The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) has a couple new reveals for Black Bolt and White Flare. This time, they’re revealing the Jellicent ex and Chandelure evolutionary lines as well as the latter’s new Illustration Rare (IR) version.
Frillish and Jellicent ex
Frillish
Sea Shadows: 20 damage. During your opponent's next turn, they can't play any Item cards from their hand.
Jellicent ex
Ability: Sea Curse
As long as this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, your opponent can't play any Item cards or attach any Pokémon Tool cards from their hand.
Power Press: 80+ damage. If this Pokémon has at least 2 extra Energy attached (in addition to this attack's cost), this attack does 80 more damage.
For players familiar with Budew from the Prismatic Evolutions expansion, Frillish should feel pretty familiar, but there are some minor differences.
First of all, Frillish needs an investment of a single Psychic-energy type to activate its ability. This is already a stark difference from Budew, who can just attack (and retreat) for free.
To counteract this downside, Frillish enjoys a more robust body on its own when it eventually evolves into Jellicent ex. As Jellicent ex, this Pokémon doesn’t necessarily need to attack to keep up the item lock it provides. All it needs to do is just stay in the Active slot.
Jellicent ex even has an added effect of preventing Tools from being attached to opposing Pokémon as well. This is all to say there's a lot going for Jellicent ex, but that doesn't mean you'll always pick them over Budew. After all, Budew requires fewer resources to use, so it may often be the sensible pick.
As if that wasn't enough, Beduw only offers one Prize Card to the opponent, unlike Jellicent, who offers two.
Chandelure evolution line
Litwick
Light and Burn: Look at the top card of your deck. You may discard that card.
Lampent
Fire Blast: 50 damage. Discard an Energy from this Pokémon.
Chandelure
Explosive Flame Pillar: 50+ damage. If you have at least 10 Basic Fire Energy in your discard pile, this attack does 100 more damage.
Burn It All Up: 180 damage. Discard all Energy from this Pokémon.
The Chandelure line is pretty basic, all things considered. Litwick has utility with its top deck peak and potential discard. Lampent does pretty average damage for its energy cost, but it needs to be constantly fed because it discards what’s attached.
Chandelure completes the package by taking advantage of all the Fire-type energy cards in the discard pile. Unfortunately, Chandelure still suffers from the same issue as Lampent, as it still discards all the energy cards attached to it.
Even with the best of intentions, it’s difficult to see the Chandelure line being used outside of friendly matches. There are too many factors working against the evolutionary line, even when Chandelure is the central focus of a deck’s strategy.