Welcome to the Paldea region! Pokemon’s newest booster set collection, Scarlet & Violet, is nearly here! Get your hands on never before seen Pokemon, Trainers, special art cards, and learn about some revamped game mechanics!
Get your hands on a whole new collection of Pokemon! Choose your new starter with Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly making their debut! Once you have evolved your collection, battle your way to get Koraidon and Miraidon. Train even further to get their ex variants to channel some powerful abilities!
But don’t think that Koraidon and Miraidon are the only ones seeing the return of the ex treatment. Many evolutions are getting the ex expanse, including Arcanine and Gyarados! Collect all of these powerful creatures to become the most powerful trainer in the world!
Looking to add pieces to your art collection? Then you have found your wellspring. This set will include special illustration art cards of dozens of Trainers and Pokemon! Also make sure to look out for the new Tera Pokemon ex, each with their own special crystalline abilities!
Scarlet & Violet comes out on March 31st, 2023!
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Sword & Shield is coming to its mighty conclusion! Crown Zenith is the final booster set in the Pokemon Sword & Shield collection. Gather up the most powerful Pokemon of Galar as we traverse these wild lands one last time!
Some old favourites are making their VSTAR comebacks. Zacian, Zamazenta, and Charizard are channelling their VSTAR powers to destroy your opponents – and they are only the beginning! Gather up all 8 of these new VSTAR warriors to put your enemies to shame.
But that’s not to say that we are only going to be getting the greatest hits of the Sword & Shield collection in this set. We are also getting some brand new Radiant, V, and Colossal VMAX Pokemon! These beasts will be the best of the best, so make sure to ready your decks for some powerful new additions.
For collectors, get your hands on the special Galarian Gallery art series cards! These beautiful art cards will include common and rare Pokemon and Trainers alike. Make sure to get your hands on them early before their gone forever!
This booster set will include over 160 new cards to add to your decks and collections! The full card breakdown is:
Crown Zenith comes out on January 20th, 2023!
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It is time to harness the energy of the cold, icy depths of the world in the newest Pokemon TCG release, Sword & Shield: Silver Tempest! Awaken powerful Pokemon from their frozen slumbers as you dive into this new set, filled to the icy brim with new VSTARs and Radiant Pokemon alike!
Deep within ice-covered oceans and frost bitten landscapes, powerful creatures are slowly beginning to rise from their deep sleep. In order to find these ancient Pokemon, you will need to acquire some help. Collect some companions for your journey, such as Alolan Vulpix VSTAR, Serperior VSTAR, Unown VSTAR, and Mawile VSTAR! There are 190 possibilities for Pokemon to fill your roster and take into the unknown, including 15 V Pokemon and one VMAX!
What Pokemon should you expect to see on your search into uncharted waters? Make sure to keep an eye out for Regieleki VMAX and Regidrago VSTAR as you explore the wilds… but that doesn’t mean that they are the only things out here. There has been talk of a Lugia sighting out from the waters…
But don’t think that Pokemon will be the only adventurous friends you can collect in this set! There were be 15 Trainer cards to help ensure that your Pokemon are well taken care of on the battlefield.
Sword & Shield: Silver Tempest comes out November 11th, 2022!
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Lost Origin will bring a lot of new ways to play in the standard format, and I’m not just talking about new cards. The Lost Zone mechanic is back from its break since the Sun and Moon block and a lot of new viable cards uses it to attain some really great effects.
Hisuian Goodra VSTAR doesn’t use the Lost Zone mechanic to its advantage, but a lot of cards that supports it do. Goodra VSTAR’s attack reduces the damage it would receive during the opponent’s next turn. This damage reduction can be stacked with other similar effects to make Goodra a living tank. Its VSTAR Power is an Ability that heals every damage on it. If you play your cards right, you can attack and tank for multiple turns in a row and then heal all of your opponent’s progress to make it a decisive victory for you.
