Spoiler season is fully underway as more cards slated to be released in The Glory of Team Rocket expansion have been revealed.
With the Pokémon Company International (TPCi) having officially announced Destined Rivals to include Team Rocket Pokémon, there’s a pretty good chance that these new cards may join the next release to western shores in May.
Clamperl, Gorebyss, and Huntail
First on the list is Clamperl and its split evolution line involving Gorebyss and Huntail. For anybody focused on running water Pokémon, this line may prove an interesting rogue strategy.
Clamperl is hardier than it looks as each of its attacks reduces the opponent’s reprisal the following turn by 10. Ten isn’t a lot of value in the grand scheme of things but this ability does allow Clamperl to preserve its hp for either of its evolution when the time comes to evolve.
Gorebyss and Huntail prove to be very different lines of play. For Gorebyss, their Crescendo Wave can punch above their weight class if enough basic water energy cards can be attached to the Pokémon. However, that 90 hp leaves a lot to be desired.
Huntail is a little more robust at 110 health. But its ability to keep basic water energy from hitting the discard pile pairs nicely with Gorebyss’ Crescendo Wave.
Gorebyss’ attack comes with an added effect that any amount of basic water energy can be attached to Gorebyss before damage is dealt, so Huntail makes for a perfect partner.
Mankey, Primeape, and Annihilape
The Mankey evolution line brings a very interesting take on field manipulation. By itself, Mankey feels a little lackluster for a basic Pokémon compared to competitive staples of the same level.
However, once evolved into a Primeape, and for a single fighting energy, this Pokémon can actively switch around your opponent’s roster while dealing damage to whatever it brings forward to the active slot.
As far as rogue strategies go, this is highly peculiar, as anyone opposing Primeape will have to deal with an ever-rotating roster.
Primeape’s Dragoff ability won’t be an issue if the bench isn’t used to its fullest, but any deck that likes to build wide with a large roster on the bench might see this being a problem.
Anyone brave enough to damage Primeape and not knock it out in a single attack may face Annihilape the following turn. Annihilape’s reprisal is a simple 160 damage with a single-turn cooldown.
However if Annihlape has 2 or more damage counters on it, then that 160 instantly turns to 280 to the opposing active Pokémon.
Consistency-wise, Annihilape isn’t the best, but its 2 energy cost attack can take out all but the most robust of stage 2 Pokémon.
And even if the opponent knocks out Annihilape, it’s just a standard Pokémon; only a single prize card will be its cost. That’s not a bad trade all things considered.
Torchic, Combusken, and Blaziken
Torchic probably has one of the best utility skills out of the basic Pokémon revealed so far on this list. Just being able to draw a card off a single energy -regardless of type- can help its controlling player dig just a bit faster.
Sadly, the utility Torchic provides is lost upon evolving into Combusken. Slightly geared towards combat, this stage 1 traded its draw function for a more random attack. For anyone who’d like to see the good in even the jankiest of cards, Combusken feels like a short sell for what was already available as Torchic.
As for Blaziken, it fares a little better than its earlier evolution. Dealing 120 damage to an opponent's benched Pokémon is a powerful ability, but discarding 2 Energy to pull it off is a steep cost.
Blaziken can definitely do a lot more damage than Primeape, but its loss of energy resources may give many deck builders pause.
Regirock ex
This is probably not the best answer to Blaziken’s conundrum of discarding 2 energy, but it is an answer nonetheless. For just 1 basic energy, Regirock ex can easily recur any of the spent energy cards that Blaziken tossed into the discard pile.
Being a basic Pokémon, Regirock ex is a little more robust than most with its 230 health pool, though this is far from an ideal number.
Should it face off against a stage 2 Pokémon, its rather unimpressive 140-damage Giant Rock attack will become a more respectable 280-damage attack.
Credit where credit is due, though: Most basic and some stage 1 Pokémon don’t have a health pool to survive the unupgraded attack.
Given that Regirock can actually ramp itself to get going, roughly two turns is all that is needed to start attacking if basic fire energy cards have been already discarded.
Zamazenta
Zamazenta is probably the most antithetical Pokémon to every other Pokémon that was revealed earlier in the list. While its 130 health and 70 damage output isn’t the most interesting thing in the world, they are all tied to a reprisal package.
As long as Zamazenta attacked during its controller’s previous turn, the opponent will end up seeing their own attack reflected back to their active Pokémon should they take to the offensive.
This is regardless of whether Zamazenta is knocked out by the opponent’s attack or not.
While we do have Trainer cards like Counter Catcher to force Pokémon off the active slot, just the fact that such an important tool has to be burned on such a gimmick-focused Pokémon can leave a player with a sour taste in their mouth.
So far, the reveals for The Glory of Team Rocket have been lukewarm. While some, like Primeape or Zamazenta, may be interesting strategies, the rest have yet to garner many positive optics.
We still have a couple of weeks left before The Glory of Team Rocket hits store shelves, so there's still time for something interesting to come out of the woodworks.
For those interested in reading the translated text for themselves, the ever industrious fellows over at Pokébeach have them at the ready. You can find the pages by clicking on the appropriately named Pokémon below: