Today we have a new Pokemon set - XY Fates Collide. We have a lot of new and beautiful cards for players and collectors in this set, so lets take a look at it, shall we?!

After a few years, Alakazam is back, yes! We have Alakazam EX and Mega Alakazam EX in regular and full art print, but also for Alakazam EX we have a secret rare version!

Let's see what is so special about Alakazam EX! The Kinesis ability is one of the strongest abilities that we have in standard. When you play M Alakazam EX from your hand to evolve this Pokemon before it evolves, you may put 2 damage counters on your opponent's Active Pokemon and 3 damage counters to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon - amazing! We can play this card with Absol to move damage from one Pokemon to another, or even with Bats and Super Scoop Up, or Devolution Spray so we can put even more damage and get a faster KO and take advantage. It is good against Night March for sure, since Joltik is 30HP and Pumpkaboo 60 HP, so they can be easily KO'ed - same as Mew.

Mega Alakazam, 210 HP and one energy for retreat is always good, and with Dimension Valley, Zen Force can be used with a single psychic energy and it will do 10+ 30 more damage for each damage counter on the opponent's Active Pokemon!

If you are looking to play this card, play it with some kind of Golbat/Crobat & or Absol tech!

Altaria EX is back, with full art and regular art versions for this card, and a solid first attack.

170 HP and weakness to lightning Pokemon type, one retreat cost and -20 on popular cards like Landorus EX, Lucario EX, Hawlucha, Zygarde EX etc., can be good even in standard, and with DCE you can hit for 30 + 60 if you healed it this turn. Shining Wind will remove weaknes from Altaria if you attack with it during the opponents next turn, and with Fighting Fury Belt and Aspertia City Gym it can be a good tank in expanded with 230 HP as Basic Pokemon.

Diancie EX, with the ability "Sparkle Veil" can reduce damage done to your Pokemon in play for 30! He doesn't need to be active - then the card would be very playable!

Genesect EX is back my friends, this time it's printed as a metal, not a grass type, with the Drive Change ability that alows him to "once during your turn you may put a Pokemon Tool card from it to your hand."

Rapid Blaster for 3 metal energy has 100+ 20 more damage for each energy we discard from this Pokemon. With Max Elixir and Bronzong Metal Link, this Genesect EX can be played in metal decks with Aegislash as the main attacker! This card comes in regular and full art print.

Glaceon EX is another EX Eevee line, this is must have card for all collectors.

170 HP with 2 different attacks, Second Bite for 20+ 10 more for each damage counter on opponent's Active Pokemon and Crystal Ray for 70 and you can prevent all damage to this Pokemon by attacks from Evolution Pokemon - amazing. This attack blocks Mega Pokemon, and any other Evolved Pokemon like Garchomp!

Crobat (only when he tries to attack, ability on Golbat & Crobat should work) with Jolteon EX combo - this can be good "attack lock" deck.

Mega Altaria EX is fairy type, and the good thing about this card is its resistance to dark Pokemon for -20. Many players play dark decks and when you have resistance to them, you are unstoppable - but let's see what Mist Purge can do? With Xerneas Geomancy it can get some additional acceleration, plus Mega Turbo. BUT you can just play DCE and Mega Turbo and *boom* you have Mist Purge for 100+ 30 more and you can heal 30 damage from it if you have any special energy attached on it. I love this attack.

This also comes in regular and full art and looks amazing! if you collect Mega Pokemon cards, then you need to add this card to your collection.

Regirock EX is another support for fighting decks! With Regi Power you can do 10 more damage for each Regirock EX you have on your bench with your active fighting Pokemon to the opponents active Pokemon. Insane! We also have Strong Energy that adds +20 damage, Muscle Band for 20 more damage, and let's say we have 3 Regirock EX on the bench T1 and Lucario EX in the active slot, we can hit for 100 damage! K.O. Manectric EX without any problem, even fighting stadium will add 20 more damage to fighting Pokemon attacks if EX is opponents defending Pokemon. Manectric EX & Bats same as Mega Man are popular decks in format, but when Regirock become legal it will be interesting to see how they will compete against Lucario EX & Regirock even Zygarde EX.

Zygarde EX - 190 HP basic? Add Fighting Fury Belt on it - and it has 230 HP as basic! Land's Pulse 20+20 if you have stadium in play? Thats 40 damage with a single energy card - and if that energy is strong add 20 more damage, we are already to 60 with a single energy card but add to that Fighting Fury Belt or Muscle Band for 10/20 more and few Regirock EX's and you are able to hit T1 with single energy for 100+ damage, even if night march cant 1 HIT-K.O you can always play Max Potion and have 230 HP again! Insane card!

Kingdra EX is a Dragon Pokemon. I'm a big Kingdra fan - the first time was he printed in Gen 2 Neo sets, 170 HP, 1 retreat cost and weakness on fairy, Big Storm for 20 with any energy and you can discard any stadium card from play. It's an OK attack but for an EX, not so much. Also Dragon Trail can be played with Magnezone - 60 plus 30 more for each lightning energy on Kingdra. To be honest if you have 4 energy cards, do you want to hit for more than 150 damage or not? With Muscle Band you can 1 hit K.O. any regular 170 HP EX. However, since everyone today plays Fighting Fury Belt, I don't think it will be that playable, but who knows?

