Heat Wave Arena will be the next set for the Pokémon TCG, with the Japanese language version launching on March 14, and the English version to follow at some point in the future. Trainer-specific Pokémon for the gym leaders Ethan and Misty have been revealed, and we’re in love with Misty’s strategy: her Gyarados launches her other Pokémon at the opponent for massive damage.
For the benefit of anyone fairly new to the Pokémon TCG, ‘trainer’s Pokémon’ have an extra logo on them which indicates they belong to a specific named character from the Pokémon universe. This limits how they can evolve: Misty’s Gyarados can only evolve from Misty’s Magikarp, for instance. There are lots of synergies between a trainer’s Pokémon, each other, and their trainer cards.
Misty’s Gyarados has a very cheap and powerful ability called ‘Splashing Panic’. For just one water energy, you flip over the top seven cards of your deck, and deal 70 damage for each Misty’s Pokémon cards that you reveal. That’s right – with a perfect reveal, you’ll deal 490 damage! It’s cheap, has very high damage potential, and Gyarados is only a stage one Pokémon: this is a perfect attack for flattening Pokémon Ex.
There’s an easy way to guarantee you get at least one Misty’s Pokémon on top of your deck: Misty’s Psyduck. If Misty’s Psyduck is on the bench, it can use the ability Slapstick Jump. You discard all cards attached to Psyduck, plus the bottom card of your deck, and then place Psyduck on top of your deck, ready for Gyarados to hurl it through the air.
To help ensure you don’t run out of cards – and make it sting less when you flip all your best Pokémon cards into the discard pile – the set will also feature the trainer item Sacred Ash. This lets you shuffle up to five Pokémon cards from your discard pile back into your deck. When your deck is very low on cards, you should be able to reliably launch four or five ‘mons with every Splashing Panic!
All Pokémon sets with trainer themes tend to have very clear strategies, due to the high level of synergy between Pokémon with the same trainer. Ethan’s Pokémon make that especially clear. The lynchpin of this is a Supporter card, Ethan’s Adventure, which lets you search up three basic fire energy or Ethan’s Pokémon cards, in any combination.
Ethan’s Quilava has an ability that lets you search for Ethan’s Adventure, smoothing out your hand nicely.
When Quilava evolves into Ethan’s Typhlosion, its Ruddy Blast deals 40 damage plus 60 more for each Ethan’s Adventure card in your discard pile. This maxes out at 280 damage for just a single fire energy!
Ethan’s Slugma has an even better attack for melting Pokémon Ex: Lava Burst. This costs three fire energy, and lets you discard up to five fire energy, dealing 70 damage for each. It has an ability that means as long as it has no energy on it, it can retreat for no cost, so it won’t sit around uselessly after its fired off Lava Burst.
Charizard Ex Tera is the go-to way to power up expensive fire Pokémon attacks, but Ethan has another option, thanks to Ethan’s Ho-Oh Ex. This legendary Pokémon has the Golden Flame ability, which lets you attach up to two fire energy from your hand to benched Ethan’s Pokémon.
Its Shining Feather attack deals 160 damage and heals 50 damage from each of your benched Pokémon, and costs four fire energy. It’s not going to KO an enemy Ex in one hit, but it can give you the edge in a drawn out battle.
Ethan’s fire Pokémon look like they will work together but won’t split up into any other decks. Ethan’s Pichu might be different. Its ability, Sparking Draw, requires no energy, deals a nifty 30 damage, and draws you a card. With just 30hp means it will faint to a light breeze, but drawing a card is always useful, and you can use it to attack while you energise another ‘mon. Plus it can retreat for free and get out of the way – a perfect early game nuisance.
So far, there have been no illustrator cards or secret rares revealed for the set. We can’t wait to see what expensive rare Pokémon cards this set has in store!
If you’re interested in getting started with Pokémon TCG and want a deck that’s going to hold its own, check out the newly revealed Dragapult Ex League Battle deck – it’s practically tournament ready, right out of the box.
Source: Wargamer
