You want to be the very best, like no one ever was? Then you’ll need the best Pokémon. Charizard? Mewtwo? Magikarp?! Such legends are strong, but their power pales in comparison to the three cards featured here.
Welcome to Game Breakers, your guide to the greatest cards from the world’s greatest TCGs. If you’re new to this game, check out Game Breakers Pokémon Basics below.
In this first installment of Game Breakers, we’re focusing exclusively on Pokémon. So, no supporter cards like Professor Oak or Lt. Surge’s Strategy. Sorry!
It’s important to know Pokémon TCG’s game designers recognised supporter cards’ power by restricting them with an “only one supporter per turn” rule. Naturally, cards that break that rule can break the game.
What’s yours is mine
The first Pokémon to manage this was Gardevoir. I don’t mean the Gardevoir EX dominating the meta today –the first archetype to rake in $1,000,000 in tournament prizes. No, I mean 2007’s Gardevoir Lv.55 from Secret Wonders. This Pokémon deviously allows you to play your opponent’s discarded supporter cards as well as your own. Coupled with its Psychic Lock attack, preventing opponents from using any Pokémon power (what fun!), Gardevoir took both first and second place at that year’s World Championship. Busted.
Defeating an opponent’s Pokémon garners two benefits: the Pokémon is discarded along with its abilities, and you gain a prize card. But what if there were a Pokémon that broke both of those rules? There isn’t one – but three!
Triple the team
Enter: Arceus & Dialga & Palkia aka ADP. This single Tag Team card from Cosmic Eclipse requires a measly two energy to break the game with its Altered Creation GX ability. ADP grants your Pokémon an additional 30 attack for the rest of the game. Plus, you gain a bonus prize whenever you defeat a Pokémon. You only need three KOs to win the game and there is nothing your opponent can do about it.
This card featured in 30 of the top 64 decks at the 2020 Oceania International. ADP’s dominance notoriously caused many Pokémon masters to take a break from the game (I can see why).
What do you desire?
What does every TCG Leader desire? Not fame. Not fortune. That’s right: card draw. Pokémon TCG restricts you to drawing one card a turn, but you want more.
One Pokémon draws cards like no other – a Pokémon so powerful it achieved the following feats before mercifully being banned: it took first, second and third at a nationals event; enabled an emergency ban of a combo card in Standard; and caused 10+ bannings in Pokémon’s Expanded format (basically half of the banlist).
It’s Shaymin EX from Roaring Skies, a name that strikes fear into the heart of veteran Pokémon Trainers. Shaymin EX is a colourless, basic Pokémon with a crazy ability: “When you play this Pokémon from your hand onto your Bench, you may draw cards until you have six cards in hand.”
Could anything be more beautiful? Yes. Four Shaymin EX and a host of cards to find and replay it. And that’s what everyone did. The regular, half-art version of this card rose to an eye-watering £100 in 2015! A playset cost five times an entire deck.
Take heed. None of these Pokémon were deemed broken on release, and it took time for the community to discover their dominance. But you now know what they have in common: these Pokémon undid rules that safeguard the game.
Pokémon: The Basics
• Decks have 60 cards, with Pokémon, Trainer and Energy cards.
• Begin with 7 cards in hand and 6 facedown “prize” cards.
• Each turn: draw 1 card; play trainer cards; play basic Pokémon to your active zone or one of five bench spots; and attach one energy card to a Pokémon to fuel its attacks.
• Use your active Pokémon to attack the opponent’s active Pokémon.
• Defeat Pokémon to earn prize cards. Earn all six to win.
Deren Ozturk
Award-nominated game designer, TCG veteran, and the founder of Adder Stone Games. Deren lives in Cardiff, Wales, and frequently visits the USA and Japan for gaming adventures. His favourite card combo is Sneak Attack Gandalf!
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