Pokémon goers have been teased with Hot Wind Arena’s card pack art showing Arvin, Ethan, and Cynthia with one of their signature Pokémon. While current reveals have given the limelight to Ethan and his Ho-Oh, as well as Misty’s own signature Pokémon as well, the latest reveals from the expansion set have confirmed that Cynthia’s Garchomp line -as well as her other Pokémon - have been confirmed.
Cynthia’s Garchomp lineup includes both her Gible and Gabite, which each have solid stats and technically outstanding abilities. The former has a baseline 70 health range, which solidly protects it from early-game trades. The latter can effectively search for any of Cynthia’s Pokémon.
Card advantage is always a good thing in Trading Card Games (TCGs), and Cynthia’s Gabite -while narrow in scope- further rewards players in fully committing to the specific trainer cards. That said, we may end up having a cheeky player or two just using Rare Candy to skip the bridge and just go straight for the main attraction.
As for Garchomp itself, a lot of players who have seen the reveal have unanimously agreed that it is big, beefy, and can hit like a freight train. First it comes with the utility of allowing its controlling player to draw cards with its weaker attack. We’ve already established that card advantage is always a good thing, but this comes at a very low cost of one energy and can swing for respectable damage.
Garchomp’s second attack, Dragon Blaster, guarantees -without player intervention- all but the strongest of Stage 1 or Basic Pokémon can withstand its might. For a bit of context, even Pokémon who are placing top spots in tournaments around the world like Raging Bolt ex or Teal Mask Ogerpon ex have a health pool just shy of under Dragon Blaster’s 260 damage output.
Dragon Blast does come with a downside of discarding the two fighting energy attached after its activation, but comparing Garchomp ex’s cost to damage output, it outpaces a lot of its rivals in efficiency. Case in point, Raging Bolt ex would need 4 energy to match Garchomp’s attack power and this Pokémon saw a lot of representation in the regional tournament held in Mérida, Mexico recently.
Some players are hesitant about this drawback though. Others, intrepid theory crafters, are already surmising the use of Powerglass to mitigate Garchomp’s most debilitating issue. And to top off this package, people are raising eyebrows at Garchomp’s capability of a free retreat. You’d think that with such overwhelming force, it’d be a lot harder to get it back on the bench.
But with any performance, the star has to be matched by its supporting actors. Cynthia’s Roserade and Spiritomb, while not as grand as Garchomp ex, do synergize with their bigger colleague quite nicely. Free added damage by just existing and a hyper efficient follow-through will ensure a Cynthia focused deck will be hard to survive once they start attacking.
It looks like Hot Wind Arena is doing its best to entice the player base with what it has in store. For those in the western market, remember that the expansion pack, Destined Rivals, will include cards from Hot Wind Arena. Destined Rivals is set for release on May 30th of this year.