The Pokémon TCG’s Black Bolt & White Flare expansions are releasing on July 18th, in time for their first major tournament to be this year’s World Championships in August. As a result, most of the game’s best players are going to be especially secretive about any meaningful leads in discovering the full potential of these new cards. I won’t be competing at the World Championships this year, after deciding not to attempt the grueling Top 125 grind for an invitation. So, you’ll hear my unfiltered thoughts on these expansions, and the method I teach for evaluating new cards on your own.

Whenever a new card releases, I rate it on two axes. The obvious first axis being the power-level—where on the scale from never-played to meta-defining do I expect the card to land, and what are all of its relevant uses. The second axis, which I’d argue is even more important, is how easily verifiable is the card’s power-level—how much time will it take to determine if my prediction was correct. How many games do you need to play, how many hours of building lists, or how much time re-evaluating old cards do you need? Can you get away with just looking at online tournament results—is the card simple and obvious enough that other people will test it accurately for you? The prediction for power-level and for ease-of-verification in tandem are enough information to create a productive testing plan to make sure you don’t waste time unnecessarily, nor get blind-sided by a rapidly-approaching tournament you thought you’d be prepared for in less time.

Trainer and Energy cards frequently have a big implication on how the Pokémon are evaluated, so I always start with them:

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