Stellar Crown is almost here- Check out the Top 10 cards you won't want to miss from this new set!

The Pokémon Scarlet & Violet – Stellar Crown expansion is slated to really shake up the competitive metagame when it releases this month. I’ve created this guide for the top 10 most impactful cards to the metagame and I’ll be going over my first impressions of them and some ideas on how to best use them!

10: Cinderace ex

When Cinderace ex was initially revealed, I was pretty underwhelmed. It seemed mediocre compared to the other Tera Pokémon that were revealed. Cinderace’s first attack does a whopping 280 damage for 1 Fire and 2 Colourless Energy. This is a massive attack that can one-shot the most relevant VSTAR Pokémon and isn’t too difficult to set up. With 320 HP, it’s also not super likely to get one-shot in return by most VSTAR decks. If 280 isn’t enough to get the KO, it can still clean up with its second attack, Garnet Volley that snipes 180 damage to any of your opponent’s Pokémon. Its Energy Cost is a little more restrictive, costing 1 of each of Fire, Fighting, and Dark Energy. However, the best part of this card is its retreat cost. Since Flare Strike says that Cinderace can’t use it next turn, you can set up another one on the Bench to chain the use of Flare Strike consistently and apply a load of pressure on your opponent. Even if they knock out one, the next comes up and hits hard. I don’t think this card will be groundbreaking, but I do think it’s powerful enough to shape into a somewhat viable tier-2 deck and maybe even win Cups and Challenges with the right matchups. The only weakness I’ve seen so far for this card is any deck that Technical Machine: Devolution can just prevent you from setting up further attackers. Regardless, a good pairing for the deck would be with Noctowl, which we’ll get into later. It’s a pretty good consistency card for the deck and Pidgeot ex could potentially find its way in the deck as well. I don’t have any specific lists, but those would be my first thoughts if I were to build a Cinderace deck for a tournament tomorrow.

 

9: Grand Tree ACE SPEC

I was floored when this card was revealed. It’s such an insane effect that can increase consistency pretty substantially when you run slimmer or multiple Stage 2 lines. Its effect being able to A) skip the nuisance of waiting a turn to evolve your Pokémon, but also B) skipping the need for finding resources in your hand and setting up your board is unmatchable. The balance with this card is that it is a Stadium and can be easily removed by your opponent, so you’ll probably only get 1 use out of it. You’ll also have a somewhat tough time finding it, as there isn’t a perfect or super-optimal way of just finding Stadiums from the deck in the current format. If you can get to 2 uses out of it, the game will most likely feel unlosable. My first thoughts are to use with this with Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex decks that also use Dusknoir. This allows you to use less resources and more consistently set up your Pokémon, especially if you use the Tree to get into Pidgeot and search out another card to use. It feels like it can bail any other less-represented decks out of sticky situations by just getting your big guy on the board and swinging ASAP without needing to find Ultra Ball, Rare Candy, or any combination thereof. I think we’ll be sure to see some Tier 2 decks finding ways to use this card.

 

8: Deluxe Bomb ACE SPEC

Deluxe Bomb is the 2^nd best ACE SPEC to come out of Stellar Crown. For some decks, the extra 120 damage can mean the difference between winning or losing and forcing your opponent to make a tough decision between choosing to give you Prize cards in exchange for knocking out your threat, or simply going around it to allow your threat to continue. The weakness with this card comes from the fact it’s a passive effect and does not inherently do anything until your opponent chooses to play into it. This means it puts most of the power into your opponent’s hands, where they can remove it with Lost Vacuum, play a Jamming Tower to shut it off, or simply Boss around it. However, 120 damage is still a lot off pressure that can make your opponent stumble, or it can play into your favour if they choose to swing into it. The best use I can think of currently is that it knocks out Cinccinos in return when they KO your Pokemon. It can also be played in Roaring Moon ex decks to prevent your Roaring Moon from being picked off by a small attacker, or taking another prize in return if they do attack anyways. This Deluxe Bomb will effectively mean they are giving up 2-3 Prizes to take 2, then putting you back on the right side of the Prize trade.

 

7: Sparkling Crystal ACE SPEC

This is probably one of the strongest effects for decks that use any of the new Tera types. It reduces the cost of the Tera Pokémon’s attacks it’s attached to by 1 of *ANY* type of Energy. This is not a common effect we see in the Pokémon TCG, so seeing it here is monumental. What this card was printed for specifically was obviously the new Stellar Tera types that each have 3 different Energy costs. This usually allows you to set up the Pokémon to attack in 2 turns, rather than 3, which can be game winning in lots of circumstances. The first thing that popped up in my head is being able to use Terapagos ex to wall your opponent’s Basic-focused decks. Being able to use that in conjunction with Glass Trumpet means you can setup very fast and start taking control of those matchups consistently. This also allows any other Tera-type to have just that much more flexibility. Sure, Lost Vacuum and Jamming Tower disrupt this card just like Deluxe Bomb, however, this is an active effect, meaning you get to use its effect before your opponent really has a chance to do anything about it. So, once you have the one use out of it, it can catapult you ahead in the game.

