Paradox Rift GLC Set Review
Well this is an odd one… Welcome everybody to my set review of the INTERNATIONAL release of Paradox Rift. TPC and TPCi have made the release dates of Japan’s Ancient Roar and Future Flash fall really closely to our international release of Paradox Rift. Technically, many players who have attended prerelease events have their hands on cards before even the Japanese do, as their set doesn’t come out until this Friday, October 27th. Our Paradox Rift set is made up of cards from Raging Surf (which you can read my review for here: https://cardboardwarriors.net/news/raging-surf-gym-leader-challenge) and what will become Japan’s Ancient Roar and Future Flash. Since I’ve already gone over the cards from Raging Surf, I’ll be omitting them this time, however I will have a small portion of the cards that have been cut from this set that are relevant to GLC at the end of the review. So, without any further ado, let’s get started!
Grass
Pansage – Grass – HP70
Basic Pokémon
[C] Call for Family: Search your deck for a Basic Pokémon and put it onto your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck.
[G][C][C] Leech Seed: 30 damage. Heal 10 damage from this Pokémon.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
Simisage – Grass – HP100
Stage 1 – Evolves from Pansage
Ability: Monkey Trio
If you have Simisage, Simisear, and Simipour in play, ignore all [C] in the attack cost of attacks this Pokémon uses.
[G][C][C] Arm Thrust Needle: 100 damage. During your opponent’s next turn, prevent all damage done to this Pokémon by attacks from Pokémon that have an Ability, except any Simisage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
This line is interesting enough for me to bring up, however I’ll preface that I don’t think these cards will see that much play. Pansage’s Call for Family attack makes it an okay starter for any Grass decks that want to play Simisage, but it’s Simisage’s attack that makes me include it in this review. The attack does 100 damage for 1 Grass and 2 Colorless Energy, but with the added effect that during your opponent’s next turn, Simisage won’t take damage from the attacks of your opponent’s Pokémon with any Abilities. Very much Ingot Swing Melmetal, but with less HP while doing a little bit more damage. The attack is good though, especially if you are anticipating a meta with many attackers with abilities. It’s also Double Colorless compatible, so if you feel like getting into the kitchen and playing with Simisage, Double Colorless Grass could be a fun concept to try out.
Dwebble – Grass – HP60
Basic Pokémon
[C][C] Beat: 20 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
Crustle – Grass – HP130
Stage 1 – Evolves from Dwebble
[C][C] Confront: 50 damage.
[G][C][C] Crag Bash: 100 damage. During your opponent’s next turn, this Pokémon takes 100 less damage from attacks from Evolution Pokémon (after applying Weakness and Resistance).
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 3
Dwebble’s reason for being here is simple. It has 1 retreat, and is the only Dwebble to have 1 retreat. I feel like TPC has been really just disregarding previously made identities surrounding their retreat cost for certain Pokémon, especially Basics. Dwebble has always had a Retreat Cost of 2 since it evolves into the big, slow crab Crustle, but I guess if you aren’t going to give it a cool ability or at least a decent attack, then the least they can do for us is give us a 1 cost retreater. Crustle on the other hand is a VERY interesting Pokémon. For starters: Double Colorless compatible (Double Colorless Grass is a thing, trust). Secondly, it’s also Heavy Ball searchable, which can benefit the consistency of getting this guy out. Lastly, this thing’s attack is kind of nuts? It only does 100 damage, but it reads that during your opponent’s next turn, Crustle takes 100 less damage from attacks from your opponent’s Evolution Pokémon. With the highly anticipated Evolution Technical Machine coming in this set too, this could be a very good card in tandem with Simisage at forcing your opponent to have the right attacker at the right time, or risk giving up the prize trade. Slap a Luxurious Cape on this guy, and we’ve got 330 effective HP after attacking!
Nymble – Grass – HP40
Basic Pokémon
[C] Gnaw: 10 damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 0
Nymble is here because of its zero retreat cost. Low energy required decks such as Elusive Feather will probably enjoy just having a free retreater in Nymble before it evolves into Lokix.
Toedscruel – Grass – HP120
Stage 1 – Evolves from Toedschool
Ability: Mycelium Colony
Cards in your opponent’s discard pile can’t be put into their hand through the effects of Trainer cards or Abilities they use.
[G][C][C] Shroom Drain: 80 damage. Heal 30 damage from this Pokémon.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Toedscruel’s ability is very interesting. I think in a control deck, this could be rather good at stopping your opponent from getting certain outs from their discard (usually cards such as Guzma or Escape Rope), as well as limiting their recursion of attackers by denying Rescue Stretcher… but it’s also good at stopping control decks themselves? Control decks, especially mill oriented ones, usually recur a ton of things like Supporter cards and Pokémon straight into their hand in order to continue their gameplan. This ability stops those right in their tracks. Of course, those decks also run plenty of ways to SHUFFLE said cards into their deck instead, but that still forces them to find it. If you’re expecting lots of control in a given metagame or just personally hate going against the archetype, then consider this guy in your next Grass deck. It evolves from the Toedscool with Spore (guaranteed Sleep) from Scarlet & Violet base, so it’s got some real legs in my opinion, just like Toedscool and Toedscruel themselves!
