Phantom Forces Player's Guide (TCG)
| Phantom Forces Player's Guide | |
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| ISBN: | None |
| Published: | 2014 |
| Publisher: | The Pokémon Company International |
| Author: | Wolfgang Baur |
The Phantom Forces Player's Guide is a booklet included within the Phantom Forces Elite Trainer Box detailing the Phantom Forces expansion of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The booklet is written by Wolfgang Baur and was published by The Pokémon Company International in 2014. The content features strategy for the new cards introduced within the Phantom Forces expansion as well as a complete checklist for the expansion.
Contents
Welcome to the Pokémon TCG: XY—Phantom Forces Elite Trainer Box!
The first section gives a brief introduction of the Phantom Forces expansion, detailing the what the Elite Box contains, as well as a short overview of what is covered in the expansion.
Mega Evolution Pokémon and Spirit Links
Mega Evolution Pokémon keep getting bigger and tougher, with the arrival of Gengar, Manectric, and the Spirit Link Item cards.
Gengar-EX (34/119 and 114/119) and Mega Gengar-EX (35/119)
The regular Gengar-EX has a Night Attack for just 
that puts 3 damage counters on a Pokémon. Dark Corridor does 60 damage, Poisons the foe, and swaps Gengar-EX out to the Bench—a great parting shot!
Mega Gengar-EX has 220 HP and the Phantom Gate attack, which lets you choose any 1 of your opponent's attacks and use that as Gengar's attack. This is great for turning an opposing Pokémon-EX's big attack against it. You can even chose an attack from a Pokémon that your opponent is still building upon the Bench! Timing is important with Mega Gengar-EX, but it has a lot of potential.
Manectric-EX (23/119 and 113/119) and Mega Manectric-EX (24/119)
Mega Manectric-EX has 210 HP and a Turbo Bolt attack that zaps the opponent's Pokémon for 110 damage—and it attaches 2 basic Energy from your discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon! The regular Manectric-EX has 170 HP and an Overrun attack for 20 plus 20 to a Benched Pokémon, or Assault Laser for 60 plus 60 more if your opponent's Active Pokémon has a Pokémon Tool attached.
Gengar Spirit Link (95/119) and Manectric Spirit Link (100/119)
These two cards are must-have Pokémon Tools if you are running one of the Mega Evolution Pokémon in your deck. It removes the "end your turn" drawback of Mega Evolution—so you can attach a Spirit Link to your Pokémon-EX, evolve it, and still attack that turn! This earlier attack makes a big difference: just ask your opponent!
Mighty Metal Pokémon
In addition to the great collection of Psychic-type Pokémon, XY—Phantom Forces brings some of the best Metal-type Pokémon seen in a long while. If you've ever thought about making a super-sharp Metal-themed deck, now's the time!
Bronzong (61/119)
The Hammer In attack is good, but the Metal Links Ability is what makes Bronzong amazing. It can double your power-up speed, attaching 1 Metal Energy from your discard pile to a Pokémon on your Bench every turn. This is very useful, especially because XY—Phantom Forces also brings Metal fans two Metal-type Pokémon with pricey attacks, Dialga-EX and Aegislash-EX.
Dialga-EX (62/119)
Dialga-EX has 180 HP and two ferocious attacks: Chrono Wind requires 
for 60 damage, and (this is the biggie) it prevents opposing Pokémon-EX from attacking next turn. The bigger hammer is the Full Metal Impact, at for 150 damage—but it also requires you to discard 2 Energy from Dialga-EX. If you have a friendly Bronzong around, though, it's easy to recycle that Energy!
Aegislash-EX (65/119)
This Pokémon-EX has a Mighty Shield Ability that does just what you'd expect: it prevents damage. Specifically, it prevents ALL damage from any of your opponent's Pokemon that have Special Energy attached.
In addition, it has a Slash Blast attack for that does 40 plus 20 more for each Energy attached to Aegislash-EX—that's 100 damage if all 3 of those required Energy are Metal. Nice!
New Team Flare Hyper Gear
You'll find a new kind of card labeled "Team Flare Hyper Gear" in the XY—Phantom Forces expansion. These are special Pokémon Tool cards that you attach to your opponent's Pokémon-EX to mess up their strategy! If these cards get unattached for any reason, they go to your own discard pile. And of course, you can only attach them to a Pokémon that doesn't already have a Pokémon Tool attached. That said, these are something truly different in the world of Pokémon—with all the style of Team Flare!
Head Ringer (Team Flare Hyper Gear) (97/119)
Attacks cost more for the Pokémon this card is attached to—because this Team Flare Pokémon Tool makes a poor Pokémon's head ring! Pretty nasty.
Jamming Net (Team Flare Hyper Gear (98/119)
It's a good thing the Jamming Net is meant to be attached to your opponent's Pokémon, because you would not want it attached to yours! The Pokémon with the Jamming Net attached does 20 less damage with each of its attacks.
Dark and Flowery Pokémon-EX
There are 8 Pokémon-EX in XY—Phantom Forces: two Mega and six regular. They all feature lush art for everything from the Darkness types to the Fairy-types. We've already discussed the Metal-type Pokémon-EX and the ones with Mega Evolutions, but there are two more biggies in this set!
Malamar-EX (58/119 and 115/119)
Hyper Hypnosis is an Ability that leaves your opponent's Active Pokémon asleep when you attach Energy from your hand to Malamar-EX. Pretty nice! And it combines nicely with the MAXamar attack, which costs 
and you flip a coin for each Energy attached to Malamar-EX. Every heads means 60 damage! It's like lulling opposing Pokémon to sleep and then making sure they have nightmares!
Florges (67/119 and 116/119)
Florges-EX is a bit small at 160 HP, but the Lead attack for 
lets you grab any Supporter card from your deck (great for setting up combos), and Bright Garden for does 20 damage times the number of 
Pokémon and Pokémon you have in play.
Mystery Energy and Stadiums
Mystery Energy is a supercharger for Psychic-type Pokémon, similar to Strong Energy and Herbal Energy from the XY—Furious Fists expansion. Steel Shelter and Dimension Valley are Stadium cards that help Metal- and Psychic-type decks.
Dimension Valley (93/119)
Each 
Pokémon can use all its attacks for less. In some cases, this means your Pokémon can attack for free! In others, it could take an attack that costs down into the ranger where it could be used as your first attack.
Steel Shelter (105/119)
If you play decks, this one card makes all your Pokémon immune to any and all Special Conditions (and to be fair, it helps your opponent's Pokémon as well). No Paralysis, no Poison, never Asleep, not Burned, and not Confused. Sounds pretty good?
Mystery Energy (112/119)
Like Strong Energy and Herbal Energy before it, the new Mystery Energy favors one type of Pokémon above all others. Only Pokémon can have Mystery Energy attached, but for them it provides Energy and it reduces their Retreat Cost by . That last bit makes a big difference in the tactics and play style of a deck. Many of your Pokémon will retreat for free, flitting around the arena like ghosts!
Pokémon TCG: XY-Phantom Forces Card List
This section lists out the 119 cards of the XY—Phantom Forces expansion, and their rarities.
Credits
Original Japanese Game
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English-Language Version
The Pokémon Company International
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Pokémon TCG: XY-Phantom Forces Showcase
This final section details the two Phantom Forces Theme Decks: Burning Winds and Bolt Twister.
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This article is part of both Project TCG and Project Merchandise, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon Trading Card Game merchandise. | 
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