Hisuian Goodra VSTAR is a 270HP Pokémon with the Iron Rollout attack that does 200 damage in addition of making it 80 damage resistant during your opponent’s next turn. If you add it with Radiant Gardevoir, you now take 100 less damage consistently every turn that you attack. In this format where it’s important for a lot of decks to 2-hit-KO or 1-hit-KO a lot of Pokémon, 100 damage reduction is already plan-foiling enough. But with Goodra’s VSTAR POWER – Moisture Star, you can cancel multiple turns of tireless swinging and go back as if they didn’t do anything.
The plan of a Goodra VSTAR deck is to do 200 damage every turn while minimizing damage as much as possible. The biggest problem around it is its attack cost. Charging 3 energies, including 1 Metal and 1 Water, is not a walk in the park. That’s where the Lost Zone engine comes in.
Comfey is the poster child of the Lost Zone engine. Similarly to Celebrations Mew or Amazing Jirachi, it is a Basic Pokémon that helps you get cards from the top of your deck when it is in the Active Spot. When you look at the top 2 cards of your deck with the Flower Selecting ability, you choose 1 to go in your hand, and the other goes to the Lost Zone. Normally putting a precious card in the Lost Zone is a really bad effect, even with a consistency boost like that, but our deck here will profit from this.
An example of that is Cramorant. It’s also a new Pokémon from the Lost Origin set that can uses it’s 110 damage attack for free if you have 4 cards or more in the Lost Zone. Having a Basic Pokémon that can attack for free in the mid-to-late-game can be really useful against cards like Miltank that are immune to Hisuian Goodra VSTAR, or when you need to take 1 turn for your main attacker to be ready.
Banette, again a new card that synergizes with the Lost Zone, is a Stage 1 Pokémon whose ability you can use at anytime. Puppet Memorial can grab you a Supporter card from your discard pile at the cost of putting the Banette and its pre-evolution in the Lost Zone. This is a nice recycling effect and +2 cards in the Lost Zone for you. Reusing supporters will prove to be really efficient for the deck as you’ll see later.
Instead of attacking in the early game, after using a bunch of Flower Selecting abilities, you can end your turn with a draw-up-to 7 with the help of Snorlax from Vivid Voltage. This can prove useful to help you stay in the game after a bad first turn as well. If you want to gamble or trust the consistency of your Goodra deck, you can remove the Snorlax for a Diancie from Astral Radiance for a different effect (giving you more of a protection to your Hisuian Goodra V waiting to evolve).
Colress’s Experiment will be the second main way of putting cards in the Lost Zone. It makes you look at the top 5 cards of your deck, putting 3 in your hand and 2 in the Lost Zone. Basically a Super-Comfey as a Supporter.
Sometimes, it is possible to attack turn 2 with Goodra if you attached an energy turn 1 to Goodra V, and then Melony + attach for turn to the Goodra VSTAR on turn 2. Melony is also a +3 cards in hand, so it helps getting a good hand in addition of the energy acceleration.
Once you’ve achieved putting 10 cards in the Lost Zone, the real fun will begin with Fantina. Her card makes all your Pokémon take 120 less damage from Pokémon V. So in addition to Goodra’s attack and Radiant Gardevoir’s ability, you now take 220 less damage from Pokémon V. Loop it with Banette and now you can have an almost endless absurd walling with Hisuian Goodra VSTAR.
Roxanne will be hard to find when needed, but if you manage to find it at the perfect time, or managed to fetch it back from the discard pile with Banette, you can excessively disrupt your opponent other than tanking more damage than necessary.
The last and most important piece of this Lost Zone puzzle. Mirage Gate triggers when you have 7 cards in the Lost Zone, and boosts up the deck’s tempo to 100. Mirage Gate can search your deck for 2 Basic Energy of different types and attach them directly to your Pokémon in any way you like. This is the card we needed to help the weird energy cost of Goodra’s attack. If you managed to put 7 cards in the Lost Zone on turn 2 (2 or 4 from Colress’s Experiment + 2 from Banette + 1 or 3 from Comfey), you can use Mirage Gate and have a ready-to-attack Hisuian Goodra VSTAR! And with Mirage Gate, Hyper Potion is also a really good card. It’s an alternative healing effect that can make a Goodra stick to the active for much longer.
