The Future of Pokémon Cards 

it feels MUCH better to be playing in the current meta where many decks are 10-12%ers, vs the all mew, all palkia, or all lugia metas

As somebody who has collected Pokemon cards for over ten years, simply for the art, this video was really interesting to me. I LOVED the Sword and Shield era for it's addition of alternate arts and generally having some amazing looking cards, I never considered how they played. Maybe someday I will try to build a proper deck...especially if the meta isn't super defined and I can get away with using some of my favorite pokemon!

Great perspective on the current meta. The diversity of the top decks make this a fun time to be playing the TCG.

Back in 2017 I started to play TCG in a competive Way. When Tag Teams were released, I instinctively stopped playing. This Year in October I came back, tested some Decks online, created my own Version of a Lost Zone Deck and won a little local Tournament (1 out of 6).

All this harkening back to the original ex-era shows that we are in a pretty good time to play the game. And the more I observe older format decks in the RS-PK era, the more I see that the difference between today and then is simply the HP increase. It’s also very refreshing to see the sheer variety played out today!

God I love when this guy just talks Pokémon, shit is so good

The current meta is great I remember before paradox and obsidean flames I played 2 locals back to back a total of around 14 games and I specifically remember going against 10 lost box decks out of the 14 after that I was so burned out I stopped playing the game for 3 months until now! And now there’s so much variety you don’t even know what you’re going to be playing against it’s awesome! A great breath of fresh air!

It makes it tough to stick to one deck for me. I should be keeping on with either Miraidon or Gardevoir. But MAN, the Gholdengo deck is so much fun. The one from LDF. And I've seen a deck on Armarouge from rare candy. I want to play that too! Unfortunately, this is one of those busy times in my life... And I wish I had energy and money to spare on this game. I have three decks on PTCGL as well as IRL though, but I'm usually worn down at the end of the day... And I want to relax before bed time. Content like this is great for that however.

I think numerical power creep is cute with pokemon bc it feels like your monster buds are getting stronger with you throughout the years.

This new era of the TCG REALLY feels like the BW-XY era all over again, especially with the announcement of the returning ACE SPEC mechanic next year. The BW-XY era is, in my mind, THE best era of the TCG, but having that era with evolution is even better. I hope that Creatures learns that evolution NEEDS to remain a core mechanic of the TCG going into the future.

I think that Stage 2 pokemon could be a lot more viable as a general strategy if more lines worked like the proven examples of Gardevoir and Charizard. Gardevoir has Kirlia as a stage 1 draw engine, and a powerful 1 prize attacker that synergizes with the ex. So you often dont need/want Rare Candy to junp straight to stage 2, and can effectively trade your 1 prize cards for opposing 2 prizers, which helps offset prizes yout opponent gets while you're setting up. The stage 2s also give the player tons potential energy acceleration, to keep up the lategame pressure. Charkzard frees up deckspace by running very few energy because it fully powers itself up and more as soon as it enters play. The damage scaling off opponent's taken prize cards also helps give Charizard much needed KO power to offset the prize trade in the lategame. (It is also surprisingly tanky because they refuse to print any good Grass attackers). Lretty much every other Stage 2 ex deck (probably even the Stage 1 ex decks) fall apart in serious play. Too much deck space needed. Too prone to whiffing Rare Candy or forced to leave weak Do-Nothing basics/stage 1 mons on your bench to get gusted/greninja sniped. And often too slow because they dont accelerate their own energy to compensate for fhe cards you're spending to evolve into them as quickly as possible. I'm in this weird spot where the variety lf decks is technically diverse because there are like 10 or so viable decks. But 7 of those decks are the same 7 Gardevoir, Lost Box, Lugia, Mew, Miraidon, Chien-Pao, and Charizard.from last set with maybe 1 or 2 new decks gettkng past the gate and then the established decks absorb any new good generic cards. And the state of the actual gameplay in terms of card draw and energy acceleration is so fast and consistent that after a while it feels like I'm just doing fhe same lines of play over and over with the same results.

