Hi there. In this post I cover more card reveals from Pokemon Japan's Battle Partners set.
Magmar
Magmar is a 80 HP Basic Fire Pokemon. It has two retreat cost and Water weakness. Its only attack is called Searing Flame which costs one Fire Energy and one Colourless Energy. The attack does 30 damage with an added Burn effect to the opponent's Active Pokemon if you flip Heads.
Magmortar
Magmortar is the Stage 1 evolved form of Magmar. It has 130 HP, two retreat cost and Water weakness. The Magma Surge ability adds 3 more damage counters to your opponent's Burned Pokemon. The Burn mechanic in the Pokemon TCG is like Poison. Instead of 1 damage counter in between turns it is 2 damage counters between turns for a Burned Pokemon. Plus you flip a coin between turns after the damage counters. If heads, remove the Burn condition. (Tails is still burned.) Magmortar's extra burn damage is interesting. I am just not sure about meeting its attack cost for Searing Flame. It requires two Fire Energy and one Colourless energy for 90 damage plus Burn if heads.
Volcanion ex
Volcanion ex is a 220 HP Basic Fire Pokemon ex attacker. It has a hefty three retreat cost and Water weakness. Its attack of Heat Cyclone does 160 damage for two Fire Energy and one Colourless Energy. The drawback of this Heat Cyclone attack is that you move an Energy from the Volcanion ex to 1 of your Benched Pokemon. The damage output from this attack is low which is a major disadvantage.
The Scorching Steam ability can only be used once during your turn if Volcanion ex is in the Active Spot. If you choose to exercise this ability you make your opponent's Active Pokemon Burned. Burn adds 2 damage counters between turns and then a coin flip occurs. Heads removes the Burn while Tails keeps the Burn. Combine the Burn mechanic plus its 160 damage attack results in 180 damage from Heat Cyclone + Burn.
Combine this Volcanion ex with 1 Magmortar for 3 more damage counters from Burn. This would be 160 damage from heat Cyclone, 20 from Burn + 30 more burn damage from Magmortar's Magma Surge. This results in 210 damage. Adding a second or even third Magmortar adds more damage. On paper a deck that features Magmortar and Volcanion ex sounds kind of cool. My concern is meeting the energy costs for the Heat Cyclone attack. Two Fire Energy and one Colourless Energy is not that easy to meet. Magma Basin from the F regulation mark goes away and Mela is not that popular.
Wailmer
Wailmer is a bulky Basic Water Pokemon with 130 HP. It has three retreat cost and Lightning weakness. The Surf attack does 60 damage for 3 Colourless Energy. The energy cost for this attack is a lot for somewhat little damage.
Wailord
Wailord is the Stage 1 evolution of Wailmer. It is not often that a single prize Stage 1 Pokemon has more than 200 HP. This Wailord has 240 HP which is more than most Basic Pokemon ex attackers. This Wailord has 4 retreat cost, Lightning weakness and one costly attack.
Hydro Pump requires 4 Colourless Energy for 10 base damage. This attack does 50 more damage for each Water Energy attached to this Pokemon. If there are 3 Water Energies attached for Hydro Pump then Hydro Pump does 160 damage. Four Water Energy results in 210 damage which has knockout power on a good handful of Basic Pokemon ex.
The big obvious drawback with Wailord is meeting Energy requirements in its attack cost. You could put this evolution line in a Chien-Pao ex deck with Baxcalibur. The thing is that Chien Pao ex used to be popular but now it is not as good. It is mainly because of the abundance of Gholdengo ex decks and Archaludon ex decks being good.
Wailord does have an illustration rare art card. This art is nice as there are nice colours and Wailord attempting to swim upward vertically.
N's Purrloin
N's Purrloin is a Basic Dark Pokemon with 70 HP, one retreat cost and Grass weakness. It has just one attack of Pilfer. Pilfer requires one Dark Energy and one Colourless Energy to do 20 damage. The added effect of the attack is having the opponent reveal their hand and put a card you find to the bottom of their deck. I don't if this attack is worth the Energy cost though.
It is unknown at the time of writing if N's Liepard will be released or not.
Magearna
Magearna is a 90 HP Basic Metal Pokemon with one retreat cost and Fire weakness. The Spike Draw attack requires one Colourless Energy to do 20 damage and allows you to draw 2 cards. Spike Draw is okay in the early game to do small damage and draw a few cards.
The Auto Heal ability on Magearna only activates if Magearna in is in the Active Spot and if you attach an Energy card from your hand to 1 of your Pokemon. Once activated you heal 90 damage from that Pokemon. Healing 90 is a good amount especially against something like Dragapult ex. I don't see this Magearna seeing a lot of play but certain decks would benefit with Magearna's healing ability.
