Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Team Aqua/Magma: Good, Bad, or Ugly?

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Psycho_Lugia_X

Psycho_Lugia_X

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I just saw a scan list of the set on another thread and I was blown A-WAY! I couldnt believe the set, it was great. Dual types, fresh art, and new mechanics. I'd like to get other points of view. I think there are some great aspects to the new set. But, I am open to the idea that there could be some bad to the good.

For example, the new dual types. They could be interpreted as blessings or curses. With the debut of the Team Aqua/Magma set, we're going to see the introduction of dual types. This is a pretty logical advance to the card game, much like dual weakness, and I'm suprised that it has taken this long for the introduction of dual types. I guess that lanturn from a ways back forshadowed this event.

So, it's a pretty big change, these dual types. Does anyone think this is a step backwards for the game? I am willing to bet there are some people out there who dont like this move. For me, i think it is a nice, positive move. More strategy. But i can see the downside. It could make games impossible to win...or lose!

The 3D art. I think it was amazing. At first when i read that there was going to be a large chunk of 3D art, I was a little saddened. I really like how they can draw pokémon to look so realistic. That's why i loved Sandstorm. Grade A art there, for sure. When i took a look at the art, my jaw dropped! It was great. Take a look at aron, you can see reflections in its coat, and look at poochyena, they are so...fuzzyrific! I was even floored by the logos in the artwork. The Team Aqua's Pokémons' logos (there's one somewhere in their art) are espescially impressive. And the backgrounds. Man there's so much it's overwhelming. But to bring this back...some people might not like the 3D look. Is there anyone who doesnt like the 3D look? I would definately like to hear someone's arguments against the art. One more thing, the frames are great. The dualtypes' face is smoothly handled.

I'm a fan of symmetry in cards. So i really enjoyed how the Aqua/Magma mathced each other mechanically in different cards. How each Team hosed the other. Anyone not like the symmetry? Anyone?

So, what do you think? Is the set good? Bad? Horrible?

In case you didn't gather it, i give EX: Team Aqua and Team Magma two thumbs sky rocketing up.

Feel free to further review the set here.
 
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This was definately a good set in every way. Who wouldn't like the 3-d art? If you liked this 3-d art, wait till you see what some of the cards in the next set look like.

The cards are definately powerful. The Kyogre I put into my deck with 100 HP helped me out so much, and it was almost killed a few time by either a little Rhyhorn who can do 60 or a Houndoom that can do 150. The cards in this set seem to like to delay Special Conditions though, which would be the only thing I don't like.

Anyways, this set is my ultimate favorite of the EX Sets and I give it a 9.8797654 / 10.

EDIT: Oh yeah, how could I forget? Team Aqua Pokemon rule! :)
 
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The 3D art is really cool, but there's too much of it.. I think it wouldnt be too much if the whole set had 3D art, but those 9 cards illustrated bu Ken Sugimori kind of ruined it. The art on Absol is really cool. I'm writing an article about the art, and I'll probably submit it to Zeo when I'm done.
 
Yeah, i like some of the art, its not bad. I like Mitsuhiro Arita's art the best, so it kinda sucks not seeing his awesomeness in the set. Nothing looks as godly good as Raichu ex, that sucks too. I do like the backgrounds on most of them (NOT seviper lol), but I don't think the art is the best in this set.

The cards themselves, really really cool. I like the dual types. I like how attacks do more damage depending on situations rather than coin flips. I like the new powers/bodies and new attacks. VERY refreshing and interesting. A lot of cards seem pretty useless, but a lot of them also seem like they will be giving stuff a run for their money.

Guess we'll find out the metagame pretty sooon lol. New stuff coming up like the Starter ex's are powerful, but non ex's get a CRAP LOAD of speed to their advantage. It'll be really interesting. This set surprised me, as I thought it'd be crap, but its not lol. Its very good I think.
 
GREAT set artwise. Really innovative mechanic wise as well. Lots of new ideas that work well. Unfortunately, this is Nintendos weakest set by far.

First, it released Blaziken EX. That is going to kill the tournament scene. No, I dont mean be great, I mean make 1 deck invincible.