Audino EX & Mega Audino EX - look at that art - but look at "Do the Wave" attack on Audino EX, DCE & Max Elixir, Hoopa EX, sky field and you are ready to go turn 1 for 60 + 80 (in theory) with muscle band 160 damage - not bad right? But what about Mega Audino EX? 220 HP with Magical Symphony 110? And if you played a Supporter card from your hand during this turn, this attack will do 50 damage to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. I like this card and I think that Audino EX can be a good tech card in lot of decks. Also, 3 retreat can allow you to search it with Heavy Ball.

Umbreon EX is the last EX card in this set, I love the full art of this card - another Eevee evolution card you must have in your Poke-collection. It has two attacks - the first one is Veil of Darkness 20, and you can discard as many cards as you like from your hand and then draw that many cards. But if you are looking to play this card, then you should play a single copy in your deck as "super tech" so you can just finish the game with "Endgame" attack. And if your opponent's Mega Evolution Pokemon is knocked by damage from this attack, you can take 2 more Prize cards plus 2 for EX rule = 4 Prizes in a single turn! It's here to counter any Mega Pokemon and special Mega Alakazam, since it also has -20 resistance on it.

So we have 10 new EX cards and 3 Mega Pokemon, Alakazam, Altaria and Audino EX, lets check other cards, and few more break evolutions were also printed in this set:

Let's take a look on some Break Pokemon cards, we have 5 in total:

Carbink Break is first on the list, use the Diamond Gift attack - 20 damage - and you can attach 2 energy cards from the discard pile to 1 of your fighting Pokemon on bench. With Wally T1, Carbink can be in play and regular Carbink has an ability that EX's can't attack him - so against EX's this is a strong card and a good support in fighting decks.

Delphox Break - 180 HP I don't think it will be playable, but for collectors it's a good card to have in your Break collection.

Bronzong Break, if you play some kind of metal deck with Bronzongs with Metal Links 1 Bronzong Break can be a good tech.

Lugia Break 150 and you need to discard 2 energy from it. There are a lot ways to play this card, and 150 damage is OK, because with Muscle Band you can 1 hit K.O. any 170 HP EX.

The last Break in the set is Omastar Break, 140 HP with ability - "once during your turn you may switch 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon EX with his or her Active Pokemon" still this is in my opinion better for collectors than players! 

There are also a few more playable cards in this set:

Hand Block ability is one of the best in the set, if you have a stadium card in play, your opponent can't attach any special energy cards from his or her hand to his or her Pokemon, so you can T1 Wally into Barbaracle and stop Night March, Toat/Tina etc. But that's why we have new Mew in this set for Night March, because with a single basic energy, Mew can still copy Dimension Valley, and Joltik Night March's attack for 1 energy.

Mew is the best non-EX card in this set. It has the Memories of Dawn ability, and you can copy all attacks of any of your Basic Pokemon in play. But, you need the necessary energy to use each attack. This card can help the Night March deck even more. With Dimension Valley and a single energy on Mew you can copy for a single basic energy Joltik Night March attack and beat that Barbarcale without problem.

Lugia EX 120 HP with Pressure ability - as long as Lugia is the active Pokemon, any damage done to it by attacks is reduced by 20. 3 energy for 60 and 60 more if opponent's Active Pokemon is Pokemon EX is ok but if that was for single DCE then Lugia will make sense, even with 3 energys it's ok, but its weak to Manectric, and can be good counter to fighting decks especially with Hard Charm.

Devolution Spray is back! Devolve 1 of your evolved Pokemon and put the highest stage evolution card on it into your hand, this can help you a lot with bats, but also with Mega Alakazam since you can put so much damage on the opponents bench. Also with Absol and Super Scoop Up you can do even better job.

Energy Reset is a good card because you can put as many energy cards as you like from your Pokemon in play intoo your hand, and you can use it to play Max Potion in decks that have energy accelerations like Blastoise, Emboar, Magnezone etc - in the standard/expanded even legacy format.

N is back! With N reprint we dont need to play anymore birch or judge, we can just play N and put our opponent in trouble by N'ing him the same as he can do for us. With N you can win an almost lost game - trust me. The good thing is that Full art N is legal again, and now you can play it in standard format!

Random Receiver is also a reprinted card, in the past it was printed as secret rare, so you can also play secret rare card same as full art N in your standard and make deck can look even more fancy! Reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal a supporter card, put it into your hand and shuffle the other cards back into your deck, love it. Look at that Sycamore on some kind of phone in art, haha, but yeah how many times do you get Sycamore and 3 VS Seeker T1? With Random Receiver you can try to get another chance to search for another supporter card.

Power memory tool is a card for Zygarde EX - like G-Booster for Genesect EX - with 3 energy you can hit for 200 and discard 3 energy attached to Zygarde EX.

 

That about sums it up! Thanks for reading!

-TCGCenter, Marijo

Check out more from Marijo here - https://www.youtube.com/user/PokefanZega90