There’s a brand new Pokémon Pocket set, Triumphant Light, out today and of course the biggest chase card for this release is the one slap bang on the front of all the packs: Arceus Ex. What’s really interesting about Arceus, though, is not the card itself, but the enormous number of other cards that are designed to support this Pokémon deity.
By itself, Arceus is just a slightly worse Pikachu Ex. It’s a basic Pokémon, with an attack that gets powered up based on the number of Pocket Monsters you have on the bench. And while Arceus Ex does 10 extra damage with a full bench, and has a more powerful move from the outset than Pikachu, the fact that it costs three energy to use makes it a much worse card overall. Not being affected by special conditions just isn’t enough to prop it up.
But what makes Arceus Ex one of the most interesting cards to build a deck around right now is the huge number of Triumphant Light Pokémon that get better when it is out on the field. There are eight of them in all, one for every Pokémon energy type except normal and dragon.
These Pokémon all have an ability with ‘Link’ in the name, which it can use if you have an Arceus or Arceus Ex in play. Tyranitar and Carnivine’s abilities make their attacks do more damage, Magnezone and Raichu’s cause them to take less damage, and Heatran and Rotom’s removes their retreat cost.
Then there are two more Pokémon with unique abilities. Abomasnow’s Vigor Link makes its attacks cost less energy, while Crobat’s Cunning Link can deal 30 damage to the active Pokémon.
All of them seem like they could be fun to build a casual deck around, but that last ability stands out as a cut above the rest. We’ve already seen how powerful abilities that can deal damage are. Greninja’s Water Shuriken saw it popping up everywhere a couple of sets back, and we don’t need to tell you how dangerous Darkrai ex is.
A few interesting Arceus decks are already popping up, and most of them feature the four-winged bat. One uses water energy, including Manaphy (alongside the Arceus + Crobat duo) to pop extra energy onto Arceus. Articuno ex also features, as an additional powerful attacker. Another is a more straightforward darkness type deck, featuring Darkrai, to really pour extra damage onto the opponent’s poor active Pokémon.
We’ll be interested to see if any Arceus Ex decks win big in tournaments over the next couple of weeks.
For more great Pokémon TCG reads, check out our guide to the most expensive rare Pokémon cards, and the best Pokémon cards in the physical card game.
Source: Wargamer
