Pocket Pokémon Trading Card Game players already have enough problems with Misty, but the upcoming Mythical Island expansion could make her even more powerful.
The Mythical Island trailer, which releases tomorrow, December 17 as a smaller expansion to the digital card game, showed off a modern version of Eevee Evolution Vaporeon that takes Misty’s successful coin flips to another level of power.
Pokémon TCG Pocket uses mana generation, similar to games like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone, at its core, and players can apply one energy per turn to slowly but surely build increasingly powerful attacks.
However, a handful of cards break this per-turn rule by allowing additional mana generation. Of the four best decks in Pokémon TCG Pocket – Mewtwo ex, Pikachu ex, Charizard ex, and Starmie ex – only one (Pikachu) does not rely on these additional mana-generating cards. So they are very powerful.
Misty is one such card, as players can flip a coin until stories land and add one energy to one Pokémon for each head. This, of course, gives players a 50% chance to gain additional energy, but Misty became the most infamous Pokémon TCG Pocket card in cases where players obtained several heads in a row and added five, six, seven or more energy to a single Pokémon.
There is a cushioned limit to the usefulness of this option, as most cards don’t need more than three or four energy to take advantage of their most powerful attacks. but all this will change. Several cards were revealed in the Mythical Island trailer, including Stage 1 Pokémon Vaporeon, and this is the card that can turn a few successful coin flips into a virtually instant win.
Vaporeon has an Ability called Washout, which allows players to transfer an unlimited amount of Water-type energy between their Pokémon. This means that several energies produced by Misty’s successful turns are no longer trapped on one Pokémon and can instead be evenly distributed.
In the most extreme case, players on turn three, the opening player’s first chance to attack, can therefore play Misty and have a board with a former Starmie and two former Articuno, each able to unleash their strongest attacks; players would have, say, eight energies at their disposal instead of the two that most provide.
This exact play will be the exception rather than the rule, but it will almost certainly make those who are already annoyed with Misty even more frustrated.
Vaporeon can still be an extremely forceful card outside of these main Misty moves, as the ability to freely move energy offers countless modern solutions to senior problems.
For example, if an Active Pokémon is about to be knocked out, players can transfer all of its energy to another Pokémon so that the replacement is immediately ready to fight the next turn, or transfer energy in the opposite direction to allow it to retreat and not damage the player.
Therefore, it may be enough to push the former Starmie above the other meta-leaders, although with over 80 modern cards coming to play on Mythical Island, the entire player vs. player scene may be a mistake.
Pokémon TCG Pocket appeared on October 30 and became a hit for Creatures Inc. and The Pokémon Company, which grossed approximately $200 million in its first month with over 60 million downloads.
This huge amount of money comes as Pokémon TCG Pocket follows the standard model of mobile and free-to-play games, flooding players with rewards in the first few days before they soon arid up, and spending real money is the only real way to relive that early thrill.
Completing Genetic Apex, the first card set that officially has 226 cards but also includes 60 uncommon cards with alternate art, is estimated to take players spending no money for about two years, while those looking to make it rain will be able to complete the collection after dropping around $1,500.
Ryan Dinsdale is a freelance reporter for IGN. He will talk about The Witcher all day long.
