Pokémon Pocket: Mega Shine Review - Best Cards

The new Pokémon Pocket set, Mega Shine, will give us great cards, in particular Mega Evolutions and stage 1 Pokémon.

Check out the best cards in this set and how they'll impact the competitive scene!

Darkrai

Darkrai's ability, Bad Dreams, stands out. You can build a deck around making enemy Pokémon fall Asleep (with a lighter Pokémon, like Wigglytuff ex and its Sleepy Song, Jigglypuff and its Sing, or Frosmoth and its Powder Snow) while you set up massive attacks to knock out everything in your way. You can even deal damage by attaching energies to Darkrai ex from Space-Time Smackdown.

All of these ideas should be a lot of fun.

Mega Slowbro EX

This is a pretty interesting Water option. Mega Slowbro is a stage 1 Pokémon, so it evolves fast, and its attack can be devastating to benched baby Pokémon. If the meta stays as it is, it could become a pretty cool choice.

Furthermore, the Water archetype plays decent ramp, and 200 HP is a reasonable amount of HP. We'll be able to set it up quite easily and keep it in play for at least one turn.

Mega Scizor EX and Revavroom

These two Pokémon are a decent pair for the Metal archetype. They interact really well with each other, as Revavroom makes Mega Scizor ex deal 50 extra damage nearly always.

Obviously, none of this is surprising because most Mega Pokémon have over 200 HP, but it could still be interesting.

Furthermore, Revavroom deals 60 damage for just two energies. It's also a basic Pokémon, so it can knock out Oricorio, which is usually a problem.

We could use both of them in a deck that plays Orthworms from previous sets with Metal ramp. And, as this is a Metal Pokémon as well, you can easily swap it with Revavroom's ability.

Mega Gengar ex

Is Mega Gengar ex good? It might be. The problem is that the Darkness archetype can't get energies easily, and this Pokémon needs 3 Darkness energies.

It's also a stage 3 Pokémon, so it's difficult to set up. Its attack might be decent to put pressure on the opponent, but it is a bit heavy. We might be able to build a "turbo-energy" list with it, or even a Sleep archetype with Darkrai and any Pokémon that makes enemy Pokémon Asleep early on... I don't know, it's all a bit uncertain. With the right setup, it might become something in the future.

Mega Manectric ex

This is another promising stage 1 Pokémon! It's easy to build and deals an interesting amount of damage. It also progresses your main game plan. And, because you can retreat it for free, you can swap it for another tank Pokémon or a damage-focused Pokémon to end matches.

We could try building a sniper strategy with it, that is, focusing on pulling benched enemy Pokémon and knocking them out quickly.

The best thing about it is that it has more HP than Jolteon ex (140 HP), but, because it is a Mega Pokémon, you should be careful. Finally, Jolteon ex's ability helps us end matches because it deals a bit of damage.

Magmortar and Electivire

These are also interesting stage 1 Pokémon. They interact really well with each other, as they deal more damage if the other is in play. In fact, they deal a lot of damage for baby Pokémon that don't give out many Prize cards when they're knocked out. And, as Magmortar deals more damage but for more energies, we should all be thankful it is a Fire Pokémon. After all, we have many ways to get Fire energies.

This combination isn't revolutionary, but it could be interesting. It's worth a try.

Mew

We'll discuss this card because it is the immersive card in this set. The truth is that I can't decide whether it's good or bad because it simply relies on luck.

It doesn't have a lot of HP (it's practically tiny), but its attack, Miraculous Memory, could be interesting depending on what the opponent is playing, obviously. As there are many threats in the meta, it could be quite decent... Or you could end up with a support attack and not do anything with this Pokémon.

It could be interesting as a 1-of in Psychic decks to catch opponents off guard. In any case, it's quite fun (and pretty!).

Baby Dragonair and Dragonite

Dragonair's Sky Blessing is absurd: it attaches one Water energy plus one Lightning energy directly to it. This makes the new Dragonite a great threat because Dragon Wave deals 150 damage but forces you to discard 2 energies from it.

We can combine Dragonair with other Dragonites or Dragonite ex. You can even try to set up a retreat strategy and then deal damage with support cards.

Mega Charizard X ex and Charmeleon

This Charmeleon is great because we don't need to attack with it to use its effect. All we have to do is evolve a Pokémon. So, it's a decent way to ramp energies for Mega Charizard X ex, which is already one of the fastest Pokémon around and it is its evolution. It's exactly what this archetype needed to become even faster!

As for Mega Charizard X, it is one of the fastest Charizards: Raging Blaze deals 100 + 80 damage if it has less than 110 HP. It has a lot of HP and we can buff it with an equipment card when needed, so it's a decent option for a "revenge" strategy. It can take at least 1 strike guaranteed.

With a decent setup, it could work really well in a Fire archetype... We don't even have to discard Fire energies with it, so it's an even better option for "revenge" strategies. It's definitely the best Mega Pokémon in this set.

Calem

This card could be interesting if there are many Mega Pokémon in the meta and/or if your deck centers around them. It might draw more than Professor, and more consistently, so it could be great both early on and in the late game in many decks.

To me, this is the best card in the set, by far!

Mega Shine brings us new Mega evolutions and interesting baby Pokémon, as well as a new Supporter that could become a staple in this meta. It's clear the dev team focused a lot on stage 1 and stage 2 Pokémon in this set, which will speed up the game and allow us to give up Rare Candy in our lists.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!