What Are The Strongest Cards In The Pokemon TCG 30th Anniversary Collection?

Published Sep 24, 2026, 2:02 PM EDT Cat Webling is a Kansas-based writer with six years of experience in the gaming industry in a range of roles from editor and journalist to narrative writer. She enjoys cozy gaming on PC and Nintendo Switch 2, especially if the game includes cute animals. The Pokemon Company International is currently celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pokemon (established in 1996), and they've gone all out for the card collection. Released as a special set for the Pokemon TCG Live, the 30th anniversary collection includes 128 cards, some brand new and some reprints of favorites from throughout the years. The cards aren't only beautiful, though; there are quite a few hidden powerhouses for the game that might just challenge the meta as we know it — and I couldn't be more excited. What Are The Strongest Regular Pokemon Cards? Let's start with the regular Pokemon - one prize, no special rule boxes, just classic Pokemon you can build a deck around or include in your current favorites. Vivillon 008/128 Vivillon's new Guiding Dance ability lets you flip a coin. On heads, you can search your deck for any Pokemon and put it into your hand. This could be really useful in decks that already utilize the Vivillon evolution line for the Perfect Order version with Grand Wing, which lets you force an opponent to shuffle their hand to the bottom of their deck and draw four. This is usually played as part of the Decidueye EX deck, but I can very much see it becoming a useful search engine in any grass deck, especially if it's paired with Forest of Vitality. Kyogre 019/128 This version of Kyogre is pretty beefy for a basic non-EX Pokemon at 140 HP. Its attack, Hydro Pump, costs four colorless energy but does 60 damage plus 30 more damage for each water energy attached to Kyogre. If you use only water energies to hit the requirement, you're already doing 180 damage. You could easily use Misty to set up the attack and play with Kyogre to get early game knockouts in a deck like Wailord EX or Mega Greninja EX. With Great Haul Net, you've got ridiculously easy recovery as well. Mew 065/128 Mew is small and simple at 60 HP, meaning you can find it easily with Buddy-Buddy Poffin. Its attack, Psychic, costs only two psychic energy, and does 10 damage plus 40 more for each energy attached to the opposing active Pokemon. This would be a fantastic attacker against something like Mega Venusaur EX or Wailord EX that requires massive amounts of energy to attack, or Teal Mask Ogerpon EX, which utilizes a similar mechanic (but is worth one more prize card). This could be a great addition to psychic decks as a counter for these cards or cards like Crustle that block EX attackers. Chandelure 075/128 I might be a little biased because I love Chandelure generally, but I think this version, with Eerie Glow doing 130 damage plus Burn and Confusion to the opposing active Pokemon, could easily be a fun addition to the existing Mega Chandelure EX deck. It could potentially even work in something like a Mega Darkrai EX combo deck, swinging in with the conditions to make way for Abyss Eye to work. Lucario 083/128 A non-EX Lucario that does decent damage is something that I think could very easily slot into the current popular Mega Lucario EX build as a counter for Crustle and a great way to get some bench sniping done with minimal prize risk. Aura Sphere's 100 damage to the active Pokemon and extra 60 damage to the bench could be a great way to get some early-game multi-prize turns. The only issue is going to be energy acceleration, but that's been an issue for fighting decks for a long time. Scraggy 094/128 Scraggy's NitPick essentially gives you access to Special Red Card without having to worry about item lock. It could be especially good if you run it in something like Mega Darkrai EX, which gives you easy access to Shadowy Dark Energy to protect it on the bench and Pecharunt EX to swap it in and out of the active quickly. Zoroark 096/128 This is another great card for Mega Darkrai EX. The ability Nighttime Byway essentially gives all your Pokemon a free Air Balloon, decreasing their retreat cost by two colorless energy when they're in the active as long as Zoroark is on your bench. Yveltal 100/128 Yveltal keeps getting really good cards in the TCG and I'm not mad about it. This iteration has the ability Life-Locked, which prevents your opponent from healing whatever Pokemon is in their active spot. This stops them from being able to use things like Wally's Compassion or Jumbo Ice Cream to come back from major attacks unless they swap out for another Pokemon in the active, meaning you can force them to either waste cards to retreat or lose their active Pokemon. This causes lots of problems for decks like Fomantis EX and some versions of Mega Venusaur EX that rely on healing as a major factor in their strategy. Dialga 103/128 I am very much biased in choosing Dialga for this list because I'm a Pokemon Diamond lover, but this card is genuinely very useful for recovery in metal decks, with the attack Reversed Clock allowing you to shuffle three in any combination of Pokemon and basic energy cards from your discard pile back into your deck. This could be good in Mega Excadrill EX or anything running the Metagross or Steven's Metagross EX lines. Ditto 115/128 A good Ditto card was bound to happen after the release of Pokopia. This one's Surprisingly Transform isn't quite as good as previous iterations, which had it as an ability rather than an attack, but it's still a great way to get a Stage Two Pokemon out onto the field much more easily. You can find it with things like Fan Rotom and Buddy-Buddy Poffin, which