Black Bolt & White Flare Reveals: Gothita & Krookodile Evolution Lines

A picture from the Pokémon cards, Gothitelle and Krookodile.

Published: May 26, 2025, 6:04 pm Updated: May 26, 2025, 6:05 pm

The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) continues to hold back the Illustration Rares, whetting the appetites of its players, as a new line of Pokemon have been revealed for the paired expansion of Black Bolt and White Flare.

Gothitelle Evolutionary Line

^Gothita

^{Super Psy Bolt: 20 damage.}

^Gothorita

^{Fortunate Eye: Look at the top 5 cards of your opponent's deck and put them back in any order.}

^{Psyshot: 40 damage}

^Gothitelle

^Ability^{: Twisted Future}

^{Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, you may have your opponent shuffle their hand into their deck and draw 3 cards.}

^{Synchro Shot: 90+ damage. If you have the same number of cards in your hand as your opponent, this attack does 90 more damage.}

The Gothitelle evolutionary line has a unique setup. Once in the active spot, it can be used as a one-sided Iono.

In the Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG), the hand is one of the most valuable areas of the game. Everything hinges on getting the resources you need into the hand first. Gothitelle’s Twisted Future ability makes it exceedingly difficult for the opponent to muster any card advantage.

There exists a possibility that you may be doing the opponent a favor by reshuffling their hand for three new cards, but that's always a possibility for these Red Card-esque effects. If your opponent appears to have bricked, don't shuffle their hand.

As for Gothitelle's attack, for a 2 energy cost, it’s not so bad. If you can somehow synchronize your hand size with the opponent’s then it becomes all the more efficient in terms of damage to energy cost.

As for Gothitelle’s earlier evolutions, Gothita is pretty standard as far as Basic Pokemon go. Gothorita offers a good amount of information reconnaissance and subterfuge as you can rearrange the opponent’s top five cards.

As a whole, Gothitelle presents a unique opportunity for some early-game skullduggery. The biggest downside to this evolutionary line, however, is that it’s a Stage 2 Pokemon. Even with the best starting set-up, you’d still be looking at investing at least a Rare Candy into this Pokemon. Is Gothitelle worth all the resources needed to set it up properly?

The value that this Pokemon offers shrinks the further the game goes. However, if a player is able to get Gothitelle online before the opponent can evolve their main damage dealer or set-up any energy acceleration, then you can force them into a constant state of top-decking.

Krookodile Evolutionary Line

^Sandile

^{Tighten Up}^{: 10 damage. Your opponent discards a card from their hand.}

^Krokorok

^{Tighten Up}^{: 40 damage. Your opponent discards 2 cards from their hand.}

^Krookodile

^{Tighten Up}^{: 60 damage. Your opponent discards 2 cards from their hand.}

^{Cursed Slug}^{: 120+ damage. If your opponent has 3 or fewer cards in their hand, this attack does 120 more damage.}

It seems that TPCi is keen on demonstrating more hand manipulation with the Krookodile line-up.

While the Gothitelle line is a lot more efficient and subtle with its manipulation, Krookodile and its other forms are a lot more up front and direct. Each Pokemon in this evolutionary line just straight up discards a card from the opponent’s hand.

Outside of the downside of Krookodile’s Stage 2 setup, it and Krokorok -its Stage 1 form- need at least 2 energy to ply their discard capabilities. This presents a pretty unique obstacle for the controlling player.

Sandile enjoys the same discard capabilities as its older brethren, but its attack is limited to a single energy cost. While this allows your discard shenanigans to get on board quickly, it can make evolving at your earliest opportunity an awkward decision.

Krookodile also has a pretty astonishing damage output if you can activate its parameters. 240 damage off three energy is pretty good considering the likes of Gardevoir ex can only deal 190 damage for the same cost.

This puts an unexpected pressure on the opponent as they need to watch their own hand size if Krookodile is on the field, lest they allow the Dark Pokemon to punch above its weight class.

Virizion, Terrakion, Cobalion, and Keldeo ex

^Virizion

^{Giga Drain}^{: 30 damage. Heal from this Pokémon the same amount of damage you did to your opponent's Active Pokémon.}

^{Emerald Blade}^{: 130 damage. During your next turn, this Pokémon can't attack.}

^Terrakion

^Retaliate^{: 50+ damage. If any of your Pokémon were Knocked Out by damage from an attack during your opponent's last turn, this attack does 80 more damage.}

^{Land Crush}^{: 100 damage.}

^Cobalion

^{Holy Edge}^{: 20 damage. Discard 1 Special Energy from your opponent's Active Pokemon.}

^{Metal Arms}^{: 80+ damage. If this Pokemon has a Pokemon Tool attached, this attack does 40 more damage.}

^{Keldeo ex}

^Gal^{urn, this attack does 90 more damage.}

^{Sonic Edge}^{: 120 damage. This attack's damage isn't affected by any effects on your opponent's Active Pokémon.}

We’re putting these four Pokemon together due to their similar designs as well as being part of a Legendary cycle. Cobalion, Virizion, Terrakion, and Keldeo ex are all basic Pokemon that have a two-energy and three-energy attack. The two-energy attack typically has some extra effects attached.

From the four, we could see some use from Cobalion as part of a toolbox set-up. Depending on the match-up, players may use Special Energy cards like the upcoming Team Rocket’s Energy from Destined Rivals. The card's viability would be heavily meta-dependant, but there's a non-zero chance that Cobalion could be relevant.

Genesect ex

^Ability^:^{Metal Signal}

^{Once during your turn, you may search your deck for up to 2 [M] Evolution Pokemon, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.}

^{Protect Charge}^{: 150 damage. During your opponent's next turn, this Pokemon takes 30 less damage from attacks.}

This reveal took some members of the online community by surprise. Genesect already enjoys popularity as its Shrouded Fable counterpart can stop the opponent from using any of the powerful ACE SPEC cards by just existing on the bench.

Genesect ex does away with the control function by becoming an Ultra Ball on legs for any deck with a focus on Metal-type Pokemon. In fact, Genesect ex is a lot better than Ultra Ball because it doesn’t require any discard for its activation, and it can search for two Pokemon instead of a single one.

Currently, Gholdengo ex is one of the leading competitive decks in rotation. But one of its main issues is just getting the copies of Gholdengo ex into the hand. So cards like Technical Machine: Evolution and Ultra Ball are being used for consistency. This in turn bloats the deck.

Genesect ex may be able to strengthen the overall search package for this deck. As a Basic Pokemon, a standard Nest Ball can be used to get a copy out if you don’t already start with it when the match begins.

Being an ex Pokemon, this version of Genesect presents a tempting target. So players would need to watch out for any field manipulation like Counter Catcher should they choose to run this version of the Pokemon.

Black Bolt & White Flare Reveals Fossil Line-up