Trainer cards, including Supporters and Items, make up nearly half of any deck in Pokémon TCG Pocket and are instrumental to strategies and eventual victories in battles.
Cards like Misty, Leaf, Erika, Poké Ball, and Potion have become mainstays, and with the introduction of the Space-Time Smackdown expansion, new Trainer cards have joined the roster. In fact, a new category of Trainer cards called Pokémon Tools debuted in TCG Pocket, and you must be wondering what the best ones are and how they shake up the meta.
We have you covered with this detailed analysis of all new Trainer cards available in the Space-Time Smackdown set. Let’s begin!
Cynthia
Starting with the card that has sent the TCG Pocket community talking the most, it’s none other than Sinnoh champion Cynthia, one of the most iconic trainers in the Pokémon world.
Cynthia is associated with her signature Pokémon, Garchomp, and it is no different in TCG Pocket! With the champ in your Hand, attacks done by your Garchomp or Togekiss do 50 more damage.
Garchomp, with one Water and one Fighting Energy, hits the opponent with the 100 DMG Dragon Claw. With Cynthia’s assistance, Dragon Claw hits for a cool 150 DMG!
Now, here’s a twist. Cynthia is scarier with Togekiss in TCG Pocket!
Togekiss has an attack named Overdrive Smash, which deals 60 DMG for 2 Energy. With Cynthia, it’s 110 DMG. But, the story doesn’t end here. In the next turn, Togekiss does +60 DMG to the existing 60 DMG, bringing the total to 120 DMG. Add Cynthia, and the damage numbers clock a ridiculous 170 DMG!! 😯
Expect Cynthia to become a prominent figure in Psychic-type decks!
Dawn
Daijoubu!! Dawn/Hikari is here!! Pokémon anime fans would get the reference.
Dawn brings a super useful mechanic in TCG Pocket, that is bound to earn her a place in nearly every deck. With Dawn, you can transfer Energy from one of your Benched cards to the Active Spot. It’s sort of like Vaporeon from Mythical Island, and no points for guessing, but Dawn would be a major play to get Palkia EX more Energy, transferring Energy from, say, Articuno EX to Palkia EX or even Gyarados EX (without the hassles of getting Eevee and evolving it to Vaporeon).
So, if your EX card of choice is arriving later than you expect, you can transfer Energy from your wall/initial attacker to your strongest card. Two Dawn cards mean two Energy transfers, although you would be able to do that in two different turns since multiple Supporter cards can’t be used in the same turn.
Cyrus
The big bad of the Gen 4 games may arguably be the strongest Supporter card from Space-Time Smackdown! And, this card could even replace Sabrina!!
Cyrus forces your opponent to switch in a Benched Pokémon that has damage on it. See where this is going? How ‘dark’ it’s getting? 😉 Cyrus pairs wonderfully with Weavile EX, a card that dishes out 70 DMG (40+30) at only 1 Energy if the opponent has damage on it. Including Druddigon and Darkrai, both of which do passive damage through their Abilities (even Greninja for that matter), Weavile’s 70 DMG is great.
Keeping the Darkness deck aside, you can use Cyrus to switch in a heavily damaged EX card that your opponent retreats to avoid a KO. Bring it in and get the +2 points ezzz! Cyrus is going to pop up in countless decks, so brace yourselves.
PS: You can use it along with Sabrina, not necessarily replace it!
Team Galactic Grunt
The evolutions of Glameow (Purugly, Colorless type), Stunky (Skuntank, Darkness type), and Croagunk (Toxocroak, Darkness type) are all handy cards that offer some quirky battle mechanism to tick off your opponent:
- Purugly has a 3 Energy, 60 DMG move called Interrupt which not only makes your opponent reveal their Hand but also lets you discard any of the revealed cards and shuffle them into their deck. This is absolutely crazy and can prevent them from evolving Pokémon or experiencing a delay in using the card they desire.
- Skuntank has the 2 Energy, 50 DMG Poison Gas which, you know, poisons the target.
- Toxicroak has a 2 Energy move called Group Beatdown whose base damage is 40 but after flipping a coin for each Pokémon you have on your side of the battle, it does 40 more damage for each head. So, if you have 4 (1 Active, 3 Benched), you flip a coin 4 times. If you get 3 heads, you do 40+ (3×40) = 160 DMG!
Each of these cards can throw your opponent’s strategies out of the window and if you’re missing them out at the beginning of the match, you can use Team Galactic Grunt to get their pre-evolutions quickly.
Volkner
Before anything else, you need to know that your discard pile doesn’t just have cards already used/knocked out, it also has Energy already used/dropped from KO’d cards.
So, when you use either Electivire or Luxray mid to late-game, Volkner draws 2 Energy from your discard pile and attaches it to Electivire or Luxray (of your choosing).
