Pokemon TCG Announces Tag Team GX Card During Champs

During the 2018 Pokemon World Championships taking place in Nashville, Tennessee, The Pokemon Company took the chance to show off their newest plans for the TCG meta: Tag Team Pokemon GX.

Only one card was shown, Pikachu & Zekrom GX, but the new functionality is likely to change how decks are built in the near future. First off, since the card is a GX, it has similar rules to past GX Pokemon, but with some minor changes. Generally, when a GX card is knocked out, the opponent takes two prize cards. Tag Team GX cards raise those stakes even further by giving the opponent three, which can shift the potential of winning greatly.

How will Tag Team GX likely be used?

Pikachu & Zekrom GX sports a whopping 240 HP and plays hardball. This unlikely team-up has the ability to set itself up for a devastating GX attack, Tag Bolt, by using its other non-GX move, Full Blitz, first. Starting off, players should bring lots of Lightning energy to whatever deck this duo is in, but that’s just set up.

Full Blitz requires three Lightning energy to begin the process of domination. The move does 150 damage to your opponent’s active Pokemon, but it also lets the user search their deck for three Lightning energy cards and attach them to any of their own Pokemon, active or benched, then shuffle their deck. Now, this is ridiculous because if they choose to use it on Pikachu & Zekrom GX itself, they just set themselves up for their Tag Bolt GX move.

In case you missed it, #TagTeamPokemonGX will be coming soon to the #PokemonTCG! #PlayPokemon pic.twitter.com/8pETZMYRei

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) August 24, 2018

Tag Bolt GX does 200 damage, but if they have six (three plus three) attached, it does an additional 170 HP of damage to one of its opponent’s benched Pokemon, ignoring weakness and resistance. This is a move that the quicker it’s set up, the quicker they can completely remove an opponent from the game if done right. Remember, though, GX moves can only be used once. But, Full Blitz can be used as many times as the player wants, meaning they can set up their own benched Pokemon with tons of energy in the meantime.

While this is the first Tag Team GX to be revealed, it’s not the only card in the set. Down at the bottom of the card, it’s 33/181, meaning the next set will be a big one. Rumor has it that we should be seeing the next set, Lost Thunder, this November. Lost Thunder claims to have over 210 cards in the set, making 181, plus at least 30 secret cards, featuring Pokemon native to the Alola and Johto regions mostly.

The 2018 Pokemon World Championships, or Pokemon Champs for short, is going on from August 24 to 26 in Nashville, including the trading card game, core video games, and Pokken Tournament. In the meantime, check out how to get Celebi in Pokemon Go during the “A Ripple In Time” Special Research.