Lake Acuity is the final card that reduces damage for this deck. If any Pokémon has a Water or Fighting Energy, it takes 20 less damage from attacks. This with Fantina, Iron Rollout and Radiant Gardevoir can make your Hisuian Goodra VSTAR take 240 less damage from attacks of Pokémon V (100 less from non-V).
To put it in perspective: Arceus VSTAR with no Double Turbo Energy and Choice Belt deals 0 damage to Hisuian Goodra. Palkia VSTAR with both benches full, a Choice Belt and a Leon used does 80 damage. Mew VMAX with a Choice Belt and 4 Power Tablets used copying Melodious Echo with 4 Fusion Strike Energy in play deals 180 damage after using all their resources. In all of those extreme instances, you can heal it right up with the VSTAR Power or with Hyper Potion. That’s how absurd this deck’s tanking potential is.
Ordinary Rod is a nice safety net for the deck: if you discarded energies and want to put some in the deck for Mirage Gate, if one of your Goodra got KOed early game and you have some bad prizes, if a sniping deck Boss-KOed your Manaphy, Ordinary Rod will be there for you.
Tool Jammer nullifies Choice Belt that could be worrisome against you. It also cancels Air Balloon, which is a nice roadblock versus some combo decks.
In my opinion, Hisuian Goodra VSTAR is the best Rule Box Attacker from Lost Origin. It has immense tanking potential, 200 damage is good enough damage to 2-hit-KO most evolved V decks, and it has the Comfey and others to help it consistency-wise. Goodra doesn’t need much more than that.
Goodra’s biggest weakness is effect prevention. For example: Duraludon VMAX does 220 damage while ignoring any effects on the defending Pokémon that would reduce damage. So Duraludon VMAX will always 2-hit-KO you, while you 2-hit-KO them. For this specific matchup, I think the player that uses the healing at the best time will be victorious. The Supporter card Phoebe and Mew VMAX’s Max Miracle are also to watch-out for. Path to the Peak is also harsh for the deck, but it’s not a deal-breaker. It only shuts off Radiant Gardevoir’s ability and Goodra’s VSTAR Power.
Thanks for reading!
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Ancient beings are rumbling from the darkest dimension! Lost Origin is the newest Pokémon TCG booster set coming this fall, filled with dimension shifting, strange otherworldly creatures, and the return of the Lost Zone!
Giratina is stomping it’s way through the dimensions and into the Lost Zone. Channel the power of the Lost in order to charge up the VSTAR abilities of Giratina VSTAR, Aerodactyl VSTAR, and Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR! Discard your hand in order to draw seven new cards, negate Pokemon-V abilities, or immediately knock out your opponent’s active Pokemon!
But don’t think that Giratina, Aerodactyl, and Hisuian Zoroark are the only ones getting some VSTAR action. Get ready for Magnezone, Drapion, and Hisuian Goodra to all get VSTAR power-ups! And lets not forget about Kyurem VMAX, drawing in water energies to perform devastating attacks!
While the darkness spreads, there are those who oppose it’s return. Enamorus V and Radiant Gardevoir will be using powerful magic to counter these great VSTAR beasts!
Lost Origin comes out on September 9th! Pre-order your booster box at Three Kings Loot right here!
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Welcome to the Pokemon GO Expansion for the Pokemon TCG! In this upcoming Pokemon release, you will find some both beautiful reprints and powerful new cards with special artistic twists. Many of these reprints will include specialty art with different Pokemon appearing in the real world, such as Pikachu walking down a city street, or Snorlax taking a nap on someone’s front entrance.
Pokemon creature cards will not be the only cards getting the new art update. Trainer cards will also be updated to reflect Pokemon GO locations and items. You will also be getting your hands on some new Trainer cards, including Pokestop, which helps you find Item cards at the top of your deck, and Lure Module to search your deck for some much needed Pokemon.
Not only will there be special individual cards, but there will be some special team bonuses as well! Swear your allegiance to Team Mystic, Team Valor, or Team Instinct to get some exclusive booster set pieces. This includes new Supporter cards in the form of Team Leaders Spark, Blanche, and Candela. Use these Supporters to increase your card draw and gather energy from your deck!
