Pikachu ex takes center stage: Surging Sparks Pokémon TCG Set Review

[@jack6242]

That explanation of why self-destruct cards that offset the prize trade are good is the best explanation I’ve heard. So many people just say “it forces your opponent to take an extra prize card,” which I now get, but it’s not a great way to explain it. Thanks for this, Mahone.

[@MiguelAngel-jz7vo]

There's a phrase that I've heard in a lot of other card games "the only hit point that matters is the last one" so as long you dont give up the last one you can still win the game. The other reason is that you are the one in control of when to give up that prize card, so you still use it to your advantage by activating your comeback cards like counter catcher, defiance band, etc or by playing cards like iono or roxanne so your opponent cant use freely that extra card they got

[@e7193]

you’re gonna say that and not timestamp it ?

[@Rain1]

Agreed ​@@e7193

[@martimsilva1755]

@@e7193 19:52 to 20:31 I think

[@jack6242]

Haha great point. 19:54 is right about when he says it - in context of 2/4/6 prize race.

[@cody2teach277]

"the juice ain't worth the squeeze" is a phrase that comes to mind with so much of this set

[@mirajahmed707]

Andrew woke up in the morning today thinking 'Lemme activate my rude mode against these cards'

[@2mccue4u27]

Black Kyurem EX is my big chase for this set. "Bulk" nothing, it's a perfect complement for my existing Water deck. With the prevalence of Dragons right now (Dragapault, Regidrago V Star, Raging Bolt) having auto paralysis shuts down some of the most aggressive ones.

[@takenname8053]

Tera Pikachu seems interesting!

[@GormGrumGormly]

Really excited to put Durant in grass scovillain ex

[@e7193]

i’m excited to put it in my great tusk mill deck

[@craigsargent2476]

Disruptive Letter could be fun with Xerosic in a control deck. Discard down to 3, keeping the main cards they want, then lose them with the letter.

[@NoahMP3ttv]

This gives me Red Card Delinquent Peeking Red Card vibes

[@liamsmusic8708]

Luxray???

[@cranberrysauce61]

the "only if you go second and if its your first turn" trainers really should be remade to read: "if it is your first turn and you went second do 'x' otherwise draw 1 card. can only use one of 'name' once per turn" this way the card can retain the strong second player opening hand advantage while not being a completely dead card in the deck past the first card.

[@Yoshimitsuzero]

I 100% agree

[@JessePrker]

the card is toxic enough, why make it stronger?

[@aS__Spencer]

Durant ex can fit a certain niche as a finisher attacker for decks like lost box. This thing in lost box would absolutely slap Charizard

[@althaboss3925]

At that point just play iron leaves.

[@Aimnoos]

​@@althaboss3925B-but the extra Mill all the time☝️🤓😭

[@JessePrker]

@@althaboss3925 the extra colorless in the attack cost is a pretty big deal, making it so you could feasibly play just 1 grass energy in lost box

[@MosesHunnisett]

Terapagos won't work well with Hydragon, because it only accelerates to tear pokemon meaning you have to have already evolved into Hydragon to accelerate to it.

[@Ninterd2]

I don't think baby Ceruledge is that awful against Lugia. If you discard Lugia's four energies, that's 1/4 of energies gone where they need to take 6 prizes to win. Or 1/8 if they attach 2 to Cinccino which is still nearly all of them before they take the last prize. It's obviously situational, but you basically make it impossible for them to attack eventually. They might never get to take their last prize.

[@socialhax5824]

I just recently saw him and subscribed

[@makutakretta7516]

Me too

[@Saurdeloth]

Kind of a bummer that it seems like absolutely nothing is gonna shake up Standard with this set. Maybe Miraidon is gonna rise back up in line with the other aggro decks, but nothing is gonna slow the game down in any meaningful way or unseat Bolt from the top spot.

[@JessePrker]

1:42:28 unfortunately this is EVEN WORSE than peeking red card because peeking red card let you look at your opponents hand before deciding to shuffle. if this was an exact reprint it might have seen play in a banette ex deck for poltergeist similar to how peeking card was good with gengar & mimikyu tag team

[@Skyace13]

Ok but “just get Dusknoir into the active spot” isn’t as simple as you make it out. In fact other than pidgeot, all of the “just get it into the active” are not so easy. You need a combo to get this going. Unless you already have the combo in your hand, promoting your unevolved pokemon is a risk. Or it makes the combo longer by requiring a switch/retreat. Does that make Gastrodon good? No. But I feel like you understate it a bit

[@CJdoesntlikehandles]

what if 2 gastrodon

[@MiguelAngel-jz7vo]

Im a conplicated stage 2 enjoyer, so I'll play that hydreigon with dark patches and neo upper, at least that way i dont have to play more energy colors

[@MosesHunnisett]

Pickuchu seems good, but dusknoire can hit it making possible to knock out in one turn.

[@Snorlaxin_85]

Hydreigon ex and xatu w/crystal could work, but again not fast but still gonna have fun playing it

[@Skyace13]

I actually disagree on sylveon ex. The 2nd attack is designed to remove things from the bench so the likelihood that there is a 2nd attacker that can go into the active and not have its damaged reduced is considerably lower. Disclaimer: that doesn’t make the card good

[@MrTurtleMob]

I will be using Mystery Set in my Gholdengo deck!!!

[@norddeutschland1991]

Thanks!

[@vexmythoclast9476]

Ceruledge Ex may be a little slow but I’m hitting the copium hard that it’ll be a competitive deck with some tuning.