I used to be a Magic: The Gathering player but I left the game once they started to shoehorn other IPs into their game. I've come to the Pokémon TCG in the last 8 months and it's been amazing. The meta is wonderfully diverse with new strategies and decks seemingly constantly evolving. The competitive scene is so healthy and approachable too. TPCI seems to actually really care about their players; Doing everything possible to make the game affordable and with a great competitive circuit. I used to play when I was a kid and, while my years playing Magic were good, it feels great to be back "home" in the Pokemon TCG. This game is really something special and I'm excited to devote many more years to this game.

mewtwo EX was certainly the pinnacle of the overwhelming power of the basic pokemon of that era but I feel like it began to start much earlier than that in the late platinum era with the pokemon-SP. I remember my old-school evolution-based decks getting absolutely ran through by garchomp SP (and its LV.X) and similar builds. I think that was the first time TCPI had experimented with putting pokemon that were traditionally evolution pokemon on basic cards and I remember it just being overwhelmingly powerful at the time. they walked it back a little in HGSS with the Prime pokemon needing to be evolved and I remember the BW metagame being pretty fun (if a little magnezone-heavy, although I remember doing really well with MagneEels and enjoying that deck a lot) even in the early EX days but mewtwo and darkrai EX absolutely crushed so many decks. then plasmabasics became a thing and man it was just off to the races, barely any diversity after that. that was when I moved to magic lol

I loved your analysis! I’m not a very experienced player but I entered my first ever regionals in Toronto this year and I was blown away by the diversity of decks I saw and played against. The experience led me to the same outcome you expressed: the game is in an incredible place right now 🥰

Bro I can't stress that enough but your videos are so incredibly well designed. Thanks Celio for all the effort on bringing quality information for new and old players. Cheers from Brazil and hope your channel grows into what it deserves to be, cause there's a lot of good content here!

I cannot fully agree with the state of modern pokemon tcg being great. If we're going to ignore regular evolution pokemon decks then yes, but those cards still exist and have been filler in sets for more than a decade now. A few exceptions exist in between but most of them are indeed filler. In the first place, Iron Valiant is threatening because of the very low hp regular pokemon have like this is 2010. Same for stage 2 pokemon. If you compare the evolutions exs and regular evolution pokemon in gen 3 those cards were in a closer league, however the rule box pokemon of today and for more than a decade blow their regular pokkmemon counterparts out of the water. The solution is simple: Give the regular pokemon a LOT more hp finally.

I started collecting cards back when Base Set hit and got hooked to and learned the TCG because of the GBC game. I recently came back for nostalgia and i was actually overwhelmed by the power creep of GX, V / STAR and EX one or two shotting a lot of stuff. It feels like so many cards are straight up not playable anymore when you open any booster pack. Since we are a group of friends we directly went away from standard format and opted for Gym Leader Challenge format instead. We optimized it for us, allowing 4 copies of the same pokemon and lifting 1 energy type restrictions (so eevee-lution decks are possible), while still banning all EX, V, GX, etc. Pokemon and leaving the One-card rule for Trainer + Special Energy in place. It created so much better duels for everyone, that are actually a lot closer to the traditional ways of playing the game and rewards creative Deckbuilding a lot more than Standard ! It got so many people at our locals back into the game, and we have seen so many incredible decks, that utilize so many Pokemon that rarely see play!

Playing digitally has been fine since I’ve been handed a lot of the strong ex cards, but playing physically has been expensive, and I’ve struggled to find some cards at all

As somebody who wanted to get into the TCG and got pushed out by tag teams + 2020 stock issues, I’m loving this new era of the game. A lot of the new decks weren’t clicking at first, but I’ve really fallen in love with Roaring Moon. Honestly my only issue with the current balance is that psychic types have a larger presence in the number of decks playable right now, and that pretty much solves itself once Mew rotates. It’s just great is all.

I do think that the game is going in a POSITIVE direction, especially since going first and going second both have good archetypes, but my main concern as of now is the sheer difficulty of stage 2s. Are we going to see a gradual removal of stage 2s from the format? It has already become risky due to TM devolution wasting rare candies and forcing more deck space. Hopefully this won't be a massive problem, though.

Great Video! Do miss those Sun and Moon days! I went to Regionals with my Silvally GX Deck with Mt Cornet and Magnazone to power up!

Honestly I’m really excited for this rotation. I wish it was SV on, but this will do for now.

