The Everyday Wonders set has ushered in a lot of excitement among Pokémon TCG Pocket players, thanks to the expansion’s colorful artwork and powerful cards. We all know that in the TCG, with great power often comes great Trainer cards!
Let’s find out how much of an impact the Trainer cards from Everyday Wonders make in the meta.
Elesa
On first glance, Elesa comes off as really awkward. Returning all Pokémon Tools to the hand serves no real purpose, right? They aren’t discarded, so you can just give them back to your mons again. Well, dear reader, in that case, you haven’t fully understood the implications of Elesa!
The true purpose of Elesa is to switch a no-longer useful Tool in your Pokémon to a more useful Tool. In the most basic sense, imagine your Active Pokémon with Giant Cape is about to be KO’d the next turn, and even the opponent has low HP. Using Elesa, you can switch Giant Cape into, say, a Rocky Helmet that was initially attached to a Benched Pokémon. This way, you instantly throw your opponent’s startegy off the window, and force them to rethink their next move. What was a sureshot KO in your opponent’s favor is now a stalemate or a safety escape for you, all thanks to Elesa!
As such, Elesa is more valuable not in terms of the opponent’s Tool removal, but rather, your own Tool removal and substitution. Some classic applications of Elesa include:
- Metal decks can switch around with Steel Apron, Metal Core Barrier, Giant Cape, and Rocky Helmet.
- Lightning decks can rotate between Electrical Cord, Lucky Egg, and Rocky Helmet.
- Darkness decks running Poison shenanigans can replace an Active Pokémon’s Giant Cape for Poison Barb, with Nihilego on the Bench.
- An Active Pokémon that is a sacrificial pawn can have its Tool taken back and used on a stronger teammate.
In essence, you can diversify and spread the usage of your Tools among your Pokémon, and it’s honestly really fun to use this Supporter and disrupt your opponent’s battle pathway. Go Elesa!
Wallace
Wallace is one of the best additions from the Everyday Wonders set as it reprises a fearsome monster and makes a new EX one of the best in Pokémon TCG Pocket.
We all know the infamous 30 HP Magikarp that has often struggled to evolve in time. With Wallace, you can immediately evolve the silly fish to Mega Gyarados EX/Gyarados EX, and wreak havoc… until you have the required Energy.
But the new Milotic EX comes with a superb ability that helps it ramp up its own Energy. You can evolve Feebas on your first turn, and voila, you have a Milotic EX ready to go with all three Energies, doing 80 DMG and putting the target to sleep. Backed by the dreaded Igglybuff | Darkrai ‘Sleep Scam’ duo, Milotic EX is undoubtedly the best EX from Everyday Wonders. It’s no surprise really, considering that Milotic is Wallace’s ace in the main series games.
Puppy-Loving Girl
So here’s the deal. Just like the Sweets Relay archetype from the Eevee Grove set, some puppy-based Pokémon from Everyday Wonders, including Growlithe, Yamper, Fidough, and Rockruff, have a 2x Colorless Energy move called Puppy Pile (lol) that reveals all Pokémon in play and in your hand that have this move, and you do 20 DMG for each.
Basically, the more Puppy Pile-wielding puppers you find, the more damage you do. Now suppose you’re lacking some of these little doggos in your hand; then the Puppy-Loving Girl will look at the top 4 cards of your deck, and bring all Puppy Pile Pokémon to your hand (and shuffle the rest back to your deck).
This is a very gimmicky Supporter that can be fun. With 2 copies each of Puppy Pile users, you ideally draw 8 (in play and in your hand), and you end up doing an insane 160 DMG. Even 100 DMG is neat from these puppers, so this deck does have its uses, but it’s risky to run them in Ranked mode.
Pokémon Tools are super useful cards that have been available in the physical TCG games and follow these rules in Pokémon 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.
Small Balloon
We begin with the Tool that’s one of the Crown Rares in Everyday Wonders, Small Balloon. Its usage is very simple, but effective, as it reduces the retreat cost of a Basic Pokémon by 1. All three Basic EX cards from this set have a retreat cost of 1, making their withdrawal free with Small Balloon.
Small Balloon is a blessing for Mega Diancie EX decks involving Fantastical Parade Gardevoir and Everyday Wonders Carbink for Energy ramping, as all three have a retreat cost of 1. It can even be used in Igglybuff | Darkrai decks since the latter has a retreat cost of 2, and in situations where you draw Darkrai at the beginning of your game, Small Balloon helps with easy retreat. Even in Darkness decks, Mega Absol EX can now enjoy free retreats, helping it synergize with its teammates.
Elegant Cape
Imagine a Leaf Cape, but exclusively for Stage 1 Pokémon. Well, that’s exactly what the Elegant Cape is for, and if you haven’t guessed it yet, this Tool is another perk for Milotic EX decks. With this Tool, Milotic EX has a respectable 170 HP, which helps it immensely when tackling a meta full of bulky Mega Evolutions.
Elegant Cape also helps the popular Mega Lucario EX flex an impressive 220 HP, making it more competitive with the beefier Megas, and also serving as propaganda for the Sleep Scam agenda with the infamous Mega Lucario EX | Igglybuff | Dakrai deck.
Stadiums are Trainer cards whose effects affect all Pokémon in play (both you and your opponent) and can be used once per turn.
- This card stays in play after you use it, unlike Items and Supporters, which are discarded after they are used.
- Only one Stadium can be in play at a time, and it’s discarded only after a new Stadium enters the battlefield or if the effect of a Pokémon/Trainer disposes the Stadium.
- Stadium cards of the same name cannot be played when the same Stadium is already active.
Kid’s Room
The Kid’s Room Stadium is a magnet for Pokémon Tools, letting you exchange a currently useless or less worthy card for a Tool in your deck. Metal decks will love this!
However, this Stadium sees niche use in the Everyday Wonders meta, as Dedenne EX requires all four Pokémon in play to carry Tools, resulting in a damage output of 160 for only 2x 
Energy.
With only 120 HP and high damage potential, Dedenne EX is best used as a finisher (with Zeraora, Oricorio, and Emolga leading). So, you can take help from Kid’s Room to pull as many Stadiums as possible, and be all set to zap the opponent with 160 DMG.
Keep in mind that you can even use Elesa and Kid’s Room in tandem for Tool-focused decks. Kid’s Room helps make all Tools available at your disposal, and Elesa helps you move them around efficiently and to turn the tide of the battle in your favor.
For a mini expansion, the Everyday Wonders set has proved to be quite a stunner, with impactful Trainer cards all across the board. And don’t be surprised to see these being widely used even after the current meta!
Kudos to these Trainers! As always, happy collecting and battling, Pokémon TCG Pocket-ers!
