The Pokémon TCG has officially moved out of Generation VII and into products based on the Scarlet and Violet games.
Every set brings some added depth to TCG, whether it be as something new for collectors to chase after or additional strategies for people who play the game to utilize. The first set in this Gen VIII series is now available, which adds an entirely new dimension thanks to the introduction of new cards, an updated Pokémon ex mechanic, and plenty of other changes.
For the most part, the Pokémon ex are the standouts due to how they will spice up the competitive scene—and the excellent Special Illustrator variants available for some of the top pulls. There are also a handful of Trainer cards that are going to become very important in the coming years as staples.
If you plan to pick up packs, or just need a place to start when looking into singles, here are the best cards to pull in the Pokémon TCG Scarlet and Violet Base Set.
Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet Base Set best cards to pull
Miraidon ex
The Special Illustrator Rare Miraidon ex is obviously the money card you want to pull here, but if you are just looking for arguably the best card in the set from a competitive level—that isn’t a Trainer—any of the variants will do.
There are plenty of engines looking to use Miraidon ex to facilitate Electric Energy decks, such as Regieleki VMAX, since it is a powerful Pokémon on its own and its Tandem Unit ability allows you to fill your Bench with Basic Lightning Pokémon quickly.
If you pair Miraidon ex with the new Trainer Item, Electric Generator that allows you to search the top five cards of your deck for Lightning Energy and then immediately attach up to two of them to a Pokémon on your Bench, you have a speedy strategy to turbo out some powerful attackers. Or Flaffy.
Gardevoir ex
Gardevoir ex is in a similar boat to Miraidon ex, in that it is a newly added competitive heavy-hitter that has a chase Special Illustrator Rare that a lot of players will want to collect.
Its ability Psychic Embrace allows you to attach a Basic Psychic Energy from your discard pile to any Pokémon you control, even on your Bench. Doing so will result in you needing to put two damage counters on that Pokémon, but because you can do this as many times as you want per turn, you can setup a powerful Pokémon with all of the Energy it needs to deal huge damage using recycled resources.
Right now this strategy pairs well with Zacian V and a different Gardevoir, the regular one from Chilling Reign, that both deal more damage per Psychic Energy attached to it. It also helps that Gardevoir ex can hit like a truck too.
Nest Ball
If you are simply looking for utility or a card that is going to be used in dozens of decks in the formats to come, grab some Nest Balls now—and if you can, aim for the high-rarity ones too.
The Pokémon TCG at its core is about getting advantage quickly and in a way that will let you achieve what your deck wants to do. Nest Ball lets you turbo out any Basic Pokémon from your deck and place it on your Bench instantly for no additional cost, giving you instant access to key parts of your strategy.
Miriam, Arven, and Supporters
The Miriam Special Illustrator Rare is the premier chase card in this set, but the card itself foes have some uses in decks that players are going to be interested in. The same goes for Arven, and Penny to an extent, in terms of having a nice SIR and some utility—with Arven seeing play in some decks right away with some of the best decks that use Items and Tools.
The new version of Professor’s Research is also an easy include here since you can pick if you want to rep Professor Sada or Professor Turo, while also having the same effect to discard your hand and draw seven cards.
Related: All Pokémon Scarlet and Violet TCG money cards
Don’t forget the easy-to-get stuff
Along with previously mentioned cards like Electric Generator, some Supporters, and Nest Ball, you will absolutely want to try and pull the new Stadium cards.
Beach Court shows a lot of potential as it lessens the Retreat Cost of Basic Pokémon—Skyarrow Bridge but both ways are still Skyarrow Bridge. Mesagoza is basically a coin flip for an extra Pokémon search.
As for some other cards you will want to pull, here is a mix of Pokémon and other Trainer cards that will be useful to have on hand.
- Klefki
- Locks down the abilities of Basic Pokémon while in the Active Spot.
- Banette ex
- Lcoks down Item cards with a single Energy cost attack.
- Defiance Band
- If you have more Prize cards than your opponent, the Pokémon equipped with this Tool deals 30 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon before damage calculation.
- Tatsugiri/Dondozo package
- Dondozo deals more damage when you have more Tatsugiri in your discard pile.
- Armarouge
- Easily facilitate Fire Energy to your Active Pokémon.
- Revavroom
- Discard one Energy to draw until you have six cards in your hand once per turn.
- Oinkologne ex
- Deals a lot of damage and is good in decks with healing capabilities.
- Skwovet
- Facilitates specific draw engines with other cards like Revavroom.
- Spidops ex
- Can run a weird control strategy by trapping Active Pokémon and dealing lots of damage, but is very situational.
- Koraidon
- If you have any hope of playing a good Fighting deck in the future, it might be good to get some copies of this now since it currently doesn’t really fit in the meta but has good potential for future builds.
