Six new fossil Pokémon Cards have been revealed for the upcoming Japanese set Nihil Zero. New cards for Tyrunt, Tyrantrum, Amaura, and Aurorus have been shown off. There are also cards representing the fossils associated with them, the Jaw Fossil and the Sail Fossil, respectively. This is the first time that cards depicting these Pokémon have shown up since 2018, when they appeared in the Forbidden Light expansion.
Fossil Pokémon in the TCG always need to evolve an additional time compared to their in-game counterparts. Tyrunt and Amaura are stage one Pokémon, with the fossils that they emerge from taking the basic slot in their evolutionary line, despite being items and not Pokémon. Because of this, without the assistance of Pokémon that can skip this awkward first step, like Omastar V, fossil Pokémon are difficult to use reliably.
According to the translation offered by Jake C at Pokébeach, Tyrunt's attack "Get Angry" deals 20 damage times the number of damage counters on it.
Tyrantrum's ability "Tyrannoguts" grants it 150 extra hp (up to a total of 330, which is a lot for a non-ex) if it has any special energy cards attached to it. It's attack, "Wreak Havoc" deals 160 damage, and allows you to flip a coin until you get tails, and discard the top card of the opponent's deck for each heads.
Unless you're incredibly lucky and manage to deck your opponent out by discarding every card in their deck after a wild streak of favorable coin flips, these cards are unlikely to be gamebreaking.
The Jaw Fossil itself, referred to here as the "Antique Jaw Fossil" has 60 hp and takes 30 less damage from all attacks from opposing Pokémon.
Amaura can put opposing Pokémon to sleep with their 50 damage "Icy Wind" attack. Aurorus ramps this up, locking the defending Pokémon out of attacking altogether, and dealing 150 damage to them using "Freezing Chill".
The most interesting thing about Auroros is its "Tundra Wall" ability that causes all of your Pokémon with water energies attached to them to take 50 less damage from the attacks of the opponent's Pokémon. This is a potentially useful utility effect, but it may not be quite powerful enough to justify the cost of slotting this entire evolutionary line into your deck
The "Antique Sail Fossil" has 60 hp and is unaffected by supporter cards played by the opponent.
While Tyrantrum and Aurorus aren't likely to be redefining the meta any time soon, personally, I'm just glad that some fossil Pokémon other than Kabuto are getting a moment in the spotlight.
Am I being too pessimistic? Why not share your thoughts on these new Kalosian dinos in the Wargamer Discord?