Our Top Cards from Pokemon Sword & Shield!
Sword and Shield is coming to an end and we would like to take this opportunity to look back on some of the most influential cards in the TCG during this monumental era. We have picked out 20 cards that we feel have greatly influenced the game over the past 3 years. Keep on reading to learn what they are and why we think they're so special.
Zacian V - Sword & Shield Base Set
The first card on our list of course comes from Sword & Shield base set. Zacian V enabled the Arceus, Dialga & Palkia Tag Team card to become a tier zero deck and dominate the meta for months. Even if its ability doesn't attach any energy, the ability to draw 3 cards is a massive advantage, especially on the first turn.
Zacian V
Ability - Intrepid Sword Once during your turn, you may look at the top 3 cards of your deck and attach any number of Metal Energy cards you find there to this Pokémon. Put the other cards into your hand. If you use this Ability, your turn ends.
Brave Blade - 230 During your next turn, this Pokémon can’t attack.
Marnie - Sword & Shield Base Set
Marnie was an incredibly sought after card when base set debuted. It acted as a shuffle draw supporter and presented an incredible disruption for your opponent.
Marnie
Trainer - Supporter
Each player shuffles their hand and puts it on the bottom of their deck. If either player puts any cards on the bottom of their deck in this way, you draw 5 cards, and your opponent draws 4 cards.
Scoop Up Net - Rebel Clash
Scoop Up Net was introduced in Rebel Clash and was a great toolbox card to have in your arsenal. It enables you to free up bench spaces and reuse "when this pokemon is played" effects, like some on this list it also acts as a switching card in a pinch.
The Scoop Up Net
Trainer - Item
Put 1 of your Pokémon that isn’t a Pokémon V or a Pokémon-GX into your hand. (Discard all attached cards.)
Boss's Orders - Rebel Clash
Boss's Orders made a great impact as soon as it was released. The ability to disrupt your opponent by switching out their active Pokemon is a nice trick to have and most decks were running several copies of this card.
Boss’s Orders
Trainer - Supporter
Switch 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon with their Active Pokémon.
Snorlax - Vivid Voltage
Vivid Voltage biggest standout was Snorlax, giving you the ability to completely refresh your hand. This is great in control decks as it ends the turn and acts as a free draw engine for the deck, letting you draw into all your disruption cards.
Snorlax
Basic Pokémon - HP 130
Ability - Gormandize Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, you may draw cards until you have 7 cards in your hand. If you use this Ability, your turn ends.
Body Slam 100 Flip a coin. If heads, your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Paralyzed.
Drizzile - Sword & Shield Base Set
When rotation occurred in April, Drizzile found itself being brought to the forefront! It gave you the ability to search your deck for a trainer card of your choice!
Drizzile
Stage 1 Pokémon (Evolves From: Sobble) - HP 90
Ability - Shady Dealings When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may search your deck for a Trainer card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.
Water Drip 30
Melony - Chilling Reign
Melony allowed you to recycle water energy from your discard pile with the added extra of drawing 3 cards! It allows decks to cheat out an extra energy for the attack, usually setting a Pokemon up in 1 turn fully!
Melony
Trainer - Supporter
Attach a Water Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokémon V. If you do, draw 3 cards.
Path to the Peak - Chilling Reign
Path to the Peak effectively shut down a lot of powerful decks by removing abilities. The card is arguably the best card to come out of Chilling Reign and evokes Power Plant from Unbroken Bonds.
Path to the Peak
Trainer - Stadium
Pokémon with a Rule Box in play (both yours and your opponent’s) have no Abilities. (Pokémon V, Pokémon-GX, etc. have Rule Boxes.)
Mew VMAX - Fusion Strike
Mew VMAX greatly impacted the format, enough that it gained a League Battle Deck. Its Cross Fusion Strike attack allowed you to deliver some massive attacks with only 2 energy and gave you the opportunity to make a great toolbox from Fusion Strike Pokemon. When combined with Genesect V, the deck gained a huge amount of draw.
Mew VMAX
Pokémon VMAX (Evolves From: Mew V) - HP 310
VMAX rule When your Pokémon VMAX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 3 Prize cards.
Cross Fusion Strike Choose 1 of your Benched Fusion Strike Pokémon’s attacks and use it as this attack.
Max Miracle 130 - This attack’s damage isn’t affected by any effects on your opponent’s Active Pokémon.
Arceus VSTAR - Brilliant Stars
Arceus VSTAR not only has a great VSTAR ability, giving you the chance to search for 2 cards for free, but also packs a massive punch whilst also powering up your benched Pokemon. The main aim with Arceus VSTAR is to attack as soon as you can, which is made possible on turn 2 with cards like Double Turbo Energy! The deck aims to loop Arceus VSTARs using Cheren's Care too!
Arceus VSTAR
Pokémon-VSTAR (Evolves From: Arceus V) - HP280
VSTAR Power - Ability - Starbirth During your turn, you may search your deck for up to 2 cards and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck. (You can’t use more than 1 VSTAR Power in a game.)
VSTAR rule When your Pokémon VSTAR is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Trinity Nova - 200 Search your deck for up to 3 basic Energy cards and attach them to your Pokémon V in any way you like. Then, shuffle your deck.
Manaphy - Brilliant Stars
Manaphy protects your bench from your opponents attacks. It fills the same purpose that Mew used to; stopping your opponent from sniping your benched Pokemon for an easy win.
