TCG Jump: Featured Card- Talonflame (Steam Siege)

It is time to fly into battle as we soar above the competition. You will want to fight with a strong gale on your side and this week’s card will help you. Your team will quickly go into battle and soar into victory thanks to what this card can do. A blazing path will be made with this card as your game is taken to new heights. Your opponent will see nothing but everything will be clear once this card takes the battle. Get ready to start your siege as we talk about Talonflame from Steam Siege this week!

Talonflame is a Stage 2 Pokemon from Steam Siege with 130 HP. It is a Colorless Pokemon that has the ability Gale Wings. This ability allows you to play Talonflame as your active Pokemon if it is in your hand during your set up at the beginning of the game. Talonflame has an attack call Aero Blitz which cost a single colorless energy. Aero Blitz does 40 damage to your opponent’s Pokemon and allows you to search your deck for two cards then you need to shuffle your deck. Talonflame has no retreat cost, a weakness to Lightning type Pokemon and resistance to Fighting type Pokemon.

The Pros
We are talking about a Stage 2 Pokemon? That is a surprise because being a Stage 2 usually counts as a con. Though it is Talonflame’s Gale Wings ability that makes all those bad things into pros. Gale Wings makes Talonflame usable because you can simply start Talonflame in your opening field without even playing a single Fletchling in your deck. It is a pretty amazing ability to have on a Stage 2. This basically makes Talonflame act as a Basic Pokemon that your opponent needs to take down if they want to hit any of the Pokemon on your bench.

Talonflame being a Stage 2 that can be played right away is pretty good. That means your opponent needs to take down a Pokemon with high HP if they ever want to get to your bench. Talonflame has 130 HP which is a pretty big number when you are starting off. You may be able to hit it for 50 damage and maybe even 100 damage if you are playing the right cards but 130 is still a big number.

Talonflame’s ability can’t be stopped by Hex Maniac and other ability preventing effects/cards. That is pretty good as it is one of the few abilities that can’t be prevented. Gale Wings takes effect as soon as the game starts and before your opponent can do anything to prevent it.

Talonflame can act quickly as well thanks to Aero Blitz which cost a single attack. This attack is perfect for your first turn attack as you can use it right away as long as you have a basic energy in your hand. You get to hit your opponent for 40 damage which isn’t too bad but the best part is the search effect. These two cards can be anything that you need so you can start setting up your bench next turn. So not only is Talonflame fast but it will also make your set up faster.

The Cons
If you do not start Talonflame in your opening hand then you have a useless card in your deck. Most likely you are playing just four Talonflame in your deck and not a single copy of Fletchling. This will slow down your set up as you have to grab your needed pieces in order to get a single thing going without using Talonflame as your retriever. If you watched the Master Finals at Worlds this year then you saw this happen on stream as the Greninja player didn’t draw into Talonflame in his opening hand. That isn’t a good start when you are live on stream.

You also do not want to dead draw into Talonflame. You will need to have a few copies of Talonflame in your deck which means that you may sometimes draw into one. This is horrible if you are tying to top deck into a draw supporter and you are worrying about drawing into one of your Talonflame. Getting a Talonflame from the top of your deck isn’t the best top deck when you are trying to get a VS Seeker so you can use Lysandre to win the game. Talonflame becomes useless after the first turn. If you don’t start with Talonflame then it is a dead draw every time your draw into it.

How to Play It
You will want to play four Talonflame and none of the pre-evolutions in your deck. They will only take up space and you want to just start with Talonflame. If you play four Talonflame then you are raising your chances to start with it. That is exactly what you want to do as you are going to attempt to blitz your opponent during your first attack.

Talonflame is a Colorless Pokemon which means it can be played in any type of decks. You just need to start with it and attach any type of Energy. Once you do that you can search your deck for any two cards. That makes Talonflame perfect for any deck that requires set up.

There are a few decks that wouldn’t mind having Talonflame as a start. The first one that I will mention is Garchomp from BREAKpoint. This deck had a few things going for it with Korrina being used to find a Garchomp and a Rare Candy to evolve your Gible. Though Korrina has been rotated out and the deck lost a bit of speed along with edge. If you are looking to replace Korrina then a full line of Talonflame may be the thing you need. It can be used to search out your deck to find a Garchomp and Rare Candy. Your opponent would be force to play an N but that won’t guarantee that you will lose your two valued cards. Especially if that N will result with you having a bigger hand then prior to the use of N. If you can get a strong Garchomp set up then that will set you up for the game. Talonflame will simply be used as an opening Pokemon and a force that your opponent needs to deal with before they can even start targeting your bench. They can easily get around Talonflame by using Lysandre to force one of your benched Gible into the active but that means they are not using their early game Supporter to draw cards. If you can’t draw cards in the beginning of the game then you are potentially slowing down your own set up.

Another deck that wants to play Talonflame is Greninja decks. These decks wants to set up as much as they can while their bench gets set up. Though their idea of set up is having a Frogadier on their bench. Luckily they have enough energy to spar to attach to Talonflame. Once they do that, they can use Talonflame to grab whatever they need to advance their board. That means searching for a Frogadier, getting a needed energy or a draw Supporter for the next turn. Either way they are going to be using Talonflame’s Aero Blitz to set something up.

No matter which deck you play, once you have used Aero Blitz and ready to attack with your main attacker then simply retreat Talonflame. It has no retreat cost so it won’t cost you a single thing to move out of the way. You can even use it again later if you need to quickly search your deck for something.

If by any chance your opponent is able to knock out your 130 HP Talonflame then your opponent only gain one prize. It isn’t a huge lost for what could be a massive reward.

This Talonflame is all about speed and with an ability that allows you to play Talonflame from your hand to the bench on your opening hand and a single energy attack makes this bird pretty fast. This speed can later be applied to your bench as things on that side will move fast. Talonflame can provide a tailwind that will boost your deck while doing a little bit of damage. So make sure to give this card a try as you start setting up your decks!