In the Pokemon TCG Obsidian Flames Expansion, Orange Is the New Black

The Pokemon video games are commonly about type matchups, and swapping in and out to manage those advantages. That’s always been present in the TCG, with the “weakness” meaning players take double damage from one type and “resistance” cutting 30 damage off another. In practice, though? Yeah, that tilts a match sometimes, but you aren’t usually able to do much about it. Energy types mean you build toward one strategy! Maybe two? But it’s not a team composition puzzle.

Tera Pokemon are the TCG’s latest attempt to add that back in. Much like the Scarlet & Violet raid opponents, the set’s new Tera variants move creatures to a different type. What makes this special is that many of them still use the old energy type. Attacks that use non-colorless energy have always been intended to be stronger, and that’s the case here too.

Vespiquen ex shifts from Grass to Psychic type, with a three-energy Phantom Queen ability that deals 200 damage to the opponent’s active combatant and 30 to any damaged foes on the bench. This works really well with last set’s cards, like Ting-Lu ex that focus on dealing chip damage to everyone. Tyranitar ex does a lot of damage for a few Fighting energy, and you might actually want the discards it forces as a “drawback” to its strong attacks.

And, in a move that will surprise exactly no one, the new Charizard is extremely powerful! What’s somewhat more surprising is that it’s an efficient damage dealer that doesn’t burn its way through your energy supply. It deals 180 damage for two energy, plus 30 for every Prize card your opponent has taken. We’re not sure it gets too much out of being Dark-type, though. Anyway, it’s a start! Maybe we’ll see just a few more tactical retreats in high-level play.

Photo by Siliconera

These type-shifted Tera cards lean into the gem-like aesthetic of the transformation, with lots of sparkles tinged in the combatant’s new hue. These look cool in foil! They, of course, are also increasingly illegible. The Pokemon Trading Card Game has long relied on players memorizing commonly-used cards so they don’t have to read them upside-down from across the table. That ain’t new! But these designs certainly aren’t making it easier on new players.

The new Koraidon ex and Miraidon ex cards aren’t awful, but they likely won’t see as much competitive play as their predecessors. They have interesting utility — bench damage and card draw, respectively — but since they do it through attacks and not abilities, you likely won’t see them very much.

With the introduction of Pokemon Tools as a separate card type in this era and a wave of new cards to interact with them, we were hoping this set would bring with it some more intriguing options for tool-based strategies. As it is? We get two, and they’re sort of situational. Patrol Cap prevents deck-milling strategies? This could come up eventually, but we’ve seen a lot more use of discarding as a benefit to yourself these days. Vengeful Punch does something we’ve seen before: damage to opponent when attacked. The thing is, it’s only activated upon knockout, and it’s only four damage counters. It’s simply a bit too weak to justify its spot in your deck.

Since the upcoming 151 set will focus on the original Kanto creatures, Obsidian Flames takes the opportunity to dig deeper into Paldea. Only 23 of the Pokemon TCG expansion’s 185 Pokemon cards are species from Red and Blue, which is rather restrained! And we see appearances from Arven, Brassius, Geeta, Ortega, Poppy and Ryme through the new Supporter batch. We’re honestly a bit surprised that we don’t see much of the game’s world, though. No distinctive Stadium cards? The Pokemon Company may be banking on the debuts of specific Pokemon for now, saving the more interesting locales and gameplay mechanics for later sets.

Photo by Siliconera

Ultimately, Obsidian Flames is about selling boxes and packs with a cool-looking Charizard on them. And that’ll work! Both in the value-obsessed collector community and the many long-time fans of the line. Past that, we’re seeing the glowing embers of mechanical creativity, and we hope those inside the dev team keep working toward a more vibrant game that can only benefit the longstanding cute cardboard business.

The Pokemon Trading Card Game: Scarlet & Violet — Obsidian Flames expansion launches August 11, 2023. For more Pokemon TCG coverage, check out our archive.