With the new year 2025 ushering into Pokémon TCG Pocket, the game has set the stage for a new promo card Drop Event headlined by the iconic Blastoise! This popular event focuses on new promo cards earned as rewards by completing solo battles and players are thrilled!
The previous promo card event featured a stunning Venusaur card along with other cards that found great use in the meta, so does the Blastoise event serve the same, with Volcarona, Snivy, Eevee, and Cinccino in tow?
Let’s find out!
The Blastoise card depicts a full-art version of the existing Blastoise card from the Genetic Apex set. The Volcarona and Cinccino are alternate art reprints, while Snivy and Eevee are new cards with new attacks. All of them have stamps to mark them as promo cards.
Blastoise
That Blastoise has so much personality! While it’s no EX card, this Blastoise is no slouch in the current meta, especially with the new Vaporeon card from the Mythical Island set.
Vaporeon’s Wash Out Ability transfers 1 Energy from Benched Pokémon to the card on the Active Spot, so even if you have been building Energy on something else like Starmie EX or Vaporeon itself (120 HP!), use Leaf to retreat and bring Blastoise to the Active Spot.
Not to mention, while you evolve Squirtle to Blastoise on the Bench, the Misty card can turn the tide of the battle if you get luck with coin flips. This Blastoise card has an impressive 150 HP but most importantly, with up to 5 Energy attached, it does a whopping 140 DMG!
Obviously, the success of it depends a lot on Vaporeon and/or Misty, and you can also employ the new Druddigon (Rough Skin’ss passive 20 DMG) to stall. Blastoise, at its best, is a budget Gyarados EX (loosely speaking) and the EX is what you want, but a fun card that can go out of control more often than not!
Volcarona
Volcarona is sort of a sleeper in the Mythical Island meta and players need to use it more! While it’s kind of overshadowed thanks to the new Blaine | Rapidash | Ninetales Fire deck, it does dangerously well in the decks it’s included in.
Volcarona pairs superbly with good ol’ Moltres EX, which can give Volcarona up to 3 Energy each turn if it gets three heads on flipping coins. Volcarona’s Volcanic Ash is a menace as it does 80 DMG to one of your opponent’s Pokémon. Including… the Bench!
That’s 100 DMG to a Celebi EX being built on a Grass deck and even in general, 80 DMG KOs many Benched cards or those EX cards withdrawing to the Bench to stay alive. Keep in mind that you discard 2 Energy, so use it wisely and keep a Leaf card in handy to help it retreat for free.
Snivy
The Snivy card from Mythical Island has created waves in the meta as its final evolution Serperior turns Celebi EX and Exeggutor (Mythical Island) into wrecking balls. This Snivy promo is a new card actually, with the Mythical Island version having 70 HP and dealing 40 DMG for 2 Energy.
While this Snivy can start attacking with just 1 Energy, there’s a catch: the Snivy line isn’t meant to be on the Active Spot. You’re supposed to evolve it into Serperior ASAP on the Bench while Exeggutor stalls in the Active Spot. Meanwhile, you should ideally be having Celebi EX on the Bench as well.
Serperior stays on the Bench and with Jungle Totem, doubles each Energy attached to the Active Pokémon. In other words, having a Snivy with lower HP and attacking earlier doesn’t really make a difference because you want it on the Bench. So while this card may be used, having a higher HP is still preferable, especially with Bench snipers like Zebstrika, Articuno EX, and Hitmonless existing in the meta.
Eevee
We already have two variants of Eevee in TCG Pocket along with multiple artwork, and now, we have a promo that’s a new card altogether! While the Mythical Island Eevee with Continous Steps takes on an offensive standing, this one is defensive. And, it’s usable too!
The top use of Eevee at the start of 2025 is in the Water deck, especially the ones involving the dreaded Gyarados EX or Blastoise EX. It evolves into Vaporeon (Mythical Island), whose Ability helps build EX cards quicker.
With Growl paving the way for 20 less damage, this Eevee can survive for a while until Vaporeon surfs into the battlefield. In a nutshell, you can find use for it in the Water deck, as well as the Lightning and Fire decks as Jolteon and Flareon respectively.
Cinccino
Remember I mentioned that Blastoise is pretending to be Gyarados EX and chugs along as a budget version of it in the Water deck? Well, we have another Pokémon doing something similar but with Pikachu EX.
Meet Cinccino, whose Do the Wave (what’s this name, eh?) does 30 DMG for each of your Benched cards, bringing it up to 90 DMG in total. It’s Circle Circuit, but with 3 Energy (1 Energy more than Piakchu EX) and a lower HP of 90.
And oh, Pikachu EX is a Basic card, meaning that you can bring it to the Active Spot right at the outset with no evolution nonsense on the plate. Cinccino evolves from Minccino and overall, requires a lot more effort than the powerful Pikachu EX card and is still not as strong. Meh.
The cards in the Venusaur Drop event were undoubtedly stronger, with Jigglypuff debuting the Wigglytuff EX meta and Greninja seamlessly fitting into various decks, excelling with the Gyaradis EX | Druddigon deck even as 2025 begins.
As such, these cards aren’t too valuable on a competitive standpoint. Though you’ll be able to use a few like Blastoise, Volcarona, or Eevee, they are overall underwhelming in terms of battles.
But there’s no denying that their artwork is beautiful and they make your promo card collection more diverse, so yeah, grind to pull more of them from solo battles and possibly add Flair to the mix!
Happy collecting and battling, TCG Pocket-ers!