- Electivire has a 2 Energy, 40 DMG move called Exciting Voltage. But, if this card has 2 extra Energy attached (hello, Volkner), it does 80 more damage, bringing the output to 120 DMG.
- Luxray has a 3 Energy move called Volt Bolt. This shocking card (no pun intended) does 120 DMG to 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon and then discards 2 Energy, With Volkner, you can use this insane move twice, winning you the game more often than not.
The Lightning deck is already among the most formidable in TCG Pocket and Volkner’s antics could make it even deadlier.
Mars
Mars is severely underrated. You can slow down your opponent tremendously by making them shuffle their Hand back to their deck, and then drawing cards as per the number of points left to win. So, at the beginning of the battle, they shuffle back and draw only 3 cards. If they have 1 point, they draw only 2 cards, and 1 if they have only 1 point left to win.
Note that Mars can be combined with the Red Card (an Item) to frustrate your opponent even more. Then draw another Mars to make them want to quit, lol. Mars is all about mind games and is bound to rise in prominence as the Space-Time Smackdown meta progresses.
Pokémon Communication
Mayday! Mayday! The Mewtwo EX | Gardevoir Psychic deck just got even better! 😯
In this famed Psychic deck, you are looking to get Mewtwo EX and evolve Ralts to Gardevoir ASAP. The Mythical Slab Item card from Mythical Island made drawing Psychic-type cards quicker. Now, this “quicker” just got way more quicker!
Suppose you have Mewtwo EX in your Active Spot, Ralts on your Bench, and Gardevoir in your Hand. You desperately need that Kirlia and you have some spare Ralts/Gardevoir or some other Psychic Pokémon that you won’t really need. After all, once Mewtwo EX and Gardevoir are set up, it’s lights out for almost anything.
So, you basically exchange the not-so-useful card in your Hand with a random Pokémon card in your deck (highly likely to be Kirlia). Add in Poké Ball and Mythical Slab in the same turn to speed up the process. Folks, the reign of Mewtwo EX has been extended even further with Space-Time Smackdown. 😳
Skull Fossil
Just as how Fossil Pokémon function in TCG Pocket, Skull Fossil evolves into Cranidos (and then Rampardos) in the Fighting deck. Bring it to the Bench (Item cards can’t be brought to the Active Spot) and proceed with the evolution process.
Rampardos’ Head Smash does 130 DMG for only 1 Energy although it also does 50 DMG to itself (it has 150 HP). This may help you secure OHKOs and win matches.
Armor Fossil
The same mechanics as Skull Fossil, only that Armor Fossil evolves to Shieldon (Steel deck), which then becomes Bastiodon.
While Rampardos is an offensive brute, Bastiodon is defensive. This 160 HP Pokémon has an Ability called Guarded Grill, which takes 100 less damage from the opponent’s attack if you get heads on flipping a coin. In return, it does 80 DMG for 3 Energy with Headbang. Talk about tanking the strongest attacks in the game!
Pokémon Tools are the newest bunch of Trainers cards in TCG Pocket although they have been available in the physical TCG games.
- In TCG Pocket, Pokémon Tool cards can be attached to your Active or Benched cards, and they provide some special battle effects.
- They stay attached to the Pokémon in question until it leaves play.
- Like Item cards, you can use as many Pokémon Tool cards as you like during a turn but each Pokémon can have only one Tool attached at a time.
Now, let’s check out the first-ever Pokémon Tool cards gracing TCG Pocket.
Giant Cape
Undeniably the most meta-defining Pokémon Tool right now, Giant Cape is simple yet supremely efficient. The Pokémon donning Giant Cape gets its HP increased by 20.
To put it into perspective, your Pikachu EX is now 140 HP, Mewtwo EX is 170 HP, and Gyarados EX is 200 HP! Your high HP cards are now even tougher to KO. Honestly, this is a big deal and battles are bound to become more grueling than ever before. A must-have card indeed!
Rocky Helmet
When a Pokémon carrying Rocky Helmet is on the Active Spot and is hit by an attack, it does 20 chip damage to the opponent. It’s literally Druddigon’s schtick.
And… hang on… are you… thinking what I’m thinking?! 😯 So, umm, Druddigon with Rocky Helmet does 40 chip damage! 💡 Druddigon (with Leaf) fits in any deck and this showstopper from Mythical Island is all set to have its sticks rise in Space-Time Smackdown as well! Wow!
Lum Berry
Lum Berry is the answer to Special Conditions. If a Pokémon is poisoned, burnt, confused, paralyzed, or asleep, Lum Berry recovers it.
Note that once recovered, the Lum Berry card is then discarded. A pretty useful card that doesn’t stop your Pokémon from rampaging!
Space-Time Smackdown has brought in a diverse range of Trainer cards that would have a huge impact in battles, turning the tide in your favor.
You’d need some think tank to include these cards amidst the existing Trainer cards but that opens the doors to creativity!
Happy collecting and battling, TCG Pokcet-ers!
