#primal clash

[pokemon-cards-hourly]

[alolaphotoclub]

TEAM MAGMA VS. TEAM AQUA 🌋🌊

groudon x camerupt x zangoose

maxie x mightyena x archie

seviper x sharpedo x kyogre

current market value: $696.47 CAD

[knickknackgalore]

Volbeat 17/160 Pokémon Card from the Primal Clash Set

[mypokedextcg]

#0031 - Nidoqueen (Primal Clash)

[gh0stly-trickster]

[thriftrescue]

.. . and that's how Father's Day was saved!

[poketcg]

illus. Mitsuhiro Arita

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2021: Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick (Primal Clash)

Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick was the Fighting-type version of Archie’s Ace in the Hole. It was a Supporter that could only be played when it was the last card in your hand, and it let you put a Fighting Pokemon from your discard pile onto your Bench. Then you could draw 5 cards. Why is this being covered separately from the Archie version? While the effect was basically the same, the type meant that the target focused on some very different decks... and resulted in a rather controversial move in Expanded.

Without the ability to get Blastoise, Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick was the bad one for quite some time. It wasn’t until later, when people began to pair Darkness-types such as Yveltal and Zoroark with the tech that was Gallade that it finally got into some good decks. The combo didn’t last for too long in standard, as the game turned against that specific deck rather quickly and Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick rotated out before Gallade could have a second run at hitting weaknesses while rearranging the top of the deck.

It did, however, see some expanded play, with the uses being the same; mostly getting out Gallade to hit important Dark- and Lightning-types on a Weakness. And then, just before the Team Up set was released, they banned it. It wasn’t banned for what it had done, but what it could do. Omastar was about become legal and Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick could potentially be used to Item lock the opponent almost from the start of the game. They didn’t want this possibility, so Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick was banned from Expanded. It was a surprise to be sure, but maybe avoiding the really early Omastar wasn’t a bad thing.