Sun & Moon: Unified Minds Goes Live
Finally, after much anticipation, after weeks of pre-releases and after countless hours pouring over the new cards, the latest Pokémon TCG set is here and it is amazing.
On August 2nd, Unified Minds, the 11th main expansion set in the extremely popular Sun & Moon series hit the shelves, reshaping and warping the Pokémon TCG standard format along with it.
Today we are going to dive deeper into this set, exploring its new key trainer cards, and of course the new Tag Team GX Pokémon that have been added to the Standard format pool with the release of this set.
Sun & Moon: Unified Minds Set Size
First off, we are going to take a broad look at the Unified Minds set, of which contains a total of 258 cards, all of which can be conveniently looked up on Bulbapedia.
The Unified Minds set, like previous sets before it contains both a “standard set”, which are numbered 1-236, a “reverse holo” alternative set and a number of cards that are considered “secret rares”.
There are a total of 22 “secret rares” in the Unified Minds set, many of which are going to be considered the “chase” cards of the set, due to the value that they typically hold, as collectors eagerly take them off the market, attempting to complete their “master sets” as fast as possible.
As always, these gold “secret rare” cards are true works of art and we especially love the look of the Viridian Forest stadium card, which features the original home of Weedle, Caterpie and yes, Pikachu way back in the original Pokémon Red & Blue Gameboy days.
However, these are just a small sample of the great pulls that you are going to find contained within the Pokémon Sun & Moon: Unified Minds set.
Let’s continue.
Sun & Moon: Unified Minds Trainer Cards
Contained within this 258 card set are a number of brand new trainer cards, some of which are going to radically change the current Pokémon TCG standard format.
A few of these trainers (of which there are many more) are Hapu, Great Potion, Reset Stamp and Giant Bomb.
Hapu is the best supporter card to be released in the Unified Minds set. It isn’t going to be quite as strong as some previously seen cards, such as Cynthia, Lillie, or Guzma, however it is nothing to sneeze about and is sure to find its way into a large number of decks that highly value discard synergy, such as Blacephalon and Shedinja decks.
Next up is Giant Bomb, which is going to be a “build around” type card, but of which is one that is surely going to find a home in the current Tag Team era we find ourselves in. Big damage is the name of the game, and this card makes opponents think twice before attacking, which is always a good thing.
Great Potion is soon set to be the best healing trainer card in the standard meta, as Acerola and Max Potion will be rotating out in the near future. Healing 50 HP from your GX Pokémon, with no drawbacks is great and will often be enough to stop many non GX decks from two hit KO’ing your GX Pokémon.
Last, but certainly not least is Reset Stamp, which is arguably one of the best new cards in the sets entirety, which is saying a lot.
Reset Stamp works similar to the old trainer supporter card “N”, which was one of the most highly sought after supporter cards in old Standard formats and of which is still one of the best cards in the Expanded format.
Reset Stamp allows you to make an epic comeback against your opponent, just when they thought they were about to close out the game with their final plays, making them discard their cards and only draw as many new cards as they have remaining prize cards.
This card is surely to be the move that gets many players back in the game and possibly even take them to victory.
Sun & Moon: Unified Minds Tag Team GX Pokémon
Carrying on with the trend that began with the Sun & Moon: Team Up expansion set, Unified Minds continues on with the Tag Team GX theme.
In addition to the nine solo GX Pokémon cards that were released in the Unified Minds expansion set, we also were fortunate enough to receive EIGHT new Tag Team GX Pokémon cards, featuring some of the most iconic Pokémon teaming up to do battle.
These cards are as follows;
- Slowpoke & Psyduck GX
- Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor GX
- Raichu & Alolan Raichu GX
- Mewtwo & Mew GX
- Espeon & Deoxys GX
- Umbreon & Darkrai GX
- Mega Sableye & Tyranitar GX
- Garchomp & Giratina GX
In addition to the standard Team Up GX card style, many of these cards will also include a more exclusive, harder to find “Full Art” version contained within the Unified Minds set. These are must have cards for collectors and are highly sought after.
As can be seen from the images above, the Unified Minds Tag Team GX Pokémon once again carry on the theme of high HP, heavy hitting Pokémon that can easily run away with the game, if your opponent doesn’t quickly find a way to deal with them.
One in particular card that is incredibly powerful is the Mewtwo & Mew GX Tag Team card.
Mewtwo is known for its power, while Mew is known for its utility, while also being incredibly fragile. The two of these Pokémon take the best of both worlds and combine them together, while boasting a significant 270 HP.
This card is truly insane, as Mew brings the “Perfection” ability to the table, which allows you to use the attacks of ANY Pokémon on your bench, or even in your discard pile!
Its GX attack, which can only be used once per game, does 200 damage for three energy, while offering the option of fully healing ALL of your Pokémon if you have four or more energy attached!
Rest assured that this is truly one of the best cards in the Unified Minds set and is going to take home a large number of wins as we move forward in this Standard season.
In Conclusion
The Pokémon Trading Card Game continues to impress us, releasing hit set after hit set and Unified Minds certainly doesn’t disappoint.
We hope that you have already had a chance to partake in this great expansion set, but if not, we highly suggest that you do so as soon as possible and join in on the fun!
Thanks for reading and please let us know what cards from the Unified Minds set excite you most? We’d love to know!