Second, none of the cards are very good beyond it. The cards are great in sealed and amongst themselves but mixed in MF they arent strong enough to even touch the curren decks. Walrein is solid, but is still interesting at best currently. Manectric prolly works in Blaziken. Those are about the only interesting cards. Well, Sceptile EX too.

Overall I vote UGLY on this set despite the art work! Hurts the metagame and pulls a team Rocket on us. New concepts and ideas and cool art but HORRIBLY lack luster game play wise as they just dont have enough HP or attack power to compete.
 
Tyranitar666 said:
Overall I vote UGLY on this set despite the art work! Hurts the metagame and pulls a team Rocket on us. New concepts and ideas and cool art but HORRIBLY lack luster game play wise as they just dont have enough HP or attack power to compete.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. I don't even think Walrein is any good (double weakness on a 120HP Pokemon, just enough for a single Armaldo shot) and Sceptile EX is not really much an improvement over the R&S Sceptile. I have hopes for Swampert EX (which at least doesn't have a second weakness) and there may be something in Cradily EX and the legendary dogs once we study harder.
 
I thought there was so alright cards, but some that were just BROKEN. How about the belts? Attach them at the end of your turn you search your deck for a pokemon that evolves from that pokemon and put it in your hand. Next turn, rare candy and oh look, a stage 2 on the second turn! It must be aqua/magma though. Also the conspirators, discard a magma/aqua card and draw 4! Blaziken EX! Sceptile EX! This set is so much better than sandstorm/dragons mixed. New mechanics like throwing away pokemon to draw cards is very cool.
 
I agree and I disagree with Chris on this...

Blaziken ex... I dunno man, I don't think its quite invincible. I guess we'll see though. It definitely should drop Blaze/Ray and Niney like a rock though. Other stuff is faster, you have to branch the Blaziken line... but it does look really awesome. We'll have to test.

I do agree on teh worthlessness of a lot of cards. Most of them just won't make the cut. However, there's quite a few things that are awesome, like the speed of the stage 1s, and even some stage 2s. Sceptile ex, Swampert ex, Blazey ex, Cradily ex, Lanturn, Camerupt, Manectric... these are all solid cards imo, and I think there are some things we've overlooked too i'm sure.

We'll see when state rolls around what happens. I don't think Blaze/Blaze ex will be invincible, even if it is really good. Weak to psy just hurts it... a lot. Wob is like "take 100" and it can just sit there just as well as Blaziken ex can sit there.

I think we're gonna see a LOT of water decks popping up, some Sceptile ex and i'm sure Blaziken and most definitely gardy will be popular.
 
I think we might see a total aqua deck coming. Because there are so many tech cards from the set that use only aqua cards and cannot be equalled by anything non-aqua/magma, it will give the aqua player a large advantage. Only thing though is that there are any large unstoppable aqua cards. No aqua EX's, and the highest aqua hp is 120 walrien(sp?). The Pre-Release sure was fun. I myself had huge drawing, my friend has some draw and fast evolution and my other friend had no drawing but AWESOME speed in evolution. So it was cool to see which one won out over all the different kinds of cards. I myself went 4-2 with a four type deck so I was pretty happy. But again, most cards won't even see play in this modified filled with OHKO'ing pokemon.
 
Prime said:
I think we might see a total aqua deck coming. Because there are so many tech cards from the set that use only aqua cards and cannot be equalled by anything non-aqua/magma, it will give the aqua player a large advantage.
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That is possible, but it is a problem that Walrein - the only really big Pokemon - is only so-so. Manectric is probably a given in such a deck and I happen to like the holo Sharpedo, those two with Kyogre and the Aqua trainers may make a workable deck. I don't see the same possibilities on the Magma side.
 
