#unbroken bonds

[pokemon-cards-hourly]

[kimiko24]

Me + U ❤️

[trainerjoshie]

Pokémon TCG SM Ultra Prism (2018), Unbroken Bonds (2019), Unified Minds (2019), Cosmic Eclipse (2019), SWSH Promo (2020) & Chilling Reign (2021) illustrations by Shibuzoh. 🤩🤩🤩

[lovepokemontcg]

illus. sowsow "Porygon 2" from Unbroken Bonds

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3271: Muk & Alolan Muk-GX (Unbroken Bonds)

Muk & Alolan Muk-GX was all about Poison. It had very strong versions of Poison, with the caveat that it needed a decent bit of Energy or that plus use of a GX attack on attacks that otherwise did no damage to work. It could also try to work as a tank and heal against Poisoned Pokemon. These on their own, while different, didn't really look like the best moves in a format with all the big, powerful hitters mixed with control decks out there, as this strategy tended to be best against things in between those two extremes. But despite this, Muk & Alolan Muk-GX had a second chance as it was a Pokemon that could have attacks called by Mewtwo & Mew-GX, and since the attacks on the card didn't overlap with other options it was the type of GX that could sometimes take advantage of that.

270 HP was very typical for a Tag Team, and could be rather annoying to take down if you did let it actually make use of Poison Absorption. The Psychic Weakness was a problem, however. Mewtwo & Mew-GX, various Malamar partners, and even Dragapult VMAX could take advantage of it to a good extent. The Retreat Cost was also very high at 4, making switching cards basically required for use. This all being said, the stats only mattered if you were building around this and not using it as fodder for something else to gain its attacks.

Severe Poison needed a Psychic and 2 Colorless Energy to use, and Poisoned the opponent's Active Pokemon. That Poison set 8 damage counters instead of 1 between turns, and that was very cool if the opponent couldn't switch out and still kind of sad if they could.

Poison Absorption did 120 for a Psychic and 3 Colorless, which was a bit low. It did, however, heal 100 damage from Muk & Alolan Muk-GX if it hit a Poisoned Pokemon. The obvious plan when they made this card was to use the two attacks in order, getting a KO on anything with the combo with extra healing. When it worked and facing a Tag Team, it was actually quite good. It probably would have been very cool as a tank if really good auto-Poison Abilities were around. There were consistency issues here because the opponent could dance around the combo with the very common switching cards available, so you had to hope they didn't pull one. If they didn't, this had some real moments.

Nasty Goo Mix GX was absurd in theory. Setting Paralysis and Poison for no Energy could stall but did little damage and since it was on a GX attack you only did it for a turn. The magic was if you had at least 4 Energy attached, in which case the Poison set 15 damage counters between turns. Imagine if the opponent couldn't switch out, lost 3 Prizes on the turn switch, and right after it was your turn again due to the timing. Quite devastating indeed. Of course, the old "switching cards were popular" thing popped up once again, so it had its moments but you had to find the right one.

Muk & Alolan Muk-GX loved seeing other 3 Prize Pokemon and really hated that said Pokemon almost always ran a good number of ways to switch around. When it came together it was great, but it happened too rarely to make this the star of a deck. A few people did find success as a Mewtwo & Mew deck option, as if you did pick the right spot a Nasty Goo Mix GX could turn a game on its head. This card had that kind of ability but was so inconsistent that it was only sometimes used in that deck. Still had some value if you really wanted to punish specific builds though.

[akyivanov]

They always return there, as if the past had roots too deep to really let them go

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Kieran really turned around put his hands over his ears and went 'la la la la la not listening not listening' at Oli and North's pda

[laxmon]

Pokémon — Kanto teams 8/?

Ground-type Gym Leader Giovanni's Pokémon team, based on his teams from Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon Black 2 and White 2.

Artwork by:

Megumi Mizutani for SM Unbroken Bonds (Giovanni's Exile) Kouki Saito for BW Dragons Exalted (Marowak) Yukiko Baba for HeartGold and SoulSilver (Sandslash) Kagemaru Himeno for Team Rocket (Dark Dugtrio) Ken Sugimori for Gym Challenge (Giovanni's Nidoqueen, Giovanni's Nidoking) KirisAki for SM Unbroken Bonds (Rhydon)

[am-to-pm]

For Once In My Life - Stevie Wonder

[sydneyangelia]

[gh0stly-trickster]

[pokemon-cards-hourly]

[audsthoughts]

The Bonds that Tie series playlist 🖤🐾

[trainerjoshie]

Pokémon TCG SM Unbroken Bonds (2019) & Cosmic Eclipse (2019) illustrations by 0313 🤩

[lovepokemontcg]

illus. tetsuya koizumi "Wooper" from Unbroken Bonds

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3275: Weezing (Unbroken Bonds)

Weezing went for a strategy that had mostly been ignored for some time. The entire point of this Pokemon was spread damage, which didn't seem like the most promising thing when the game was shifting to Pokemon with huge HP numbers. Weezing did have a more potent version of it than most, but relied heavily on the opponent using Basic Pokemon, which were common but not every deck. There was at least a window where Weezing could get help with that, and any attempt to revive an old strategy was certainly worth taking a look at.

120 HP was at that point where most Pokemon that had set up would get a KO, and the Psychic Weakness didn't change a ton as a result. It was amusing to have a Malamar take a Prize off this, however, even if it wasn't entirely necessary. The Retreat Cost was 3, but you'd almost always be using Splattering Sludge if you had this up front so it wasn't as bad as it would normally be.

Detention Gas worked whenever Weezing was your Active Pokemon. It put a damage counter on each of the opponent's Basic Pokemon between turns. Basic Pokemon were rather common, though exceptions like Naganadel and Zoroark-GX did exist to name a few. This did add up over time against all those big Basic Pokemon, though, and the goal was to rack up enough damage with this and other effects to get 6 Prizes, often all at once.

Splattering Sludge did rely on previous damage being in play. 40 was done to the opponent's Active Pokemon for 2 Colorless Energy, but 20 was also dealt to each of the opponent's Benched Pokemon with any damage counters on them. Now, Mew being around did block all the extra damage, with the side thing that Mew itself was actually weak enough to be Guzma bait for this attack.

Weezing was an interesting sort of Pokemon. It was mostly stuck in the SUM-On format to use Double Colorless Energy, but there were plenty of Basic Pokemon to work against there and Tapu Koko gave a way to get the first bit of damage on anything that had evolved. While not a top tier option, Weezing managed to get a couple of good tournament showings simply off the combined damage from its Ability, attack, and Shrine of Punishment. You usually had a bit of room for some niche attackers with Counter Energy due to always falling behind as well. Still, it took a while to get going, and was sometimes overwhelmed by the fast pace of some of the other decks out there. This made for a competitive deck that also wasn't a main focus for most out there.