Wo-Chien – Grass – HP130
Basic Pokémon
[G] Leaf Gathering: Attach up to 2 Basic [G] Energy from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokémon.
[G][G][G][C] Greedy Bind: 140 damage. During your opponent’s next turn, the Defending Pokémon’s attacks cost [C][C] more.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
With the introduction of Luxurious Cape in this set, we might find ourselves more and more likely to be announcing 2 or more attacks to KO whichever Pokémon LuxCape is attached to. As it potentially becomes slower to net certain KOs, I think this Wo-Chien has something really good going for it. Its attack costs 4 energy, but in a typical Rillaboom Venusaur list that’s as simple as 1 Voltage Beat from the deck with Jungle Totem active. It does 140 damage, but with the added effect that during your opponent’s next turn, the Defending Pokémon’s attacks will cost 2 colorless more. This could be pretty huge, as you’d be forcing your opponent to either invest more resources into their LuxCape Pokémon, which you’ll then potentially take out for 2 Prizes, or risk not having the attack at all, in which case you’ll be able to come in next turn and KO the Pokémon for 2 Prizes. So long as the target is relatively accessible to 2-shot with Wo-Chien (280HP or lower after the equipping of LuxCape), I think Wo-Chien will be a great addition to RillaSaur decks depending on how the metagame evolves. Hitting those big numbers with your usual attackers like Shining Genesect and Zarude is pretty darn difficult, so hopefully you’ll try out a slower gameplan with Wo-Chien!
Fire
Charcadet – Fire – HP60
Basic Pokémon
[C] Protect Flip a coin. If heads, during your opponent’s next turn, prevent all damage from and effects of attacks done to this Pokémon.
[R][C] Magma Punch: 20 damage.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Charcadet – Fire – HP80
Basic Pokémon
[C] Fiery Fighting Spirit: Search your deck for a Basic [R] Energy and attach it to this Pokémon. Then, shuffle your deck.
[R][C][C] Knuckle Punch: 50 damage.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Man both of these Charcadet are honestly very solid. Obviously 1 has a flip for preventing all damage and effects, which is pretty standard (or some variation of it) on many of the Basic Pokémon decks like to use, such as Thunder Wave Basics or Agility Basics that are trying to keep themselves alive for 1 more turn. But the other one is also potentially solid, primarily because it can evolve into Scarlet & Violet’s Fire Off Armarouge, who will then be able to move that Energy attached to itself to one of your attackers once it hits the Bench. Both are solid options, just depends on what you prioritize out of your evolving Basics and what lines of play you’d like available when playing with Fire Off Armarouge. Lastly, they’re just solid Basics for if/when we get viable attacking options for Armarouge and Ceruledge.
Iron Moth – Fire – HP130
Basic Pokémon (Future)
Ability: Thermal Reactor
Once during your turn, when this Pokémon moves from your Bench to the Active Spot, you may move any amount of [R] Energy from your other Pokémon to it.
[R][R][C]Heat Ray:120 damage. During your next turn, this Pokémon can’t use Heat Ray.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Heatran-GX has been reincarnated, in the form of this set’s Iron Moth (at least, sort of). When Iron Moth moves into the Active, it can move as many Fire Energy from your other Pokémon to itself (so in other words… like maximum 3 energy because it never needs more). This is a great way to recur your energies from your other attackers and still get an attack off in the same turn with arguably minimal effort. Unfortunately, Iron Moth only does 120 damage, just shy of the 130 GLC magic number, but it’s fine because tools such as Fighting Fury Belt, Muscle Belt, or more specifically this set’s Future Booster Energy Capsule (effectively a Muscle Belt and Float Stone for Future Pokémon such as Iron Moth) will boost its damage to or above that threshold. This could also warrant the potential of some more healing strategies in Fire, as you’d be moving the energy off from other damaged Pokémon onto Iron Moth, allowing you to Max Potion or Cheryl the target(s) and completely heal them to come in for a second round later in the game.
Chi-Yu – Fire – HP110
Basic Pokémon
[R] Flare Bringer: Attach up to 2 Basic [R] Energy from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokémon.
[R][R] Megafire of Envy: 50+ damage. If any of your Pokémon were Knocked Out by damage from an attack during your opponent’s last turn, this attack does 90 more damage.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Fire gets an arguably really solid revenge attacker? Sign me up! Chi-Yu’s Megafire of Envy attack allows you to do 140 damage so long as one of your Pokémon were Knocked out by damage from an attack during your opponent’s last turn. It also has a decent utility attack in Flare Bringer, allowing it to accelerate 2 Fire energies from your discard to one of your Benched Pokémon. I think this card is really solid and many Fire decks will be able to make great use of it.
Water
Kingdra – Water – HP150
Stage 2 – Evolves from Seadra
[W] Whirltide: Reveal the top 6 cards of your deck. This attack does 60 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon for each Energy card you find there. Then, discard those Energy cards and shuffle the other cards back into your deck. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
[W][C] Hydro Splash: 120 damage.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
This Kingdra is very reminiscent of the Aqua Storm Kyogre from Celebrations. I don’t think this card is that great, considering it’s a Stage 2 and it only does damage to 1 Pokémon whereas Kyogre is a Basic and does damage to 2 Benched Pokémon, however if you like decks like Water Storm (https://cardboardwarriors.net/spotlight/water-storm-glc-water-deck) then maybe you’d like to experiment with this Kingdra as well.
