Top 5 Sword and Shield Cards in Pokemon TCG Online

Frosmoth (Sword & Shield) is a similar Pokemon card code to Blastoise (Boundarie’s Crossed) because they both love to accelerate Water Energy into play. With Frosmoth being a Stage 1 Pokemon it does have a slight drawback of only being able to attach Water Energy to a Benched Water Pokemon. Realistically, it means that your Frosmoth deck will be Water-based instead of having a few more options that have Colorless Energy requirements. We haven’t had an Energy accelerating Pokemon this strong in years and I look forward to see what strong Pokemon V come out in future sets. If you pulled one of these from your Prerelease or if you were lucky enough to open a Frosmoth (Sword & Shield Prerelease Kit) Build & Battle, you might want to experiment with this card right away! Well, look no further than Lapra VMAX (Sword & Shield) from this set and you have a compelling combo! It is as simple as loading up Energy and splashing to victory! There are plenty of other options, such as Palkia-GX (Forbidden Light), that you can use to throw your opponent a curveball. Zero Vanish GX allows you to shuffle all of your opponents Energy in play back into their deck! With plenty of sneaky techs that you can include in a Frosmoth build, I fully expect to see this deck as a top contender at some point in its lifespan.

I’m not gonna lie, Marnie (Sword & Shield) is one of the weirdest Pokemon TCG code card that I have ever played with, and I have been playing this game since 2005! It isn’t necessarily a weird effect or anything like that, but the action of shuffling your hand before placing it at the bottom of your deck! Beyond that, it is a staple draw Supporter, similar to Cynthia (Ultra Prism), that will likely see a lot of play straight out of the gate! My favorite part about this card is that if your opponent has a hand filled with great cards, all of those cards are now at the bottom of their deck. Additionally, even if their hand wasn’t that hot, Marnie is similar to playing a Judge (Lost Thunder) against your opponent because they will soon have only four cards. A deck that I have been enjoying Marnie in is Pikachu & Zekrom-GX (Team Up) because it effectively replaces Judge in that deck. I have been playing it in a few other decks too, such as Obstagoon (Sword & Shield), because Marnie is just that versatile! As a bonus, you can get this card slightly easier with the contents of the (Sword & Shield Prerelease Kit) where it was released as a special non-Holo card! If you are more into shiny cards, you can look into acquiring the Full Art or Rainbow Art version of this card - both look amazing!

While this Pokemon TCG card didn’t necessarily make my top five list, it is clearly one of the best cards in the set! Aurora Energy (Sword & Shield) is similar to Rainbow Energy (Celestial Storm) because they both provide each type of Energy, but just one at a time. The only difference is the drawback from each card, Aurora Energy discards a cafd from your hand and Rainbow Energy places a damage counter on the Pokemon you attach it to. Sometimes having a drawback is a plus though! Think about cards that focus on cards in the discard pile! Dark Patch (Dark Explorers, Malamar (Hidden Fates / Shiny Vault), and Mewtwo & Mew-GX (Sun and Moon Promos) are all cards that come to mind. If you were building a Mewtwo & Mew deck, a concept that usually plays Rainbow Energy, Aurora Energy would be a great way to discard EX / GX Pokemon to use with Perfection. While that case is a little specific, utilizing cards out of the discard pile has been a strategy for as long as I can remember and I don’t see it leaving the game anytime soon. Whether you are getting back a Supporter with VS Seeker (Phantom Forces) or you want to clear out your large hand, Aurora Energy seems like a solid choice!

Yo… Yo… Yo… This has me amped up! Professor Juniper (Plasma Freeze) / Professor Sycamore (Steam Siege) have effectively been reprinted as Professor Magnolia (Sword & Shield)! Well, kinda… The full name of the card is Professor’s Research (Professor Magnolia) which gives me weird vibes haha! It isn’t anything crazy, but if they make another Professor’s Research with a different effect, you could only play four copies of that card. If they don’t, it would be a weird anomaly that they named this card this way, but who knows. Jumping into uses is almost useless because Professor Juniper and Professor Sycamore should showcase how strong this card is. They were effectively played in hundreds of different decks across their lifespan and we have the exact same effect back in our Standard format! Similar to Marnie (Sword & Shield), Professor’s Research (Professor Magnolia) has been printed in a few different ways… It was printed as special non-Holo version in (Sword & Shield Prerelease Kit) and (Sword & Shield Theme Decks), as a Holo Rare, Full Art, and Rainbow Art in the set! I am personally a minimalistic person when it comes to building my decks so I am pleased about the non-Holo inclusion in the set, but the Rainbow Art version looks amazing! Which version of this card are you going to play around with?

