Devolution Spray

What the card does

The Base Set wording let a player pick a Pokémon and a Stage, discarding all Evolution cards of that Stage or higher and clearing any Special Conditions as if it had just evolved. The Dragons Exalted rework changed this into a devolve effect, putting the Pokémon's highest Stage Evolution card into hand and preventing that Pokémon from evolving again that turn. The Fates Collide wording only capitalizes Stage.

Printing history

Devolution Spray debuted in the WOTC era's Base Set with Keiji Kinebuchi art, then returned in the Black and White era's Dragons Exalted with new art by Ryo Ueda and the reworked effect. It appeared again in the XY era's Fates Collide with art by Toyste Beach, and as a retro card in Evolutions reusing the original Kinebuchi artwork. Our catalog lists 4 printings.

Trivia

The Dragons Exalted print's effect essentially matches that of Hyper Devolution Spray, a card from the earlier Neo Discovery set.

Cards to know

• Devolution Spray (Base Set #72)

  The Base Set printing is Devolution Spray's first release

• Devolution Spray (Dragons Exalted #113)

  The Dragons Exalted printing introduced the devolve-and-return-to-hand effect

• Devolution Spray (Evolutions #76)

  The Evolutions printing reprints the original Base Set artwork in a retro template