With Mythical Island, a total of 80 new cards are coming to Pokémon TCG Pocket. One of them is so powerful that it could replace a previous all-rounder card. However, it has a significant drawback.
What is this special card? Among the 80 new cards, there are 5 Trainer cards. One of them is Leaf. This is the female main character from Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. She comes from Pallet Town like Blue and is good friends with him.
In Pokémon TCG Pocket, she has the ability to reduce the retreat cost of a Pokémon by 2. This means that 2 less Energy must be attached to a Pokémon to retreat from its active position and be replaced by another.
The new booster can be found in the following trailer:
Leaf appears better than another card, but has a major weakness
Which card could it replace? The card X-Initiative can be found in almost every deck. It is an Item card that reduces the retreat cost of the active Pokémon by 1. This makes it weaker than Leaf, which is why a Reddit user even believes that the card will disappear from nearly all decks.
However, in the comments, he is informed that Leaf has a significant disadvantage. Therefore, many believe that Leaf may not be used at all or only be useful in specific situations.
What disadvantage is there? Leaf is a Supporter card. This type of card can only be used once per turn. With powerful Supporter cards like Professor’s Research or Sabrina, which are present in many decks, it becomes difficult to retreat your Pokémon at the right time.
What benefits are there? Leaf can retreat Pokémon that have high costs. One example is Snorlax: It consumes a total of 4 Energy to retreat. But even for Pokémon that have only one or no Energy attached and have at least two retreat costs, Leaf is the optimal choice.
Additionally, there are often situations where none of the other Supporter cards need to be used. Therefore, it is worth considering replacing X-Initiative with Leaf. If you have many Pokémon with high retreat costs, it is advisable to include both cards in your deck anyway.
What do you think of Leaf? Will it be included in your deck? Or do you prefer to rely on X-Initiative? Let us know in the comments!
All new sets that will come in the future can be found in the overview on MeinMMO. There, we summarize all leaks about dates so that you know when the next new boosters are coming: Pokémon TCG Pocket: Release of the next sets – Information & leaks about new cards
