Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Brainstorming Cards that Benefit from Evolutionary Soda

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espeon200

Member
please keep in mind that we are discussing a card that has not been released of officially revealed in English

I think Pokemon really wants to push Evolutions with X/Y when it releases. In addition to the revealed mega evolutions, another card has been showcased in Japan called "Evolutionary Soda." It looks to speed up decks a lot, and I think it could see a fair amount of play when it releases. For those who don't know, here's what it does courtesy of the translation on PokéBeach
Choose 1 of your Pokemon that wasn’t put into play this turn. Search your deck for a Pokemon that evolves from that Pokemon and put it on that Pokemon. Shuffle your deck afterwards. You can’t use this card on your first turn.
Click to expand...

This is a trainer item. It seems pretty self-explanatory, but I started thinking about what cards might be benefitted by this new Trainer-Item. For the purpose of discussion I ignored good stage 2 Pokémon which would benefit from the acceleration but also already have Rare Candy to help them along.

Garbodor - Ok, this is the big stinky pile of trash in the room. I could definitely see this card being paired with Evolutionary Soda. Need to shut of your opponent's Abilities? It's only an Evolutionary Soda away. Definitely on to watch out for.

Accelgor - You know how difficult it can be to stream Accelgor early game? Now we have a card that makes the process one step easier. As long as you can stream Shelmets and DCE, you are a Skyla from chaining Paralysis. Now, Virizion EX is there to rain on the parade, but I still could see this combo popping up in rogue decks come January.

Archeops NVI - Now this one is kind of a stretch. It's only made marginally easier to get out. There's still the Restored Pokemon aspect to contend with. But what could be a better check to the rise of evolutions than slapping down a card that stops them? Now, I know that NVI isn't currently legal, but this card was reprinted as a shiny making it still legal.

So what do you think? Are there any amazingly obvious combos that I've forgotten? I know I'm definitely excited about the card, though it does cause some trepidation. Thoughts?
 
Lucario PLS (Hurricane Kick). It has 100 HP and 2 retreat, so the only way to search it out is by ultra ball.

This could also work with Eeveelutions.

Shame it can't work with Ninetales since it has to be evolved from the hand for the ability to go off.
 
I second Lucario (Hurricane Kick).

Could still work with Ninetales as a one-of since sometimes all you need is Ninetales's attack.

Makes support Pokemon like Musharna and Electrode easier to play. Also Weavile (Plasma).
 
Based on translations, Evolutionary Soda may just be specialized search and not true Evolution acceleration, which would be a good thing (Evolution acceleration causes more problems than it solves: see past of the game and how we got where we are).

So it doesn't speed up decks in the "get it out a turn sooner", as it can't be used on a Pokémon that was just put into play and it states you can't use it on your first turn. Instead, it just gives you inexpensive search for Evolutions. If I am wrong and it allows you to Evolve again then it really only helps Stage 2 decks, becoming an alternative to Rare Candy - more slots (you need full Evolution line plus Item) and might be useless because you have the Evolution in hand, but it also includes a search function that would likely have required another card, and being Devolved isn't the risk it is with Rare Candy.

Does this work on Pokémon-EX to get M Pokémon-EX into play, and if so will your turn still end as you were not Evolving from hand?

Assuming you cannot Evolve a Pokémon you just put into play via Evolution Soda and using it on an M Pokémon EX still ends your turn it is merely a better form of search for some decks. Remember that it will never be able to snag Basic Pokemon and unlike some older formats where Evolutions were strong, we don't have a good, alternate means of getting those Basic Pokémon into play (unless one is released or re-released). So don't drop any of your copies of Ultra Ball just yet.

As for Garbodor decks, don't they already have the option of Heavy Ball? Unless you do encounter a random Archeops deck you can just use said Heavy Ball and manually Evolve. I will definitely keep it in mind for future decks, though. The Lucario idea does not seem without merit as Heavy Ball can get Klink and Registeel EX (though preferred attackers Cobalion and Cobalion EX are sadly unsearchable without something else).
 
I could see this card being of use in decks that don't fill these qualifications...

1) The main attacker, or a good majority of the deck, can be searched out by Level Ball.

2) The main attacker, or a good majority of the deck, can be searched out by Heavy Ball.

3) The deck functions better with more cards in the Discard.

4) The deck is a Stage 2 deck that absolutely MUST have that Stage 2 in play on turn 2 AND doesn't send that Stage 2 Active (so, basically, Blastoise).

I could see this working quite nicely in decks like Empoleon, Kingdra, and Garchomp, where the point is to stream the Stage 2 as much as possible. It might actually make Garchomp Tier 2 or better, especially given how powerful Gabite is at searching.

There are also a host of stage 1s with 100+ HP and 2 or less Retreat Cost. Pokepedia found 52 Stage 1 final evolutions that fit the bill.

This could also just be another good Pokemon searching tool. It could potentially replace Ultra Ball in certain decks, though I doubt it'll replace Level and Heavy Ball in the decks that currently run those cards. Its biggest weakness is that it can only search out Evolutions, so you still need a way to get that Basic into play.

It has its uses, but it's not a gamebreaking card by any means.
 
Another deck thought at League tonight is that Soda might be good in Eevee-based toolbox decks. Of course, you can always use Eevee's attack that looks for different evolutions, but this would still let you attack the turn you use it.
 
Given the comments of Articjedi, Bullados, and espeon200, I wanted to point out the possible (not guaranteed) exception to bullados first two rules - a deck that can use Heavy Ball or Level Ball to get everything that Evolutionary Soda would normally be unable to target (re: mostly Basic Pokémon) would have legitimate reason to consider Evolutionary Soda.

The other guidelines bullados gave are going to factor in: if I am running a Flareon [Plasma] deck I could use Evolutionary Soda as it would be able to fetch any Eeveelution while Level Ball could still get any Eevee and some Eeveelutions... I probably want to be discarding cards to power up Vengeance.
 
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