Top Five Competitive Pokemon TCG Cards in Standard

So you are new to Pokemon and you have been going to every Wal-Mart, local game store, and mall looking for packs to rip open with your greedy hands. Hidden Fates... Got it! Evolutions... Nostalgia! Lost Thunder... Busted! You have amassed a decent collection, but what cards are the best? I am sure you know that GX Pokemon TCG are usually valuable and that Holo Rare cards are pretty great too! The looming question is, what are your most competitively valuable cards? The goal of this article is to display the top five competitive cards in Standard and to showcase why they are the best! Remember that you can buy all of the Pokemon TCG Online code cards here on ptcgostore.com . You can even use my code, zlesage5, to save 5% off on your order when you decide to splurge a bit. That being said, let’s jump into the top five!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane... well, actually it is definitely a bird. Pidgeotto [Team Up 123] has been popping off since the 2019 World Championships when it was showcased in a huge control deck. That deck, Pidgeotto Control, is still one of the best Control decks that we have in our Standard format and that is because Pidgeotto allows you to draw all good the toxic Control cards available in our format. Articuno-GX [Celestial Storm 31], Crushing Hammer [Ultra Prism 166], and Bellelba & Brycen-Man [Cosmic Eclipse 186] are a few of the cards featured in this deck and Oranguru [Ultra Prism 114] can get them back each turn. That is when you use Pidgeotto to get them back. Other decks, like Blacephalon [Unbroken Bonds 32], use Pidgeotto to get valuable cards out of the deck each turn. Overall, Pidgeotto is an engine that typically works well with Professor Elm’s Lecture [Lost Thunder 188] to get out all of your Pidgey [Team Up 122] and Pidgeotto. Considering we don’t have that many Pokémon in our Standard format that have Abilities that let us draw cards, Pidgeotto seems like it will continue to be one of of the best cards in our Standard format.

There are so many great Pokemon TCG cards in our format and it is subjective to create a top five list at any given point. I thought about cards that many decks would play and I stumbled upon Pokégear 3.0 [Unbroken Bonds 182] because many decks play it. It isn’t as valuable as Dedenne-GX [Unbroken Bonds 57] or as powerful as Welder [Unbroken Bonds 189], but it is likely played in just as many decks, if not more! Having the extra “look at the top seven cards of your deck” function in most decks is the difference between dead drawing for the loss and hitting a Supporter card for the win. Beyond that, the card isn’t that exciting, but it has definitely allowed plenty of players to traverse out of sticky situations to progress their board state. Depending on what you need, it would be a great strategy to search out other cards in your deck before using Pokégear 3.0. This will improve your chances to get a Supporter card making Pokégear 3.0 more effective. If you don’t already own at least four copies of this card, I would highly recommend picking up some Unbroken Bonds packs / codes to build a better collection!

I debated on putting this card in my personal top five Pokemon TCG list, but I just couldn’t get there. Reset Stamp [Unified Minds 206] is one of the most disruptive cards in the Standard format because it is a one sided hand disruption card based on how many Prize Cards that you’re opponent has drawn so far in the game. I have won plenty of games because my opponent mindlessly grabbed Prized Cards throughout the game, I used a Rest Stamp, and they proceeded to dead draw for the rest of the game. The only issue is that Pokémon decks are constrained to only 60 cards which means this card is not available for ever deck. I want to play this card in ever deck, but consistency cards are usually more important in my deck lists. Overall, this is a very important card in Standard and I recommend that you try playing it in many different decks.

I’m gonna admit it, this card might be a little low on this list, but that is only because the next two cards are slightly more versatile. That being said, Mewtwo & Mew-GX[Sun and Moon Promos SM191] is the best attacking Pokemon we have in the Pokemon TCG Standard format and that’s because it can copy and GX Pokemon. If you want to snipe your opponent, you can use Naganadel-GX [Unified Minds 160] to take on a Bench-sitting Dedenne-GX [Unbroken Bonds 57]. You wanna snipe all of those Flabébé [Forbidden Light 84] on your opponents side of field? You can use Espeon & Deoxys-GX [Unified Minds 72] to Cross Division GX their board state away! What about taking on an opposing Mewtwo & Mew-GX? Mega Lopunny & Jigglypuff-GX [Cosmic Eclipse 165] will hit hard because most decks play plenty of GX Pokemon TCG. Another fact that you might want to know is that that this card was able to win the 2019 World Championships and a handful of 2019 Regional Championships. Overall, its attacking prowess mixed with a bulky 270 HP shell allows Mewtwo & Mew-GX to be ok of the absolute best Pokemon TCG cards ever printed.