And last, but absolutely not least, we will be getting three new special Pokemon for your next deck: Mewtwo VSTAR and Radiant Eevee! Use these powerful new cards to search your deck for cards, or deal incredible amounts of damage to your opponents based on the amount of V Pokemon they have in play.
The Pokemon GO Expansion comes out July 1st, 2022!
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The next Pokémon TCG set, Astral Radiance, gave us some interesting cards for Water decks. One being the focus of this deck: Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR which is an enhanced evolved version of Suicune V, a Pokémon most of us are familiar with since Evolving Skies. If we’re looking at the Japanese Standard Format, Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR looks to be a top tier deck and a great offensive threat. Let’s see how we can build something with it.
Palkia VSTAR does 60 damage + 20 more for each benched Pokémon on each player’s side, doing a maximum of 260 damage. Its VSTAR POWER is an Ability that accelerates 3 Water Energy from your discard pile to your Water Pokémon in any way you like, an Ability that will be used in many different ways in this deck. Other new cards will be explained later in this article.
Whatever way you play, I think a VSTAR deck should primarily focus on getting its main VSTAR attacker’s evolving Basic V on the bench on the first turn. Playing the maximum count of Origin Forme Palkia V is a way to help doing that.
When attacking with Palkia VSTAR, you don’t necessarily need to always have both player’s bench full. If you were going to 2-hit-KO anyway, you could focus your resources on getting a better board-state or having a better hand. Palkia is a straightforward Pokémon, swing and bench or get your opponent to bench to swing harder. Your game-plan consists of doing the appropriate damage to get KOs before your opponent and in a faster pace than them too.
Sometimes it can be an hard blow to miss a Knock Out and watch your opponent heal all damage – Mew VMAX’s Psychic Leap or Arceus VSTAR’s “Cheren’s Care” Supporter card are good examples. That’s why some cards are mainly here to help you get this sacred KO or help you retaliate a heal with more defence-based options in return.
Starmie V is a new Pokémon V from Astral Radiance – It can do 50 damage times the amount of Energy on your opponent’s board. Great against decks that piles a lot of Energy for it’s game-plan like Arceus VSTAR based decks or Darkrai VSTAR. If Arceus just did Trinity Nova, it would have needed 3 Energy on it and the opponent would probably use the full effect of the attack and charge 3 more Energy on their Pokémon. In that case, you can respond with a sudden Starmie V and do 300 damage just for 2 Water Energy. Enough to end Arceus VSTAR and just 10 damage short of the KO if it has a Big Charm. Starmie V also has 0 in its Retreat Cost, so it’s a great pivot!
Quick Shooting Inteleon does a 20 damage snipe so if you were doing 290 with Palkia VSTAR (Maximum 260 of the attack + 30 from Choice Belt), you could now use Quick Shooting to end a beefy VSTAR with a Big Charm and can go even higher with good Scoop Up Net usage.
Greninja is your Radiant Pokémon of choice here for 2 main reasons – Its Ability can help you get your Water Energy in your Discard pile for Star Portal – Palkia’s VSTAR POWER and Melony. The 2 cards draw is also a nice bonus to use the Ability. The other great aspect of Radiant Greninja is its attack. For 3 Energy it can snipe 90 damage to 2 opposing Pokémon at the cost of discarding 2 of its Energy. It’s a mini GMAX Rapid Flow! Palkia VSTAR’s Ability can charge it up and then Greninja can set up two 2-hit-KOs at the same time or it could even Knock Out two frail one-prizers. Great support and side-attacker for the deck.
These are gonna be your main draw Supporter cards for the deck. The 2 count of Professor’s Research is just to help against odds of it being prized when you really want a new big hand. Contrary to other Water Decks, like Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX, Arceus Water, or Suicune V, Palkia doesn’t need a high count of Melony. It’s good when you need it, and the draw 3 is nice, but you could go with only attachment-for-turns and Star Portal without being behind.
Marnie and Roxanne are disruptive draw supporters. Roxanne is a new Astral Radiance card that can only be used when your opponent has 3 or less Prizes remaining, but it has the game-changing effect of being a shuffle draw for both players – the player who used Roxanne get to draw 6 while the opponent draws only 2. Devastating when used on the perfect turn!
