In commemoration of Nintendo’s 135ᵗʰ anniversary, September 20 to 30 is NIWA Cross-Wiki Week. Click here for event details and the possibility to win a $20/€20 Nintendo eShop gift card. Please remember to follow the manual of style and code of conduct at all times. Check the Bulbagarden home page for up-to-date Pokémon news and discuss it on the forums or in the Bulbagarden Discord server.
Black & White — Plasma Storm (Japanese: プラズマゲイルPlasma Gale) is the name given to the eighth main expansion of cards from the English Black & White Series of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The Japanese release is the seventh of the BW era.
Clouds gather, Energy crackles, and when you play the Pokémon TCG: Black & White—Plasma Storm expansion, a new force will be felt as the tempestuous Team Plasma makes its debut! All must make ready for a new battlefield, featuring electrifying Team Plasma Pokémon, game-changing Trainer cards, and Team Plasma Pokémon-EX such as Articuno-EX, Zapdos-EX, and Lugia-EX. And, as all-new, powerful ACE SPEC cards blast the balance of power and even more amazing Pokémon-EX race into battle, a question must be asked: Trainers, are you ready? Prepare for the Plasma Storm!
The Plasma Storm expansion features the debut of Team Plasma in the Pokémon TCG. Team Plasma cards sport a blue border and the Team Plasma Emblem behind the card text. Team Plasma Pokémon are all final evolutions and can evolve from non-Team Plasma Pokémon. All non-Pokémon-EX Team Plasma Pokémon are illustrated by 5ban Graphics. Their status as Team Plasma Pokémon allows certain benefits from other cards: Plasma Energy can be attached from the deck straight to a Team Plasma Pokémon by use of Colress Machine. Additionally, certain Team Plasma Supporter cards can only interact with Team Plasma cards, such as Team Plasma Grunt and Shadow Triad.
In addition to Pokémon-EX and Full Art cards, Plasma Storm and Plasma Gale both feature 3 Ace Spec (Dowsing Machine, Scramble Switch, Victory Piece). Victory Piece is a Pokémon Tool that can be attached to Victini-EX, allowing Victini-EX to use its attacks without any Energy attached to it. Scramble Switch acts as a Switch that can also transfer as many Energy from the Old Active Pokémon to the new Active Pokémon as the player would like. Dowsing Machine has the same effect as the original Base Set card, Item Finder, did. Dowsing Machine would be considered a reprint, but the item from the games that it is based on changed both English and Japanese names.
Plasma Storm features various combos that are strong competitively. Utilizing the PoisonedSpecial Condition, Plasma Storm introduces both Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym, a combination that will cause 30 damage between turns to the opposing Active Pokémon. This pair remained strong within competitive play throughout the next few expansions. Virbank City Gym could also be paired with Crobat, resulting in 60 Poison damage in between turns. Another strong Pokémon introduced within Plasma Storm would be Klinklang. This Klinklang card, with its powerful defensive abilityPlasma Steel brought with it a return of Metal-type Pokémon in competitive play.
This expansion is riddled with errors. The Secret Charizard card was printed with a Fighting Energy symbol within its second attack instead of the correct Fire Energy. Additionally, Whismur, Loudred, and Exploud were erroneously placed before Lugia-EX in the setlist. Furthermore, the Full Art print of Colress was at first printed without all the special etching that it was supposed to (the original print lacked many of the wavy lines featured throughout the card). This mistake was corrected sometime during the initial print run. This Full Art print of Colress was also absent from many of the official checklists initially released for the expansion. It has since been added to the official one on Pokémon.com.