Hi there. I cover the full set reveal from Pokemon Japan's White Flare set. White Flare goes along with the Black Bolt set to be released in Japan on June 6, 2025.
Topics
- Cotonee & Whimsicott ex
- Basculin
- Sawk
- Deino, Zweilous & Hydreigon ex
- Energy Retrieval Reprint
- Tool Scrapper
- Brave Bangle
- Harlequin
- Hilda Supporter Card
- Ignition Energy
Cottonee & Whimsicott ex
Cottonee is a 60 HP Basic Grass Pokemon with 1 retreat cost and Fire weaknes. The Absorb attack requires 1 Grass Energy to deal 10 damage and heal 10 damage from it. It is not a great attacker overall.
Whimsicott ex is the evolved form of Cottonee. This is a weak Stage 1 Pokemon with 230 HP, free retreat and Fire weakness.
The first attack of Energy Gift lets you search your deck for up to 3 Basic Energy cards and attach them to your Pokemon in any way you like. (Then shuffle deck.) This attack is not much better than Technical Machine: Turbo Energize. Risking a 2 Prize Pokemon for energy acceleration is kind of crazy.
Whimsicott's second attack of Wonder Cotton is interesting though. For one Grass Energy you reveal the opponent's hand. Then the Wonder Cotton attack does 50 damage for each Trainer card (Item, Supporter, Tool, Stadium) you find there. This is similar to Banette ex's Poltergeist attack but for less Energy and damage in its attack.
The second attack can deal big damage if the opponent holds many Trainer cards. If the opponent holds a huge hand size of 8 or more then chances are they have many Trainer cards in hand. You have to predict they have 5 Trainer cards or more to deal big damage of least 250 damage.
Using something like Budew to prevent Item cards being played helps. Then use Whimsicott ex to attack for big damage.
Grass is a good offensive typing against Pokemon with Grass weakness. These include Charizard ex (Tera Dark), Grimmsnarl ex, Roaring Moon ex (not seen too much) and Cynthia's Garchomp ex.
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Basculin
Basculin is a 90 HP Basic Water Pokemon with 2 attacks. It has one retreat cost and Lightning weakness. The first attack of Bite deals 10 damage from 1 Colourless Energy. The Bared Fangs second attack requires 1 Water Energy to deal 50 damage if the opponent's Active Pokemon has damage on it.
Sawk
I think Sawk is interesting. It could see niche play in certain decks but I could be wrong here.
Sawk is a Basic 110 HP Fighting Pokemon with 1 retreat cost and Psychic weakness.
Elbow Strike deals 30 damage for 1 Fighting Energy.
Rising Chop for 1 Fighting Energy deals 90 damage only to Pokemon ex. If the opponent's Active Pokemon is not a Pokemon ex then Rising Chop does nothing. This attack is not affected by Weakness or Resistance.
Dealing 90 damage for 1 Fighting Energy on a Pokemon ex is quite cost efficient and powerful. In theory you can use Sawk to 2-hit a Mew ex or Squawkabilly ex.
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Deino, Zweilous & Hydreigon ex
Deino is a 80 HP Basic Dark Pokemon with 2 retreat cost and Grass weakness. The attacks cost too much for it to be a dangerous attacker.
Zweilous is the Stage 1 Evolution of Deino. This has 110 HP, 3 retreat cost and Grass weakness. Double Hit requires 2 Colourless Energy to deal 40 damage for each Heads from 2 flips. The Pitch Black Fangs requires too much Energy at 2 Dark and 2 Colourless to deal 100 damage.
Hydreigon ex New Version
Here is a new Hydreigon ex. This Stage 2 Dark Pokemon has 330 HP, 3 retreat cost and Grass weakness. The Greedy Eater ability allows you to take 1 more Prize card if your opponent's Basic Pokemon is Knocked Out by damage from an attack.
The Dark Bite is very costly. At 3 Dark Energy and 2 Colourless Energy it deals 200 damage while retreat locking your opponent's Active Pokemon.
Having Hydreigon ex knock out a Pokemon looks difficult. Maybe Relicanth helps with using attacks from its previous evolutions. The attack costs are too high.
Energy Retrieval Reprint
It is confirmed that Energy Retrieval gets a reprint. Notice the I letter on the bottom left. This means that Energy Retrieval is legal for Standard play for another 2 years.
The card effect is simple. You put up to 2 Basic Energy cards from your discard pile into your hand.
Tool Scrapper
Here is a powerful Item card. Tool Scrapper allows the user to choose up to 2 Pokemon Tools attached to Pokemon on both side and discard them.
From the H regulation block we have the Jamming Tower stadium card. It negates the effects of Tools for both players.
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Why negate the Tool effect when you can discard them!? Tool Scrapper being able to discard up to 2 Tools is quite powerful. I do see this card being used in some decks. One big use case is to remove a Tool card from Genesect. When Genesect has an attached Tool then the opponent cannot play ACE SPEC cards from the hand.
Brave Bangle
Brave Bangle is a good attacking boosting Tool Card. It only applies to Pokemon without a rule Box. (Non Pokemon ex)
This tool card lets the Pokemon it is attached to deal 30 more damage to Pokemon ex. One deck that comes to mind that could use an attack boost is Ethan's Typhlosion. The Typhlosion is a non Pokemon ex attacker that sometimes needs an attack boost against Pokemon ex.
Harlequin
Harlequin is a somewhat interesting hand disruption Supporter card. Both players shuffle their hand into their deck. Then one coin is flipped. If heads then the user draws 5 cards and the opponent draws 3 cards. If Tails, then the user draws 3 cards and the opponent draws 5 cards.
The hand disruption effect is not as crazy as Iono in the late game. Harlequin can still provide major hand disruption if the opponent has something like 7 or more cards in hand.
Harlequin is very similar to Team Rocket's Archer. The Archer card does require a knockout on one of your Team Rocket's Pokemon for it to be used. Harlequin can be used without any conditions.
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From my initial look of this, I can see Harlequin see some use. It depends on other Supporter cards that would be released in the future too.
Hilda
Hilda was featured before in a previous post. I show this card again as I think this a future staple card in some decks.
With the Hilda supporter, you search your deck for 1 Evolution Pokemon and 1 Energy card, reveal them, and put them into your hand. (Then shuffle your deck.)
Searching for 1 Evolution Pokemon is an alternative to the Item card Ultra Ball. Searching for an Energy Card (Basic Energy or Special Energy) is quite powerful and rare in this game. Hilda being able to search for 1 Evolution Pokemon and 1 Energy card is very useful.
Decks that rely on Evolution Pokemon and Special Energy cards like Reversal Energy will love Hilda.
Ignition Energy
I have shown this card in a previous post. Ignition Energy does deserve another mention as I think this Special Energy card is impactful.
When this is attached to a Pokemon it provides 1 Colourless Energy. If this is attached to an Evolution Pokemon then Ignition Energy provides 3 Colourless Energy. There are some evolution attackers like Arven's Mabostiff ex that have attacks that require 3 Colourless Energy.
The obvious drawback is that you discard this Special Energy card at the end of the turn. You would use this card wisely for 1 turn and attack when there is big impact.