Two new Illustration Rare cards have been revealed for Phantasmal Flames, featuring two Pokémon who are famously bosom buds: Ambipom and Zacian. These are some of the first few Illustration Rares we've seen for the upcoming set, which comes out in English in mid-November. As well as neat new artwork, they have some pretty interesting effects worth discussing.
We'll save the Legendary Pokémon for second and look at Ambipom first. The purple monkey is pictured here surrounded by many different Pokémon berries. Its only relevant attack costs three energy, and requires you to discard two, in order to deal 60 damage to two different Pokémon.
That might be quite nice for sniping benched Pokémon, especially if used in conjunction with Halucha, to pile on more damage and KO 70 HP Pokémon, and Ignition Energy, to make the energy discard less painful. It's probably too fiddly to see anything more than very niche play, however, especially as a Stage 1.
Then we have Zacian, which interestingly enough is a Psychic type not a Metal type here, reflecting its Fairy dual-typing in the games. Feels very odd having this Pokémon be weak to Metal, but that's just how the TCG rolls.
This very simple card has just one attack, Limit Break. This does 50 HP normally, but that goes up to 140 when your opponent has three or fewer prize cards remaining. Now, that's not going to be enough to KO anything relevant normally, but in a favorable matchup, it could do well.
Perhaps Zacian could do some work alongside Lily's Clefairy, as a basic Pokémon that can go toe-to-toe with Dragon types like Raging Bolt.
While the regular art for this card has a more dynamic action packed pose, I do like the mystical woodland background of the Illustration Rare, which really emphasizes that this is a fairy creature, not just a dog with a sword.
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