The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Trading Card Game has existed since 1996. Even if we consider that it didn't make its grand debut in the West for another three years, that's well over two decades and counting that players have been going head-to-head with collectible cardboard representations of their favorite monsters.
And yet, depending on when you've taken breaks from the game, it's entirely possible that you've played off and on from the very beginning with no exposure to the darkest mechanic the TCG has to offer — the Lost Zone. It's taken breaks through the years, making a big splash every time it returns. With the next (and possibly the final) set in the Pokemon Sword & Shield era, Lost Origin, en route for a September launch, the Lost Zone is about to return in a big way.
Best learn what to expect, then.
What is the Lost Zone?
We don't want to get too dramatic here, but if the Discard Pile is where your Pokemon go when they're knocked out, the Lost Zone is their destination when things are even direr. Does that mean they're dead? Well, they're back and ready for another bout whenever you fire up a new match, so it's not like your card caught fire and crumbled to dust. But whereas there are myriad ways to revive a knocked-out Pokemon in the Discard Pile, you're afforded no such luxuries in the Lost Zone.
Like the Discard Pile, it's not just Pokemon that get sent to the Lost Zone. Every category card can be, and while maybe that doesn't sound so bad at first blush, consider how popular low-Energy decks have become in recent years. What if you had a way to banish your rival's Energy cards, prohibiting them from whatever genius mechanic has allowed them to spring back and forth between the Discard Pile and their hand?
If you're a veteran of either Magic the Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh, and you're seeing some distinct similarities between the Lost Zone and either Exile or Banishment, it's not coincidental. All three popular card games share this dynamic, although in Pokemon's case, it's especially rare.
Sending Your Friends to the Lost Zone for Fun and Profit
Knowing how final the Lost Zone is, one would be forgiven for thinking there is no good reason to ever inflict such a thing upon one's own cards. Surely, not their Pokemon, at least!
In fact, and as the upcoming Lost Origin expansion will clearly demonstrate, the Lost Zone is often a self-inflicted strategy. Certain attacks are so devastating, so damning, and so absolute, that they rely upon having a set number of cards in one's Lost Zone in order to be powered up. Even then, most of these attacks can only be used once per game, but when you've got something like what we're about to show you? That's fine.
Behold the breathtaking attacks of one Giratina VSTAR, a menace we'll all be quite familiar with from September onward:
Lost Impact 280
Put 2 En🧸ergy attached to your Pokemon in the Lost Zone.
VSTAR Power
Star Requiem
You can use this attack only if you have ten or more cards in the Lost Zone. Your opponent's Active Pokemon is Knocked Out. (You can't use more than one VSTAR Power in a game.)
Lost Impact, for the record, costs one Grass Energy, one Psychic Energy, and one Colorless Energy. So, you're ditching two of those for the remainder of the game. But you're hitting for 280, and you can do this multiple times throughout the match. That, alone, is kind of wild. Just remember, that Energy is gone.
Star Requiem is the clincher, however. As of this writing, there are a total of three Pokemon with 340 HP. A fair number more have 330, and 92 Pokemon (!) range from 300 upward in full. Toss in resistances, box rules, Ability modifiers, defensive Tool cards, Stadiums, and probably at least three other things we're forgetting right now, and that 340 can seem like 680 or more.
Giratina VSTAR doesn't care. Star Requiem will knock out the opposing Pokemon no matter what.
And Giratina VSTAR isn't alone. Delphox V, another Lost Origin powerhouse, relies upon sacrificing two Energy cards to the Lost Zone in order to deal a respectable 120 damage to one of your opponent's benched Pokemon.
These days, that may not sound like much, but think of all the times you've gone up against someone who has retreated their terrifying Charizard VMAX from the brink of unconsciousness or keeps spamming with the Mew VMAX strategy. In short, Lost Zone tactics involve willingly sacrificing more than anything else the Pokemon TCG enforces in return for some seriously game-winning strikes.