I would not include Zoroark GX in the Golden period of sun and moon. If anything it signaled it's downfall

I still have my 1st pokemon card, an OG Ken Sugimori Ivysaur. I miss when battling was picking an attack, and using it. All the counters, extra rules, rotations etc is way above my head

I'm going all in for the Scarlet &Violet era and hope for the best. Got cards from S&V, Paldea Elvolves, Obsidian Flames, 151 and Paradox Rift now

Grass type decks need more supports!!!

Iron Hands and iron valiant are a bold move, since their potential is not mapped out yet, which I know cause my playgroup is tinkering with them a lot and we see some interactions that are not yet widely adopted. So yeah, they could end up defining the meta sooner or later. With lostbox being bdif for so long now, it is understandable though. Many competetive players were longing for a change and we have it now with lzb having a more modest position. Also tpci has double safety nets with weakness always being an option and the option of printing straight up anti future cards, I think things are in check

The current meta kept me playing. However, I think Charizard ex and Roaring Moon are a little OP.

Great video. Seriously cannot wait for the rotation.

I’m the outlier in my group. I’ve had a much harder time getting excited about playing since PAR came out. 1 prizers/evolutions are still viable and comebacks can still happen but it feels like the margin for error and the timing required to turn things around is insanely narrow that it doesn’t feel worth it to play decks like that. At least in my experience. The combination of Hands, Valiant, and Moon has sped the game up against the favor of 1 prizers/evolutions while also gate keeping decks that were previously playable at the same time. I have not found it enjoyable unfortunately.

As someone, who only gave this game a try a while ago, I thought V and VMax cards had been around for a long time, but watching this video I realize, that they often change the mechanics. I immediately saw, that there was no use playing regular pokemon cards, when all you needed were V and VMax cards. Them being worth two prizes is worthless, when regular pokemon can't effectively damage them, because they just die straight away.

honestly, from someone who has been playing consistently since S+M base set, this is the best spot that I've ever experienced the game in. Zoroark GX was a nightmare, Then it was ADP and pikarom, then it was mew VMAX. Now mew is much more balanced, there are a large variety of decks, there are a big spread of weaknesses so it doesn't feel like rock paper scissors, and there is a mix of strong evolution and basic decks. Lost box and miriadon are both very popular, Charizard and Gardevoir are also balanced and even control players are eating good with snorlax. The game is amazing right now and if anyone is questioning getting back into it, it's never been easier with the introduction of live reducing the cost of meta decks.

I started playing Ptcg at the time Mega pokemon Ex was good. After that Gx showed up and I was not very happy about how much HP they have. The time V/VMAX came was when I dropped out of the game. Thanks to this video I came back just about a week ago and you were right! Every deck is so much fun to play now.

It's too early to say whether Iron Valient and Iron Hands will ruin the meta. After winning LAIC they will probably be played a lot more.

I don’t play anymore, but it’s kewl to keep up with the meta. I enjoy knowing there is more diverse decks being played and much more diversity to come

The last sentence was one i needed to hear. I netdeck for tournaments but all the time in-between I'm trying the rogue stuff and stuff of my own. For the first time in a long time im frustrated because my builds are ~close~ to being good and are at least competitive. But that frustration is misplaced; the rogue builds having more opportunities to succeed is the sign of a healthy TCG, and its exciting that the bad decks are pretty alright, actually.

I wish Ptcg online had a no rulebox format, it slows the game down and will give the game more variety

I really miss that HGSS - early BW format before EXs came in. Crap like Seismitoad and general big basic spam really felt nowhere near as fun. It really felt like every speed of deck was viable. Games weren't heavily decided in 2 turns like they are today. Granted the game feels a bit better now with these new exs compared to VMAX/VSTAR (cant wait for VSTARs to go tbh, but I do like Arceus) but it still feels a bit too fast. Maybe I will just never get used to 2 prizers or something... Or maybe it would feel better for me if OHKOs weren't so common.

I started Pokemon TCG Standard since XY. Was a very good experience until the middle / end of GX bloc (with Golisopod/Zoroark, my favorite deck ever). And since ADP deck, Pokemon TCG meta decks seems to be more similar and boring... Even the actual meta is boring for me... I hope we could play more decks and more Pokemons in the future of the Standard format !

The history videos and future videos are 100% the best videos you make! I can binge watch all the history videos!

I've given up on pokemon TCG. I spend so much money just to not be able to play the cards I want because of balancing and rotation.

