Paradox Rift has proven itself to be an epic set so far, with a plethora of high value cards and new mechanics that will undoubtedly mark it as one of the best of the Scarlet and Violet era. But will it have an impact on the meta? In this article, we’re going to take you through the cards and plays that will have the biggest impact on the meta.

Buckle up. This is pretty cool

So long, Sableye. Hello, Jirachi!

While there is some debate about this in the Pokemon TCG community, to me there is no doubt that Jirachi will have a massive impact on the current meta. This will be especially felt by Lost Zone decks, and also Rapid Strike Urshifu/Inteleon decks as well.

Up until now, card attacks that have enabled Pokemon to “place damage counters” directly onto Pokemon have had a displaced effectiveness because there were very limited ways to block it. That’s all changed with Jirachi. Jirachi absolutely hard counters Sabeleye.

While not every single deck is going to run a Jirachi (several decks can get away without Manaphy because they aren’t weak to bench sniping), decks that tend to have trouble against Lost Box will certainly include it.

I frequently play Giratina VSTAR, for example, and almost always have trouble against Lost Zone Box. Including Jirachi will massively even the playing field, and I foresee Lost Zone Box not being nearly the issue it was before.

A new, Roaring Moon

Roaring Moon will be the strongest new archetype to come out of Paradox Rift. This card is incredibly strong. I mean, it can do what Giratina VSTAR can only do with 10 cards in the Lost Zone right off the bat, and it’s a basic Pokemon. That’s just insane. We’re building this deck as soon as Roaring Moon goes down in price a bit.

The main issue in getting Roaring Moon up and roaring (pardon the pun) is that it takes three energies to get its attack off. However, given the incredible support for both darkness type Pokemon and Ancient Pokemon (we’re talking about Sadda’s Vitality especially), Getting Roaring Moon ready to start taking attacks shouldn’t be too hard.

However, in case you whiff on a draw, it wouldn’t hurt to have a strong secondary attacker. In our Roaring Moon ex deck, we built it in combination with Samurott VSTAR.

Iron Hands has a gripping attack

And while there are undoubtedly going to be other, additional cards of value players will use to shakeup the meta, the third major game changer is the much anticipated Iron Hands ex Card.

While Iron Hands may not dish out a ton of damage, his Am You Very Much attack does 120 and lets you draw an entire extra prize card when it knocks out an oposing Pokemon.

While this is an incredible attack, it is not without its limitations. First of all, it’s an electric type, requiring a lightning energy. This puts it out of reach for a lot of decks that just aren’t going to be able to justify a lightning energy for one attack. Not to mention getting this attack off will require a lot of energy.

Still, Iron Hands ex will certainly make it into several decks, most notably Miraidon ex, Lost Zone Box, and maybe even Lugia VSTAR!

Boss’s Orders isn’t the only game in town

For a long time, Boss’s Orders has had something of a manopoloy on switching out benched Pokemon on your opponent’s board. Not anymore! Counter Catcher gives a real, reliable way to switch out your opponent’s active for a more strategic Pokemon that’s on the bench. The only catch is you have to have more prize cards remaining than your opponent. But given it’s not a supporter, we’ll take that trade-off.

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