Hop's Rookidee
Hop's Rookidee is a 60 HP Normal Basic Pokemon as a part of the Corviknight evolution line. The attacks are not very good. Keep Hop's Rookidee safe so you can evolve into Hop's Corvisquire and/or Hop's Corviknight.
Hop's Corvisquire
Hop's Corvisquire is the Stage 1 Evolution of Hop's Rookidee. It has 90 HP, one retreat cost and Lightning Weakness. The Speed Dive attack for 1 Colourless Energy for 30 damage is okay. Razor Wing is a generic second attack that requires 3 Colourless Energy to do 80 damage.
Hop's Corviknight
Hop's Corviknight is the final Stage 2 evolution of Hop's Rookidee. It has 170 HP, two retreat cost and Lightning weakness. This has no abilities but it has two usable attacks.
The first attack of Shoot Through requires one Colourless Energy. You deal 50 damage to the opponent's active Pokemon and 50 damage to one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. Combine the Hop's Choice Band and the Postwick Stadium to increase the damage by 60 (30 + 30) to 110 damage for Shoot Through.
Steel Wing is the second attack. It requires two Metal Energy and one Colourless Energy to deal 150 damage. There is also the added effect of reducing damage that Hop's Corviknight takes by 60 during your opponent's next turn.
The Hop's Corviknight evolution line seems okay. I am just not sure if it is worth the deck space. Typically Stage 2 evolution decks require 4 of the Basic Pokemon, 1 or 2 Stage 1, 3 to 4 copies of the Stage 2 Pokemon and 3 to 4 copies of Rare Candy. That is around 11 to 14 cards in the 60 card deck space.
Super Potion
Super Potion is an item card that heals 60 damage from 1 of your Pokemon. The drawback is that you discard one Energy attached to that healed Pokemon.
Healing 60 damage can make a difference in some cases. Go from having your Pokemon being knocked out in one hit into a two hit knockout Pokemon. Heal 60 damage to go from two hit knockout to a 3 hit knockout.
The problem with Super Potion is if it's worth the deck space.
Hop's Bag
The Hop deck archetype is really looking to be strong. Hop's Bag is like Buddy Buddy Poffin and Nest Ball in one Item card. Search your deck for up to 2 Basic Hop's Pokemon and put them onto your Bench. (Shuffle the deck after.) Hop themed decks will want to run 3 to 4 copies of this card. Nest Balls could be added to the deck as well to search for Basic support Pokemon like Mew ex or Fezandipiti ex.
Iris's Fighting Spirit
Iris's Fighting Spirit is a supporter card that belong to the class of draw more type of cards. For the cost of discarding 1 card from the hand you draw cards until you have 6 cards in hand. If you have a low card hand then this Iris Supporter card helps you draw more cards. Drawing more cards is often seen as positive in the Pokemon TCG as you increase the chances of getting certain Item cards, evolving more Pokemon, obtaining Energy cards and to develop a better board state.
Some decks may would want to use this new Iris card over the popular draw card Professor's Research. Professor's Research does draw more cards at 7 but you have to discard your hand. Decks that have Stage 2 Pokemon and Rare Candy may not want to discard their hand. Iris's Fighting Spirit could be the draw supporter of choice.
There is a similar draw supporter card that is out there in the standard format (F, G, H regulation marks). It is Morty's Conviction. Morty's Conviction has the discard 1 card from the hand cost as well. Then you draw cards equal to the number of the opponent's Benched Pokemon. If the opponent has a lot of Benched Pokemon in play then you can draw up to 5 cards or 8 if there is Area Zero Underdepths Stadium in play. Plus you can go past 6 cards that Iris's Fighting Spirit has.
I think Iris's Fighting Spirit is a good draw supporter. Not every deck will use this but I can see some decks use this a lot. There will be testing between using this Iris card, Professor's Research and Morty's Conviction.
N's Castle
N's Castle is a stadium card built for N's Pokemon. Every N's Pokemon in play on both sides (you and opponent) have no Retreat Cost. Zero retreat cost is quite powerful as damaged N's Pokemon that are not knocked out can freely switch to the Bench for safety.
The Stadium Beach Court reduces the Retreat Cost of each Basic Pokemon in play by 1 Colourless Energy. This N's Stadium has a much stronger effect but limited to N's Pokemon.
Latias ex is a good support Basic Pokemon with an ability of having every Basic Pokemon on your side have zero retreat cost. N's Stadium applies to evolved Pokemon as long as they are N's Pokemon.