Ahh see as a casual pokemon tcg player, i had no idea that i was getting blasted by really good Gengar/Mimikyu & A/D/P tag teams on TCG Live expanded. Literally I had no idea they were very good and just kept chalking up my continuous losses to my Inteleon VMAX being not as good.(Though i do make a few mistakes) I just started creating standard decks the other night because i keep running into those 2 decks on expanded.

I started to collect Pokémon TCG (pure collection, no attention to resell). I don’t know much about the rules even tho I read a bit, but in few boosters I got the Iron-Valiant and… the SR card Professeur Turin’s plan (or something like this), another capsule attack which I don’t really know the name in English… and I was just thinking “damn, I guess a deck about this Iron-Valiant and those cards can be pretty dangerous”. It kind of make me wanna try to play since I got pretty lucky on what to get to build a good deck. And all this mechanics make the game easier. But doesn’t it make the whole Scarlet/Violet thing almost useless now with this mechanics? Since there’s no evolution whatsoever and you deal damages there and there all the time. I mean, I say that but once again I don’t really know how the TCG works. Just a Pokemon enthusiast in general, and I wanted to start to collect the pokes I use and love the most in game, then some of which I really love the artwork (like the SR Iron Jugulis, my favourite from the whole extension, glad that it wasn’t a very pricey one) and now I’m kinda tempted to play. Used to play Yu-Gi-Oh but I stopped with all the new mechanics that came eventually + all the decks became the same (and still are I guess for each new extensions). But yeah, it’s a paradox to come to a game just because I got lucky with the cards I got while I’ll probably see this deck hundred of time if I start. So, since they went backward with the Future and Past pokemon that are no evolutions and pretty cheated, didn’t they backed up on coming back on evolutions? Maybe I misunderstood the end of the video, idk

Snorlax: ima just sit here and win

The only thing about power creep in the Pokemon TCG I find alarming is that the hp values keep increasing. So the attack values have to increase as well to keep the status quo of the game flow. And then you get into the different types; EX, GX, GX tag team, V, Vmax, Vstar, and we're just looping back in EX only the numbers are higher. And besides that really I'd prefer they make better precons. The league battle decks are great, the ex deluxe battle decks are good. The ex battle decks and v battle decks, there's hardly any competitive value. Like the battle academy, that's a great introduction product.

Idk why, bit psychic seems to have a good majority of the op cards, at least if you aren’t a serious collector, it might just be the fact that it has 3 types of pokemon represented, so it has a larger pool of cards, but at least a third of the “broken” cards I see in casual collection are psychic, with the rest split almost evenly, excluding dark, having some specifically busted cards, but not a large card pool, so it has a lower percentage

As someone new to the game, it puzzled me how you had no limit on Vs in a deck. It made no sense. I'm not going to play more than casually at home, so I pretty much have a self-regulation of one V-max/star per deck. Otherwise, what is the point in regular cards?

I'd argue that LAIC's day 1 results was because people didn't have time to play with the new cards and many were just playing what they were comfortable doing as opposed to trying to do something new. I imagine, in a month, we'll see even new designs show up and evolve the format further.

Great content and production! Congrats for the vid, Luke!

I played Pokémon from base set and stopped at Diamond & Pearl due to power inflation. Switching over to MTG was so fun since it was a much faster game. No more 1 energy per turn and stage 2 slog. Seeing too quick of games being a PROBLEM of modern Pokémon is wild.

I couldn't agree with ALL of these points more. I joined the TCG when SM came around and I loved it then, but I did feel it was losing its way with V cards. Now though? The diversity is incredible, and I LOVE seeing so many people using different types of decks. I feel this game is more alive than ever!

Great video and totally agree that the meta feels better than ever currently. Looking forward to the future of the TCG!

I think the biggest problem is the type disadvantage. Right now, Venusaur EX is much fun to play, but 80% are playing Charizard/Arcanine EX, so you basically are screwed

I don't know. While I like the current state of PTCG I do miss tag team mechanics. The game was generally more fun then. It should also be stated that during the Latin tournament a lot of the reason for those decks placing is because of familiarity. The new cards that did shine showed just how strong those cards are considering their place still hadn't been fleshed out. A lot of them are integrating into familiar decks and making them better with very slight changes. The downside in this current meta is the time it takes for players to finish a turn.

