The Pokemon Company has announced a new mini set release of just 7 cards!

(this is subject to change and we’ll be one of the first to update you if any official sources announce otherwise). The first card to be announced was the new mythical Pokemon Zarude V.

It’s got a fairly standard bulk but the charm of this Pokemon lies in it’s attacks it’s first attack. Bind down which deals 50 damage and prevents the Pokemon from retreating for two colourless energy. It’s second attack, Jungle Rise which deals 100 damage and give you the awesome ability to play an additional 2 energy from hand. It also completely heals the damage on the Pokemon they’ve been attached to which is a really big deal in a world where HP pools are consistently breaching 300 now. Jungle rise costs two grass energy to play.

Another fun thing they’ve announced in these packs is a new level of rarity called “Amazing rare”. There will be a random amazing rare card in every pack of this set as an incentive to keep opening packs. Some of these effects are pretty nutty.

The two that have been revealed are Rayquaza and Jirachi.

The website offered no explanations as to what their attacks offered so after a little bit of research I managed to dig these translations up from another source.

Rayquaza: 120hp. It has a single attack that cost three energy (grass, lightning and fighting) called Amazing Burst which forces the Pokemon to discard all it’s energy, dealing 80 damage times the number of different basic energy types discarded from this Pokemon. So it immediately fires for 240 damage minimum.

Jirachi: With only 70 hp this Pokemon is ridiculously fragile but comes with two effects. The first being it’s ability Dream Oracle which states that so long as it’s the active pokemon, once per turn you can look at the top two cards of your deck and add one to your hand and return the other to the top of the deck. It’s a nice bit of card draw but it having to be the active Pokemon in conjunction with it’s 70 HP really doesn’t make this a particularly great ability.

It’s attack though is a different story. For three energy (psychic, fighting and steel) you can search you deck for up to seven basic energy cards and attach them to your Pokemon in anyway you like. Which is absolutely insane especially since it’s a turn three activate that can be brought forward thanks to cards like metal saucer.

So, a recurring theme with these Amazing Rare cards is a very Powerful attack locked away behind a somewhat difficult energy cost requiring three different energy types which can be difficult to build around and keep performing consistently but cards like Jirachi could absolutely swing matches if played right.

A small writers note: I absolutely adore the art style on the Amazing rare cards.