Paldea Evolved: Format Revolution!

Paldea Evolved is in the running for being one of the most impactful sets we have seen in a long time! There are so many cards whether it's stadiums, tools, items or staple Pokemon that can really have a drastic effect on the metagame! So I thought let's have a breakdown of the main meta decks and how they have been affected by the release of Paldea Evolved.

Gardevoir was many people's best deck in the last format and to be honest, I think it has gotten stronger in the PAL format! Its main addition is Iono. You couldn't really draw up a better supporter for a Gardevoir all things considered. You see Iono reads “Each player shuffles their hand and puts it on the bottom of their deck. If either player put any cards on the bottom of their deck in this way, each player draws a card for each of their remaining Prize cards.”

For a deck like Gardevoir where you are slower to start taking prize cards in the early game, you get a fresh six cards to help set up and even in the late game you get the ability to disrupt your opponent's hand and limit their options while being able to use Kirlia’s Refinement or Gardevoir’s Shining Arcana to restore your hand size.

I cannot stress enough how bonkers it is that Gardevoir gets to play 4 of these.

Artazon is a new stadium card that reads “Once during each player’s turn, that player may search their deck for a Basic Pokémon that doesn’t have a Rule Box and put it onto their Bench. Then, that player shuffles their deck. (Pokémon ex, Pokémon V, etc. have Rule Boxes.)”

For a deck like Gardevoir that needs to set up multiple stage twos, being able to pluck out an extra basic Pokemon whether it be Ralts, Mew or Cresselia is crazy! Especially in a deck like Gardevoir where you need to have stadiums at hand to replace Path To The Peak being able to have a stadium that actually helps your deck strategy of setting up stage twos like Artazon instead of a stadium that is only useful, in some matchups like Temple Of Sinnoh is absolutely huge for the deck.

However, Temple is so good for the Lugia VSTAR matchup and Collaped is so good for removing Lumineon V from play that Artazon might be the 61st card but it's definitely a card I would not be surprised to see played.

Super Rod is another card that is perfect for Gardevoir. It reads “Shuffle up to 3 in any combination of Pokémon and Basic Energy cards from your discard pile into your deck.”

This easily replaces Miriam in the deck. While Miriam was extremely effective for recovering discarded Pokemon, it gave up your supporter for the turn which while in the last format was ok with super rod now being available it has become the optimal Pokemon recovery card.

Reversal Energy is capable of making Brainwave Gardevoir into an even more of terrifying offensive threat. It reads “As long as this card is attached to a Pokémon, it provides {C} Energy. If you have more Prize cards remaining than your opponent, and if this card is attached to an Evolution Pokémon that doesn’t have a Rule Box (Pokémon ex, Pokémon V, etc. have Rule Boxes), this card provides every type of Energy but provides only 3 Energy at a time.” So not only does this provide 90 damage for Brainwave Gardevoir but it can also be used in combination with Luxray from Paldea Evolved too which provides a solid 180 damage from a one-prize Pokemon that can one-shot a Lugia VSTAR due to weakness.

Again I am unsure if Luxray will 100% be used but I would be stunned if Reversal Energy didn't see any play in Gardevoir.

While Lost Box hasn’t gained as many different cards as Gardevoir the ones it did gain are just as impactful.

Jet energy is a special energy card that reads “As long as this card is attached to a Pokémon, it provides {C} Energy. When you attach this card from your hand to 1 of your Benched Pokémon, switch that Pokémon with your Active Pokémon.” This gives Lost Box decks even more Pokemon movement to fill their Lost Zone up faster by getting easier use of Comfey’s Flower Selecting Ability.

Funnily enough this increased movement via an energy card has thrust Giritina VSTAR back into the top tiers of competitive play making for Lost Box to be more versatile.

Apart from that, Lost Box also gains Super Rod and Artazon. Super Rod allows for non-supporter-based Pokemon recovery which is pivotal in Lost Box decks since all your Pokemon get KO’s very easily and Artzaon basically searches all your Pokemon for free so what's not to love there!

Arc Tina benefits heavily from having Iono in format. Since Arc Tina is built to be a heavy disruption deck, being able to limit your opponent's hand size further than 4 with Iono over repeated Judge use seems very strong. Especially when you weave in Path To The Peak too. Imagine a turn where you have your attacker KO’s, hand reset to two and there's a Path in play. Sounds very scary right?

Spiritomb is a naughty little card that has an ability that reads. “Basic Pokémon V in play (both yours and your opponent’s) have no Abilities.” This is especially disruptive for opposing Mew decks to deal with since you turn off their Genesect V’s Fusion Strike System ability. You can grind a Mew deck right down by slamming this Spiritomb down.

It also has some uses against Lugia VSTAR since it stops Lumineon’s Luminous Sign ability. Because Lugia does not run a draw engine it relies on Lumineon to keep itself in the game. Quite often I have found that denying Lugia Lumineon can be absolutely game-defining. This in a similar vein works against Baxcaliber decks too since they tend to run a Lumineon too.

Squawkabilly ex is just the card Arceus decks were missing. How many times have you been playing Arceus and you miss energy on your turn one. Now you are so far behind, Squawkabilly ex now gives you an opportunity to dig even further through your deck to make sure you can set up. Squawkabilly ex’s ability reads; “Squawk and Seize Once during your first turn, you may discard your hand and draw 6 cards. You can’t use more than 1 Squawk and Seize Ability during your turn.”

This lets you have that turn-one explosiveness that Arceus decks are lacking and Motivate is usable too since it allows you to help up by powering up a benched Pokemon for a single energy attachment.

Lugia VSTAR has a ton of new toys to play with from Paldea Evovled.

Jet Energy is perfect for Lugia. Not only can it be Accelerated by Primal Turbo but it also helps alleviate one of Lugia's biggest problems, its lack of switching cards. Now you can run a few of these and not have to run otherwise useless cards like Penny to avoid getting caught by Mawile or Dreepy. While actually being useful in every game where you don't play against trapping attacks.

Much like in Arceus decks it's a non-negotiable that you need to get a Lugia V downturn one no questions asked. Squawkabilly ex helps you with that since if needed you have another 6-card dig to find it! This also allows you to get more Archeops in the discard pile which is never a bad thing.

Reversal Energy opens the door to Lugia players playing Luxray too. This will provide a solid 180 damage from a one prize Pokemon while also providing lightning typing which will make for a solid mirror attacker since it can One Shot a Lugia VSTAR.