0:11 THE FUTURE IS NOW THANKS TO SCIENCE! That is burned into my head since that was my first Pokémon content at all 😅

tried returning to a local tcg shop weekly thing with ZERO research about the new game after i'd just been playing pokemon go and looking at my old cards and skimming new ones on ebay and all that. top of 2021. at the shop I just bought the nessa dreadnaw deck to have one to play with. the first person i played was incredibly empathetic. they watched a human being about 15 years their senior be obliterated from the light bouncing off of every arceus vstar. the card art for sw&sh has been cool though. while as a collector I have mixed feelings about the new abundance of shiny foil cards as a concept in general... the game mechanics are far far far better. been playing the live tcg and having a lot of fun.

Love it! Such great content keep em coming boss man!

I just picked up playing the game in the last few months and really enjoyed this recap. Thanks!

I run a gholdengo deck with either darkrai v or calyrex v but, the real kicker is the mimikyu that can lock all v and ex card attacks. I literally just won a game of tcg live making a guy deck out because he couldn't attack me

Mewtwo EX is also a pokemon that made sets have legal dates as opposed to "yeah bro borrow my mewtwo's get your invite then next event, toss me the mewtwo's", the entire game was based on who had more Mewtwo than the opponent during the early events. Another thing is scoop up net, this card should not have been legal, it being banned in expanded is almost an insult for how rediculous that card is. Sv design has definitely gotten much better.

I don't know if you know but battle compressor is not banned but protection cube might be with roaring moon

I hope they don't release more cards like Roaring Moon. Combined with ancient booster, that thing is broken.

I know nothing about the pokemo tcg battles, I only collect the cards for the art. I like having tons of my favorite pokemon in card form.

Just 1 minute in but yeah, power creep is crazy. I remember back in around gen 4 me and some friends found a wailord card with 200hp and 'cause we couldn't realy speak english we called it "the whale at 200" (translated from norwagian "hvalen i 200") cause we had never seen a card w/ that much hp before.

I think Sun and moon on Expanded is going to become real next rotation. TCGL is already preparing for it, seemed odd for them to bother adding those packs back in otherwise.

This is gonna sound random but can anybody tell me about their opinion on seismatoad Ex bats deck I think it's kinda mid

Hey. If I have to sit for 10 minutes at the start of every game against a SolRock/Lunatone deck until they finish setting up, I am allowed to use Iron hands and put my misery to a rest and finish the game faster.

Easy for me to say now knowing the results of LAIC, but I do fear big basics once again running the format, which as you described is quite toxic for the game. Gardy and maybe Charizard are the outliers, but post rotation I hope they continue moving the meta into a healthy space where evolution strategies have a place, and games aren’t all decided after one or two turns

Iron hands has definitely gotten me a few sneaky wins with some generator luck, but more times than not it ends up being an easy 2 prize donk for my opponent. Slipped it into a Tina deck and it actually worked out late game. In a zard deck? Not so much. I’m a fan of the new sets.. not sure how balanced it actually is but it feels pretty balanced to me

I prefer the changes MtG did with their Standard rotations. I'm hoping Pokemon does something similar since they tend to just copy what WotC does anyways. Doing this will allow for a few extra sets every year to say in Standard, but also saves players some money.

I agree, I’m finally having fun

I really hope they add all the types

i can't wait for Iono to rotate out. there is no card more frustrating than that one. i'm sincerely hoping that they don't reboot it either. i'm tired of getting card screwed by my opponent after i had the perfect hand. yes, Iono can be helpful at times, but more often than not it has screwed me over and i'm just sick of it in every freaking match

Just started playing the TCG again after 2 years and I never had so much fun playing the game. It is great in its current State.

but its not fun if you play anything but those 10 decks. Paradox rift kind of made me stop playing Pokémon TCG live because roaring moon and other turbo decks are just to prevalent and I just get locked into a terrible spot by turn 2 or 3. All of my favorite cards are just not meta relevant(Amrarouge, Venasaur, Blastoise, ect...) maybe ill come back to it later.

finally - words of wisdom. I'm a pokemon competetive deck collector. needless to say I didnt made any deck past 2014. the power creep + absurd card desgin just not attractive at all.

