I should start this by saying I think Pokémon TCG Pocket is, even now, pretty brilliantly balanced. Across various new releases of what is now hundreds upon hundreds of cards it’s been rare, I’ve found, that a particular card, type, or deck has become so excessively dominant as to spoil the fun.
In fact whenever things do tilt a bit too far towards a certain deck in particular – looking at you, Mewtwo, Celebi, Darkrai and, as anyone familiar with my personal TCG toils will know I’m about to say: a certain Team Galactic’s Cyrus – much of the game’s most enjoyable moments have come from trying out new ways to topple it. I even found a neat little interaction around ties – a very rare case of two players on two out of three victory points each, both knocking out one more opposition Pokémon simultaneously – and how they can be tipped into victories by EX cards just this morning.
But one card that’s begun to look like it might – might – take things just a little far towards homogeneity in competitive decks, however, is Irida. A new addition in the latest, Arceus-themed expansion, Triumphant Light, Irida is a trainer card that allows you to heal 40 damage from each of your Pokémon that has any Water-Type energy attached. There are a few reasons why this is particularly strong. In fact, it’s strong precisely because there are so many different elements to it.
The first of those is the amount of damage Irida heals – 40HP is double the potency of the current standard headline items in Potions or Giant Capes (which technically add 20 maximum HP rather than healing it, but effectively function the same way), and is second only to the 50HP potency of Erika, another trainer card which is exclusively usable on Grass-type Pokémon.
The next is the word “each”. Irida can, in theory, heal 40HP from up to four of your Pokémon at once, totalling a whopping 160HP of damage wiped off the board. Yes, it’s rare you’ll be in that exact situation, but the current meta focuses very specifically on chip damage across multiple, benched Pokémon, making it an immediate counter to some of the game’s strongest decks. Both the Darkrai EX and Palkia EX decks that are currently in vogue, for instance – supplemented by Cyrus again, who lets you switch a damaged enemy Pokémon of your choice into the active slot – rely on you not being able to heal damage fast enough from multiple members of your team.
Finally, the real kicker is the type – Water – and not only that, the fact that it’s not limited to Water-type Pokémon, like Erika is with Grass, but any Pokémon with a Water-type energy attached. Water decks have, in my experience, been the most prominent type of all decks in Pokémon TCG Pocket so far. Partially that’s down to the range of viable Pokémon available in that type. Starmie, Gyarados, Blastoise, Articuno, and Palkia have all had genuinely viable EX versions, while Greninja is useful across several decks, and Vaporeon, Manaphy, and of course Misty have each been added to provide very strong, Water-specific support in different forms. There are simply many more strong Water-type decks than any other type in the game.
Again, it’s worth emphasising the word “prominent” here. “Strength” is slightly debatable – a card being Water-type alone doesn’t make it stronger – though you could argue the fact there are so many equally strong Water-type decks, more than any other type by some margin, is the definition of strength.
There’s also no doubt Irida makes Water-type cards stronger. This morning I played against a deck that seemed to consist of just two Articuno EX cards and no other Pokémon, but the sheer amount of healing power – with two Giant Capes, Potions, and now two Iridas all in the deck, as well as Misty to pile on the energy fast with a bit of luck – meant actually getting through just these two Pokémon became almost impossible.
Whether this tips our boilable friends into “actually overpowered” territory is another question, of course. Hopefully it doesn’t – TCG Pocket’s ability to keep its battles diverse and surprising is a key part of its deserved success – but even if it does, I look forward to trying to devise a new way to counter it. Ultimately that’s the real fun of TCG, and we’re not all losers, regardless: I’m playing a Dragonite deck at the moment, tinkering away with something that feels decidedly old-school and off-meta. But Dragonite needs at least one Water energy, of course. So at least I get to join the fun too.