Analysis: Best Cards in Team Rocket's Ambition, Pokémon Pocket's New Set!

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The new Team Rocket's Ambition collection has finally launched, and I took some time to analyze the best cards. Let's take a look at the most interesting ones below!

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Analysis of Team Rocket's Ambition, Pokémon Pocket's new set

The new Team Rocket's Ambition expansion has finally been released, and I took some time to analyze its best cards.

Below, I've highlighted the cards that caught my attention the most and how I think they'll perform competitively.

Trainer Cards

Team Rocket's Thieving Machine

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A literal theft machine that takes a random Item card from your opponent's discard pile and puts it directly into your hand. Not only do you remove a resource they intended to recycle, but you also use it against them.

Team Rocket's Boss

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Boss lets you look through your opponent's hand and force any Pokémon there directly onto the Bench. This not only ruins combos the opponent was saving for the right moment, but also creates targets for attackers on your side that can deal direct damage to the Bench, or for strategies that take your opponent's Bench into account.

Team Rocket's Researcher

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A high-risk, high-reward draw card. For every "heads" you flip, you search your deck for a Team Rocket's Pokémon. If luck is on your side, you can fill your hand with your main attackers in a single turn.

Best Pokémon from Team Rocket's Ambition

Team Rocket's Weezing ex

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James's famous partner in the anime, this Weezing was designed to punish your opponent. When you evolve a Koffing directly from your hand, its Boiler Smog Ability activates (even from the Bench) leaving the opponent's Active Pokémon Poisoned and Burned. The result is a continuous and irritating loss of 30 HP per turn.

If it moves into the Active position, its attack also leaves the opponent's Active Pokémon Confused, potentially slowing the opponent's game down even further.

Combined with strategies that take advantage of Special Conditions, which this set also supports with Magmar, this Weezing becomes even more interesting.

Team Rocket’s Raticate ex

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This card's real strength isn't its HP or raw attacking power, but its Thieving Scissors Ability. It simply lets you steal an Energy from your opponent's Active Pokémon and attach it to Raticate itself.

It could have some interesting synergy with Alolan Ninetales ex. While Raticate steals the Energy already in play, Ninetales's Ability prevents your opponent from attaching new Energy, locking down their game plan.

Team Rocket's Slowking ex

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Versatility in card form. Its Evil Inspiration Ability lets you draw an extra card during every turn it's your Active Pokémon, speeding up your deck in spectacular fashion.

Its Hand Kinesis attack, meanwhile, costs very little (just two Energy!) and deals 20 damage multiplied by the number of cards in your hand, giving it an extremely high damage ceiling as the game goes on.

You'll need to be careful when using this deck if it becomes very popular, since opponents may bring cards designed to disrupt your hand.

Team Rocket's Tinkaton

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I'll admit this is one of my favorite cards in the set! As a Stage 2 Pokémon, it requires a little patience to set up, but the board control it offers is very interesting.

Its attack deals 80 damage and applies a penalty: during your opponent's next turn, their attacks and retreat cost 2 more Energy.

In practice, you shut down your opponent's plays. There must be some really cool deck to build around this card, besides the fact that it's a baby Pokémon.

Team Rocket's Moltres ex

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Unlike the classic support version, which focuses on generating Energy for the team, this card takes a hyperaggressive approach. With its Heat Charged attack, you flip three coins. If all three are heads, Moltres ex gains enough extra Fire Energy to use Netherwing and deal 130 damage quickly!

Team Rocket's Zapdos ex

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The perfect answer to anyone trying to retreat Pokémon to save them. Its Thunderclaw attack deals 90 damage to the Active Pokémon and places an additional 50 damage on any Benched target that has already taken damage. It's the sniping tool that was missing for dealing with the opponent's smaller Pokémon.

Garchomp

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A true wall. With 150 HP and no elemental weaknesses, it shines because of its absurd synergy with support cards. Wally provides a fast supply of Energy, while Cynthia can boost its damage by +50.

The most notable detail is the effect of its attack: if Garchomp knocks out an opponent's Pokémon, it becomes “invincible” during the next turn. Chaining knockouts can create a cycle in which it simply takes no damage in return. It could be interesting to pair it with Greninja to deal damage directly to the Bench and finish opponents off with Garchomp, for example.

In addition, Gabite, which comes before it in the Evolution chain, deals 50 damage to any Pokémon, which can help prepare the board for Garchomp's arrival.

Gholdengo

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In an expansion where Team Rocket requires multiple coin flips to activate devastating effects, Gholdengo's Ability lets you redo coin flips involving Trainer cards. It removes much of the risk and makes the strategy more consistent.

Conclusion: Is Team Rocket's Ambition good?

As someone who loves disruption and control strategies, I found the set very interesting, even though it requires a lot of synergy to build a deck around it.

What did you think? Tell us in the comments below, and see you next time!

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