A couple days ago the Pokémon TCG has released an interesting new mode of play. Raid Battles. My initial impressions on this are kind of half-half. Initially, I am excited. I will always be excited when new ways to play the game are introduced to us but on the flip side of this, the game feels very… underdeveloped. Primarily in the application of the rules. All of which will be explained in the video I link down the bottom.

The primary issue I have is in the niche interaction of cards. Predominantly in cards like Zamazenta V. These raid Pokémon are titled as Vmax Pokémon which is kind of an issue with Pokémon like Zamazenta V who are just flat out immune. Just small, niche interactions that are super common teething problems when introducing a new format to a game as long and rich as Pokémon.

To this end, in running games I strongly recommend implementing house rules to go alongside the ones in place. Nothing too crazy. My recommended rules would be:

No immunities to Vmax mons.

No instant kills or minimal effort kills.

Avoid round one KOs in general.

In saying this, there is an option to play the game without additional effects which should be a great time as it would convey the feelings of the colossal task in front of players.

On the upswing, this is completely free format of play. The materials needed can be found online here or you can use the online client which can be found here.

The online client is nice, very intuitive and runs all the calculations. What I particularly like about it is that with a little bit of creative thinking we can absolutely play online. Which I think is brilliant.

For the sake of repetition, I have not touched the full rules and the how to play because the YouTube video does a spectacular job of explaining it all.

As I said before, I’m really excited for all of this. It’s an interesting new way to play with plenty of space to grow as a format.