This Pokemon TCG card is easily the queen of Supporter cards! Welder [Unbroken Bonds 189] is easily one of the best Supporter cards of all time - attaching two Fire Energy and drawing three cards? Insano! This card has seen play in many different decks since it’s release and I will list a few here just to showcase its flexibility as a card. Reshiram & Charizard-GX [Sun and Moon Promos SM201], Lucario & Melmetal-GX [Sun and Moon Promos SM192], Mewtwo & Mew-GX [Sun and Moon Promos SM191], Blacephalon-GX [Lost Thunder 52], Blacephalon [Unbroken Bonds 32]. I am sure there are a few others, but those are some of the most played decks in our current format and they all have Welder in common. Welder usually pairs well with Giant Hearth [Unified Minds 197] or Fire Crystal [Unbroken Bonds 173] because this cards allow you to acquire Fire Energy in your hand. The best ways in the game to get back Welder is to use Mewtwo [Sun and Moon Promo 214] or Pal Pad [Ultra Prism 132] because Welder is definitely a card you want to use over and over again! If you haven’t picked up Welder yet, it is well poised to make it past our Rotation in August, so I would pick them up today!

As I was writing this article, I debated on what Pokemon TCG card would be considered the best card in the Standard format. It was a bit of a toss up between attacking Pokemon and other support cards, but ultimately I had to give it to Dedenne-GX [Unbroken Bonds 57] because it is such a versatile card. We have seen this card in many decks and it can fit into almost any deck because it is a consistency crutch. You won’t really attack with this card, but you will gladly use Dedechange to dump your hand and draw six cards with ease. Pokemon TCG decks typically run one to four copies of this card and that is basically every single deck right now! Even if some of the decks right now don’t run Dedenne-GX, they have thought about it, or it is merely a differing metagame than normal. Some key advice is to use most of the card that you can in your hand before pitching them all away with Dedechange. Some Pokemon online decks, like Mewtwo & Mew-GX, want to pitch cards away to the Discard Pile. In order to use Perfection, you want to have different GX Pokemon TCG in your Discard Pile so feel free to let go of them when Dedenne-GX drops to your Bench. My best advice is that you will need a playset of this card if you don’t own one already and if you own a playset already, what harm does an extra staple card do? The huge plus about this card is that it will more than likely make it through our August rotation of cards so you will get approximately two years of Standard play with this card before it gets sent to the Expanded format. Additionally, this card is great in Expanded (I know the article is about Standard, but let me explain why this card is so great), it sees plenty of play in that format, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop soon. For all of those reasons, Dedenne-GX is the most necessary competitive card in Standard and I present it with its crown!

I’m not gonna lie, when creating this Pokemon TCG list, I almost forgot this card and it is easily tied with Dedenne-GX [Unbroken Bonds 57] as the best card in the Standard format. Jirachi [Team Up 99] is a great way to nab any Trainer Card out of your Pokemon TCG deck and that makes it a staple in most decks that are at the top of the tier list. This card combos great with Escape Board [Ultra Prism 122] and Switch [Celestial Storm 147] to get out of Jirachi becoming Asleep from Stellar Wish. This card was recently reprinted in the Ultra Necrozma Battle Arena deck (check it out on this site if you don’t have Jirachi online yet) which made it accessible for most players playing this game. There isn’t much else to go over when it comes with this card, it is another great consistency crutch, and it is a worthy addition in almost every Pokemon TCG deck!

Even though I have said it a few times in this article, I will put it here one last time in case you missed it. All of the cards in this article, in various art styles, are available on PTCGO. If you don’t already own them, you can pick up Pokemon TCG Online code cards from here, on PTCGOstore.com, to handpick the sets you want to open. Sometimes cards are available in special promo boxes and you will be able to handpick the cards you want to acquire. Don’t forget that my promo code for this site, zlesage5, is valid on all orders! Happy card hunting!

Zach Lesage
Zach Lesage is a contributing writer for ptcgostore.com . As a Toronto local, he has been playing the Pokemon TCG since 2005 and currently plays the game as his full time profession. With multiple Champion titles to his name, such as 2019 Collinsville Regionals and 2019 Mexico City Special Event, he certainly has a passion for success. Outside of the game, he travels the world and enjoys high fashion - particular Off-White. You can find him at most big events, and can follow him on Twitter @zlesagepokemon.