Pokemon TCG Sword and Shield: Astral Radiance Set Review
The dust has settled a bit since Astral Radiance hit the shelves and became tournament legal. It’s clear now that the best deck to come out of this set was none other than Palkia VSTAR. I actually pulled a Palkia V and a Palkia VSTAR at a pre release event. However, I sold both so I can’t take advantage of just how overwhelmingly powerful this deck is.
With that being said, Astral Radiance has not had the profound impact on the game that Brilliant Stars did. After months and months of Mew VMAX/Fusion Strike dominating the meta, Arceus changed things drastically. Suddenly, there was an alternative to Mew VMAX, and even an alternative to the Inteleon engine.
Some speculated that Inteleon might be at its end as best engine in the format. However, that was a premature speculation. As we can see, Inteleon is still the dominant engine with the majority of top tier decks leveraging it. Bar drawing virtually as many cards as you want in a turn via Mew VMAX, it’s just hard to beat the ability to pull any trainer card at any time you want, the way Shady Dealings lets you do.
Still, Astral Radiance is not without its share of powerful cards.
Best Cards in Astral Radiance
Temple of Sinnoh, for example, is a very valuable stadium card that will most likely see a lot of play. In a meta that still relies heavily on special energy, Temple of Sinnoh has the chance to be just as impactful as Path to the Peak.
Another card that is seeing its fair share of play is none other than Radiant Greninja. Greninja allows you to discard an energy and draw cards. Not only is this great because, of course, drawing cards is awesome – a lot of decks also benefit from having energies in the discard. Greninja lets them do both.
Another really interesting card is Miltank. Miltank allows you to stall pretty effectively against Pokemon V. It basically is a single prize version of Zamazenta V.
Best Items in Astral Radiance
Along those same lines, a new item card allows you to ignore the abilities of your opponents’ Pokemon. Essentially doing what Phoebe did before but without wasting a supporter on it, this card is cool but I doubt it will come all that much in handy as not many people are relying on Pokemon that block attacks from Pokemon V.
There are also a few cool item cards in this set that have been introduced into the game. Trekking Shoes, for example, is an interesting alternative to something like Rotom Phone. By letting you look at the top card of your deck and then either discarding it for another draw or keeping it, you essential get access to the top two cards of your deck off of an item card at any time.
Dark Patch is another very useful item, and it seriously powers up any dark deck you use it in. However, with Mew VMAX no longer being the sole contender for best deck in format, dark decks are seeing less play than they did at the beginning of 2022.
Best Supporters in Astral Radiance
When it comes to supporters, two really stand out. First is Irida, allowing you to bring an energy and an item card into your hand. This is super helpful for water type decks, especially Palkia VSTAR decks.
Second is Roxanne. Similar to Marnie, Roxanne allows you to shuffle your opponent’s hand back into his or her deck. You draw more cards than your opponent once this is done. The kicker? You can only play it when your opponent has less than four prize cards left. The trade off makes Roxanne a risky card to include, but I can imagine it seeing some play.
Future Outlook of Astral Radiance
Fusion Strike gave us a set that, for a time, changed the meta into a top heavy game with one BDIF (best deck in format) and a bunch of decks that faired well against that one deck. With Arceus VSTAR, suddenly people could make a lot more decks a lot better because Arceus is relatively easy to fit into a lot of decks. With Palkia on the line, we now have a new standalone deck that easily competes for BDIF.
Ultimately, with now three good options for players to choose from (not to mention Rapid Strike Urshifu and Ice Rider Calryex), I expect the meta to get a lot healthier again, with room for a lot of the best decks from Sets passed coming back for another chance at the spotlight.
For example, Jolteon VMAX should fair well with Palkia and Ice Rider climbing up high on the list.
However, Astral Radiance has continued to solidify the fact that in a world where players have access to Shady Dealings, they are going to use those Shady Dealings to help them make the BDIF, and there’s not much anyone else can do to stop them.
