Pokémon TCG Pocket’s newest expansion is finally here, bringing with it over 200 new cards for players to include in their decks. Most of these cards are based on Pokémon originally discovered in the Johto region, but there are a few outliers, too, none of which seem to follow any particular theme.
As with every set, trying to figure out which cards are the best can be a challenge, with so many cards to sort through, so we’ve done the work for you. We’ve looked at every single card in the Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion to come up with this list of the best cards in the set. Not all of these will be meta-defining, but all of them have their place, and with enough future support, are sure to make it onto plenty of deck lists.
Octillery is the first card in Pokémon TCG Pocket to apply a lingering non-status effect to an opposing card. If you use its Octazooka attack, your opponent’s Pokémon is inflicted with an effect that requires it to flip a coin every time it tries to attack. If that coin lands on tails, the attack does nothing, and that effect sticks around for as long as the Pokémon is in the active spot. It’s a frustrating effect that forces your opponent to either swap out or deal with the 50/50 chance of failure each turn, and that frustration is a huge asset in a Water deck.
Baby Pokémon cards are new to Pokémon TCG Pocket, and they’re pretty compelling cards, all things considered. These special cards may have very low HP, but all of them have no weakness, no retreat cost, and no energy cost for their moves. Those moves are pretty decent too — Magby lets you put a Fire energy on a benched Basic Pokémon, Elekid does 20 damage to any of your opponent’s benched Pokémon, Cleffa lets you draw a random Pokémon card from your deck, and Smoochum does 20 damage for each energy attached to your opponent’s Pokémon. None of these Pokémon are going to be particularly meta-defining, but they certainly have their place, and can be a fantastic choice in the early game if you’ve got a spot to fill.
Espeon ex is essentially a better Cresselia ex — instead of healing 20 damage to itself when attaching an energy like the latter, Espeon ex lets you heal 30 damage on any of your Pokémon once per turn. This ability requires it to be in the active spot, but that’s a small price to pay for essentially limitless healing, and if it’s set up with a Sky Forme Shaymin, you could heal and swap out of the active spot for free. Its attacking power isn’t too strong, but it certainly has a place in mid-tier Psychic decks.
Crobat ex – and Zubat and Golbat in this set – is the final piece of the Poison puzzle that Dark-type players have been waiting for. Previous sets, like Extradimensional Crisis, brought Poison support to the game in the form of cards like Nihilego, which doubles the tick damage Poison does each turn. Now, there’s finally a consistent, powerful way to apply poison, as Crobat ex and all of its prior evolutions in this set are guaranteed to Poison upon attacking. It’s also got a low retreat cost, and its weakness is Fighting-type, which is not particularly common in the current meta, so while it might not be a tier 0 strategy, it should clean up in the lower ranks.
Porygon2 has the honor of being the first card ever in Pokémon TCG Pocket that can evolve on the same turn that you play it. It has an ability called Buggy Evolution, which lets you draw a random card that evolves from it – like the Porygon-Z in this set or the one from Space-Time Smackdown – and evolve it immediately upon attaching energy to it. Both Porygon-Z cards are very good, with annoying and disruptive attacks, and being able to get there on turn 2 makes those decks much more consistent without needing to rely on Rare Candy. It’s also Colorless so it can be played in absolutely any deck with room for it.
Metal-type decks have ebbed and flowed in the meta in recent sets, but this new Pokémon Tool card should make them a much more appealing idea going forward. Steel Apron can only be equipped to a Metal-type Pokémon, and it reduces all incoming damage by 10, heals any status conditions, and prevents the equipped Pokémon from being affected by status conditions going forward, too. Status conditions aren’t super common in the meta right now, but Poison has been creeping further and further up the ladder so this is bound to see some play in decks like Solgaleo ex, which benefits from Pokémon Tool cards thanks to its reliance on Skarmory.
If you’re annoyed by your coin flips always landing on Tails and ruining your games, Will is absolutely the card for you. It guarantees that your next coin flip for an attack, ability, or Trainer card will land on heads, which in certain situations and decks is an incredibly powerful tool to have at your disposal. It’s hard to see a situation where you’re running two Will cards just yet, but sooner or later a Pokémon is going to come along with a ridiculous flip effect, and then Will will no doubt see widespread play.
Lyra is halfway between a Leaf/X Speed and a reverse Sabrina/Cyrus, allowing you to switch a damaged active Pokémon with any Pokémon on the bench. That’s a very good effect, especially for decks like Charizard ex which have high retreat costs and otherwise can’t justify burning energy on retreating, but it has another effect if you read between the lines. Using this card isn’t treated as retreating, so it bypasses cards that prevent your Pokémon from retreating. There aren’t many of these, but enough that Lyra is almost certainly going to replace Leaf in quite a few decks.
Finally, Silver is a great Supporter card that lets you look at your opponent’s hand and send a Supporter card in their hand back to the deck. Not only does this let you disrupt your opponent’s strategy, which is especially good if you draw it on your first turn, it also gives you information about what deck they’re playing, which should help with planning out your board as the game’s complexity and list of viable decks starts to rise.