Hitting shelves in November, the next set from the Pokemon TCG looks to be Ghastly (see what I did there?)

Phantom Forces will see cards for Mega Manectric-EX, Mega Gengar-EX, and Aegislash-EX along with new Spirit Link cards. The set will be available in Booster Packs, Theme Decks, and Elite Trainer Boxes.

In each XY: Phantom Forces Elite Trainer Box, you will find:

• 8 Pokémon TCG: XY: Phantom Forces booster packs
• 65 card sleeves featuring Mega Gengar
• 45 Pokémon TCG Energy cards
• A player’s guide to the XY: Phantom Forces expansion
• 6 damage-counter dice
• 1 competition-legal coin-flip die
• 2 acrylic condition markers
• A collector’s box to hold everything, with 4 dividers

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If you’ve read any of my posts, you know that my children and I are big fans of the Pokemon:TCG. When the opportunity to review the 2 theme decks from Flashfire, Mystic Typhoon and Brilliant Thunder, it was a no-brainer.

The two decks play very differently, and don’t feel as well balanced as some of the other X&Y theme decks. Mystic Typhoon is chocked full of status effects, energy movement, and deck digging, but doesn’t have too many heavy hitters, or Pokemon with high HP. Brilliant Thunder, on the other had, has a lot of power and defense, and is a bit more straight-forward deck. That, combined with the fact that you don’t need a ton of energy to deal powerful blows, makes it a pretty deadly deck.

That’s not to say Mystic Typhoon is bad, but it takes a bit of finesse to get the most out of the deck. It’s something younger players will have to get used to.

While these decks aren’t a nice as the Resilient Life and Destruction Rush decks, they’re still worth the price for everything you get in the box. There’s some great cards in there to add to other decks, and you’ll still get some good play out of these even if you decided not to dissassemble them.

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The Pokémon Company International has launched its official 2014 Pokémon World Championships website  for fans to keep up with all the action from the event. The schedule of the event is listed below, as well as a Twitch player that will stream the championships live once they start.

Saturday, August 16
9:00 a.m. EST – Opening Ceremony
9:30 a.m. EST – 5:00 p.m. EST – Pokémon Video Game Streaming
5:00 p.m. EST – 9:00 p.m. EST – Pokémon TCG Streaming

Sunday, August 17
9:00 a.m. EST – TCG Masters top 4
10:00 a.m. EST – 3:00 p.m. EST – Pokémon TCG Finals (Junior, Senior, and Masters Divisions)
3:00 p.m. EST – 6:00 p.m. EST – Pokémon Video Game Finals (Junior, Senior, and Masters Divisions)
6:00 p.m. EST – Closing Ceremony

Watch live video from Pokemon on www.twitch.tv

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Coming in October, the original three starter Pokémon are getting their own EX Power tins. Each of these tins add an extra EX boost to your card library, and includes:
1 of 3 special foil cards: Venusaur-EX, Charizard-EX, or Blastoise-EX!
4 Pokémon TCG booster packs!
1 BONUS online code card for unlocking an item in the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online

They’ll hit shelves at $17.99.

Also coming in October, the Mega Lucario Collection is packed full of power with one of the most popular Fighting Pokémon out there. This pack will contain:

1 special figure of Mega Lucario
4 Pokémon TCG booster packs
1 special foil promo card featuring Lucario

All that for only $19.99. Sometimes I’m still amazed at how some of these special tins and packs are priced versus competing CCGs.

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The Pokémon National Championships are taking place this weekend (July 5-6) in Indianapolis, and they’ll be live streaming both the video game and TCG matches on Twitch. You can head over there to watch the action, or bookmark this post which has the stream embedded in it!

Watch live video from Pokemon on www.twitch.tv

Nationals Stream Schedule:

Approximate Eastern Daylight Time

Saturday, July 5

Noon to 5 p.m. : Pokémon Video Game
5 p.m. to 9 p.m. : Pokémon TCG

Sunday, July 6

9 a.m. to 2 p.m. : Pokémon TCG
2 p.m. to 5 p.m. : Pokémon Video Game

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Hitting shelves August 13th, Pokémon TCG: XY—Furious Fists introduces Mega Lucario, Mega Heracross, and more to the Pokémon Trading Card Game with 110 new cards to play including 18 new Trainer Cards, Mega Lucario-EX, Hawlucha-EX, and Dragonite-EX.

