TPCi (The Pokemon Company International) has confirmed the release of the Deluxe Pack ex for Pokemon Pocket. Players new and old will be able to take advantage of this pack and the guaranteed ex cards within starting September 30th, until October 30th.
Deluxe Pack ex
The Deluxe Pack ex first came to light when a Japanese advertisement began circulating on social media sites like YouTube. We didn’t know at the time if this new set would be released in the West or if it would be exclusively for the Japanese market. This announcement from TPCi officially confirms the release of this new expansion for Western players.
For those who haven’t had the chance to see the original Japanese advertisement, the Deluxe Pack ex set consists mostly of cards from the previous expansions. The marquee feature of this pack is that one out of the four cards from a pack will always be guaranteed 4-Diamond (Double Rare) or higher rarity card.
This pack will be beneficial for collectors, new players, returning players, or players who are currently missing a few ex Pokemon because 4-Diamond rarity cards are usually reserved for these meta warping cards (e.g. Giratina ex).
Raichu ex Promotional Card
TPCi caps off this announcement by mentioning a special Raichu ex drop event featuring a new promotional card. TPCi hasn’t released any other official information about this new Raichu ex card, but the Pokemon Pocket community has managed to find more information.
Please keep in mind that the following information discussed should be treated with a grain of salt. It would be prudent to wait for TPCi’s official word on the event and card in question.
According to the data found by online community members, the Raichu ex that may be released has the potential to shift the competitive scene of Pokemon Pocket.
This new Raichu ex supposedly comes with 140 health and a 130 damage ‘Volt Tackle’ attack. You can also see some parallels between this new version of the lightning mouse and Giratina ex.
The differences between the two are almost minuscule. Raichu ex has slightly less health and does slightly more self-damage, but ‘Volt Tackle’ takes less energy to activate than Giratina ex’s ‘Chaotic Impact’. Raichu ex’s main disadvantages are that it’s a Stage-1 Pokemon and that it lacks any native energy acceleration.
In the context of the overall competitive scene, Lightning-type decks have access to a lot of support tools to make up for these natural disadvantages. Pichu or a Zeraora combo with either an Electrical Cord or Elemental Switch are just some of the staple energy acceleration tactics available for Lightning-type decks.