Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG post we have the first reveals of the Battle Partners Set from Japan. We did get a few teasers from the Pokemon World Championships in August 2024.
Here are the known English cards.
Topics
- N's Themed Cards
- Lillie Themed Cards
- Iono Themed Cards
- Notes
N Themed Cards
There are more N cards on top of the ones above.
N's Darumaka & Darmanitan
The N's Darumaka Basic Fire Pokemon is kind of meh. You cannot use Buddy Buddy Poffin to go from deck to Bench. Nest Ball, Ultra Ball or Artazon (stadium) would be needed.
N's Darmantian is a Stage 1 Fire Pokemon with 140 HP and three retreat cost. The first attack of Backdraft is a punish style attack. Backdraft does 30 damage for each Basic Energy card in the opponent's discard pile. This attack could be good against Ceruledge ex decks which require Energy cards in their discard pile. It could be okay against Gholdengo ex decks.
The second attack of Darman-i-canno does 90 damage plus 90 damage to one of the opponent's Benched Pokemon. The drawback is discarding all Energy from this Pokemon. This second attack is kind of bad but N's Zoroark ex could copy this attack.
Overall I am not sure if this evolution line is good even in a N themed deck.
N's Zorua
N's Zorua is needed in order to evolve to N's Zoroark ex. You can't use the regular Zorua to evolve to N's Zoroark ex.
This Basic Pokemon is not too bad. For one dark energy you can attack for 20 damage.
N's Sigilyph
N's Sigilyph is kind of interesting. The first attack is your basic 20 damage for 1 Psychic Energy. The second attack is too good to ignore under certain conditions. Victory Symbol as the second attack requires one Psychic Energy and two Psychic Energy. If you have 1 Prize card remaining and you use Victory Symbol then you win this game. In a N themed deck meeting the Energy requirements is not easy. Using N's Sigilyph in a Gardevoir ex deck can be interesting. Instead of doing damage and knocking out an opponent's Pokemon you can just use Victory Symbol to win.
N's PP Up
This N's PP Up Item card is a dedicated Item card for N's Pokemon. Attach one Basic Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your Benched N's Pokemon.
One combo I see is have one N's Zoroark ex on the Benched. Use one N's PP Up attach one Dark Energy to the Zoroark ex. Then have a Pecharunt ex and its ability to bring N's Zoroark ex to the Active Spot and attach a second Dark Energy. You have two Dark Energy now and start attacking.
They should rename this card to something like N's Vitamin. N's PP Up sounds weird.
Lillie Themed Cards
More Lillie cards are revealed on top of the Lillie's Clefairy ex.
Lillie's Comfey
Lillie's Comfey is a 70 HP Basic Psychic Pokemon in the TCG. It has one retreat cost and two one Energy cost attacks. The first attack is a Call For Family style attack. For one Colourless Energy you can search your deck for any number of Basic Lillie's Pokemon and put them onto your Bench. This first attack can be very powerful in the early game for setup.
Fade Out as the second attack does 30 damage for one Psychic Energy. The Fade Out attack puts this Pokemon and all attached cards to your hand. It is a small hit and run attack.
Lillie's Pearl
This Lillie's Pearl Tool card is a powerful prize denial tool. If this tool card is attached to a Lillie's Pokemon then whenever the Lillie's Pokemon this card is attached to is Knocked Out by damage from an attack from an opponent's Pokemon then the opponent takes one fewer Prize card. A two prizer Pokemon with this card attached would result in 1 Prize card taken for the opponent. And a regular single prize Lillie Pokemon being knocked out with this tool card would result in no Prize cards drawn.
If this card and Lillie decks become popular I can see an increase of Jamming Tower stadiums to negate Tool effects.
Iono Themed Cards
Iono is a pretty popular character and Gym Leader from the Scarlet & Violet set. The Pokemon company also pushes Iono a bit too. She has theme cards here.
Iono's Wattrel & Kilowattrel
Iono's Wattrel is a 60 HP Basic Lightning Pokemon with one attack and one retreat cost. For one Lightning Energy Quick Attack does 10 damage plus 20 more damage if you get Heads.
Iono's Kilowattrel is the evolved form of Iono's Wattrel. Its attack is not very good but the ability may be of interest in non-Iono decks. The Flash Draw ability is similar to Revavroom. Discard one Lightning Energy in order to draw cards until 6 cards in hand. This ability can be used once during your turn per Iono's Kilowattrel.
Iono's Tadbulb
Iono's Tadbulb is not a great Basic Pokemon attacker. You do need this in order to evolve into Iono's Bellibolt ex.
Iono's Bellibolt ex
Iono's Bellibolt ex is a Stage 1 Pokemon ex attacker with 280HP, Fighting weakness and two retreat cost. This Bellibolt is much better than the previous Bellibolt ex.
The Electric Streamer ability allows for unlimited Lightning Energy attachment from the hand to Iono's Pokemon. You can attach as many Lightning Energy with this ability from the hand until you run out.
The Iono's Bellibolt ex attack is somewhat costly though. For 3 Lightning Energy and one Colourless Energy you do 230 damage with not being to attack the next turn.
Here is a larger version of the Special Illustration rare version of Iono's Bellibolt ex. It shows Iono showing appreciation to her beloved Bellibolt. I predict this card as a top 5 highest priced card in Japan and internationally.
Levincia Stadium
Levincia Stadium is an Iono themed card even though there is no Iono in its name. Levincia is the city where Iono is a gym leader at. This Stadium benefits both players. Once during each player's turn, that player may retrieve two Lightning Energy from the discard pile to their hand.
This Levincia Stadium combos well with Iono's Bellibolt ex. You can retreat the Iono's Bellibolt, use this stadium card and reattach Lightning Energy to the same Bellibolt ex or a different Iono Pokemon.
Gholdengo ex decks could maybe (in theory) use this Stadium to retrieve Lightning Energy from discard to their hand for their attacks.
Be careful of this Toedscruel which shuts off this Levincia stadium effect. A few rare decks may run this Toedscruel to disrupt this Stadium and Night Stretcher.
Notes
The Pokemon trading card game will be different in 2025 with Owner's Pokemon. New deck archetypes will change things up. With Lillie's Clefairy ex dragon themed decks like Dragapult ex and Raging Bolt ex with Ogerpon would lower in play rate. N's Zoroark ex in theory sounds good. Let's see how the decks play out in practice.
This is not the full reveal. As more and more cards are revealed we will have a better idea of deck archetypes and theoretical strategies.