May 15, 2017

Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising Card Highlights

Check out some of the most anticipated cards found in the latest Pokémon TCG expansion.

Each Pokémon TCG expansion comes packed with powerful and exciting cards, but every once in a while, there are cards that have the potential to change everything. So each day through the end of the week, we'll be taking a closer look at one of these impactful cards from the new Sun & Moon—Guardians Risingexpansion.

Card Highlight: Aqua Patch

Previous Card Highlight: Tapu Lele-GX

The next new card from the Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising expansion we'll take a look at is Aqua Patch, a Trainer card with all kinds of potential for Water-type decks.

Back in the Black & White—Dark Explorers expansion, one Trainer card sparked a wave of Darkness-type decks for years to come: Dark Patch. Even today, Darkrai-EX and Yveltal-EXcontinue to have success  in the Expanded format because of the incredible speed provided by this Item card. In the Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising expansion, Water-type Pokémon get their own version of this powerful Item card: Aqua Patch.

There's no denying that Aqua Patch provides an incredible effect. Being able to attach multiple Energy in a turn has been a key to many successful strategies in the Pokémon TCG, and doing it at the low cost of an Item card is exceptional. The only hurdle is getting Water Energy into the discard pile, and that can be achieved easily with Ultra Ball or Professor Sycamore. But the one big question remains: which Pokémon can take advantage of this newfound gush of Water Energy?

The early frontrunners for the two best partners for Aqua Patch are Lapras-GXand Alolan Ninetales-GX. Lapras-GX has already seen some success in competitive play, and it could get a boost by being able to attack quickly with Blizzard Burn. Alolan Ninetales-GX has a similarly powerful attack in Blizzard Edge, and it also has the Ice Blade attack to start weakening Pokémon on the opponent's Bench. Its 210 HP makes it difficult to take down in one attack, and the Ice Path-GX attack plays off that beautifully: after Alolan Ninetales-GX takes a big hit, use its GX attack to move that damage onto the opponent's Pokémon.

Aqua Patch is sure to be a cornerstone of many Water-type strategies. As more expansions are released, be on the lookout for more Water-type Pokémon to pair with this amazing Item card!

Card Highlight: Tapu Lele-GX

We kick off our survey of great cards from the Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising expansion with Tapu Lele-GX, the guardian of Akala Island.

Much like Shaymin-EX, which has been a centerpiece of competitive play for ages, Tapu Lele-GX's strength comes from supporting the rest of your strategy. The Wonder Tag Ability allows you to search your deck for a Supporter card and put it into your hand, so you can find the right card for the situation: Professor Sycamore for a fresh hand of cards, Lysandre to target an opponent's Benched Pokémon, and so on. In the Expanded format, Jirachi-EX has been used for years for its Stellar Guidance Ability, and Wonder Tag has the same effect.

Shaymin-EX and Jirachi-EX both come with the major drawback of having low HP, which means they're easy targets for giving up two Prize cards to the opponent. With 170 HP, Tapu Lele-GX does not share that problem. It also packs the powerful Energy Drive attack, which is similar to Mewtwo-EX's X Ball attack and Lugia-EX's Aero Ball attack, both of which have had lots of success in competitive play. For any deck using Psychic Energy, the Tapu Cure-GX attack can also come in handy (but much like Mewtwo-EX's Psydrive attack, it likely won't be used very often).

The power of Tapu Lele-GX is in its flexibility. Any deck that uses Ultra Ball can add this Pokémon and gain access to a Supporter card at will. The Energy Drive attack only needs Colorless Energy, so any kind of deck can use it. Expect to see a lot of Tapu Lele-GX in decks for quite some time!