A new era of the Pokemon Trading Card Game is here, bringing Paradox Pokemon in from both the past and future. Today, The Pokemon Company officially released Paradox Rift, the last 2023 expansion for The Pokemon Trading Card Game. This expansion introduces two powerful new synergies involving “Ancient” Pokemon and “Future” Pokemon, which conveniently tie to the Paradox Pokemon found in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.ย Some Pokemon are labelled as either Ancient or Future, as designated by a keyword printed on the card. While the cards themselves don’t have any special abilities, some cards only interact with Ancient or Future cards, setting up powerful combos or synergies. The design is a reimplementation of the Battle Styles keywords used in Sword & Shield sets, which provided the framework of some of the most powerful cards seen over the past couple of years.
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Of course, the card also comes with a ton of rare cards, with dozens of Illustration Rare, Full Art, and Secret Illustration Rare cards. We’re breaking down the ten hottest cards from the newest Paradox Rift set.
Rika (Special Illustration Rare)
The first of several popular female trainer cards in this set, Rika has a solid draw ability that should make this card a useful card, although there’s probably a few other Supporter cards in this set that will get more play. Still, the Waifu tax is real and Rika is going to be pricey for a bit.ย
Market Price: $24.77
Tulip (Special Illustration Rare)
Another “waifu” card, Tulip provides a valuable way to pull Psychic-type Pokemon and Energy from the discard pile to the deck. Given that many dominant decks are built around Psychic-type Pokemon, expect to see this card to get some use in many decks purely for her retrieval abilities.
Market Price: $27.00
Parasol Lady
Parasol Lady is a class of trainer from the Pokemon games and in this card she’s depicted looking up at a rainbow in her stylish rain jacket. This card was flagged as one of the early favorites in the set, largely due its artwork. The card’s ability has a few niche uses to re-draw cards, but the card will mainly be a big buy because of its artwork.ย
Market Price: $28.98
Garchomp ex (Special Illustration Rare)
One of the coolest cards in the set, Garchomp ex’s Secret Illustration Rare card also provides a way to mill energy onto Benched Pokemon and target vulnerable Pokemon on a player’s bench. Of course, Garchomp ex is still a Stage 2 evolution which could potentially limit its use, but it seems like this card could be a cornerstone for a few Fighting-type decks emerging from this set.
Market Price (via TCGPlayer): $29.17
Professor Sada’s Vitality (Secret Illustration Rare)
Professor Sada’s Vitality is a trainer card specifically meant to interact with Ancient Pokemon. This card not only mills Energy cards from the Discard pile to Ancient Pokemon, it also has a card draw effect. Expect this card to appear in a LOT of Ancient Pokemon-themed decks.ย
Market Price: $31.66
Iron Heads ex (Special Illustration Rare)
Iron Heads ex is a Future Pokemon with two powerful attacks, one of which comes with an extra Prize draw effect. This card has the potential to be a meta-game buster, in part because its Amp You Very Much attack can quickly disrupt Lost Box decks and can also clear out Lugia V/Lugia VSTAR decks as well. There’s a lot of potential combos at play with his card, especially with item cards like Future Booster Energy Capsule that gives Future Pokemon’s attacks more damage and removes their retreat cost.ย
Market Price: $37.33
Groudon (Illustration Rare)
This has my vote as the coolest card in Paradox Rift. This card synergizes well with Garchomp ex, as this card’s strongest attack is triggered by discarding energy, while Garchomp ex can mill energy from the discard pile. If a Garchomp ex deck becomes meta relevant, this card will be a big reason why.ย
Market Price: $38.22
Mela (Special Illustration Rare)
The highest-priced Supporter card in the set, Mela has a niche ability that can only be used in Fire-type decks and only works when a Pokemon has been knocked out on the opponent’s last turn. Mela allows a player to attach a Fire-type energy from the discard pile to a Pokemon and re-stock a player’s hand, which can be a valuable trade-off for losing a single Pokemon.
Market Price: $48.64
Gholdengo ex (Special Illustration Rare)
Gholdengo ex has a fantastic passive ability that allows players to draw an extra card on their turn when it’s in play. It also allows players to draw an additional card if it’s in the Active Spot. Given that Make It Rain can deal a ton of damage in exchange for discarding Energy cards, this card has the potential to do a lot of damage and can quickly help accelerate a deck. Folks are looking for ways to make this card very useful, so expect someone to find a fantastic combo in the not-too-distant future.ย
Market Price: $49.55
Iron Valiant ex (Special Illustration Rare)
Iron Valiant ex is the strongest of the Future Pokemon and is specifically built to take advantage of various synergies from other cards. Using Future Booster Energy Capsule, Iron Valiant ex has no retreat cost, which means that players can take advantage of its Tachyon Bits ability easily.ย
Market Price: $55.77
Roaring Moon ex (Special Illustration Rare)
Folks are expecting Roaring Moon ex to make an instant impact in competitive play, which makes sense given that the Pokemon has an instant KO attack and an attack that can potentially do up to 220 damage. This is currently THE card to come out of Paradox Rift, although we’ll see how it fares in terms of long-term viability once it matches up against current dominant decks.
Market Price: $84.18