Its kinda a shame that Mewtwo EX has thrown the TCG into wack and now we get very obvious counters, heck even find same-type weaknesses is too rare nowadays (does it even exist? Can't even recall the last time I've seen that happen). I will say the price to get in nowadays is way better than it was from back then.

Maybe limit how many copies of ex pokemon you can run in your deck? They could also just a flat limit of 1 or 2 ex pokemon at all. Make them more like a chance lucky draw that nobody can rely on.

Thank you, very clear video again! Which sets are best to buy for online ptcg when you just start?

I don't know anything about the Pokemon card game but the art is really nice

In 2022 he shared news about the future of pokemon. 12 months later, the future is here! Lets hope my retirement also goes that fast

Tag teams were not that bad (at least the first 2 sets of them). I felt like 2019 NAIC was one of the most fun and skill-basedd formats the game had had in YEARS (since like 2011). Mew and Mewtwo tag team was an issue though - I agree. I also think that the sun and moon era in generally was pretty boring and not really the peak of game design at all.

You lost me a bit at the end Luke, ngl. While there is a lot of variety of decks when it comes to the raw numbers of different archetypes, there is one playstyle that is wildly overrepresented amongst most of them. Other than the Stage 2 decks, all of the others can hit for 110-200+ on turn 1 of the game. And even in terms of the few playable stage 2 decks that we have, Charizard ex is really the only "real" stage 2 deck. Gardevoir is certainly a very skill-based set-up deck, but frequently just relies on basic attackers, and Chien-Pao is just a big basic deck masquerading as a Stage 2 deck. We'll probably need the coming rotation plus a few more sets to really know if the Paradox Pokemon were a mistake, but currently to me the PAR format feels like we are in a similar spot as the UNB format. Tag Teams and Basic started to run the format, but we still had a few lingering evolution decks like Zoroark and QuagNag that technically were playable had good finishes. While the UNB format wasn't awful, it felt like the start of the decline of the SUM era and really isn't the benchmark I was hoping for from the SV era. Still a good video though my dude. I've been wanting to tackle this same subject for a little while now too.

I feel like maybe 5-7 months ago was the single best time for single-prizers since Greninja Break became irrelevant.

As someone who hasn’t played the TCG in well over a decade, I don’t find the current meta to be fun. After dipping my toe back in, it seems most decks are built out of less than 10 Uber powerful EX Pokémon with crazy abilities, and about 38 trainers. You start the match, they throw out a 300HP killer, use 5 trainers and abilities per move and are completely set up to kill within 4 moves. Power creep doesn’t begin to describe it imo, but my perspective is definitely skewed.

Can't wait for lost box to go out of rotation. Annoying having to play slow ass games that take like 25 mins

Should put a “beginner” tab for these vids.

I like playing the game but... Because everyone wants to win, even in casual tornament with other players, they all use Gardevoir ex, Charizard ex, Chein-Pao ex, Lost Box and so forth to win the game before I even start! There decks are like S their and all they wanna do is win 24/7/365 even if they don't wanna go to tournament! I know I sound like a sore loser but I fell like I can't play my own original deck with different pokemon and play because of it... And may soon be forced to play these S teir decks instead of me trying to be creative and make my own deck my way..... This is the only massive downfall I've had in the game while playing with others thus far Everyone wants to win But no one wants to play Casual or not 😢

I used to love Yugioh but the powercreep has gone too wild. every card now is like reading Ulysses.

I just wonder how the xbox 5 will differentiate itself from a pc.

Ishihara shoukd step down in general

0:13 Thanks to science!

Everytime i played online id always get crushed from mewtwo ex, darkrai, and malamar xP

Well, he said the format was going to slow and now games last 3 turn. 😂

Hey man 92 baby here, I've just recently started playing Go and have started collecting cards again. I was wondering if you could teach me? Maybe a good video idea since I know nothing of the TCG it's been so many years since I played and even that ended early as my mother burned all my cards because they were the devil lol.

I thought this was gonna be news. It comes off sounding like an ad.

Still too much variety. Winning feels more random due to the fact there's too many unpredictable match ups...

@Celio's Network While i tend to disagree with you most ofthe time it is nice to see you still going. Also The editing of the videos improved greatly.

I’m just a collector, but this was really interesting!

Really wish PK had a TCG mobile app similar to MTG Arena where players can collect and play.