Set Information
The expansion XY 12- Evolutions will be available in stores at November 2nd and is the twelfth XY expansion. The expansion will be legal for tournament play in both Standard and Expanded by November 18th.
General Information
This expansion contains cards from the japanese set Expansion Pack 20th Anniversary.
Pokémon
Like in both previous expansions, we get access to a bunch of new BREAK Pokémon. This time we get access to Ninetales, Starmie, Machamp and Nidoking which are also accessible in their regular versions.
On top of that we get presented with a whole bunch of new Pokémon EX We will get access to M Slowbro and M Pidgeot, as well as their regular versions. We will also be able to see the absolute fan favourite, Charizard, making a new appearance with a Mega and a regular card. But where Charizard appears, Blastoise and Venusaur can't be away too far, which is why we will also see them and their Mega Evolutions. Last but not least we will get new versions of Mewtwo and Dragonite.
Most of these Pokémon EX and BREAK Pokémon will most likely be in the eyesight of collectors, as most of these BREAK and EX Pokémon don't seem to be very playable, at least currently. This may very well change in the future, and we can be excited to see how XY Steam Siege is going to influence the metagame. On top of all these amazing Pokémon EX and BREAK Evolutions, we also get some regular Pokémon in new awesome designs.
Trainer
Of course we're also presented with new Trainer cards which are going to bring some new effects into the game
Even though the set has a lot of old and new Trainer cards, most of them won't ever see any play in competitive Pokémon play.
One nice thing about the Supporter section is that we will see three very familiar faces form the early age of Pokémon. Brock, Misty and Prof. Oak are here to show off their new Supporter cards, upon we have only seen Mistys Determination so far in an older expansion.
Usually a lot of space in the Trainer segment is taken away by reprint cards like Switch and not so innovative cards such as Spirit Links. But this time the Spirit Links are the most interesting aspect about this set, because these include Spirit Links for Venusaur, Blastoise and Charizard which all had previous Mega Evolutions that were unplayable due to the missing Spirit Links. Maybe the release of them will make these cards playable, but even if it doesn't we can at least finally find out how these Mega Evolutions compare to the newer ones.
Summary
The focus of this set is definitely the nostalgic aspect to approach die hard fans of Pokémon or even get back some players that quit some years ago. Using the old design or cards is a very nice idea for sure, so even if this set doesn't benefit the tournament play, it's at least a nice one to collect.
None the less we will get a lot of new cards to enjoy and we can definitively look forward to the time coming.