Panpour – Water – HP70
Basic Pokémon
[C] Call for Family: Search your deck for a Basic Pokémon and put it onto your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck.
[W][C][C] Water Pulse: 30 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Asleep.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
Simipour – Water – HP100
Stage 1 – Evolves from Panpour
Ability: Monkey Trio
If you have Simisage, Simisear, and Simipour in play, ignore all [C] in the attack cost of attacks this Pokémon uses.
[W][C][C] Shower with Insults: 50 damage. This attack also does 30 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
Similar to the Grass baby monkey, Panpour is here simply due to its Call for Family attack. Simipour on the other hand is a card worth discussing, if only briefly. Its attack “Shower with Insults” (god that attack name is so good) does 50 damage to the active and 30 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. Now, unfortunately, Water Spread decks already have a similar attack in Kyurem’s Glaciate attack, which for very similar energy costs, does 30 damage to your opponent’s Active and 30 to each of their Benched Pokémon. And that’s on a Basic Pokémon. Additionally with other cards like Castform Rainy Form allowing you to do 20 to all of your opponent’s Pokémon, I see very little use for this Simipour in Water Spread. However, if you want more redundancy in the archetype, just really like Simipour, or want to try and announce “Shower with Insults” for game, then consider adding it to your Water Spread lists.
Vanilluxe – Water – HP150
Stage 2 – Evolves from Vanillish
Ability: Frigid Room
Your opponent’s Pokémon that have 40 HP or less remaining can’t attack.
[W][W] Icicle Missile: 110 damage.
Weakness: Metal (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Blizzard Town on an Ability? Now that’s not something I expected from this set. Now genuinely I don’t think this card will be good because it’s on a Stage 2 and it doesn’t really function as an attacker, but if we ever see a Hustle Belt meta, or if you just reeeeaaallly hate Turbo Dark’s Building Spite Spiritomb, then maybe this card will see play. Afterall, Pokémon with Abilities are much harder to get rid of than Stadiums.
Veluza – Water – HP120
Basic Pokémon
Ability: Cut for the Job
If this Pokémon is in the Active Spot and is Knocked Out by damage from an attack from your opponent’s Pokémon, move 2 [W] Energy from this Pokémon to 1 of your Benched Pokémon.
[C][C][C] Hydro Pump: 60+ damage. This attack does 20 more damage for each [W] Energy attached to this Pokémon.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Rain Dance gets yet another contender for “most optimal Basic Attacker”. Veluza’s ability is phenomenal, and its Hydro Pump attack is just Grass Zarude’s Repeated Whip attack, which is notoriously a good scaling move. Now obviously Water doesn’t have a Jungle Totem ability, but I still think there’s merit to an attacker like this, especially because of its ability to move the energies on it to one of your Benched Pokémon when it goes down. It can make navigating your boardstate that much harder for your opponent, as they won’t know what the best course of action is when considering what to take out first. Even if they do take out your accelerator like Blastoise or Baxcalibur, so long as Veluza is powered up you might be able to get away with not needing BaxToise for a turn or 2 as you try to set them up again.
Wugtrio – Water – HP90
Stage 1 – Evolves from Wiglett
Ability: Ad Hoc Choice
When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may search your deck for up to 3 Pokémon Tool cards and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.
[W][W] Triple Whip: 70x damage. Flip 3 coins. This attack does 70 damage for each heads.
Weakness: Lightning
Resistance: None
Retreat: 2
I’m not necessarily convinced that this card will be good, given that Water has the likes of Shady Dealings Inteleon in its arsenal, however especially now with the new TMs and many decks running multiple tools as a result, this card might be some nice redundancy to Tool-heavy Water builds.
Lightning
Elekid – Lightning – HP30
Basic Pokémon
[.] Crackling Shot: This attack does 30 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 0
Lightning Donk! Lightning Donk! Lightning Donk! I’m actually stupidly excited for this card. To start, like many of the baby Pokémon being printed in this era, it has free retreat, which Lightning already loves since it accelerates to its benched Pokémon with Dynamotor, meaning it needs a pivot to put the accelerated attacker into the Active. But it also gets to do 30 damage. On a Basic. For FREE? ANYWHERE? This thing is Haymaker Electabuzz on steroids, and allows you to do all the good old Shenanigans that Lightning Gym Leaders are used to doing. Gives you a free pivot to start to potentially donk with Zapdos, allows you to donk low hp Basics stuck in the active during your opponent’s first turn with help such as Electropower or Muscle Band, and it can even snipe the bench or start setting up damage to said Bench to fix math for your other attackers like Regieleki or Amazing Rare Raikou. And it does that all for no attack cost. FREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
Psychic
Latios – Psychic – HP110
Basic Pokémon
[C] Glide: 20 damage.