 

6: Joltik

This little Joltik is actually one of the most insane cards I’ve ever seen come from Pokémon Card Labs. Usually, effects like this are balanced by only being able to be attached to 1 or 2 Pokémon, or you can’t use that attack next turn, or some drawback along those lines. However, this little runt accelerates 4 Energy into play as early as turn 1, effectively setting up your deck for most of the game right then and there. Of course, the trade off is that that Joltik will probably be knocked out immediately (it only has 40HP!). If the acceleration goes unchecked, it can spiral out of control and lead to a perfectly setup board with no effort at all. The fact it can be used for a colourless Energy means if you don’t start it in the Active position, you can simply Bench it and even use a Jet Energy to bring it Active. The versatility with this card is crazy! You don’t even have to necessarily use it to set up other Joltiks to attack with Galvantula ex—it can be used to setup anything that can use Lightning and Grass Energy. I’m sure we will see this little bug in top-performing decks at some point. I honestly don’t know if it has a home just yet, as I don’t know if Galvantula ex as an archetype is very good yet or not. Only time will tell, but it will not take much to make this card a crucial deck piece.

 

5: Briar

A common board state you’ll always find yourself in with the Charizard ex mirror match is that one player has 3 Prizes left, and one player only has two. The first player can take two prizes; however, this will usually mean the second player will win by taking two Prizes on their next turn. Fear not! Briar is here to save you in these situations! Briar being able to be used in any Tera deck (which is most of the relevant decks) is sure to shake up the metagame heavily. It can be used in Regidrago VSTAR decks where your opponent is at two Prizes, and you just need to take a big knock out with Teal Mask Ogerpon ex. This can close out the game with no further issue. For Charizard decks, being able to Quick Search with Pidgeot will allow this card to be played very consistently. It’s also fetchable off Lumineon’s Luminous Sign Ability, meaning your Quick Search can grab a Counter Catcher or other piece to finish off the game. Coupled with some consistency pieces or burning through your deck very fast, Briar should be a game-ending staple for some or all Tera-focused decks in the upcoming format.

 

4: Glass Trumpet

Item card Energy acceleration has always been the premier method for turbo-style decks to function. This card can only be used if you have a Tera Pokémon in play, however this is hardly a downside, as you’ll primarily be using this card with Terapagos ex. The fact it can solve Terapagos’ weird Energy Cost is such a huge upside. While this card is undoubtedly just supposed to be paired with Terapagos ex; however, I can also see it being paired with even cards like Arceus VSTAR to come back from first turns where you can’t find an Energy to attach to Arceus. This card has many applications, but remember it only works on Benched Colorless Pokémon.

 

3: Area Zero Underdepths

This card is just a re-skin of Sky Field from XY—Roaring Skies. It offers great versatility with decks such as Regidrago VSTAR, Charizard ex, and even the new Terapagos ex decks! This card will allow troubling situations that Regidrago VSTAR decks often find themselves in a new out to being able to play down all the Pokémon they want on the Bench. And when the Stadium leaves play, you can discard useless Pokémon that are taking up Bench space such as Squawkabilly ex. This card adds so much “depth” to the gameplay, that it will be sure to be seen in tournament-winning decks.

 

2: Terapagos ex

Finally, the man-of-the-hour! This card is very good and has great synergy with lots of cards both new and old. This card will probably single-handedly bring back Palkia VSTAR as a tier-1 archetype. The first attack for two Colorless Energy does 30 damage for each of your Benched Pokémon. Paired with Area Zero Underdepths, this card can max out a whopping 240 damage for just two Energy of any type, meaning you can use this attack for one Double Turbo attachment. This is a very good value for damage output. The other attack for one of each of Grass, Water, and Lightning Energy does 180 damage and says it can’t be damaged by Basic non-Colorless Pokémon during your opponent’s next turn. This can wall off Raging Bolt ex and Iron Thorns ex decks. The game plan versus Iron Thorns ex with this strategy is not as straightforward, as they play four Crushing Hammer to get rid of your Energy, so you must tread lightly versus that deck. But the best pairing with the deck is Palkia VSTAR! Palkia already needs Water Energy to attack, synergizing with the Water Energy cost in Terapagos ex’s attack and does 60 damage plus 20 for each Benched Pokémon in play. This synergy with Area Zero Underdepths cannot be understated. It is going to be a massively impactful archetype that can churn out big one-hit knockouts and grant resiliency through being able to reset your Pokémon on the Bench when your Stadium gets removed, using such effects as Gengar from Lost Origin. This card is slated to really shake up the metagame and thrust itself into tier 1 positioning.

1: Noctowl

This card is what will really make the Terapagos ex decks pop off. We’ve seen in past formats just how consistent Pokémon that search out any Trainer card can be through Drizzile and Inteleon from Sword & Shield—Base Set. This Pokémon only searches out two Trainers if you have a Tera Pokémon in play, but it’s also hardly a restriction as that will generally be the entire point of the deck—to get these Pokémon into play as fast as possible. This card can also be used to great efficacy in Regidrago VSTAR and Raging Bolt ex decks, since you are running Teal Mask Ogerpon ex! It can also let you search out the missing pieces you need to get the Dragon Pokémon in your discard pile for Regidrago or find the Professor Sada’s Vitality for your Raging Bolts! This card can ALSO be used once you have Charizard ex in play to quickly search out two consistency pieces to keep your game going strong. Whether it be Counter Catcher to take out an imminent threat or find another Rare Candy to get up another Charizard ex, the possibilities are diverse and strong enough that I believe this card will be the best card from Scarlet & Violet—Stellar Crown.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this article! If you liked it, we will always welcome feedback through our social media channels, support email, or even in store! We always love to hear how these articles may help you. Stellar Crown comes out September 13th, but you can get it at Dark Fox TCG first starting September 9th. You won't want to miss out on this set!

 

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