Pokémon Guide: ACE SPEC - Everything You Need to Know

Hello to all. I am Rodrigo, bringing news about Pokémon TCG.

A lot has been revealed through the spoilers that came in the Japanese versions of the Scarlet/Violet block, the famous Wild Force and Cyber Judge sets, which will form the base of the fifth expansion's western set. The ACE SPEC cards have reappeared, the special "tech" cards that help your deck in unique ways, a mechanic that popped up in the Black/White era.

This article is for everyone who doesn't know anything about these cards' influence, importance and story, which started in 2012, around 12 years ago.

Let's go!

Story

Everything started with the release of the first ACE SPEC cards in the 7th Black/White base set: Boundaries Crossed. Four cards in this category were highlighted then.

With a "tech" design, they presented a specific rule: it isn't possible to have more than one ACE SPEC card in your deck, something similar to what we have now in the Standard format with Radiant cards.

briefly in this article, in the final topics about Wild Force & Cyber ​​Judge spoilers, three ACE SPECS cards were announced, at the date this article is being written, for the next set, that will be here in March 2024.

Counting with Master Ball (on the left), following the order, we then have two cards and their descriptions:

1) Prime Catch: Forces your opponent to move a Pokémon from its bench to the active position. Next, you'll do the same with your Pokémon, promoting one from the bench to the active position.

It is practically a Guzma BUS 115 (from the Sun/Moon era) in item-form.

2) Neo Superior Energy: Grants just one colorless energy (C) to the Pokémon it is attached to. However, if this Pokémon is a stage 2 Pokémon, it will provide two colorless energies (C" alt="C"/>

This is the first ACE SPEC card that uses energies as a base.

We hope The Pokémon Company has the decency to keep the ACE SPECS mechanic in the game for longer. However, the Pokémon Company has a tendency to shorten the durability of cards with specific mechanics, which ruins the metagame long term. These cards, for instance, could have been kept since 2012 in this hiatus between sets, and these are problems I discussed in this article about the durability of certain mechanics in the ACE SPECs topic.

Another thing I hope, and many players hope too, is that ACE SPECs are more diverse in the future, with at least 20 different models to enrich this mechanic even more. If possible, it would be cool to bring some old mechanics, like Scoop Up Cyclone PLB 95, Dowsing Machine PLS 128, Scramble Switch PLS 129, and, of course, Computer Search BCR 137. We also hope other cards are reworked, such as Rock Guard PLF 108 and Gold Potion BCR 140, into stronger versions with more relevant effects.

This is all for now. I hope this article has been useful for you to know these cards' history and past, and I hope you're up-to-date with them. Comment down below your opinion about the cards that deserve to be ACE SPECs, and why!

See you next time.