[P][P][C] Luster Purge: 180 damage. Discard 3 Energy from this Pokémon.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 1
This card might be the Pokémon I’m most excited for in this set, and if not then it’s because it’s only beaten by the Groudon in this set that I reviewed in Raging Surf. I’m obviously a big Hoenn fan, but also this is the first Psychic Basic that gets to do Big Numbers™ without any real downside or extra condition. It doesn’t need a Special Energy, it doesn’t need your opponent to be at 3 or less Prizes - he just does it, just how Shia LaBeouf told him (holy crap I’m showing my age). Discard 3 energy is fine when you have so many ways to accelerate Energy in Psychic even without a Rain Dance Equivalent. Psychic Recharge Malamar allows you to accelerate one of those discarded Energies, Xatu allows you to accelerate one from your hand (and draw 2?!) in addition to your attachment for turn, Tulip allows you to get these energies and Latios back in your hand comfortably, and Latios is Dimension Valley compatible, meaning that with D-Valley in play, you can use either Malamar or Xatu in addition to your attachment for turn and meet its requirements. I haven’t even gone into how good this can be with Psychic Mirage Gardevoir and Dimension Valley, meaning you’d only need 1 (ONE!) energy attached in order to swing for a whopping 180 damage! God this card is so good.
Espathra – Psychic – HP120
Stage 1 – Evolves from Flittle
Ability: Stance
When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may use this Ability. During your opponent’s next turn, prevent all damage from and effects of attacks done to this Pokémon.
[P][P] Glittering Eyes: 70+ damage. If you have “Tulip” in your discard pile, this attack does 70 more damage.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 1
Psychic gets a Sonic Slip Garchomp? Now clearly, what makes Garchomp so good is not only its Ability but also the fact that it evolves from Dragon Call Gabite, but this is an interesting addition to Psychic. Now, it’s damage is rather lackluster, only doing 70 damage unless “Tulip” is in your discard, in which case you’d then be doing 140, but it’s a cheap attack cost and in combination with its ability, this card could be pretty lethal and set up many checkmate scenarios for your opponent to have to navigate through. Just don’t get Bossed!
Tinkatink – Psychic – HP60
Basic Pokémon
[P] Mountain Rummage: Look at the top card of your deck. You may put that card into your hand. If you don’t, discard that card and draw a card.
[P] Mumble: 10 damage.
Weakness: Metal (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 2
Genuinely what is it with TPC and giving Tinkatink all really solid attacks in case it's your starter? We had Collect, then Scrap Pickup, and now Trekking Shoes-incarnate Mountain Rummage? Well for starters, Collect has been power crept because Mountain Rummage is just strictly better as it gives you information and potentially allows you to go 1 more card deep if you so choose. It just seems like Tinkatink gets what every other Basic wishes it could.
Scream Tail – Psychic – HP90
Basic Pokémon (Ancient)
[P] Slap: 20 damage.
[P][C] Roaring Scream: This attack does 20 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon for each damage counter on this Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 1
Now initially I looked over this card, but now looking at it more I think it’s pretty solid and also very funny. Scream Tail does 20 damage times the amount of damage counters on itself. Meaning that with 8 damage counters, you’d be doing 160. But you can do it to ANY 1 Pokémon, not just your opponent’s Active, allowing this Pokémon to be a heck of a sniper. Additionally, you can further this threshold by attaching tools to it such as Cape of Toughness, the aforementioned Luxurious Cape from this set, or this set’s Ancient Booster Energy Capsule. Add in some funny ways of adding damage counters to yourself such as Gapejaw Bog, Frozen City, Rainbow Energy, or using Ominous Posture Jynx, and you can rack up that damage pretty quickly.
Fighting
Garganacl – Fighting – HP160
Stage 2 – Evolves from Naclstack
Ability: Energy Rock Salt
Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic [F] Energy from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokémon. If you do, heal 30 damage from that Pokémon.
[F][F][F] Land Crash: 140 damage.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 4
Hoo-boy, this card is good. A brother-in-arms to Tar Generator Coalossal, Garganacl furthers Fighting’s acceleration from the discard, and adds a little healing to the mix as well. This card is really solid and can be applicable to more decks than just your typical Coal Madness builds (https://cardboardwarriors.net/spotlight/glc-fighting-deck-coalossal). Hitmonbros could use this card in order to guarantee its energy from the discard to properly sequence The Combo™, Earthquake could use this to heal certain Pokémon outside of self-ko range right before you go in with another Earthquake attack. What’s also great about it is that it doesn’t read to your Benched Pokémon, so you can attach the energy to your Active as well!
Slither Wing – Fighting – HP140
Basic Pokémon (Ancient)
[F] Stomp Off: Discard 1 card from the top of your opponent’s deck.
[F][F] Burning Turbulence: 120 damage. This Pokémon does 90 damage to itself. Your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Burned.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Fighting got an attacker who (effectively) hits the 130 magic number for a relatively cheap attack cost, and to that I say “about time”! Slither Wing does 120 damage to your opponent’s Active and also leaves them Burned (dealing 20 more damage at the end of the turn before your opponent flips a coin to see if the Burned condition is healed), then does 90 damage to itself. It boasts a pretty high HP stat of 140, but considering that it does 90 damage to itself, it’s really more like 50HP. However, it’s still a really cheap attacker, and who knows, maybe someone will figure out some way to incorporate Hustle Belt into this ‘mon.