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I’m a bit late to the game on this one, and for that I’m sorry.

Flashfire is the latest expansion to the Pokemon TCG. There’s 100 new cards in the set, and it’s available in booster packs and two intro decks: Brilliant Thunder and Mystic Typhoon.

So what’s new in this expansion?

• Three new Mega Evolution Pokémon—The expansion features two powerful versions of Mega Charizard-EX (a Dragon-type Mega Charizard X and a Fire-type Mega Charizard Y), in addition to Mega Kangaskhan-EX.
• Five new Pokémon-EX cards and four new full-art Pokémon-EX rare Ultra cards—New Pokémon-EX cards include Charizard-EX (two versions), Toxicroak-EX, Magnezone-EX, and Kangaskhan-EX.
• New Pokémon—Over 25 Pokémon from the Pokémon X and Pokémon Y video games appear in this set, in addition to 15 Pokémon that appear in the Pokémon TCG for the very first time.
• 15 new Trainer cards including three new full-art rare Ultra Trainer cards—New Trainer cards bring increased depth and player strategy to competitive battles.

These hit shelves on May 7th, so if you haven’t seen them already, you’re not looking hard enough!

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Hitting shelves on May 7th for $19.99, the Charizard-EX Box includes:

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At Toy Fair, I had an opportunity to get a closer look at upcoming products in Spin Master’s lines of Ionix shapeshifting construction bricks. [Click on the thumbnails to see full images.]

For the second series of Tenkai Knights on TV, Spin Master is set to release a 2-in-1 set ($25) that converts from Flame Phoenix in to Fire Raptor jet and a 2-in-1 Tenkai Dragon set ($50) with disc-firing action bricks. An Elemental form of Bravenwolf will also make an appearance as a mini figure ($5) and titan ($12).

The Pokemon figures are just rough prototypes at this point, yet they give you an idea of what to expect in the fall.

Sets for DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon are scheduled to hit retail just before the second movie in June.

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It’s been a LONG time since I’ve played the Pokemon TCG. I believe the last I played was either after the Rocket decks were released, or the first wave of Gym Leader decks.

Anyway. It’s been a while.

With the release of Pokemon X&Y, I figured now would be a good time to jump back in and start playing with the kids. I’m happy to say not much has changed, and we were easily able to jump right in and play.

Now when I say not much has changed, I’m speaking about the bones of the game. Obviously there’s been some status effects, Pokemon types, and even EX types added to the game since I last played. These new additions were very easy to pickup, and we really suffered no confusion or misplayed rules at all.

The 2 decks we played with were  Resilient Life (Xerneas) &  Destruction Rush (Yveltal). Both decks are well made, balanced, and complement each other very well. The biggest surprise to me was the addition of a deck box and play mat in the Theme Deck box. Very nice touch.

Resilient life is a Fairy and Psychic deck, with a focus on getting Fairy energy to the table and moving it around at will with Xerneas and Aromatisse. You’ve also got status protection for any Pokemon with Fairy energy attached to it thanks to Slurpuff. Add in the Fairy Garden Stadium that allows you to retreat Pokemon with Fairy energy on them at no cost, and you’ve got a really flexible deck.

Destruction Rush, on the other hand, is a hard hitting Dark and Figthing deck with Yveltal’s ability to pull dark energy out of the discard pile. Add in Krookodile‘s Knock-Back, and Malamar‘s Mental Panic to keep your opponent at Bay, and this deck hits hard and leaves the enemy struggling to come back.

Overall we had a blast getting back into the game, and are really digging the new cards. I can’t wait to get my hands on some more XY cards!

Copies of Resilient Life and Destruction Rush were provided free for review by The Pokemon Company Inc.

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