In the newest card pack released in Pokémon TCG Pocket (at time of writing) there are 2 types of special cards: Ancient cards and Future cards. These Pokémon originate from the games Pokémon Scarlet/Violet and the Pokémon Legends games, and some have made their way into TCG Pocket! We’ll be taking a look at some Ancient cards that we like in this article and how they can be used in your decks!
(Note that we won’t be discussing Raging Bolt or Sandy Shocks in this article since we’ve already covered them in a previous article!)
Flutter Mane EX:
This Pokémon is a Psychic Type first appearing in Pokémon Scarlet/Violet and looking very similar to Misdreavus. This Pokémon also follows a similar structure to other Ancient and Future Pokémon in terms of its moves where it can only activate once. This Pokémon’s ability is a very useful one though. Its attack does 70 damage for 2 Energy but if you’re using this attack for the first time your opponent can’t use any Trainer card for their next turn. No Sabrina’s, Cyrus’s or Professor’s Research’s. This can be a great move to use to cost your opponents a crucial turn, especially if their deck requires Trainer cards to work, for example a Water deck that relies heavily on Misty can be crippled if they can’t use it! While it’s not the most powerful EX Pokémon out there we recommend using it to protect your Pokémon from the effects of Trainer cards!
Walking Wake:
This Pokémon is a Dragon Type that looks similar to the legendary Pokémon Suicune. Similarly to Suicune this Pokémon’s attack has an effect on Benched Pokémon, but unlike Suicune where it deals attack damage based on how many Benched Pokémon were on both players fields, Walking Wake deals 20 extra damage to your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. It also does 60 damage for 1 Fire Energy and 1 Water Energy and using this attack does require you to discard an Energy from Walking Wake, but this can be a useful Pokémon with a powerful attack and potential combo potential with cards like Cyrus. Dragon cards can always be tricky to manage due to multiple Energy types so make sure you use this card with Pokémon that have high Energy generation.
Ancient Booster Energy Capsule:
This card is a Pokémon Tool that has a simple effect but is also highly useful. This card grants 40 extra HP for the Ancient Pokémon it is attached to. To date this is the highest HP addition granted by a single card in the game. This helps with Ancient Pokémon that don’t have as much HP as some of their counterparts like Sandy Shocks or Scream Tail. It can also be combined with Stadium cards to grant even more HP depending on what you use, for example Starting Plains grants Basic Pokémon an additional 20 HP meaning you can grant your Pokémon 60 more HP to play with. We think it’s worth locking the 40 HP bonus behind the Ancient Pokémon due to this extra health combo being potentially lethal if combined with other Pokémon, but if your Ancient Pokémon doesn’t have that much health this is an essential tool to place in your deck!
Professor Sada:
This Professor made her debut exclusively in Pokémon Scarlet and in Pokémon TCG Pocket she has a very interesting ability that, while it can only really work with specific decks can be very effective in those decks. This card takes 3 different types of Energy in your discard pile and lets you attach it to your Ancient Pokémon in any way you like. We think that this card can work best with Ancient Dragon Type Pokémon since they usually require multiple different Energy types in order to attack. You can also combo this card with Sableye since it can attach an Energy of any type to a Benched Pokémon so if enough Energy is discarded you can use Professor Sada more efficiently!
We’ve only just began seeing Ancient and Future Pokémon being added to Pokémon TCG Pocket so there aren’t many options available at the moment but we encourage you to check out these new cards to see how they can fit into your decks! Our next article will feature Future Cards we think are interesting!