Pokemon Trading Card Game Reveals First Amazing Rare Cards

The Pokemon Trading Card Game has given fans their first look at a brand new type of rare card. Earlier this month, The Pokemon Trading Card Game revealed the first cards from Legendary Heartbeat, a new set being released in Japan that contain a brand new type of card - "Amazing Rare" cards. Amazing Rare cards are special cards that have unique abilities and special attacks, but only cost 1 Prize when defeated. Last week, the Japanese magazine CoroCoro revealed our first look at two Amazing Rare cards, Jirachi and Rayquaza, giving us our best look yet at these new types of cards.

The first thing that stands out about the Amazing Rare cards are their unique foil pattern. Both cards have a rainbow holofoil on the card art that spills out over the box containing the art and onto the rest of the card. Each card's attack also has a unique energy cost that uses three different types of energy. Jirachi's attack uses Steel, Psychic, and Fighting energy, while Rayquaza uses Grass, Electric, and Fighting energy for its attack.

Both the Jirachi and Rayquaza Amazing Rare cards have standard HP for a Basic Pokemon card. Jirachi has 70 HP, while Rayquaza has 120 HP, meaning that neither can stand up to the GX and V cards that dominate competitive play. However, each has an invaluable move. Jirachi's Amazing Star move lets players pull 7 Basic Energy cards from their deck and place them on any of their Pokemon in play, allowing a player to instantly set up another Pokemon to be used. Meanwhile, Rayquaza's Amazing Burst causes a player to discard all Energy attached to Rayquaza and does 80 damage for each Basic Energy card discarded. If used right, Rayquaza's Amazing Burst becomes a fantastic counter to almost any Pokemon your opponent has, although it likely won't get used more than once per game.

We're still waiting to hear more details about these Amazing Rare cards, such as when they'll appear in the English version of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Expect more details about these cards to be announced in the next few months.