Ting-Lu – Fighting – HP140
Basic Pokémon
[F] Sand Gathering: Attach up to 2 Basic [F] Energy from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokémon.
[F][F][F] Proud Impact: 220 damage. If this Pokémon has 4 or more damage counters on it, this attack does nothing.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 4
Now this is a good card. Ting-Lu’s Proud Impact attack does 220 damage for 3 Fighting Energies, but on the condition that it must not have more than 3 damage counters, otherwise it will do nothing. Now typically this stipulation is a deal breaker on many cards, but in this same set we got the aforementioned Garganacl. Attaching Energy to the Ting-Lu to keep healing it would likely result in having more Energy on it than its required attack cost, allowing you to then discard those extra Energies with cards like Super or Hyper Potion to rid Ting-Lu of even more damage counters. Alongside tools like Pot Helmet and Rock Chestplate, and Stadiums like Lake Acuity, and you can mitigate a lot of damage up front with this Ting-Lu as well. Even though its attack cost is 3 Fighting, you can still utilize Coalossal’s Fire Energy attachment to then heal it with one of the Potion cards. The card is super solid, does a metric ton of damage, and I think will be a nice archetype for Fighting. Now if only they had draw support..
Dark
Morpeko – Darkness – HP70
Basic Pokémon
Ability: Hungry Dash
If this Pokémon doesn’t have any Energy attached to it, it has no Retreat Cost.
[D][D] Energy Wheel: 70 damage. Move 2 [D] Energy from this Pokémon to 1 of your Benched Pokémon.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Now this Morpeko is funny. I don’t know how relevant it’ll be, but the potential is there. To start, Morpeko is a free pivot so long as it has no Energy attached. Next, its Energy Wheel attack does 70 damage, and then moves 2 Dark Energy to one of your Benched Pokémon. Now let me paint a picture: You Energy Wheel your Dark Energy to your Benched, Luxurious Cape’d Guzzlord boasting a whopping 250 HP. Next turn, you’re able to attach Double Colorless Energy to Guzzlord to meet its Red Banquet requirement, and because Morpeko has no Energy on it, you also have a free pivot in order to maneuver Guzzlord into the Active Spot. It’s a LOT of pressure for your opponent to deal with, and considering you’re doing 70 damage as well, you’ve likely softened up a Guzzlord target, on top of all this boardstate pressure this card is providing. Dark has always been a weird type to pilot in my personal experience, but I know that personally I’d hate having to navigate this boardstate, especially if I don’t have Gust KO on the opposing Guzzlord that very next turn.
Brute Bonnet – Darkness – HP120
Basic Pokémon (Ancient)
Ability: Toxic Powder
Once during your turn, if this Pokémon has Ancient Booster Energy Capsule attached, you may make both Active Pokémon Poisoned.
[D][D][C] Rampaging Hammer: 120 damage. During your next turn, this Pokémon can’t attack.
Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 3
Poison Dark got another Poison enabler, which is pretty scary. So long as Brute Bonnet has an Ancient Booster on it, it can make both Active Pokémon Poisoned. That usually doesn’t matter much to you, as either you attackers evolve to do damage, you can pivot out of the Active to lose the Poisoned Status Condition, or you just shrug it off because its 10 damage to your 250HP Luxurious Cape’d Guzzlord swinging in to take 2 KOs or whatever (you wouldn’t even activate Toxic Powder the turn you would do this but I digress). Additionally, the Ancient Booster gives Brute Bonnet another 60 HP, making it rather difficult to KO, especially as a Basic. Now, obviously this entire Pokémon can be rendered useless with a mere Field Blower, but I still think it’s really good. Afterall, baiting out Field Blower early means they aren’t using it to remove the Luxurious Cape off your Guzzlord *wink wink*.
Metal
Ferrothorn – Metal – HP140
Stage 1 – Evolves from Ferroseed
Ability: Solid Body
This Pokémon takes 30 less damage from attacks.
[M][C] Spinning Needle: 50 damage. If this Pokémon uses Spinning Needle during your next turn, it does 100 more damage.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: Grass (-30)
Retreat: 3
Man, this is a tanky boi. As someone who has experimented plenty with Emergency Entry Metagross, this card just simply on paper is really good. It’s a stage 1 with effectively only 10 less HP than the Metagross himself, however it does less damage on the ramp up. Still, 150 damage is solid, and Metal has plenty of ways of making Ferrothorn difficult to remove. Unless you have a gusting option, Ferrothorn will continue to do 150 damage to whatever active you promoted after its first turn of attacking, and will be able to mitigate upwards of 140 damage given the Tools and Abilities Metal has access too. Lastly, you can buff up that damage a bit with the use of Galarian Perserker, making it swing for 170 instead, KOing a large portion of Stage 2s and even some Tool-Equipped Basics.
Anyways, I’m not convinced by this set’s Tatsugiri so we’re skipping Dragon since TPCi refuses to print a decent non-rulebox Dragon more than once a year.
