TPC tends to want to strengthen and rely on their big new gimmick. The fact that Pokémon VMAX are considered Evolution Pokémon opens up a lot of possibilities for the future of the game. Coming out of a format that was very focused on one-shotting the Defending Pokémon, the game returning to a more two-shot atmosphere is a refreshing change of pace. While stronger than Pokémon V, most of the Pokémon VMAX hit for numbers that still fall into the two-hit KO area on both current Tag Team GX and the new Pokémon V. The attacks of the currently revealed Pokémon VMAX aren’t anything to be writing home about either. They won’t be hitting the board and attacking on turn one! While Pokémon VMAX have even higher HP numbers, we now have to consider that these are Evolved Pokémon. One of my biggest complaints about the current Tag Team GX cards is that they have incredibly high HP and attack numbers on Basic Pokémon. I suppose after two eras of gimmick-based cards, TPC decided to start this era off on the simpler side and return to the roots of the game. Don’t get me wrong: the card templates are beautiful, as it appears all Pokémon VMAX will be presented as “full art” cards. In the words of the great Shia LaBeouf: “Just do it!” It’s also worth noting that Pokémon VMAX are following in the footsteps of Tag Team GX in surrendering three Prize Cards upon knockout, which makes sense given the HP counts on these bad boys.Īt the end of the day, Pokémon VMAX are just oddly…plain? There’s no associated card required to evolve them, there’s no special attack like Sun & Moon era’s GX Attacks, the cards aren’t bigger, there isn’t anything setting these apart from your normal run-of-the-mill cards. However, unlike Mega Evolution that ended your turn unless you had the associated Spirit Link Tool Card attached, there seems to be no drawback or necessary card that has to be played to evolve into a Pokémon VMAX. For instance, the newly revealed Snorlax VMAX evolves from Snorlax V. Much like Mega Evolution Pokémon, Pokémon VMAX are considered Evolution Pokémon that evolve from their respective Pokémon V. While I nailed the first part, TPC decided to take a simple way out for the VMAX gimmick. I was also fairly certain that VMAX would be restricted to once per game, or one card per deck to emulate the fact that you can only Dynamax or Gigantimax once per battle.

Looking back, I was dead set on VMAX simply being a new card that was placed over an existing Pokémon V, much like the Mega Evolution cards of the XY era.

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