Exploring the Kalos Region!

Hey Trainers!

Pokémon X and Y have officially been released for a while now, and I’ve had a chance to fully enjoy both. So today I’ll be going over some of my favorite new features, and some tips for your adventure!

First off is Mega Evolution!

This feature without a doubt is the biggest structural change Pokémon has taken in a while, the idea to bring a fully evolved Pokémon to new heights is an awesome concept. As of now there are 28 known Mega Pokémon, if you want to see them all hers a link to serebii.net, an awesome website all about Pokémon!

http://www.serebii.net/xy/megaevolutions.shtml

My Favorite Mega

Brand New Battles!

Another big change introduced with Pokémon X and Y, is new types of battles. We now have Sky and Hoard battles.

Sky battles allow you to have optional battles with other trainers, using Pokémon that can learn fly or have the ability levitate. My Hawlucha However, cannot battle in them despite Knowing Fly. Regardless it allows for fun battles in the unfamiliar territory of the sky!

The Wings are Just for Show

With hoard battles, you will battle any five Pokémon located in the area making for fun and intense training!

EXP. Buffet 

Wonder Trade!

An extra feature that has become fairly popular is wonder trade. This feature lets you trade one of your Pokémon online, for a random creature another player has offered to trade. The process is completely random and allows for some fun turnouts. I even managed to get a shiny Froakie out of it! Understand though that many players will only trade low-level Pokémon in hopes of getting better ones in return.

Not Again...

Overall the game is fantastic, while the story is not necessarily as deep as the Unova games, it introduces lots of fun characters and an intriguingly darker plot than most Pokémon games. There are plenty more features and fun aspects in the game ill be covering later, but for now enjoy your adventure!

That’s it for today trainers,

To Be Continued!

Pink Pokémon Cards!

Hey Trainers! Scans were just released in Japan showcasing four new EX cards from the brand new X and Y sets. So today I’m going to do a quick overview of them, and talk about how they’ll fit in the current Metagame.

NEW CARDS!

The first card to enter the battle is Xerneas, he’s the first ever Fairy type and pink Pokémon card revealed. Despite this achievement, the card fails to make much of an impact. Xerneas has 170 HP, and two attacks. The first attack Breakthrough, costs (F)(C)(C)  dealing 60 base damage and an additional 30 to a bench Pokémon. The second attack has been translated to Blast X and deals 140 damage and cannot be used the following turn for (F)(F)(C)(C).

Did I mention its pink!

The next Legendary EX Yveltal has 170 HP, Dark typing, and two attacks as well. The first of which for (D)(C), deals a base 20 damage, plus an additional 20 for each energy attached Yveltal and the defending Pokémon. The next attack, Cyclone Y, costs (D)(C)(C) and deals a base 90 damage, while requiring you move one energy to a pokemon on your bench. I feel while this card isn’t necessarily great its resistance to fighting makes it useful, fighting usually being the main counter to dark type decks.

Interesting art style compared to other EX's

Aside from legendaries, the TCG is continuing to print EX cards of non-legendary Pokémon. In the new legendary treasures set, we see the first of these in the forms of Chandelure and Excadrill EX. Now with the introduction of Mega evolutions, they have printed Blastoise and Venusaur EX, in what has been hinted as plans to create Mega EX cards. As seen in the revealed picture where arrows point from these cards to cards hidden by a question mark.

What could those question marks be?

Blastoise EX has180 HP, and has two attacks costing (C)(C) and (W)(W)(W) respectively. The first is called Rapid Spin, and deals 30 damage. In addition it requires the player to switch Blastoise with a benched Pokémon, and requires the opponent to do the same. Then Splash Bomb deals 120 damage and requires a coin flip, dealing 30 damage to Blastoise upon flipping tails.

Keldeo/Blastoise's new secret weapon?

 Lastly Venusaur EX also has 180 HP, and two attacks Costing (G)(C)(C) and (G)(G)(C)(C) respectively. The first of the two attacks has been translated to poison powder, and deals 60 base damage, while also poisoning the defending Pokémon. The next Jungle Hammer deals 90 while healing 30 damage from Venusaur EX.

I can't think of a cooler attack name than Jungle Hammer!

 Overall the cards are all different in some way from what we’ve seen in the past, but bring little competitive edge to the table. Xerneas being a new type lacks any current cards to deal extra damage from weakness, and Yveltal seems to be a more complicated Mewtwo EX. Blastoise and Venusaur seem to be very weak when comparing them to other EX’s but this is to be expected if what they are hinting is actually Mega EX cards.

While will have to see the rest of the set to see exactly how useful these cards will be, Its obvious EX’s will continue to have a presence in the game, and more than likely dominate the format.

That’s all for today Trainers, To Be Continued!