Hi there. There are more card reveals for Pokemon Japan's Battle Partners upcoming set in January 2025. This next seal of reveals features some very interesting cards. New competitive decks will emerge from this set and the international set Journey Together to be released in March 2025.
Sprigatito, Floragato & Meowscarada
The new Sprigatito is okay as the attack can go up to 30 damage for one Colourless Energy. It does have 60 HP which makes it vulnerable to Dragapult ex.
Floragato's new version is kind of bad in my opinion. I would not recommend as the attack cost is at two Colourless Energy.
This Meowscarada single prize card is okay. The Showtime ability allows Meowscarada go from Bench to the Active Spot once during your turn. The Rising Bloom attack requires two Colourless Energy to do 90 base damage. If the Active Pokemon is a Pokemon ex then this attack does 180 damage.
Because Meowscarada is a Grass type Pokemon it does deal double damage to those weak to Grass. This Meowscarada does do 360 damage on Grass weak Pokemon like Dark Tera Charizard ex, Roaring Moon ex and Hydreigon ex.
I want to like this card but I find it difficult to see it its own deck. Maybe as a one copy alternate attacker. Not sure.
Iono's Voltorb
This Iono's Voltorb is an interesting Basic Pokemon attacker. It has 70 HP which makes it searchable from Buddy Buddy Poffin. The Voltorb also one retreat cost and Fighting weakness.
The Chain Bolt attack on this Iono's Voltorb is a scaling attack .Chain Bolt has 20 base damage and does 20 more damage for each Lightning
Energy attached to your Iono's Pokemon. The key numbers you want to hit are 180 against Mew ex, 220 against Latias ex, Fezandipiti ex and most Basic Pokemon ex. To reach 180 damage you want 8 Lightning Energy to all of your Iono's Pokemon. For 220 damage you want 10 Lightning Energy to all of the Iono's Pokemon.
In order to accelerate Lightning Energy to Iono's Pokemon, you want Iono's Bellibolt ex and Levincia stadium. Magneton helps too. I think Iono themed decks would want 13 or more Lightning Energy in their decks. Miraidon ex decks in the G, H, I Standard format may want to include Iono electric Pokemon now as they lose Raichu V and Raikou V.
I do expect this Iono's Voltorb to see play. It is a very dangerous single Prize attacker when the combo pieces are there.
Iono's Electrode
Iono's Electrode is kind of interesting based on its first attack. For two Lightning Energy, self destruct this Electrode. (Opponent gains one Prize card) Then you flip a coin. If you get heads then the opponent's Active Pokemon is Knocked Out. In terms of Prize trade you would prefer to use this first attack and try to take down a two Prize Pokemon and hope to get Heads.
The Electric Ball attack as the second attack is not good. It costs too much.
This is one of those cases where the evolution is worse than the Basic Pokemon. Stick with Iono's Voltorb. Replace this Electrode with something more useful in the deck.
Iono's Kilowattrel Illustration Rare
In a previous post I did cover Iono's Kilowattrel. There is an illustration rare version in this second reveal.
Swinub & Piloswine
Swinub is a 70HP Fighting Basic Pokemon here in the TCG. The Call For Family attack is the good version where you search your deck for 2 Basic Pokemon and put them onto your Bench. (Some Call For Family attacks do 1 Basic Pokemon)
The Piloswine is nothing too crazy. It is a Stage 1 100HP Fighting Pokemon that evolves from Swinub.
Mamoswine ex
Here is the super bulky and heavy Mamoswine ex. It is a Stage 2 Fighting Pokemon with 340 HP, four retreat cost and Grass Weakness. I think 340 HP is the highest HP in the Scarlet & Violet TCG era. I think the only other 340 HP Pokemon ex is Tyranitar ex from Obsidian Flames.