Colorless
Spinda – Colorless – HP80
Basic Pokémon
Ability: Staggered Foot
If this Pokémon is Confused and receives damage from an attack, you may flip a coin. If heads, prevent that damage done to this Pokémon.
[C][C][C] Wander Step: 100 damage. This Pokémon is now Confused.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Spinda cards are always weird, but this one is relevant enough to mention. I mean, TECHNICALLY, this is a conditional Infiltrator from Dragapult but on a BASIC. It does 100 damage for 3 Energy, this is probably it’s weakest point outside of its bad HP stat, but how much does that matter if you can just hit the nuts and prevent damage turn after turn with Staggered Foot?
Iron Jugulis – Colorless – HP130
Basic Pokémon (Future)
[C][C][C] Homing Headbutt: This attack does 50 damage to 3 of your opponent’s Pokémon that already have any damage counters on them.
[C][C][C][C][C] Baryon Beam: 150 damage. If this Pokémon has a Future Boost Energy Capsule attached, this attack costs [C][C][C] instead.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 2
This is definitely one of the cards I’m most excited for, as a Spread enjoyer. Colorless Spread always felt like it just had to do too much to even remotely get the damage of other spread decks like Psychic, Water, or Grass, or even Lightning. However this is the finisher the deck needed. For 3 Colorless Energies (in other words, any Colorless Special Energy + Double Colorless/Twin/Turbo Energy), this Basic Pokémon gets to do 50 damage to 3 of your opponent’s Pokémon, so long as they already have damage counters on them. This is phenomenal, as Colorless already has a few ways to get damage counters on the whole board for cheap, most notably Dizzying Spin Spinda. Additionally, I believe Spread decks always need a way to break through a tanky Pokémon or risk losing their whole board to is, and even though Colorless has access to broken attackers such as Unfazed Fat Snorlax, Iron Jugulis’s second attack Baryon Beam is a pretty good attack, especially if you combine it with a Future Booster, allowing it to hit for 170 (+20 comes from Future Booster) for the same cost as Homing Headbutt. A truly phenomenal card, and it will define Colorless Spread from this point forward.
And that’s all the Pokémon! At the time of writing, I am 25 pages into this document and we haven’t even touched the phenomenal Trainer cards being introduced in this set, as well as the fact I’ve cut every card I already talked about in my Raging Surf Review, so it’s safe to say this set has plenty to mess around with and will be a cornerstone to Gym Leader Challenge for potentially years to come.
Now to the broken stuff.
Trainers
Ancient Booster Energy Capsule – Trainer
Item (Ancient)
The Ancient Pokémon this card is attached to gets +60 HP, recovers from all Special Conditions, and can’t be affected by any Special Conditions.
You may attach any number of Pokémon Tools to your Pokémon during your turn. You may attach only 1 Pokémon Tool to each Pokémon, and it stays attached.
Honestly, not a bad card, but it’s clear which ones between Ancient and Future Pokémon TPC favors. +60 HP is a slightly better Cape of Toughness, and Paradox Pokémon don’t evolve in the games so they’ll always be Basics, so the comparison to Cape is apt. It has the added benefit of not being able to be affected by Special Conditions, though those aren’t currently too relevant in the metagame to warrant being worried. Still, a solid tool and depending on later released Ancient Paradox Pokémon, it could be a really nice stat buff to many.
Earthen Vessel – Trainer
Item (Ancient)
You must discard a card from your hand in order to use this card. Search your deck for up to 2 Basic Energy cards, reveal them, and put them in your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.
You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn.
Every Rain Dance deck is happy at the sight of this card. I mean, it just gives all of us another Professor’s Letter, at the cost of a discard from hand. Many Rain Dance decks also have Draw till X engines like Octillery, Revavroom, or Bibarel, so that discard 1 can be vital at thinning out dead cards from your hand and hopefully letting you see more off those Abilities. Now every Rain Dance deck, and really every deck in general, has the energy consistency that Water has had all this time with Capacious Bucket, and I doubt Water lists will run all 3 among Bucket, Letter, and now Vessel, but who knows I may be wrong. Redundancy and Consistency is the name of the game a lot of the time afterall.
Future Booster Energy Capsule – Trainer
Item (Future)
The Future Pokémon this card is attached to has no Retreat Cost, and the attacks it uses do 20 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance).
You may attach any number of Pokémon Tools to your Pokémon during your turn. You may attach only 1 Pokémon Tool to each Pokémon, and it stays attached.
Now I don’t know who at TPC had the brilliant idea of having Muscle Band and Float Stone, 2 of the most meta-defining tools in their respective eras, come together, do the Fusion Dance, and come out with this monstrosity. Now thankfully it’s only for Future Paradox Pokémon, but considering that this tagged gimmick just now released, it is possible we will see Pokémon that can truly abuse the heck out of this card. Also, depending on what Future Pokémon get printed, we could see decks with multiple users of this card, allowing its different properties to be relevant in more boardstates.
Mela – Trainer
Supporter
You can play this card only if any of your Pokémon were Knocked Out during your opponent’s last turn.
Attach 1 Basic Fire Energy from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokémon. If you do, then draw cards until you have 6 cards in your hand.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn.
