TCG: Scarlet and Violet Triple Beat Subset Announced

The first Japanese Scarlet and Violet subset will be Triple Beat.

Scarlet and Violet Triple Beat will feature the three Scarlet and Violet starter Pokémon.

Scarlet & Violet Triple Beat

The focus of Triple Beat is going to be the first evolutions and final evolutions of the Scarlet and Violet starters. It will be released March 10th, and features not only some beautiful Illustrator Rare cards, but also some very powerful ex cards! While Scarlet & Violet ex will be the set to bring the game back to ex form, Triple Beat looks like the set that is going to introduce the power behind whatever the new meta will be.

Illustrator Rares

Sprigatito is the first Illustrator Rare card of the three starter Pokémon. The illustrator of this card is Kouki Saitou, a very experienced artist who has illustrated almost 700 cards since all the way back when ex Cards were first introduced in 2003.

Fuecoco will be the second Illustrator Rare of the starters. The illustrator of the card is “kantaro” who is a freelance artist that just began illustrating Pokémon cards with the recently released Crown Zenith. The Fuecoco card depicts a scene representing a scene from the video game in which Fuecoco enjoys an apple, this time not burnt. Likely to be used as an evolution Pokémon competitively, it has both a large health pool and a decent amount of damage capability for a card meant only to evolve into a stronger form.

The final starter Pokémon Illustrator Rare is Quaxly. The Illustrator of the card is Souichirou  Gunjima who has been illustrating Pokémon cards ever since the release of fan favorite set Shining Fates. Gunjima is known for specializing in Pokémon in motion, so it makes sense that Quaxly would be represented as the most active starter in the Illustrator Rares.

ex Cards

Judging by their health pools and damage output, it's hard to believe that these ex Pokémon aren't even Terastallization ex cards. With possible damage outputs of 220, 270, and 230 damage, Meowscarada, Skeledirge, and Quaquaval may be some of the most powerful cards in the upcoming metagame. Not to mention their health pools range from 310 to 340. That means that, for example, an attack costing only one Water Energy and one Colorless Energy will allow Quaquaval to do 460 super effective damage to Skeledirge, completely bypassing its massive 340HP for a one-hit knockout. Not only that, but the only caveat for the attack is that the two energy cards must be returned to the player's hand. That's right, the player doesn't even have to discard the energy to deal that much damage!

These new ex releases are not only exciting, but extremely scary. That being said, the fact that they have to be evolved twice from their base form may be a reason the payoff is so large. They will require a decent length of setup in order to turn them into the powerhouses they could become.