All of the cards from Japan's Ninja Spinner set featuring Mega Greninja ex are out. This Japanese Pokemon set releases on March 13, 2026.
I have covered some of the cards in previous posts. In this post, I cover some of the new reveals and maybe repeat a few that I covered in the past.
This post is long, read what you want.
Illustration Rares Of Ampharos and Tauros
Here are the first secret rares from this set. These are Ampharos and Tauros.
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Ho-Oh
Ho-Oh as an attacker is not great. The first attack is unique and interesting. Flames of Resurrection requires 1 Fire Energy to let you put up to 3 Basic Pokemon from your discard pile onto your Bench. This is some Yu-Gi-Oh style effect where monsters from the Graveyard come back.
I don't know if this first attack is super useful though.
Litteo & Mega Pyroar ex
Litteo as an attacker is not great but you need for Mega Pyroar ex.
Mega Pyroar ex seems to be a generic beatstick Mega attacker. Both of the attacks do not seem that scary.
Remoraid & Octillery
Remoraid as Basic Pokemon attacker is okay in the early game.
Octillery's first attack looks pretty annoying. For 1 Water Energy, Corner Stop does 30 damage and has a shield like ability. If the opponent's Defending Pokemon attacks during the opponent's next turn, the opponent flips 2 Tails. If any 1 of the 2 is Tails, then the attack fails.
Octillery could be in a rare control/stall type of deck.
Delibird
Delibird is a weird attacker. Both attacks take any type of Energy. Flap is not great but the first attack is kind of interesting. Happy Present lets both players attach up to 3 Energy from their hand to their Pokemon in any way they like. (The opponent goes first) One big downside is that the opponent can attach Energy also. You hope that the opponent does not have Energy in hand.
I can see Delibird have a little play as this is possibly the replacement for Technical Machine: Turbo Energize.
Baltoy + Claydol
Baltoy as an attacker is not the greatest. If you get lucky, you can deal decent damage.
Claydol looks like the replacement for Aerodactyl with the Devolution Ray attack. You deal 50 damage and you devolve the opponent's Active Pokemon. Place the highest Stage evolution card to the opponent's hand. Devolution can be good against Rare Candy evolutions.
Ferroseed + Ferrothorn
Ferroseed as an attacker is not good but Ferrothorn's ability is kind of interesting.
Prank Drop activates when Ferrothorn is discarded from your deck by an effect of your opponent's Attacks, Abilities, Items or Supporter cards. When discarded from deck, your opponent discards the top 8 cards of their decks. Pokemon generally does not have effects that activate on the opponent's turn like trap cards in Yu-Gi-Oh. This Prank Drop is one those rare few trap card style effects.
Skrelp & Mega Dragalge ex
Skrelp is a Basic 70HP Dark Pokemon. The attack is not great but you need Skrelp for Mega Dragalge ex.
Mega Dragalge ex is a bulky Stage 1 Mega Pokemon ex. In the video Dragalge is a Dragon and Poison Pokemon but they made this card a Dragon attacker with zero weakness.
The Corrosive Liquid first attack requires 2 of Any energy type. This does not deal damage but it discards all Pokemon Tools and Special Energy from all of your opponent's Pokemon.
Pernicious Poison requires 1 Water Energy and 1 Dark Energy for the attack. The opponent's Pokemon is now Poisoned. Poison damage in between turns is 16 damage counters (160 damage) instead of 1. This is serious Poison damage.
Patrat & Watchog
Patrat as an attacker is not very good. The Watchful Eyes ability is interesting. As long as this is in play, both you and your opponent cannot move damage counters to another Pokemon.
Patrat looks like a targeted hard counter to Munkidori.
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The stadium Battle Cage also stops Munkidori from transferring damage to the opponent's Benched Pokemon (not the Active) and it also stops Dragapult ex's 6 damage counters and Froslass. Battle Cage can be replaced by another stadium but with Patrat, it has to be Knocked Out.
Watchog
Watchog is the evolved form of Patrat. The first attack Unannounced Check is kind of interesting. Flip 3 coins. If any are Heads, look at the opponent's hand and choose as many cards equal to the number of Heads. Then those selected cards are shuffled into their deck. It is a mild hand disruption effect.
Mincinno + Cincinno ex
Mincinno as an attacker is okay in the early game. Thirty damage from 1 Energy is okay.
Cincinno ex does have a below average HP for a Stage 1 Pokemon ex attacker. The Smooth Coat ability somehwat makes up for the low HP. If any damage is done to this Pokemon from attacks, flip a coin. If it is Heads, then that damage is prevented.
Energized Slap requires 1 Energy for the attack in order to deal 40 damage for each Energy attached to this Pokemon.
One possible combination is to run Cincinno ex with Grass Energy and this Meganium.
Special Red Card
Sometimes the most impactful cards in the game are not powerful Pokemon. Strong cards can be Item Trainer cards like this Special Red Card.
Special Red Card can only be played if the opponent has 3 or less Prize Cards remaining. The opponent shuffles their hand to the bottom of their deck. Then the opponent draws 3 cards.
This Item card is powerful as the opponent can still play a Supporter with this. Special Red Card is not as powerful as Iono the Supporter from the G block.
One stupid powerful combo is Special Red Card with Prime Catcher Item ACE SPEC and then a draw Supporter like Lillie's Determination.
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My one major fear I have is Dragapult ex decks sitting back not doing much for most of the game. Then on one turn, they use Special Red Card, maybe a Lillie's Determintion, Dusknoirs, Dragapult ex and possibly get multiple knockouts and get 4, 5 or 6 Prize cards in one turn.
Book of Transformation
There have been Item cards in the past where you need 2 copies to use the effect once. Book of Transformation is one of them. You need to play 2 copies of this in order to use this effect 1 time.
Choose a Basic Pokemon in your discard pile and switch it with 1 of your Basic Pokemon in play. Any attached cards, damage counters, Special Conditions (Burn, Poison, etc), turns in play and any other effects remain on the new Pokemon. It is a Pokemon Switch type of effect similar to Thorton from a few years ago.
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There are scenarios where it is useful to switch Basic Pokemons from the discard pile with one in play. One use case is replacing one Basic Pokemon in play with a Knocked Out Basic Pokemon. The new Basic Pokemon in play has already been in play for one turn so you can evolve it.
A popular use case in the future would be replacing a liability like Meowth ex on the Bench with a new Basic Pokemon.
Roxie's Performance
Roxie's Performance is a niche Supporter card that goes well with Poison Pokemon. During your opponent's next turn, their Poisoned Pokemon cannot retreat.
In theory, you can retreat lock and Poison the opponent's Active Pokemon. A counter to retreat lock include Switch, Surfer, ACE SPEC Scoop Up Cyclone (not used often) and Prime Catcher. These counters makes Roxie's Performance kind of bad.
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Emma
Emma is one of those Supporters where you can see the opponent's hand. Then you draw cards depending on a condition. For those one, you draw cards equal to the number of Pokemon in their hand.
If you get lucky, you could draw more than 3 cards if the opponent is holding something like evolution Pokemon cards in their hand. Otherwise, this supporter is not great.
Nitro Fire Energy
Nitro Fire Energy provides 1 Fire Energy to any Pokemon.
When a Fire Pokemon with this Nitro Fire Energy uses an attack that has energy discard and also discards this card then this Nitro Fire Energy goes back into your hand.
Closing Notes
There are some interesting cards in this set that could shape up the metagme in the Pokemon TCG. It is unknown if something like Mega Greninja ex would be a top tier deck. Some of the cards here that look weak may actually be good and some cards that look good at first may not have a good deck around it.