means you can set it up extremely quickly. Bonus: Igglybuff 120/128 Igglybuff's been missing from the TCG since Cosmic Eclipse, having not been legal since regulation mark C cards rotated out. This new card is a colorless basic, so it can run in any deck, and its attack costs nothing to use. Bouncy Circle does 30 damage for each Pokemon you have on the bench with 30 HP or less; I think this could lead to an absolutely hilarious Budew-heavy decklist. What Are The Strongest Pikachu Cards? Can you really have a celebration set without at least one Pikachu? The beloved yellow mouse Pokemon has been the face of the franchise practically since its inception, and is one of the most recognizable cartoon figures of the modern era. So, the Pokemon Company went all out - there are 30 unique Pikachu cards included in the set! Pikachu 023/128 With possibly the best Pikachu illustration of the set, the first Pikachu in the 30th anniversary collection has a decent Thunder Shock attack, doing 20 damage with the opportunity to Paralyze your opponent and no damage to itself. It's got a solid 70 HP, making it easy to search and strong enough to take a couple of hits. Pikachu 034/128 This Pikachu (with another fantastic illustration) has Pika Chain, which does 40 damage for each Pikachu or Pikachu EX you have in play. That's up to 160 damage output by a one prize Pokemon! This could be great for decks built around the new Pikachu EXs. Pikachu 039/128 Maybe all the Pikachus have the best illustrations in the set, actually. Anyway, this version's attack Iron Tail does 20 damage for each heads in a coin-flip string, which could be pretty good if you're lucky with flips. It'd be a great opening Pokemon for any electric deck with a retreat cost of only one colorless energy and 70 HP. What Are The Strongest EX Pokemon Cards? Continuing the trend of including some powerful EX Pokemon in the set, the 30th anniversary collection offers some familiar faces with brand-new abilities and attacks that I think are going to spark some really interesting deck combinations in Pokemon TCG Live spaces. Greninga EX 021/128 We definitely haven't been suffering for good Greninja cards lately, and I think the new version of Greninja EX is no exception to that rule. Its one-energy Stealthy Slash attack does 30 damage to one of your opponent's Pokemon for every damage counter that's already on it, which can be excellent when used in combination with Mega Greninja EX's Mortal Shuriken, which lets you drop six damage counters on any of your opponent's Pokemon at the cost of discarding a water energy. I can definitely see it fitting into the Mega Greninja EX deck list in the near future. Pikachu EX 053/128 There are two Pikachu EXs in this set, but I find this one's Pika-Pika Parade to be slightly more useful than the other's Zip-Zap Frenzy. While that one lets you attach energy from you hand, this one acts essentially as a version of Precious Trolley that you can access without needing to sacrifice your ACE SPEC slot. Pika-Pika Parade costs only one colorless energy and lets you search your deck for any number of basic Pokemon of any type and put them onto your bench, which makes it an incredibly powerful setup attack. Mewtwo EX 064/128 Finally, a good Mewtwo. Don't get me wrong, I love Team Rocket's Mewtwo, but it suffers from several limitations. This version of our favorite lab experiment has Photon Bullets, which does 50 damage to each Pokemon EX your opponent has in play, and Psychic Powers, which does 230 damage but Mewtwo can't attack on the next turn. This could be great fun to use against things like Mega Chandelure EX and anything running EX Pokemon as supports (such as Meowth EX or Fezendipiti EX). Psychic Powers can be easily circumnavigated using Latias EX to swap to another attacker — potentially even another Mewtwo EX. Mew EX 066/128 Our other favorite lab experiment also gets a new EX after the previous version rotated out last April. This Mew EX features Memory Helix, a powerful ability that lets it use any of your benched Pokemon's attacks provided you have the right energies attached. The new Mew EX deck provided in Pokemon TCG Live uses this in combination with Mega Latias EX's Strafe and Illusory Impulse, but I think it could be great with things like Mega Floette EX or even Mega Darkrai EX. I love the pre-made deck's idea of using Prism Energy attachments to cover the different energy types needed by your benched Pokemon. Sylveon EX 071/128 Sylveon EX's Colorful Harmony attack is very interesting; it does 50 damage per type of Basic Energy attached to all of your Pokemon. This strikes me as inefficient, but a very cool mechanic; it could be fantastic in dragon type reliant decks like Mega Latias EX, Mega Dragonite EX, and Dragapult EX. Gengar EX 090/128 We're already starting to see Gengar EX decks in Pokemon TCG Live, and for good reason. The ability Fainting Spell states that if Gengar EX is knocked out, you can flip a coin and, on heads, knock out the attacking Pokemon as well, which makes targeting this card a major gamble. It's also a huge damage threat, though; its attack Chaotic Pain places 13 damage counters on any one of your opponent's Pokemon. Pair this with Mega Gengar EX's ability Shadowy Concealment, and your opponent may get a three prize Pokemon knocked out while getting only one prize card in return. Umbreon EX 092/128 Keeping in theme with the current dark Pokemon strategy of using damage to do damage, Umbreon EX's Lunatic Claw does 100 damage at base, but goes up to 240 total damage if it has any damage counters on it. Use Toxtricity's Sinister Surge to power it up at the cost of two damage counters and you're swinging heavy quickly. With 270 HP, you've got plenty of room to maneuver.