[@Skyace13]

I think you miss the part of Togekiss where you have the option to take a 1-prize instead of a 2-prize. Still not great

[@2mccue4u27]

I legit don't get why you think Incineroar EX is bad. I pair it with a few other Fire staples and Legacy Energy for a ton of survivability & revenge value. Plus Blaze Blast hits enough to KO a lot of the chunky EXs like Raging Bolt EX.

[@JessePrker]

absolutely zero major tournament results. the card is bad 😭

[@NayaM0]

I think Lisia could be good in some control decks

[@calebnelson4932]

Im just gonna wait for someone to make the silliest grass GLC deck with rabsca and wo chien. Theres just so many resources to make a good meme deck with them

[@emilands3635]

I want a tera bastiodon with 350 hp, an ability that reduces damage done to it and damages the opponent when it hits bastiodon. and an attack for 2 fighting that does 240 damage.

[@emilands3635]

@me once it releases

[@cranberrysauce61]

yo an errata version of gambler. i've always wanted to see gambler reprinted

[@geezlueaze1951]

Pikachu ex with the ability Plot Armor 😂

[@ramirogonzalez7634]

It sucks that there are very cool decks to play in standard but realistically they fall flat against the top tier decks in the format. At the moment it feels like there are no real places to play these cool decks without going up against another Dragapult ex deck. Even on the casual side of PTCGL you constantly are pinned up against Dragapult and Charizard constantly.

[@Ruthlesshauser]

Rotom cracked

[@CovertPheonix]

A lot of Lugia hate in this setlist

[@SuperJ809]

Is this set legal for Sacramento?

[@rharmon1331]

The energy requirement for Sylveon ex fits perfectly in lost box. Roxanne into Angelite then follow up with iron hands, greninja, blood moon etc. seems fairly promising

[@kifo4195]

1:05:41 CAUGHT

[@Tundra0128]

Hydreigon gonna be broken

[@minizeequeen711]

Durant is so sigma! Definitely not skibidi! Do you think Durant has rizz? I think so!

[@Growlithe_Gamer]

I have a question clemont's with "Heal 60 damage from each of your Lightning Pokémon" from my interpenetration heal a Pokemon for 60 for each electric type so 60x5= 300 heal?

[@TickleTipson169]

The lugia situation feels like mew VMAX all over again. They keep releasing cards that counter pretty much only lugia. the only difference is mew was cracked out of its mind and soldiered through all of the broken dark pokemon the printed and other such things, staying at the top of the meta, whereas lugia is already dead and has been for most of its time in format.

[@HeftyHurdler]

No hydreigon is op not best deck for sure but you can get turn 2 spark crystal of course dragupult is better but not many pokemon exept raging bolt can one shot it turn 2 if u got first its just like dragupult but better because afer you attack going second you can crispin [ if you have sparkling crystal ] use obsidian turn 3 and take 3 prize cards knowking out 1 prizerz if its an evolving deck plus you can make the deck list simular to dragupult so that it is basically as consistent as it this is my decklist im rockin with rn with this list about 2/4 games i get turn 2 pidgeot hydragon witch is basically dragupult but next ture i can absidian for 3 - 4 prizes the prize map would be smack active ex pokemon next turn use obsidian take 4 prizes or take out a basic pokemone for 1 prize next turn quick search crispin to obsidian knock out 3 1 prizers or damage some pokemon on the bench [most decks dont use manaphy ] this decklist may seem kinda clunky but is very functional and i battle my friend using proxys and he plays dragupult with sparkling crystal and i usually win 2/3 games 4 dieno 1zweilous 3 hydragon ex 2 pidgey 2 pidgeot ex 1 rotom v 1 fezindipidi ex 1 mimikyu [ for rbolt matchup ] 2 duskull 1 dusklops 2 dusknoir 1 iono 4 arven 2 crispin 1 proffessor turo 1 briar 1 boss's orders 4 rare candy 2 counter catcher 1 pal pad 1 switch 2 ultra ball 2 next ball 1 super rod 1 night stretcher 3 buddy buddy poffin 1 earthen vessel 1 tm devo 1 defiance band 1 sparkling crystal [ ace spec ] 1 artazon 2 metal energy 3 phy energy 3 dark energy

[@MosesHunnisett]

How dare you say great tusk is the best mill deck, when its obviously wugtrio!

[@Snorlaxin_85]

Latias ex + iron valiant ex is going to be a broken combo

[@MosesHunnisett]

This set is good for miraidon, but not that great for anything else it seems

[@BendyRuler30]

standard format is way too fast :(

[@TrickyGym]

Yep

[@Gintouki]

They're ruining pokemon with the aspecs

[@lukakramaric4089]

I think you really exaggerate the speed of the format and make it seem a lot less fun than it is currently.

[@mohammadadnan7319]

That's because he's an Ultra competitive player and competitive play is indeed as strong as he claims. You're really lucky to be playing a turn 4 in a tournament (unless someone is playing a mill/ control deck).

[@lukakramaric4089]

@@mohammadadnan7319 gardevoira, dragapult, charizard etc play longer games as well as mill/stall. Lost box also doesn't win in 4 turns.

[@mohammadadnan7319]

@@lukakramaric4089 dragapult and charizard and can attack as early as turn 2 and finish the game by turn 4. Also, gardevoir is not a competitive deck is that's invalidated.

[@lukakramaric4089]

@@mohammadadnan7319 they can attack by turn 2 but it's very rare of them to finish in 4 turns. Gardevoir for sure is a competitive deck that has top 32 finishes in recent tournaments.