to be Pokemon Catcher. Now we have Guzma to use.
Guzma is a balanced version of Lysandre. It allows you to still pick a Pokemon you wish to put in the active to knockout but it come at a cost! That cost is which Pokemon you will put in your active. If you wish to take that final knockout then you will need to put in a Pokemon in the active that is ready to attack or have a way to switch back to your previous active Pokemon. You can’t simply “Lysandre for game” with Guzma.
Players will now need to think about what will be their next step after using Guzma that will ensure they will take a knockout. Some players may put in Pokemon that have free retreat such as Tapu Koko. Others may try to use more Float Stones. Some may try to put in a Switch. Smart players may try to set two Pokemon on their field to attack. Either way, it looks as if Pokemon has gotten tried of the instant “gust of wind” effect to determine the winner of the game and instead want players to think a bit more.
Guzma may not see a lot of play at Worlds or in the Expanded format. Instead it will be a staple in the upcoming Standard format. Get them now!
Bodybuilding Dumbbells
Bodybuilding Dumbbells isn’t a Tool that boosts your Pokemon’s attack power. Instead it give a boost to a Pokemon’s HP by 40 HP.
This Tool will not be used in every Stage 1 deck. Some Stage 1 decks actually wants to do extra damage so they will use Choice Band. Though there are some Stage 1 decks that will want to have the extra HP so they can survive to attack again. I am looking at Garbodor from Guardians Rising.
GRI Garbodor has 120 HP which is respectable but can easily be knocked out. Metagross GX can easily knockout GRI Garbodor with a single attack. Metagross GX doesn’t need too many Items in the early game but it does use plenty towards the end. It doesn’t help that Metagross GX can one hit KO GRI Garbodor. If you include Metagross GX’s resistance to Psychic then GRI Garbodor has a difficult time overcoming this Pokemon. Though if GRI Garbodor can survive one hit from Metagross GX then it can easily two hit KO Metagross if used in the late game. That is where Bodybuilding Dumbbells comes into play.
Bodybuilding Dumbbells will give GRI Garbodor a little bit extra HP to take another knockout or possibility two hit KO a bulky Pokemon. You do lose the ability to do an extra 30 damage to EX/GX Pokemon but decks like GRI Garbodor is already hitting for high amounts of damage. The extra 30 damage from Choice Band was just there to ensure that they take a KO.
There are other Stage 1 Pokemon who do a heavy amount of damage on their own who may not care for Choice Band. Some of them are Stage 1 GX Pokemon who already have a huge amount of HP that are difficult to knockout with a single attack. Am extra 40 HP could mean that instead of being two hit KO that they are now three hit KO.
Let me close off on this note about Bodybuilding Dumbbells. Golisopod GX has 210 HP. If you attach a Bodybuilding Dumbbell to it then it gets 250 HP. That makes it on par to Solgaleo GX which is a Stage 2.
Acerola
Acerola is a card that allows you to pick up a Pokemon from your field and return it back to your hand if it has damage on it.
This card may sound familiar to some players. Especially those who were playing a year ago. That is because Acerola’s effect is almost the same as AZ. Players would play this card to pick up a card that was heavily damaged in an attempt to fully heal it. AZ was used as a pseudo-Switch to get Pokemon out of the active. It allowed players to reuse their hand-to-bench Pokemon Abilities such as Shaymin EX.
And you can bet that players will try to use Acerola in the same way. The difference is that now they need damage on their Pokemon. It is another “balanced” version of a previous card. That is good because now you can not simply reuse abilities such as Tapu Lele whenever you want another Supporter. You can not simply promote a Pokemon into the active and then use Acerola as a Switch. Yes. You can use it as a instant healing for a damaged Pokemon. That is what the card was meant to be used for.
You will see Acerola in a lot of Basic heavy decks. They can allow a Pokemon take a few hits and then pick it up once they have another Pokemon set up to attack. There is less of a commitment when Acerola is used on a Basic Pokemon. There could be some Evolution decks that play Acerola but it will mostly be used in Stage 1 decks. Either way, Acerola seems like a pretty solid card.
Kiawe
Fire decks are going to love Kiawe. This card allows you to put four Fire energy from your deck onto one of your Pokemon. Your turn then ends upon completion of this effect.
Kiawe will give Fire decks a huge jump start at the early part of the game. So many Fire type Pokemon can now attack on the second turn of the game for heavy damage without any worries. You have some of the usual Fire Pokemon such as Volcanion EX who doesn’t mind having some energy on it to do a turn two Volcanic Heat attack. That is 130 damage on the second turn. If you add the extra damage from Steam Up then you have a huge threat on the board.
You can also use Kiawe to set up a Stage 2 Pokemon for later. If you get four Fire energy onto a Charmander on your first turn then you could have a fully powered up Charizard GX during your second or third turn. Your opponent may need to worry about an instant KO attack if they can’t knockout a Charmander fast enough.
Kiawe may have a huge drawback but if you do not plan to attack during your first few turns then go ahead and use Kiawe. It may be worth using Kiawe as your Supporter for the first few turns. Especially if it means you can set up some heavy attackers for the long run.
Po Town
If you need to find a way to do some damage to some Pokemon then Po Town is the card to use. Whenever a Pokemon evolves then that Pokemon takes 30 damage.
This is another example of an older card that we reworked into something new. The difference is that Po Town is being used to hurt Evolved Pokemon. It is well known that most Pokemon get a boost of HP when the evolve. Po Town wants to negate that boost by putting 30 damage on the Pokemon. That 30 damage can be used to determine if a Pokemon is knockout or not.
Though lets talk about the main reason why I picked Po Town. This card fits well in one of the strongest decks in the game after rotation. A lot of Drampa GX variants play with Stage 1 Pokemon in the deck. They either use Zoroark or Garbodor. In other words, cards that will take damage from Po Town. This could be the damage that Drampa GX needs to do heavy damage with Berserk. It could also be used to hurt Evolution decks that Drampa GX variants have a hard time with.
An average Stage 1 GX Pokemon has around 210 HP. If Po Town is on the field then it will have about 180 damage. That is enough HP for Drampa GX to take out.
There are other options to put damage on the field for Drampa GX to use. One of those methods is use Rainbow Energy and Multi Switch but that sounds a bit too clunky. I believe Po Town would fit in better with Drampa GX variants or if you wish to just knock down Evolution decks down a peg.
There are plenty of cards coming out of Burning Shadows. Some of them may seem familiar. Others are brand new. Either way, these cards are coming into a game that will need replacements for a lot of old favorites. The game will change and Burning Shadows is the first wave to bring that change.
So get ready to go into the shadows this weekend to see some burning hot cards! Good luck on your pulls this weekend