Man, I love this card. Initially reading this card, I thought to myself “well dang, fire has a ton of acceleration supporters now that it might be wrong to run all of them or risk heavy bricking at times”, but then I realized what this card does for OTHER decks. Mela simply reads “1 of your Pokémon”, meaning that it doesn’t have to be benched and doesn’t have to be a Fire type either! Dragon type attackers with Fire requirements absolutely adore this card, as well as potentially Coalossal builds that are already running those 1 or 2 Fire Basic Energies to accelerate with Tar Engine. It’s just such a good acceleration Supporter, and obviously Fire decks can take advantage of it as well, especially combining Mela’s draw till 6 effect with Magcargo’s Smooth Over Ability to make sure 1 of those cards you draw is exactly the one you need.
Professor Sada’s Vitality – Trainer
Supporter (Ancient)
Choose up to 2 of your Ancient Pokémon and attach 1 Basic Energy from your discard pile to each of them. Then, draw 3 cards.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn.
Just like I said about the other Ancient and Future Trainers, this is a card that only gets better depending on what/how they print any upcoming Ancient Pokémon. I mean for starters, being able to accelerate an energy from discard onto 2 Pokémon is already usually worthy enough of being a Supporter, but for extra oomph, they added that Draw 3 effect at the very end that turns this from a solid Supporter to a great Supporter, so long as we get worthwhile targets in the respective types to utilize it. The only way this card could’ve been better is by reversing the order of operations in the text, making the draw 3 happen first, and then making the acceleration conditional to the draw 3, because as it currently stands the card is a dead card if you don’t have a way to pull off the acceleration at the beginning, since it won’t draw you cards until after that resolves. Still, a phenomenal Supporter and could be very strong as more Ancient Pokémon are printed.
Snorlax Doll – Trainer – HP120
Item
If this card is in your hand when you are setting up to play, you may put it face down in play as if it were a 120 HP [C] Basic Pokémon. (You cannot play it at any other time).
Any time during your turn, you may discard this card from play. This card can’t retreat or be affected by Special Conditions. If this card is Knocked Out, your opponent can’t take any Prize cards for it.
You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn.
God this card is so annoying. Alright, let me break it down for you. Firstly, this card can count as an optional Basic while setting up, which allows any deck running it to opt for it so long as they deem the rest of the hand is playable. If it’s not, then they can just shuffle it in and take a mulligan. This is strong because optional mulligans in a game that forces you to play out the first playable hand presented are really strong, especially on a “Pokémon” that can’t give up Prize Cards and can discard itself from play in order to be a free pivot. Which leads to my second point: This card reads “your opponent can’t take Prize cards for it”, meaning you can hypothetically equip this thing with a Luxurious Cape and have it sport 220 HP for 0 prize cards. Obviously it’s not taking any prizes either, but in control decks this could be very very powerful. Obviously the downside of the card is that it HAS to be played during setup, unlike the other dolls that can be played whenever and recycled as often as possible. Nonetheless, this is still a really strong opener, potentially stalls out multiple turns allowing the control player to set up their game plan, and is yet another doll to worry about, even if they have to start it in order for it to have value.
Technical Machine: Devolution – Trainer
Tool
Attach this card to 1 of your Pokémon in play. That Pokémon may use this card’s attack instead of its own. Discard this card at the end of your turn.
[C] Devolution: Devolve all of your opponent’s evolved Pokémon by putting the highest stage Evolution card on them into their hand.
You may attach any number of Pokémon Tools to your Pokémon during your turn. You may attach only 1 Pokémon Tool to each Pokémon, and it stays attached.
Yeah this card is nuts. Spread decks always like having multiple finishers if possible in order to bring about a board wipe, and this card is splashable in all of them. Now not to get too ahead of myself by mentioning the Evolution TM, but I feel like specifically the metagame matchups for Spread decks will be heavily reliant on Devolution, as otherwise your opponent likely has all their big bodies out due to Evolution. Devolving will become more so a necessity than just an added bonus to the archetype, and not being able to Devolve will make Spread decks very difficult to pilot due to the ability of many Stage 2s to be in play very early. So for all my spread enthusiasts, you have been warned and you’ll likely need your copies of this card sooner than later. Be mindful of your opponent’s previous evolutions’ HP, and you’ll be able to net plenty of KOs with this card.
Technical Machine: Evolution – Trainer
Tool
Attach this card to 1 of your Pokémon in play. That Pokémon may use this card’s attack instead of its own. Discard this card at the end of your turn.
[C] Evolution: Choose up to 2 of your Benched Pokémon, search your deck for a card that evolves from each of those Pokémon, and put those cards on them to evolve them. Then, shuffle your deck.
You may attach any number of Pokémon Tools to your Pokémon during your turn. You may attach only 1 Pokémon Tool to each Pokémon, and it stays attached.
