Articles Archive

The EX Power Keepers expansion of the Pokémon Trading Card Game is a smooth mix of new cards and older cards with new art. As an example of how the set revives strategic card combos, let’s take a look at two cards that can quickly power up your other Pokémon’s attacks. Blaziken’s Poké-Power Firestarter and Gardevoir’s Poké-Power Psy Shadow each let you supercharge your Pokémon with Energy. These two Pokémon are Power Keepers, indeed!

The EX Dragon Frontiers expansion has many Pokémon with something extra—extra abilities to help your deck, like Bench shielding, attack boosting, damage avoiding, deck searching, and more. This article focuses on powerful ex Pokémon with something missing: Weakness! Powerful Pokémon are often balanced by Weakness—even double Weakness, in some cases—but Dragonite ex δ (#91) and Flygon ex δ (#92) are 150 HP Pokémon with no Weakness at all! This means no particular Pokémon type will have an advantage over either of these two Pokémon.

EX Unseen Forces has brought back the Johto Region Pokémon from the video games Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver, and one of the more notable returnees is the Legendary Bird Lugia ex (#105/115). This card could be used as a heavy hitter in practically any deck, as long as you have the Energy to use it. At 100 HP, it isn't the strongest of the Pokémon-ex, but its attack is utterly insane.

Houndoom (#7/115), the lonely-type Fire Pokémon from EX Unseen Forces, is an amazing card. Despite this hound's lonesome nature, however, it will allow you to fight alongside it, creating an array of over-the-top combos that will leave your opponent scorched! Before figuring out how to play Houndoom, you must learn more about its Modified-legal basic forms, Houndour.

An old favorite returns to visit in EX Unseen Forces, and gives rise to a new type of deck. Old-school players may remember Ampharos from the earlier Expedition set. The latest incarnation of Ampharos (EX Unseen Forces #1/115) has the same Poké-Power as its predecessor but has a brand-new attack.

Natives of a strange dimension, the mysterious Unown arrive in EX Unseen Forces, lending their versatile powers to players everywhere. Despite having 28 Unown cards in the set, Unown is treated as a single entity, so you can have only four in your deck. In addition, each version of Unown has a single attack. But because of its Poké-Power, each version can switch with another version of itself in your deck before attacking.

The Pokémon TCG has many great Pokémon to build decks around. Many Stage 2 Pokémon are featured in strong decks, and most of the cards in those decks build up and support the main Pokémon. As the Team Magma deck from the 2004 World Championships shows, though, it takes time to get a Stage 2 Pokémon going.

Many decks use a main Pokémon to do most of the fighting to carry the deck to victory. Pokémon like Blaziken ex and Salamence are popular because they can really dish out the damage counters. Powerful Pokémon like these are even better if you have good Pokémon to support them. A supporting Pokémon is one with Poké-Powers or Poké-Body abilities that make all of your Pokémon better.

Your opponents will dread the season's greetings from Dark Crobat's poisonous Black Beam. So, you will need to remind them that it's better to give than to receive. Of course, if they want to give you something in return, a win would be a great gift, wouldn't it? The Poké-Power Black Beam is one of the best Poison effects.