9 Most Powerful Pokémon Cards Of All Time

The Pokémon Trading Card Game was released December 1998. Though over twenty-five years have passed since then, it’s still going strong with no end in sight. In fact, during the past few years, the buying and re-selling of Pokémon cards has seen an absolute resurgence in popularity, with the most expensive card recorded being sold this year for several million dollars.

The game itself has always been incredibly popular, with the Pokémon TCG being second-rated only behind Magic: The Gathering in Japan. And while new sets are always sure to shake up the meta game in new and unexpected ways, some cards manage to cement themselves as being some of the strongest cards of all time.

9 Cleffa’s Simple-Yet-Powerful Kit Makes Her A Nuisance To Deal With

Cleffa may look cute, but the iteration of her from the Call of Legends set is a surprising nuisance. For starters, she’s a colorless card, meaning it’s easy to fit her into pretty much any deck without sacrificing too much.

Her meager thirty HP might make her look fragile, but the key to Cleffa’s staying power lies within her moves. “Eeeeeeek” allows players to shuffle their hand into their deck before drawing six cards, with Cleffa falling asleep as a result. Then, her Poké-Body ability prevents her from taking damage while asleep.

8 Claydol’s Poké-Power Makes It Deceptively Strong

The Claydol released as part of the TCG Celebrations: Classic Collection might not look like much at first glance, but its Poké-Power makes it an incredibly strong card. Typically, supporters in the TCG have a heavy focus on draw power, letting players salvage a bad hand and gain access to their stronger cards, if needed.

However, Claydol eliminated the need for this entirely, and allowed supporter cards to instead focus on other things. This is thanks to Claydol’s ability “Cosmic Power”, which let players discard up to two cards of their choice before drawing a total of six from their deck. This could be done one per turn, before attacking, making it easy to see how powerful this was.

7 Mewtwo-Ex Might Not Hold Up Today, But It Used To Be Unbeatable

Not every meta-dominating card can stay strong forever, but they will be forever remembered by the fans that were playing throughout its reign. Such is the case for cards like Mewtwo-EX, part of the Black & White Legendary Treasures set, which isn’t used much anymore but used to be an unbeatable bully card.

It’s a tank with nearly two-hundred health to begin with, but Mewtwo-EX’s moves make it even more powerful. X Ball deals twenty damage times the number of energy cards attached to him, though the drawback is that it injures Mewtwo alongside the defending Pokémon. Meanwhile, Psydrive does a staggering one-hundred-twenty damage. The only drawback is having to discard energy.

6 Zoroark-GX Became A Game-Dictating Pokémon Upon Its Release

Zoroark-GX is part of the Shining Legends set, and effortlessly made its way into almost anyone’s composition, unless they were running something designed to try to counter it. Its Trade ability and Riotous Beating move work well together to ensure that Zoroark can always pack a powerful punch.

Essentially, Trade lets players discard one card they don’t need and obtain two more, while Riotous Beating deals twenty damage for each Pokémon the player has in play. These two easily combine to ensure that Zoroark dishes out a ton of damage regularly, and with over two-hundred health, it’s not easy to take down either.

5 Lucario-And-Melmetal GX Winds Up As An Unexpected, But Incredibly Powerful Combination

It’s not often that one of the most popular Pokémon is paired up with one of the least popular, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work. Lucario-and-Melmetal GX, from the Unbroken Bonds set, is an incredibly beefy tank that stands at a whopping two-hundred-and-sixty HP.

Combined with its Full Metal Wall-GX skill, this card is incredibly hard to take down and will provide solid defense to any team. Steel Fist allows it to easily obtain energy for its final blow. Heavy Impact can knock out any card with one-hundred-and-fifty HP or less.

4 Mewtwo-And-Mew Tag Team GX Is An Adorably Powerful Duo

It’s hard not to appreciate a card where Mew and Mewtwo are able to come together and fight on the same side, even if Mewtwo looks less than amused about it. Mewtwo-and-Mew Tag Team GX, part of the fittingly-named Unified Minds set, boasts nearly three-hundred HP and a powerful moveset.

Their ability, Perfection, lets the duo use the attacks of any other GX or EX Pokémon on the player’s bench or discard pile. If that wasn’t enough, Miraculous Duo GX deals a whopping two-hundred damage, and has the potential to heal all damage dealt to all the player’s Pokémon.

3 Tapu Lele GX Tagged Into Many Player’s Decks With Wonder Tag

Tapu Lele-GX was released in the Sun & Moon Guardians Rising set, and has been a staple Pokémon in many decks since then thanks to its Wonder Tag ability. Whenever Tapu Lele-GX is played onto a player’s bench from their hand, they’re able to search for and draw a Supporter card.

The ability to gain access to a chosen Supporter on-demand is too good to pass up in a lot of cases. Its Tapu Cure-GX can also be used in a pinch to fully heal two other Pokémon, though for this purpose alone, something like Mewtwo-and-Mew would fulfill this role better.

2 Lysandre’s Trump Card Is So Good, It Had To Be Banned

Although it doesn’t happen often, there are some occasions where a particular card is so powerful or game-defining that it has to be banned. Though players can never be stopped from using this card in casual matches, Lysandre’s Trump Card disrupted competitive play so much that it’s no longer able to be used whatsoever.

Essentially, this card resets the state of the entire match back to a blank slate by shuffling all cards from both players’ discard piles back into their decks. This card quickly became infamous, and it didn’t take long for it to be banned outright.

1 Shaymin-EX Is So Popular And Powerful, It Also Ended Up Banned

Shaymin-EX was first introduced in the X&Y Roaring Skies set, and was allowed in competitive play for several years before ultimately being banned. This ban didn’t happen until near the end of 2020, mostly thanks to a combination of its ability and move.

Shaymin-EX was first introduced in the X&Y Roaring Skies set, and was allowed in competitive play for several years before ultimately being banned. This ban didn’t happen until near the end of 2020, mostly thanks to a combination of its ability and move.

Shaymin-EX’s ability is Set Up, which lets the player draw until they have six cards in their hand, whenever Shaymin is placed from hand to bench. Considering its move, Sky Return, returns Shaymin and all its attached cards back to the player’s hand, it’s easy to see just how strong this card could be.