Here’s the card that will likely break decks and boards alike. This card is ridiculously powerful, allowing you to directly search 2 Evolution Pokémon from the deck and play them on top of your Benched Pokémon in play. This allows you to skip an entire turn of set up for many decks for just 1 Energy - and because it’s so splashable practically every deck can abuse it! And this isn’t even focusing on the fact that it’s an attack, so cards that can attack twice such as the Ancient Trait Omega Barrage Pokémon like Torchic, Bunnelby, and Medicham, as well as cards like Fluffy Barrage Jumpluff even, will allow you to search for Evolution Pokémon TWICE! As early as the end of your first turn going second with Basic Omega Barrage Pokémon like Torchic and Bunnelby, you can hypothetically have 2 Stage 2 Pokémon in play, ready to wreak havoc during your next turn. This card will be meta defining, and I’m afraid it’ll make many matchups feel as though they either lost during the coinflip, or lost because they couldn’t get the Evolution attack off before their opponent could. Regardless, it’s the life and game we currently play and so either get ready to abuse Evolution, or be prepared to go against it. There are plenty of strategies and cards that can slow this card down such as Tool Jammer, but you’ll need to have them on board before your opponent is able to get Evolution off.
Technical Machine: Turbo Energize – Trainer
Tool
Attach this card to 1 of your Pokémon in play. That Pokémon may use this card’s attack instead of its own. Discard this card at the end of your turn.
[C] Turbo Energize: Search your deck for up to 2 Basic Energy cards and attach them to your Benched Pokémon in any way you like.
You may attach any number of Pokémon Tools to your Pokémon during your turn. You may attach only 1 Pokémon Tool to each Pokémon, and it stays attached.
So this last card was technically from Raging Surf but I didn’t talk about it initially since I thought it was bad. I was wrong. Two decks in particular can take extreme advantage of this card: Turbo Guzzlord and Turbo Raikou. Turbo Energize allows you to search the 2 for any 2 Basic Energy cards and attach them to your Benched Pokémon. That means you can simply search the Grass and Metal energies that you need for Raikou’s Amazing Shot attack, attach to it with his attack, and next turn all you’ll need is a Lightning Energy from hand in order to fire off one of GLC’s strongest attacks. This card has good uses elsewhere too, such as potential in Dragon or just decks like can warrant acceleration from deck early for the cost of an attack. Still, this card is very nuts given the card pool in GLC and my bad for overlooking it all this time.
Cut Cards
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, our international release of this set has some cut cards. Many of the ones I will mention are from Raging Surf, so to read my opinions on them you can follow the link in the introduction. However, sometimes people want to experiment with revealed cards and aren’t aware until it’s too late that they’ve been cut from the international release.
Here are all the GLC relevant cards that were cut from Paradox Rift.
Magmortar – Fire – HP140
Stage 1 – Evolves from Magmar
[R] Flare: 40 damage.
[R][R][C] Volcanic Heat: 170 damage. During your next turn, this Pokémon can’t attack.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
Lanturn – Lightning – HP120
Stage 1 – Evolves from Chinchou
[C][C] Lightning Ball: 50 damage.
[L][L][C] Aqua Spark: 80+ damage. If this Pokémon has any [W] Energy attached, this attack does 120 more damage.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Exeggutor – Psychic – HP130
Stage 1 – Evolves from Exeggcute
[P][C] Hypnoblast: 30 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Asleep.
[P][P][C] Psychic Loop: 160 damage. Put 2 Energy attached to this Pokémon into your hand.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 2
Gengar – Darkness – HP130
Stage 2 – Evolves from Haunter
Ability: Night Gate
Once during your turn, you may switch your Active Pokémon with 1 of your Benched Pokémon.
[D][C] Nightmare: 100 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Asleep.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: None
Retreat: 1
The ones I’m most disappointed about are the Lanturn and the Gengar, as the Lanturn allowed Special Energy Lightning to hit that slightly higher damage threshold compared to Electivire, and Gengar has some really cool interactions with the rest of Dark’s toolbox to be quite a menace if set up. Hopefully all of the cards cut will be seen in the next set, whether it be in our international equivalent of Japan’s newly revealed Shiny Treasure ex set, or in the next main set that we’ll get in 2024. Still, we likely will have months at least without seeing these cards internationally and them being legal for GLC, and on rare occasion certain cards from Japan are never released overseas. I just hope it isn’t any of these.
Final Thoughts
Thank you for reading this REALLY extensive Set Review of Paradox Rift. These are definitely much easier to make when TPC actually gives us lots of good cards, but they also take a long time. I think it’s fair to say that, since the inception of GLC, this is THE set that has provided not only some of the most support/new attackers for individual types, but also the set that has introduced the most trainers that can be used across the format. Plenty of these cards will be play-defining for given Type/Archetypes, and some of them will be outright metagame-defining. I hope that this article has sparked some fire in you and makes you want to get into the kitchen and cook up some new decklists with all the new cards, because I sure know I will. Thanks as always to Pokebeach for providing a concentrated place to find all of these translations, and a special thanks to JustInBasil, Arantxa T., Toine L., and Bangiras for the translations themselves. A super huge thanks to Steffenka who compiled the particular article that I used to access all these cards and translations, which can be found here: https://www.pokebeach.com/2023/10/paradox-rift-set-guide-card-list-secret-rares-cut-cards-products-and-more . And lastly, a final thank you to you, reader. Until next time, which will likely be our international release of SV Shiny Treasure ex! (New baby shinies for GLC decks are always cool man!)