Manaphy
Basic Pokémon - HP 70
Ability - Wave Veil Prevent all damage done to your Benched Pokémon by attacks from your opponent’s Pokémon.
Rain Splash - 20
Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR - Astral Radiance
Astral Radiance brought forth the super-powerful Palkia VSTAR! Its Star Portal ability was a massive advantage and saw that it saw heavy play!! It also synergised ridiculously well with Radiant Greninja (see below).
Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR
Pokémon-VSTAR (Evolves From: Origin Forme Palkia V) - HP 280
VSTAR Power - Ability - Star Portal During your turn, you may attach up to 3 Water Energy cards from your discard pile to your Water Pokémon in any way you like. (You can’t use more than 1 VSTAR Power in a game.)
VSTAR rule When your Pokémon VSTAR is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Subspace Swell - 60+ This attack does 20 more damage for each Benched Pokémon (both yours and your opponent’s).
Radiant Greninja - Astral Radiance
Astral Radiance introduced Radiant Pokemon and even though players could only utilise one of them in their deck, their powerful abilities more than made up for it! As mentioned above, this card was included in decks with Palkia VSTAR! It boasts insane draw power, and the attack is also super good if you manage to get it off!
Radiant Greninja
Basic Pokémon - HP 130
Ability - Concealed Cards You must discard an Energy card from your hand in order to use this Ability. Once during your turn, you may draw 2 cards.
Radiant Pokémon Rule You can’t have more than 1 Radiant Pokémon in your deck.
Moonlight Shuriken Discard 2 Energy from this Pokémon. This attack does 90 damage to 2 of your opponent’s Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Miltank - Astral Radiance
In an era where Pokemon V saw a lot of play, immunity from V Pokemon is a massive advantage to have! Its inclusion in Astral Radiance had a great impact on the format and gave it a reputation as an annoying card to come up against.
Miltank
Basic Pokémon - HP 110
Ability - Miracle Body Prevent all damage done to this Pokémon by attacks from your opponent’s Pokémon V.
Rout - 10+ This attack does 20 more damage for each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.
Oranguru - Sword & Shield Base Set
After Astral Radiance players started realising that decks with a lot of combo pieces are heavily disrupted by cards such as Marnie! Oranguru then started to be included to counter Marnie in combo decks.
Oranguru
Basic Pokémon - HP 120
Ability - Primate Wisdom Once during your turn, you may switch a card from your hand with the top card of your deck.
Whap Down - 70
Flying Pikachu VMAX - Celebrations
The biggest playable card to come out of Celebrations, a set mainly aimed at collectors and nostalgia, is Flying Pikachu VMAX. Often described as an anti-meta card, Flying Pikachu won a World Championship in a deck with Arceus VSTAR and gained a ton of popularity as a result.
Flying Pikachu VMAX
Pokémon VMAX (Evolves From: Flying Pikachu V) - HP 310
VMAX rule When your Pokémon VMAX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 3 Prize cards.
Max Balloon - 160 During your opponent’s next turn, prevent all damage done to this Pokémon by attacks from Basic Pokémon.
Regigigas - Astral Radiance
Even though it had a massive restriction, the ability of Regigigas is incredibly powerful. Recycling energy from your discard pile is not something to make light of and it also acts as a counter against VMAX Pokemon, dealing a whopping 300 damage! Regigigas allowed you to have a great toolbox to counter a multitude of decks.
Regigigas
Basic Pokémon - HP 150
Ability - Ancient Wisdom Once during your turn, if you have Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Regieleki, and Regidrago in play, you may attach up to 3 Energy cards from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokémon.
Gigaton Break - 150+ If your opponent’s Active Pokémon is a Pokémon VMAX, this attack does 150 more damage.
Radiant Charizard - Pokemon GO
Another powerful Radiant Pokemon came in the form of fan-favourite Charizard! As you would expect from Charizard, this card has a massive amount of damage output! It also combos well with Inteleon from Base Set.
Radiant Charizard
Basic Pokémon - HP 160
Ability - Excited Heart This Pokémon’s attacks cost Colorless less for each Prize card your opponent has taken.
Radiant Pokémon Rule You can’t have more than 1 Radiant Pokémon in your deck.
Combustion Blast - 250 During your next turn, this Pokémon can’t use Combustion Blast.
Comfey - Lost Origin
Lost Origin reintroduced the Lost Zone into the game and Comfey took advantage of this with its ability to slowly add cards to it! It also added an extra amount of draw and worked great during early parts of the game!
Comfey
Basic Pokémon - HP 70
Ability - Flower Selecting Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, you may look at the top 2 cards of your deck and put 1 of them into your hand. Put the other card in the Lost Zone.
Spinning Attack - 30
Lugia VSTAR - Silver Tempest
Lugia VSTAR has made massive waves in the meta and is now a very common sight at tournaments! Lugia VSTAR has enabled probably the strongest deck to emerge during the Sword & Shield era, perhaps even eclipsing the powerful ADP deck that utilised Zacian V.
Lugia VSTAR
Pokémon-VSTAR (Evolves From: Lugia V) - HP 280
VSTAR Power - Ability - Summoning Star During your turn, you may put up to 2 Colorless Pokémon that don’t have a Rule Box from your discard pile onto your Bench. (Pokémon V, Pokémon-GX, etc. have Rule Boxes.) (You can’t use more than 1 VSTAR Power in a game.)
VSTAR rule When your Pokémon VSTAR is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
Tempest Dive - 220 You may discard a Stadium in play.
