The next Pokémon TCG expansion, Chaos Rising, has been officially announced. Chaos Rising is due for a release on the 22nd May, and Mega Greninja is plastered all over it. Greninja is on the elite trainer boxes, smirking smugly while dangling upside down from a water shuriken. Greninja is on the packs, pulling the same pose, and Greninja will be getting the deluxe golden mega hyper rare treatment. But what if I told you that, in true ninja fashion, this is all an elaborate fake out and Floette is the real star of the show here?
It’s not unusual for a Pokémon TCG expansion to have a mascot, in fact, almost all Pokémon sets do. Perfect Order is all about Zygarde, Ascended Heroes was Mega Dragonite’s time to shine, and Charizard took center stage during Phantasmal Flames (as well as during Obsidian Flames, Flashfire, and essentially every other with ‘fire’, ‘flames’, or ‘blaze’ somewhere in its name).
Chaos Rising is the latest expansion in the Mega Evolution series. It forms a pattern with Perfect Order, the expansion that preceded it, in several key ways. Both of them loosely adapt the game Pokémon Legends: Z-A into the TCG. Both of them are small sets, not that there’s anything wrong with that, and they both draw on a classic order vs chaos conflict.
So what does any of this have to do with Floette and Greninja?
Well, Mega Floette is one of the first five cards revealed from Chaos Rising, alongside Greninja, Pyroar, Dragalgae, and Espurr.
If you’ve played Pokémon Legends: Z-A, then you’ll know that Floette plays a pretty major role in its story. Without delving too deeply into spoilers, Floette and Zygarde are probably the two most important Pokémon to the plot of that game. Greninja, meanwhile, doesn’t really make much of an appearance. Froakie, its pre-evolved form, is obtainable if you complete a side quest, but beyond that, Z-A definitely isn’t a Greninja heavy game.
Even the set’s official blurb ends with a shout out to Floette: ‘As night falls, danger blossoms in the Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution-Chaos Rising expansion!’ Frog Ninjas don’t blossom, but flower inspired fairy types certainly do.
What’s your take? Is Floette secretly the main character of Chaos Rising, or is it Greninja after all? Let me know your thoughts on the Wargamer Discord server.
Neither Greninja or Floette make our list of the best Pokémon cards, but there are plenty of other powerful pocket monsters on there.
Source: Wargamer
