As always, a new set means a new era format for Pokemon Pocket. With plenty of new cards to enjoy, the Pokemon Pocket metagame is sure to shift somewhat. With this in mind, it's always worthwhile to try and stay ahead of the competition. To do this, it's always a good idea to watch out for the best cards in Pocket’s newest expansion, Wisdom of Sea and Sky.
Today, we'll be going over al lthe best new cards in the Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion in no particular order.
Typhlosion
It took us a bit of time to realize that Typhlosion was basically the second coming of Greninja. Unlike Greninja, however, an unlucky streak from the opponent can see the burn literally spreading the damage around like wildfire.
Some notable partners for Typhlosion would be Flareon ex and Sylveon ex from Eevee Grove. The Eevee draw engine will allow a player to dig for any Rare Candies to get Typhlosion online as soon as possible, and Flareon ex will graciously take advantage of all the extra damage Typhlosion will end up doing with Fire Breath.
With a deck focused on generating Fire-type energy, if push comes to shove, Typhlosion could also head into the active zone to trade should the need ever arise.
Will (& Xatu)
This spot is mostly for Will and his ability to guarantee a single coin flip results to be heads. A lot of Pokemon cards tend to use coin flips as either high damage potential or as esoteric effects, and while the former tends to rely on numerous coin flips to get the job done, the latter mostly relies on a single result to activate.
This is where Xatu comes in. On its own, Xatu’s Life Drain is pretty much a gamble, but with Will ensuring the results, then an automatic drop to 10 health can guarantee even the most robust Pokemon will be well within lethal range.
Unfortunately, Xatu would need a partner to take advantage of Life Drain, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that each new coin flip effect from here on out has to be scrutinized under Will’s guaranteed heads results.
Magcargo
Speaking of coin flips, Magcargo has managed to become the poster child of taking chances. This Stage-1 Pokemon has the potential to one-shot all but the beefiest Pokemon.
The only issue is the gambler’s aspect, where Magcargo does 50 damage three times to three random targets, potentially including your own.
Thankfully, Magcargo doesn’t target itself, so players could actually prevent friendly fire from occurring if they don’t put anything on the bench. This does turn Magcargo into the end-all-be-all win condition, but there’s satisfaction watching your Magcargo either one-shot with 150 damage or snatching victory because it randomly sniped a Pokemon already at lethal range.
Baby Pokemon (Magby, Pichu, and Cleffa)
The baby Pokemon have managed to carve out their own niche as versatile utility tools, all because their abilities (and retreat cost) are technically free. The more popular ones have distinguished themselves for their early game consistency.
Magby and Pichu are energy acceleration tools for almost any deck that needs Fire or Lightning-type energy, respectively, without relying on the energy zone.
Cleffa, on the other hand, is a lingering Pokeball that could potentially fetch any Pokemon of any evolution stage. This can potentially give a high level of consistency to any deck that doesn't want to reserve space for an Eevee and Sylveon ex draw engine. Baby Pokemon may be frail, but there’s no denying their flexibility for deck building.
Eevee and Espeon ex
We didn’t think that Eevee and one of its eeveelutions would be back so soon. The new Eevee just adds another layer of consistency, probably more so than its counterpart from Eevee Grove. Where the Eevee Grove variant lets the controlling player draw a card, this particular Eevee is a pseudo Pokeball and can potentially brick less when digging through the deck in the early game.
As for Espeon ex, that 80 damage and 30 healing surprisingly makes this Pokemon quite scrappy when trading damage. If a controlling player can manage to stick a Giant Cape onto Espeon ex, then trading with hard-hitting Pokemon like Giratina ex or Charizard ex (Steam Artillery) can be possible. Then, coupled with some Eevee Bags, a player can easily pivot to either a defensive or offensive strategy depending on the match-up.
It wasn’t expected, but Espeon ex has managed to defy its first impressions.
Crobat ex
Unlike Espeon ex, there was no doubt that Crobat ex could potentially become a menace when faced against. Rare Candy speeds up Crobat ex’s activation and consistency. Dark Pendant adds a layer of disruption if the opponent decides to trade into Crobat ex.
Even though Crobat ex only does 70 damage, being fully activated on the second turn and with some damage boosters like Red helping, even tournament staples like Solgaleo ex may find themselves getting knocked out before they can respond.
Lyra and Silver
Will isn’t the only Supporter card on this list. Lyra and Silver may not be an auto-include in all decks like Professor’s Research is, but we have seen a good amount of players having the odd copy of either of these cards, sometimes even both, in their deck list.
Lyra effectively preserves a Pokemon’s energy while retreating them out. The setup Lyra provides could buy precious time or position your main damage dealer to come in for a game-ending sweep.
As for Silver, he’s not as powerful as Red Card when it comes to hand disruption, but the knowledge he provides could be useful in the hands of a skilled player. There’s also the fact that Red Card can unintentionally give the opponent a much-needed refresh for their hand. While Red Card is definitely the more powerful tool, Silver is the scalpel for some precise skullduggery.
Ho-Oh ex
Ho-Oh ex is currently one of the best enablers for hard-to-activate Pokemon because it can easily slot into any deck regardless of the energy type being generated. The only issue Ho-Oh ex faces is that it needs its own energy acceleration.
The best case scenario would be for a player to lean on either Pichu or Magby to get Ho-Oh ex online by around the 3rd turn. And once Ho-Oh ex accelerates the deck’s actual win condition, it can easily tag out before it’s in danger of getting knocked out.
Ho-Oh ex can be a little slow in this regard, but it does get the benefit of the doubt just because of how many other Pokemon can take advantage of the three different types of energy this legendary bird can generate.