Versus Rewards Ladder has updated! This months card rewards are...underwhelming!
Barboach > Whiscash:
This line eh at best. The Whiscash has a decent second attack, and pretty good HP for a Stage 1 Evolution. His first attack is arguably better than the second one.
Amnesia [C] allows you to do 20 damage but also control what moves your opponent can use. However, this is easily remedied if your opponent switches the Active Pokemon.
Rising Lunge [W][C][C] does 60 damage, with a chance to do 90 on a coin flip. The 60 damage alone will KO most Basic Pokemon, but I'd suggest running DCE is you plan on running this line.
Poliwag > Poliwhirl > Politoed:
I'm much happier with this line to be honest. Especially with the King's Song Ability. I suggest running DCEs if you plan on running this line in your deck.
Spiral Current [C][C][C] is the main draw of Poliwag. It does 20 damage, but confuses and makes it impossible for your opponent to retreat their Pokemon next turn. Granted items like Switch and Keldeo EX's Rush In Ability can still be used to retreat by your opponent but it's a much better form of lockdown than Whiscash gave you. Rain Splash [W] is a nice cheap first turn move.
Poliwhirl gets a slightly more powerful Rain Splash [W] at 20 damage instead of 10. The main draw of this card though is its Finishing Blow [C][C][C] attack. 50 damage for 3 Colorless isn't TOO terrible, however the effect of the attack is the main draw here. If the opponent has any damage counters already on it Finishing Blow will DOUBLE its damage to do a whopping 100 for only 3 Colorless Energy.
Finally we have our King's Song Politoed. This Ability allows for you to ignore all [C] Energy requirements for each Poliwag, Poliwhirl and Poliwrath's attacks. This ability makes the second attacks of the entire line super good. The only downside I see with this is that Politoed's ability doe snot effect his own attack Hyper Voice [W][C][C], which does 70 damage, but that is a small price to pay for the ability.
As a bonus, let me take a look at the Poliwrath that would be effected by this Ability as well. Poliwrath has 140 HP, has a weakness to Grass, [C][C][C] retreat cost, and two attacks. His attacks have a pretty good cost without the King's Song, but with its effect Steamroll [C][C][C] does 60 damage and 30 damage to one of your opponents benched Pokemon, great for getting picks on things that may have been retreated to prevent a knockout. His second attack is Submission [W][W][C][C] which does a whopping 130 damage but also has 30 points of recoil. Since this card does not come as part of the set you'll have to grind through some packs of Furious Fists to get it.
Blastoise EX:
Blastoise EX is rather disappointing for an EX in my opinion. Rapid Spin [C][C] does only 30 damage and forces you to switch your Pokemon and then your opponent must switch as well. This effect would be more acceptable if you switched after your opponent, however because you must switch first, it allows your opponent to counter your Pokemon if they are able to. It makes for a nice retreat if you're forced to use start the game with Blastoise as your Active Pokemon but outside of that this attack is disappointing.
His second attack is Splash Bomb [W][W][W] which does 120 damage, but has a chance of 30 points is recoil if you flip tails. You should expect a lot more out of an EX. His attacks don't allow him to KO even Stage 2 Pokemon let alone another EX. That combined with the fact that none of the Kanto starters currently have Spirit Links makes Blastoise EX just pale in comparison to other EX cards.
Speaking of Mega Pokemon though, lets take a look at the Mega he gets! M Blastoise EX has 220 health, and while Hydro Bombard [W][W][W] has the same cost and damage as Splash Bomb, it instead does 30 damage to 2 of your opponents Benched Pokemon allowing Bench snipes. Unfortunately this Pokemon does not have a Spirit Link, but it is an acceptable at best trade-off.
Froakie > Frogadier > Greninja:
I don't have much to say about Froakie or Frogadier here really. Froakie's Bounce [W] does 10 damage and has a chance to force you to retreat, and Frogadier's Lick [W][C] does 30 damage and has a chance to Paralyze your opponents Active Pokemon.
Greninja is much more interesting in the fact that his ability Water Shuriken allows you to discard [W] once per turn in order to put 3 damage counters on any of your opponents Pokemon. This allows you to either snipe something on the bench, or increase your total damage to the Active Pokemon. Mist Slash [W] is a super good attack dealing a whopping 50 damage for only 1 Energy. The downside (and upside) is that it isn't effected by Weaakness, Resistance or any other effects on the opponent's Active Pokemon.
Archie's Ace in the Hole:
What a terrible card. The main effect of the card is pretty great, allowing you to take a water Pokemon from your grace and put it on your bench, then allowing you to draw 5 cards, but then we see the condition for when this card can be played. You can only play this card when it is the last card in your hand. This effect is way too situational to be effective in any sort of play. You really need to play around this card for it to be effective.
The rest of the rewards are the same as before. 425 Trainer Tokens, a Tournament Chest, a total of 9 packs of Roaring Skies, and a total of 8 Tournament Tickets. Speaking of those packs, I would suggest waiting until August 12th to reach the pack rewards as the packs might switch to Ancient Origins. Usually rewards are based on the most recently released packs, and that is the day Ancient Origins is coming out.