Late on Thursday, two brand new Pokémon cards were revealed in Japan: a flashy new version of the living sushi Mega Tatsurgiri ex, and a new trainer card for Pokémon Z-A’s Lida. The cards will first be available in promo packs for participants in Pokémon Card Gym battles in Japan, but will make their way to the Western world in a future set.
Mega Tatsugiri ex feels like a massive gamble of a card – like all Mega ex ‘mons, when it’s knocked out, you’re going to give up three prize cards to your opponent, and its attack costs three water energy and depend on coin flips to deal damage. Admittedly, it can pay off spectacularly if luck is with you: you flip 3 coins for the attack, and deal 150 damage per successful flip!
As for the art, my colleague Matt wrote a whole article about how much more packed with character and life 2D Pokémon are than their 3D counterparts – but I think this CGI pop-art suits Tatsugiri brilliantly. It’s bright and energetic and kind of weird, which is perfect for a living sushi platter.
The new Lida trainer card seems powerful but something you’ll only use once in a game, as you can only play her if your Mega Pokémon ex was knocked out last turn. You then get to search your deck for two Basic Energy cards and attach them to one of your Mega Pokémon ex.
That’ll be a nice catch-up mechanic, and a good way to punish opponents who expend a lot of resources scalpalling out a Mega ‘mon you’re trying to develop. I’m sure that cunning Pokémon masters will be able to build a strategy around a disruptive Mega ex they plan to lose, with Lisa ready to slingshot the real threat into a winning position when it drops unconscious.
These will be fairly rare Pokémon cards at first, as they’re only found in single-card promo packs that players receive for playing in Pokémon Card Gym events, and players might open one a new alternate art reprint of Tynamo or Wimpod, or one of three other pure reprints. It usually takes half a year or more for these cards to see their first printing in Western Pokémon sets.
If you’re a Tatsugiri collector, are you going to wait for the English version of this card, or are you going to try and import one? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
