Summary
After a rough start for Generation 7 Pokemon and characters, which were the least represented in the game up until Shining Revelry,Pokemon TCG Pocket’s new Celestial Guardians set finally gives Alola some love. There are a lot of good Pokemon cards in Celestial Guardians, and the set feels like a love letter to Alola, with a high number of Illustration Rare cards and above, over 20 shiny critters, and the first-ever Immersive Supporter card. Yet, even if there are manychase cards in Celestial Guardians, the set clearly has one big gap in terms of representation for a specific Pokemon, and it’s quite unexpected.
In terms of characters,Pokemon TCG Pocketdoes a great job at adding cards dedicated to the various NPCs from the Gen 7 games, and some of them are quite powerful Supporters, too. For example, Acerola can make for an amazing Supporter thanks to its ability to move 40 damage from one of the user’s Pokemon to one of the opponent’s, which is essentially a way to heal and simultaneously deal damage, with the caveat that it requires Palossand or Mimikyu. As much as representation is good for characters, it arguably isn’t on par for Pokemon, and that’s because only two final starter evolutions out of three get an Ex version.
One Alolan Starter Gets The Short End of the Stick in Pokemon TCG Pocket
Oddly enough, despite a huge focus on Alola, Celestial Guardians only features Decidueye Ex and Incineroar Ex as the Ex versions of thestarter trio in Gen 7, leaving Primarina out. There are possible reasons for this exclusion, but it doesn’t make it less stingy for fans of the Popplio evolutionary line. It doesn’t help that both Decidueye Ex and Incineroar Ex are quite powerful, so it would have been nice to see how a Primarina Ex card might have turned out.
Decidueye Ex has an attack that allows it to deal 100 damage to an opposing Pokemon with damage on it, which stays true to the critter’s archer identity and also makes it a potentially deadly asset in some decks. Likewise, Incineroar Ex has an attack that deals 30 damage for one Fire Energy and also Burns the opponent, dealing damage over time on each turn, and on top of that, it also has a second attack for three Energy that deals 80 damage plus another 60 if the target has damage on it. Even if they are bothStage 2 cards inPokemon TCG Pocket, the new Rare Candy card can help with that, making them more consistent across the board.
Instead, Primarina is stuck with its Rare version that does have its niche uses, but is not as powerful as an Ex card might have been.Celestial Guardians' Primarinahas 140 HP compared to the 170 of Decidueye and 180 of Incineroar, and it has the Melodious Healing ability that heals 30 damage from each Water Pokemon that belongs to the user. This ability is pretty powerful, but it’s hard to justify the slots in a deck for Primarina and its pre-evolutions just to heal other critters.
Why Pokemon TCG Pocket is Not Too Late For a Primarina Ex
However, all hope is not lost for a Primarina Ex card. In fact,Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Solgaleo packsand Lunala packs each feature either Decidueye Ex or Incineroar Ex, meaning that a third pack may be on its way as a standalone mini-set next month, and feature Primarina Ex, instead. Likewise, there could even be a Primarina Ex event card further down the line. However, for the time being,Pokemon TCG Pocket’s new expansion can be bittersweet for Alola fans, especially if they played the original Gen 7 games and chose Popplio as their starter.
