Pokemon TCG: The Best Paldean Fates Cards

The Paldean Fates expansion of the Pokemon Trading Card Game is a bit of a confusing one to approach. It’s got shiny Pokemon! There’s a bunch of reprints! It’s a landing place for cards that didn’t have another international home! So figuring out the best Paldean Fates cards is a bit tricky. We’re going to try, though!

The coolest Pokemon TCG Paldean Fates cards

You’re probably expecting us to say the shiny cards. You probably are buying any of this set in the first place because of the shiny cards! But we just can’t get that excited about cards that are simple, sometimes-recycled character-only art in different colors. So even though there aren’t as many in the mix, it’s the illustration rares again. The Trainer selection is particularly nice, with a Nemona action pose and a fun isometric scene featuring Clive.

If you’re really lucky, though, you may pull the incredibly rare gold prints of the Paldea legendaries. Cards like Chien-Pao ex have seen common play in competitive decks, and if you’re using them often, having a cool variant to show off while you do is nice.

The most interesting Paldean Fates cards

It may be arriving a bit late to the party, but United Wings decks get one more option in Kilowattrel. It has a United Thunder attack that deals 10 damage per United Wings user in your discard to an opponent’s benched creature. Is the dropoff from 20 to 10, and not actually counting itself, worth it? I don’t know! But we’ll see, I suppose.

The basic card drawing supporters, like Nemona and so many before her, tend to get outclassed a bit by more powerful options. It’s possible that the new Nemona’s Backpack might help? The item gets you two Nemona cards back from the discard pile, making for a much more consistent card draw at the expense of a little efficiency. Whether that’s interesting enough to try is a matter of taste, but hey, the pickings are slim in this set in terms of actually new abilities.

The most meta-relevant Paldean Fates cards

This one might even be meta-meta-relevant, but the biggest impact Paldean Fates will leave on the competitive scene comes from its collection of popular reprints. The silver lining to so much of the set being recycled is that it’s an opportunity for The Pokemon Company to water down demand of high-cost cards a bit, and bring down the cost of building a competitive deck. It’s maybe weird to recommend a special set release because it has staple reprints, but… well, that’s where we are!

In terms of new cards, the one that’s most likely to see play is Moonlit Hill. The new Stadium lets you discard a Psychic energy to heal 30 damage from your party, which seems not so special until you remember that Gardevoir ex (which got a reprint in this set) can put that energy back on a creature at the cost of 20 damage. Synergy!

It’s also possible that Gengar, with its ability allowing a free retreat each turn, could be nice in a support role, but Stage 2 creatures are a pain to play, so the bar’s a bit higher than that in terms of utility.

The cutest Paldean Fates cards

The Paldean Student cards have a bunch of plucky little kids just having a good time at school. With versions for both the base game’s academies and Illustration Rare versions of both, we get a lot of cute youngsters showing some fun personality. We’d like to see their adventures in future card art!

There are also some adorable little pals among the shiny contingent. None are particularly clever art treatments, but it’s simply hard to depict creatures like Tinkatink, Pawmi and Jigglypuff without making them lovable.

The newest Pokemon Trading Card Game expansion, Paldean Fates, launched January 26, 2024 and is in stores now. For more Pokemon TCG coverage, including an overview of this set, check out our archive.