How Radiant Greninja Became the Most Played Pokemon Card
In celebration of the anniversary of the official Pokemon TCG Live app, Pokemon is doing some pretty cool things on the game that hosts millions of Pokemon TCG battles each year. Along with some pretty exciting rewards, Pokemon also released some key stats. The most interesting of them to me is the fact that the single most played card since the game officially launched is none other than the versatile Radiant Greninja.
Radiant Greninja has been a force since it came out in Astral Radiance all the way back in 2022. In this article, we’re going to look at why this card is so strong!
A closer look at Radiant Greninja – the world’s most played Pokemon card
How good does a card need to be for it to be worth playing 17 million times? Well, let’s take a look. What exactly makes Radiant Greninja so good? As it so happens, a lot of things. Let’s break this card down in detail and go into some of what makes it so strong.
“Concealed Cards” is a powerful ability
First and foremost, the main reason Radiant Greninja has made its way into so many decks is because of its ability, “Concealed Cards.” This ability is notable because of how strong of a draw engine it is from a single prize, basic Pokemon. Part of the reason for why Radiant Greninja has seen so much play is because its ability works on any energy regardless of color or whether it is basic or special.
All you need is an energy in your hand, Radiant Greninja on your bench, and you can start discarding cards and adding cards back into your hand.
Many decks need energies in discard
Many, many decks benefit from having energies in the discard, making Radiant Greninja’s ability not only good for drawing cards but for getting key objectives into place. Decks that run Dark Patch, Magma Basin, Sada’s Vitality and more actually need energies in the discard in order to function, making Radiant Greninja a key part of energy acceleration as well as draw support.
Moonlight Shuriken is deadly
In all reality, Concealed cards is a strong enough ability to get this card into many, many decks. But what makes Radiant Greninja extra deadly is the powerful Moonlight Shuriken that it also possesses.
If you manage to get three energies onto Radiant Greninja, it becomes capable of taking multiple KOs in a turn. This works really well in decks that can afford to run water energies, or those that already run it anyways.
Combine its ability and its attack and you easily have the most well rounded card in the game.
Radiant Greninja is a single prize Pokemon
Radiant Greinja may have a rule box making it susceptible to certain cards (like the infamous Path to the Peak that has recently rotated out), but it doesn’t award your opponent additional prize cards when it is knocked out, making it a very reliable attacker and supporting Pokemon.
Favorable HP stat
last but not least, and as if all of this weren’t enough, Radiant Greninja has strong HP. While 130 may not seem like a ton, it puts the Pokemon out of reach of common, lowball attacks like Sableye’s Lost Mine or Cramorant’s Spit Innocently (among many others).
Indeed, much of the time if your opponent fields a Radiant Greninja you are going to be forced to use a two prize Pokemon to knock it out, opening up a favorable prize trade.
Being a Radiant Pokemon – meaning you can only have a single copy of it in your deck – hasn’t stopped this card from becoming the most played in PTCG Live history, and I doubt anything will put an end to its effectiveness until it rotates out!