I personaly like this set very much. It was very fun to play at the prerelease (my magma mightyenna ohkoing all 50 hp basics.)plus, it was the first prerelease i won first in! The aret is awesome. Someone posted a magma haymaker on the deck place, seems solid. We do get some more draw from the aqua/magma schemer. All of the trainers that help their respective sides are good, too. Im toying arrround with the idea of the uncommon magma claydol and magma's hideout. that could be decent... Oh! And we get double rainbow!!! Anyway, thats my 2 cents.
nobody<
 
I'd have to agree....blaziken EX is going to warp the tournament scene like nobodies buisness.. I'll have to see if water swarm has a shot at doing enough damage to take it down.... so far in tests, Aquas Manectric slides perfectly into the blaziken decks, being an energy storehouse of sorts.. pretty anti gardevoir as well, because with one blaziken on the bench, and the ex up, with 2 energy, you can get the attack off with an energy from your hand. *Thinks* Wobbufett is the decent counter, but you can always target something else...

I do like the set, getting back on topic. It was a lot of fun to "take sides!" I'm a fan of mighteyena and manectric too, so seeing so many cards (4 each of poochy and mightyena! Rock!) that I liked, and with rockin art!

So in short:
I like the set itself, but I am very worried what it is going to do to the tournament environ.
 
This is the 2nd best set that Nintendo released, behind RS, and THAT's mostly because it's an extremely good Drafting set dispite the lack of evolving ex's. Otherwise, the Pokemon are either too weak (Walrein) or too strong (starter ex) to make it a very balanced set for Modified. I'd give it a good and ugly rating.
 
I like the set really well. I have had a chance to read all the cards and look them over and I think there are some good cards for decks. Plus it seemed to work really with for booster draft at the Prerelease tournaments.
 
Meh, the cards are ok. Nothing really dominating besides Blazzy ex, which I actually pulled out of a pack. :D (Sorry don't mean to brag but it's gonna be hard to get.) Swampert ex is cool and so is Suicune ex. Suicune will be fun if you can start with one moving you opponents energies around and making them angry. :D Walrein could be ok, but you can only remove basic water energies from your poke's for it's attack which sucks. Double Rainbow is good. Aggron might be ok. Manetric is really good. The Archie and Maxie trainers are also really good if you use their pokemon. That's about all that I can think of that's good. Not too much.

The ex's seem a lot rarer too, my friend only pulled one lowly Cradily ex out of 24 packs. I got 2 out of 15. My bro got 2 out of 12. So that's a total of 5/51 packs with ex's. Not very good odds. But I guess that's good because it makes them rarer. Just hope you don't get Cradily or Raikou or Entei if you get an ex!

The art is pretty cool, it's something new and refreshing.
 
I think the set brings in something new and fresh, not just a new kyogre, but Team Aqua's Kyogre!
Well, besides that I think some of the pokemon have a good chance and could be decent in modified. I personally like Aqua's Walrein since he can do a lot of damage and grass/metal are types that are not seen too often, so his weaknesses won't hurt too much. Of course Blazzy ex and Aq. Manectric are most likely going to be seen, I know my manectric's will be used, I pulled 4 yesterday...
I also see Sceptile ex seeing lots of play, "the Gardy ex killer" is what he seems to be, I know one of the people at my league got one yesterday in his box and he seemed overjoyed at Sceptile's power, Gardy is very popular at our league.
The trainers seem great, especially if your playing aqua/magma, since that is really the only pokemon cards they help. The schemers are just T.v. reporter wannabies who do get more cards than Reporter, but you need their aqua/magma pokemon. But the trainers are better than anything when played with aqua/magma cards, with Archie and Maxie getting you free basics, that could also be stage 1 or 2 pokemon.
I like this set, it provides us with lots of new things, and Rainbow energy. ;)
 
That's an interesting point about the Ken Sugimori art. He was pretty rude in this set. This set's art was so close to being perfect. That guy just puts a pokémon in a real picture. Kind of half hearted, you know? It ruined the flow of the art. But i think the mechanics are pretty nice. I'm a casual player, so i can't really imagine how a tournament player might feel. Speaking as a casual player, this set has everything you'd want and maybe more. Now we just need to get those e-Reader mini features back...

EDIT!!!
I was just playing my Pokémon Puzzle Challenge. I beat line clear again and waited through the credits. Guess who i saw? Ken Sugimori! He's the "Pokémon Superviser" for the game. Hmm...maybe he pulled some strings to get some art contracts...?
 
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