A new Pokémon Trading Card Game card is a clear-cut favorite in upcoming pre-release tournaments. The Surging Sparks set for the Pokémon TCG is due to come out in November 2024, and pre-release tournaments are set to begin at local game stores starting on October 25. These pre-release tournaments will let players open a few Surging Sparks packs early and use those cards to augment one of four kinds of pre-constructed decks. However, one of those decks is headlined by a card that could plow through the competition in these tournaments.
A new Gouging Fire is one of the pre-release promo cards found in Surging Sparks Build and Battle boxes. While this Gouging Fire is typically a Rare card found in the set, it has a move that becomes much more powerful in pre-release tournaments due to their specific ruleset. While Gouging Fire won’t impact the overall Pokémon Trading Card Game meta – although Surging Sparks has other powerful cards too – it’s certainly a card that will make a splash in pre-release tournaments.
Surging Sparks’ Gouging Fire Card Is Broken
Gouging Fire’s Signature Attack Is Specifically Deadly In Pre-Release Tournaments
Every standard release set (not including special set releases like the upcoming Prismatic Evolution) includes a Build and Battle box product that stores typically use in pre-release tournaments. Each Build and Battle box contains one of four pre-constructed 40-card decks built primarily from cards in the new set. Each kind of deck usually revolves around a couple of card synergies to showcase some potential deck builds. Players can supplement those decks with cards they pull from four packs also found in the Build and Battle box, although many players in pre-release tournaments tend to use the decks as-is. Each deck also comes with an exclusive variant promotional card, with four available in each set.
Surging Sparks‘ Gouging Fire card, revealed by PokéBeach, is a new card with 130 HP and two moves. The first is a standard attack that activates with one Fire energy and deals 30 damage. The other is the Blazing Charge move, which deals 100 damage normally and 170 damage if an opponent has four prizes or less. Under normal circumstances, limiting an attack to reaching full strength based on prize count means that a card is only viable during the later parts of a match. However, in this circumstance, Gouging Fire can deal out its full damage during any point in a pre-release tournament, meaning it can start hitting for a lot of damage after just three turns.
Why Gouging Fire’s Ability Breaks The Pokémon TCG
Gouging Fire In Pre-Release Tournaments Is Almost A Guaranteed Win
The key here is that pre-release tournaments only have four prizes, which causes Gouging Fire to be a threat immediately. Since most Pokémon in Build and Battle box pre-constructed decks won’t have more than 170 HP, Gouging Fire will almost certainly be able to knock out most Pokémon that they’ll come up against in just one turn. Also, Gouging Fire is a Basic Pokémon, which means that it doesn’t need to be set up with an evolution. For reference, Gouging Fire knocks out the signature Pokémon in all three other pre-constructed decks, although it does have a weakness against Chien-Pao.
Gouging Fire is the pre-release promo card that players will hope for, especially if they’re competitive and want to win in a low-stakes tournament. It’s possible that the other decks will have some kind of answer to Gouging Fire, but it’s likely that a lot of pre-release matches will end once a player takes an early lead with Gouging Fire and their opponent can’t come up with a suitable comeback. Players can try their luck in a Surging Sparks Pokémon Trading Card Game pre-release tournament by finding a local game store starting the weekend of October 25.
Source: PokéBeach
Pokemon
- Created by
- Satoshi Taijiri , Ken Sugimori , Junichi Masuda
- First Film
- Pokemon: The First Movie
- Latest Film
- Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
- First Episode Air Date
- April 1, 1997
Summary
Spanning over twenty-five years, Pokemon, known as Pocket Monsters in Japan, is the multimedia franchise created jointly by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures. Conceptualized by Satoshi Tajiri in association with Ken Sugimori and Junichi Masuda, Pokemon is set in fictional worlds where people live together with tamable creatures known as Pokemon. Humans who catch, raise, and battle the creatures are known as Pokemon Trainers. They head out on extensive journeys across their continents to raise their Pokemon with the ultimate goal of competing in tournaments to become the champion. Pokemon spans several massive properties, from a long-running animated series to a successful trading card game, to the medium that started it all, video games. In addition, Pokemon began the “two-game” trend where two versions of a game would release and include different Pokemon/features between the versions, encouraging players to meet up with others and trade so they could “catch ’em all.”