The Mammoth Carry ability is a Pokemon Search ability. It is like the Master Ball ACE SPEC card. Once during your turn you may search your deck for 1 Pokemon, reveal it and put it into your hand. (Then shuffle your deck)
For two Fighting Energy, the Rumbling March attack does 180 base damage. You do 40 more damage for each Stage 2 Pokemon on your Bench. If you have 4 Stage 2 Pokemon on your Bench then you could in theory do 340 damage (180 + 160). One popular Stage 2 Pokemon that goes with Mammoswine ex is Pidgeot ex.
A realistic scenario would be having two Stage 2 Pokemon on the Bench and this Mammoswine ex in the Active Spot. Then you could hit for 260 damage. This feels like one of those cards and deck archetypes where if Mammoswine is fully setup then it is hard to stop it. Let's see how this plays out.
Brock's Scouting
Brock's Scouting is kind of an interesting Pokemon search Supporter card. It is somewhat like Clavell in the first option and a weaker version of Jacq in the second option.
With Brock's Scouting you choose one of two options. The first option is searching your deck for any 2 Basic Pokemon, reveal them and put them into your hand. This can be good in the early game. One could argue that having two Nest Balls is better if you want to go from Deck to Bench.
The second option from the Brock card is searching your deck for 1 Evolution Pokemon. This option makes it worse than Jacq. Jacq allows you to search for 2 Evolution Pokemon while this second option from Brock's Scouting is search for 1 Evolution Pokemon.
I think this card may see some play. Having the flexibility of the option of one or the other is good in decks that require Pokemon setup.
Exchange Ticket Item Card
When Battle Partners comes out the F regulation mark cards are no longer in Standard play. We lose Hisuian Heavy Ball for looking at Prize cards and retrieving one Basic Pokemon.
I suppose the replacement to Hisuian Heavy Ball is this Exchange Ticket card. Count the number of Prize cards first. Then you shuffle your Prize cards and put them to the bottom of your deck. Based on the Prize cards count take that many cards from the top of your deck and put them face down as your Prize cards. It is a swap of Prize cards with the top cards of your deck.
You can combo this with the Academy at Night Stadium or with the Supporter card Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking. Academy at Night allows you to put one card from the hand to the top of the deck. Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking allows you to put two cards from the deck to the top of your deck. With the Ciphermaniac Supporter card, is it worth it to use up that Supporter spot for the turn for this combo?
This Exchange Ticket card is useful for retrieving certain Prize cards and putting them into your deck. I am not sure about the impact of this card and effect. Testing would be needed to see if this any good.
Postwick Stadium
Postwick is a Stadium card that gives a good damage boost to Hop's Pokemon on both sides (yours & opponent). Plus 30 damage can make the difference between a one hit knockout or a two hit knockout.
Hop's Choice Band
I think this Hop's Choice Band is kind of broken. If you attach this Tool card to a Hop's Pokemon then the attack it uses requires one less Colourless Energy. That is the first part. The second effect is that the Hop's Pokemon that this Tool card is attached to does 30 more damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon.
This Hop's Choice Band is a better version of Counter Gain and a better version of Choice Belt/Defiance Band. You don't need to be behind in Prize cards to get these two effects.
Hop's Cramorant
We lose the F regulation mark Cramorant that was used heavily in Lost Zone decks.
The replacement is Hop's Cramorant. This one is of the Colourless type with 110 HP and one retreat cost. Fickle Spit is a powerful attack that requires one colourless Energy and does 120 damage. If the opponent does not have exactly 3 or 4 Prize Cards remaining then Fickle Spit does nothing.
Combine Hop's Cramorant, the Postwick Stadium and the Hop's Choice Band to use the Fickle Spit attack for 180 damage. It would be at the cost of 0 energy. This assumes that the opponent has 3 or 4 Prize Cards remaining. 180 Damage is good against Mew ex or Squawkabilly ex.
In a Hop deck I can see people using two copies of this. Outside of a Hop deck I can see one copy of this in a deck. A good 120 damage for one Energy is nice in the mid-game.