If you are not gonna draw or use Boss’s Orders, here are some good miscellaneous supporters – Irida is also a new Supporter that can search for a Water Pokémon in combination to an Item card. Cheryl is a weird situational tech in this deck, but can be a great defensive play to put the game in your favour. It acts as a pseudo-Cheren’s Care for Palkia VSTAR to imitate how Arceus VSTAR plays. After receiving a first half of a 2-hit-KO’s worth of damage on one of your Palkia VSTAR, you can use Cheryl and then, right after, use Star Portal to charge Palkia with the Energy you just discarded with Cheryl and act as if nothing happened besides the massive healing. You can even heal a benched damaged Palkia VSTAR at the same time and charge it back up with manual attachment gradually. It’s something Ice Rider VMAX or Suicune V cannot do.
When you’re just short on damage with Palkia’s attack because your opponent under-bench their board, you can use Echoing Horn to force a Pokémon from the discard pile to their Bench. Free 20 damage in some scenarios and can even make a small loop of you killing their frail 2-Prizers like Crobat V or Lumineon V in combination with Boss’s Orders. Escape Rope is your main switch-out option without Starmie V retreating or using Scoop Up Net on a non-V Pokémon.
Like I say in all articles on VSTAR Pokémon, I like to have either a 1-1, 1-2 or 2-1 split of Choice Belt and Big Charm in all my VSTAR decks. I think Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR really like to hit these 1-hit-KOs that I’ve been talking about so much, so 2 of Choice Belt in the deck helps you do that with 2 different Palkia during the game. Big Charm still has it uses and if it saves you from giving a Knock-Out even one time, I think its worth it.
Temple of Sinnoh is your main stadium of choice here. Again, a new card from Astral Radiance – It makes all Special Energy only give 1 Colorless (so not colors and no multiple energy at the same time) and removes all effects from them. Temple of Sinnoh eases the Arceus, Single Strike and Wormadam matchups for you while removing the effect of Fusion Strike Energy. If Fusion Strike Energy has no effect, then you can use Quick Shooting on Pokémon with those Energy attached to them, helping you get a KO on Mew VMAX in 1 turn.
Path to the Peak also is a great combo card to make a defensive and disruptiuve play alongside Marnie or Roxanne to put your opponent in a lock while having a small hand.
As proven in the Japanese meta, Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR has what it takes to dethrone the big top tier decks of our current format. It can do a lot of damage, it can accelerate Energy from the discard pile, it goes well with the Inteleon engine and it plays good secondary attackers in the form of Radiant Greninja, Starmie V, and Shady Dealing Inteleon.
For a “Just swing for damage” deck, playing Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR can be really tricky with your sequencing with Shady Dealing and with controlling the amount of Pokémon on both benches. Even if your opponent doesn’t bench Pokémon to minimize your damage, you can play in a way to punish them for not using their bench space. The ditto matchup is interesting as well, both players will need to use their brain and deal with the fact that benching Pokémon can advantage both sides. Overall, Palkia VSTAR looks a lot of fun to play and seems to be a top contender for the king of this format. Test the deck and don’t be afraid to test things out. It’s a fresh format so it’s cool to test fresh ideas.
Thanks for reading!
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Arceus V is making a big splash in the Pokemon TCG! The Arceus V Figure Collection has everything you need to help build a brand new Arceus deck for your next play session!
Since the release of Brilliant Stars, Arceus V, Arceus VMAX, and Arceus VSTAR has been getting some much deserved attention. With powers like Trinity Nova to boost the energy of your benched VMAX Pokemon, or Starbirth to search for any two cards in your deck, who wouldn’t want to get their hands on these powerful creatures? Throw in a Inteleon or two to tap into the Inteleon engine from Chilling Reign and dominate the battlefield!
This collection for Arceus will include:
Between this collectors set, and a few booster sets from Brilliant Stars, you will be ready to take on your next Pokemon TCG tournament by force!
Arceus V Figure Collection is out now! Order your copy at Three Kings Loot here!
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