A powerful starter, Yveltal is perfect for setting up, January 2023 gaming Releases and, therefore, it proves to be a powerful addition to any Dark deck. Belonging to the XY-Steam Siege expansion, this Yveltal has an attack known as Oblivion W

Pokemon Powers are essentially the early TCG's equivalent for Abilities and they can be greatly useful in the right situations. At the beginning of its trainer's turn, Light Arcanine's Drive Off forces the opponent to switch their Active Pokemon with one of their Benched Pokemon, assuming any are availa

It does have a drawback, where Muk cannot use this ability if it is affected by a Special Condition, but it is an extremely powerful attack otherwise. Muk also has another ability Sludge, which for the cost of three grass-energy cards deals 30 damage and also poisons the defending pokémon; if after flipping a coin it lands on he

Here is another excellent Water-type card from the Team Rocket expansion. Dark Blastoise has two great moves that put it at the top of all Dark Pokemon. Firstly, its Rocket Tackle may result in a bit of recoil damage, but this is worth the result. After a successful coin flip, the opponent's Active Pokemon will not be able to do damage to Dark Blastoise during its next t

Using sniping techniques and cards like Team Magma’s Secret Base, Mega Tyranitar EX can easily deal damages exceeding 760 to the opponent, given there are adequate damage counters placed on the defending pokemon. Furthermore, it has an Ancient Trait known as Theta Double, which allows two Tool Cards to be attached to this pokémon. Using cards like Muscle Band, Lucky Helmet, or Float Stone, the player can initiate extra dr

Either way, this locks the adversary's Active Pokemon down for at least one turn, if not longer. With this opening, Light Dewgong is free to frigidly landscape as it pleases with many Ice Pillar atta

Vanilluxe has an ability called Bitter Cold that lets their trainer flip a coin free of cost (save for having Vanilluxe in their active pokemon slot) that can make the opposing active pokemon Paralyzed. Having an ability to do the freezing leaves Vanilluxe able to attack with the 90 damage Frost Smash that only requires 2 energy. In two or three turns, given good draws, one can go from a no-energy Vanillite to a full-power Vanilluxe that acts essentially like a living blizz

Another with a great Pokemon Power, Light Machamp can enter the fray in a unique and more beneficial way than usual. Tag Team lets this muscle-bound pocket monster heal the ally Active Pokemon for 30 damage if they are played from the hand to the Be

Although neither of its attacks does huge amounts of damage, Dark Alakazam from the Team Rocket Expansion is a card that requires greater intellect to use most effectively. It can teleport into the Bench with a blast that does moderate damage as well as granting a free swi

This card plays the role of a healer and helps to remove damage counters from its Benched Pokemon allies. Both of Light Vaporeon's moves involve allowing its friends to recover some HP, exemplifying the theme behind this card vari

This move is especially useful for players who use switching decks and allows them to trap the opponent in a loop of attacks. Furthermore, it only has a retreat cost of one-energy and has also been a part of a World’s Deck in 2012 because of Zachary Bohkari, a semifinalist in 2012's Junior Divis

However, in such a manner it is also possible to overextend oneself. Though this is less of a problem for certain water pokemon in the TCG because they get exponentially more powerful as they gain energy as opposed to most pokemon who only get additively stronger. They can also paralyze foes as well as string together some cool combos. Water type decks are all about manipulating energy, as well as possibly stunning the opponent's pokemon, while utilizing unique secondary strategies for an unpredictable and appropriately fluid offense. Much like a rogue wave that the enemy won't see coming until it crashes down upon t

Normally forgotten about, Heatmor actually gets a bit of love in this TCG expansion. This card will take a lot of energy to get up to full power, however, when it does, it can be useful for a pretty unique and destructive strategy. Firstly, trainers can potentially fuel up Heatmor by using their Flame Cloak move, which will do a little bit of damage to the foe, however is better used for retrieving fire energy from the discard p

The Blacksmith Supporter card from the Flashfire expansion lets a trainer attach two energy cards from the discard pile directly onto a Pokemon. The Professor's Letter Item card from the BREAKthrough expansion is another useful one if low on fuel, as it lets the player search their deck for two energ

There may be times when this strategy does not go as planned, due to it needing 4 specific cards for it to work, though there is another tactic that can be added on with minimal effort and resources. Including some Barraskewda cards, which Arrokuda can evolve into, can give one an excellent fallback strategy. If one's Cramorant gets knocked out before they can use Continuous Gulp Missile, this will leave their trainer with a bunch of comparatively week Arrokuda, which would get knocked out fairly quickly. Evolving them into Barraskewda will result in a fast, moderate-HP card that can directly damage the active opponent or even assault their benched poke