Hop's Snorlax
We lose the annoying F regulation mark Snorlax with the Block ability and the Unfazed Fat one too.
The Snorlax replacement is Hop's Snorlax. It has 150 HP and a large four retreat cost. This Snorlax's Big Belly ability allows Hop's Pokemon do another 30 damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon. When it says the effect does not Stack it means that you cannot use more than one Hop's Snorlax to go past the 30 damage boost.
Dynamic Press as an attack is not too bad. It does 140 damage for the cost of three colourless Energy. I guess the Big Belly ability makes the attack do 170 damage instead (140 + 30). Combine this Snorlax with Postwick stadium and the Hop's Choice Band then Hop's Snorlax is doing 230 damage. That is one hit Knockout power on most Basic Pokemon ex.
Hop's Wooloo & Dubwool
Hop's Wooloo is your generic 70 HP Basic Colourless Pokemon with one retreat cost. The Smash Kick attack costs too much Energy to do 50 damage.
Hop's Dubwool is kind of broken here. The attack is meh but the Challenge Horn ability is like Boss's Orders.
The Challenge Horn ability activates when you evolve the Hop's Wooloo into Hop's Dubwool from the hand. Being able to switch the opponent's Active Pokemon with 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon outside of a Supporter card is very powerful. (Game changing or game ending too.)
Combine this with Professor's Turo Scenario to bring the evolution line back to your hand and recycle. Super Rod can be used for retrieval into your deck. Lana's Aid is another Supporter to go from discard pile to your hand. Night Stretcher is good too.
Hop's Zacian ex
Hop's Zacian ex is a Metal Basic Pokemon ex attacker with 230 HP. It is not a Tera Pokemon and it has no abilities. This can be good sometimes if you are facing walls like Cornerstone Ogerpon ex and Milotic ex.
The first attack of Close Cleave does 30 damage for one colourless Energy. This attack also does 30 damage to one of your opponent's Pokemon. In theory you can do multiple knockouts with this attack and get 2 to 4 Prize cards. Combine the Postwick Stadium the Hop tool card and Snorlax to increase the Close Cleave attack to 120 damage plus 30 to 1 opponent's Benched Pokemon.
Brave Slash is Hop's Zacian ex's second attack. For 3 Metal Energy and one Colourless Energy the attack 240 damage. During your next turn this Pokemon cannot use Brave Slash (unless Switched out to the Bench). Combine the Brave Slash attack with the Postwick Stadium, the Hop's Choice Band tool and Snorlax to increase the damage from 240 to 330 damage. This knockouts 330HP Dark Tera Charizard ex, 320 HP Dragapult ex, 280 HP Pidgeot ex.
This Hop's Zacian ex has some serious firepower when you have the full combination pieces in the Hop archetype. This playable card can easily be at least 10 CAD upon the Journey Together set release.
Here is the Special Illustration Rare version of Zacian ex. I predict this card will be priced pretty high. Top 5? Maybe.
Closing Notes
In the previous post it looked like N decks and the cards are good. After seeing the cards for Hop, this is the number one Trainer deck Archetype. This is still early days. More stuff to be revealed I would think. I think the Lillie Archetype is pretty crazy so far.
The Hop Pokemon are mostly Colourless types. This goes well with Glass Trumpet to attach Basic Energy from discard to Benched Colourless Pokemon. You do need a Tera Pokemon though so I guess Terapagos is ideal.
Archaludon ex provide Metal Energy acceleration to Metal Pokemon like itself or Zacian ex. Metang would be good to accelerate Metal Energy to Zacian ex and the Colourless Hop's Pokemon. With Dialga VSTAR gone I guess the replacements are Hop's Pokemon?
If these cards get really good I may buy a couple of the Japanese cards for early playtesting. Maybe I would go to a pre-release event to get some English cards early too. Some of this new stuff looks exciting and game defining.