Zacian V (Sword & Shield) is one of the best Pokemon card codes that I have ever read and it strictly outclasses most of the other cards in our previous Standard format. Beyond looking at its impressive HP to Prize Card ratio, the real shocking part about this card is its Ability! There isn’t any other way to put it… Intrepid Sword is insano broken! Looking at the top three cards of your deck, attacking any Metal Energy you find there to Zacian V, and then drawing those other cards at the cost of ending your turn is wild! In testing, I have built my decks to usually grab at least one Metal Energy and the added consistency of drawing those cards is almost unheard of! Brave Blade is a powerful attack, one that becomes even more powerful with Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX (Cosmic Eclipse) because doing 260 damage and drawing an extra Prize Card is amazing! This is one of the few decks that can benefit from Vitality Band (Sword & Shield) to add an extra 10 damage to allow Brave Blade to hit for 270 damage. That extra 10 damage is the difference between OHKOing Mewtwo & Mew-GX (Unified Minds) or allowing your opponent to escape near death with 10 HP remaining. There are other great Pokemon Online cards that support Zacian V, such as Metal Saucer (Sword & Shield) and Galarian Perrserker (Sword & Shield Prerelease Kit), that make it one of the best decks upon release! It has already been dominating tournaments in Japan and I fully expect that trend to continue worldwide and online too! Make sure to stock up on extra code cards because this card looks like it is going to be a pricey one in real life and on Pokemon TCG Online!

I am sure you are all wondering how this Pokemon card topped Zacian V (Sword & Shield) and I totally get it, but let me go on a rant here. As a player who has excelled in this game over the past few years, we have always had a suite of cards that allow us to search for whatever we want. Let me take you down memory lane… Nest Ball (Sun and Moon), Ultra Ball (Shining Legends), and Pokemon Communication (Team Up)… crickets… what card was that? Oh that’s right, we haven’t had a proper search card printed since Pokemon Communication was released a year ago! It has been like we have been wandering around in a desert and we have finally found our oasis. Quick Ball (Sword & Shield) is one of the best search cards we have ever seen printed. At the mere cost of discarding a single card from your hand, you can search your deck for a Basic Pokemon and keep it in your hand! That means you can still use the Ability on Dedenne-GX (Unbroken Bonds) and other cards like Galarian Zigzagoon (Sword & Shield)! In Expanded, this card might replace Ultra Ball (Sun & Moon) because of all of the searchable options it has! Shaymin-EX (Roaring Skies) and Tapu Lele-GX (Guardians Rising) come to mind! With all of the versatility this card has it had to be number one! I know most of my decks have four copies of Quick Ball instantly nowadays and I am sure that most players will react the same way! For those readers who are high-end collectors, this card is also available as a Gold Item card in the set! While I am a minimalist when it comes to playing Pokemon TCG Online, I do appreciate how pretty those cards look!

Even though I have said it a few times in this article, I will put it here one last time in case you missed it. All of the Pokemon TCG cards in this article, in various art styles, will be available on PTCGO when the set is officially released. If you don’t already own them, you can pick up Pokemon Trading Card Game Online codes from here, on PTCGOstore.com, to handpick the sets you want to open. Sometimes cards are available in special promo boxes and you will be able to handpick the cards you want to acquire. Don’t forget that my promo code for this site, zlesage5, is valid on all orders! Anyways, I hope this article gets you pumped up for the new cards coming with Sword and Shield and that it helps you choose some cards to pick out! I know that I am personally excited to see this new era of the game unfold as the set gets released worldwide! And again, if you are missing any cards in your Pokemon online collection, use code zlesage5 to save 5% off your order! Thanks so much and happy card hunting!

Zach Lesage
Zach Lesage is a contributing writer for PTCGOstore.com. As a Toronto local, he has been playing the Pokemon TCG since 2005 and currently plays the game as his full time profession. With multiple Champion titles to his name, such as 2019 Collinsville Regionals and 2019 Mexico City Special Event, he certainly has a passion for success. Outside of the game, he travels the world and enjoys high fashion - particular Off-White. You can find him at most big events, and can follow him on Twitter @zlesagepokemon.