Pokémon TCG: Top 10 Best Supporter Cards

Hello to all. I'm Rodrigo, bringing news, curiosities and information about Pokémon TCG.

When we look at all the cards that were released for Pokémon TCG, there are those who marked us for generations – ever since the early days on Wizards of The Coast's Base Set, the Ruby/Sapphire days. Then to Diamond and Pearl and the consolidation, at the time, of the Expanded format, now from Black/White era onward, with our emotional memory and also the memory of Expanded format decks which can wreak havoc with combos, or that play with the help of a very different deckbuilding.

Down below I write down my Top 10 Supporter cards that I consider relevant, both for their power level and playability and for the memories they bring.

10 - Roseanne's Backup

As a “recent” release from the Brilliant Stars set in Sword/Shield, it has great potential and is an absurd resource recycle engine, as i t makes you choose one of the four options and even all of them if you’d like, and they are:

- Shuffle a Pokemon from your discard pile into your deck

- Shuffle a Pokemon card from your discard pile into your deck

- Shuffle a Stadium card from your discard pile into your deck

- Shuffle an Energy card from your discard pile into your deck (Keep in mind that this doesn’t specify if it’s a basic energy or special, so it can shuffle a special energy in the process)

9 - Rosa

During Sun/Moon’s final stage, this card got very expensive when it was released in Cosmic Eclipse, but its price stabilized later in the Expanded format, but is still expensive. Rosa is quite resourceful in recycling, but saw a lot of play in a Ultra Necrozma CEC 164 deck in Standard, and in Expanded, besides that one, it also shares common space with Charizard VIV 25. It’s basically an old-style Raihan EVS 152.

You can only play this card if in the previous round your Pokémon was knocked out by an enemy attack.

8 - Teammates

This card is very broken in control decks and also in aggro decks like Ultra Necrozma CEC 164 alongside Garbodor BKP 57 themselves.

It can only be played if your Pokémon was knocked out in the previous round. If in any case it was, you can look for two cards that you want and put them into your hand.

7 - Guzma & Hala

Another card that also revolutionized many decks in the Expanded format, allowing for more possibilities and combos and, again, favoring Ultra Necrozma CEC 164 alongside Garbodor BKP 57. It is also quite common in the dragon archetype decks, such as the Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156 lists.

You’ve probably noticed that, with Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156, many Expanded decks come with Dragonite V PR-SW SWSH154, and they need special energy, Stadiums and Tools. So at each step done, thanks to the Evolving Skies set from Sword/Shield, a lot of Stadiums that favored dragons were released, such as Stormy Mountains EVS 161 and Crystal Cave EVS 144.

Regarding special energy, I don’t even need to mention that you just need to seek nothing more than Double Dragon Energy ROS 97. And for Tools, we have Fighting Fury Belt BKP 99 which can only be equipped to Basic Pokémon, giving them 40 HP and 10 damage more.

And look at that, Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156 and Dragonite V PR-SW SWSH154 are basic. Connecting the dots, this card is extremely essential for that deck’s building.

6 - Irida / Korrina

Here the biggest highlight goes to Irida, released in Sword/Shield: Astral Radiance, and it fit in like a glove to search for a resourceful water Pokemon, Lumineon V BRS 40, which is at the same importance level than Tapu Lele-GX CEL 60 and Jirachi-EX PLB 60 for its ability of searching Supporter cards in your deck. So, with another add-up for water-type cards, Irida became the newest favorite in the Standard and Expanded format.

Besides that, Korrina shouldn’t be overlooked, as when it was released at the time of X/Y: Furious Fists, it also played very well, giving strength to Fighting type Pokémon resources in general, and giving more room for Coalossal VMAX VIV 99 in the Expanded format.

5 - Roxanne

Coming from Sword/Shield: Astral Radiance, Roxanne came along to bring about a kind of control regarding cards on the opponent's hand. It is basically a N NVI 92 for the Standard format, but in Expanded, it brings a very consistent impact to get in sync with N itself with setlists building.

This card can only be played if your opponent has 3 Prize cards or less to win the game. By playing this card, you both shuffle your hands in the deck, your opponent draws only 2 cards, while you draw 6 cards.

4 - Blacksmith

Blacksmith is simply amazing for the fire type. It saw a lot of play with Volcanion-EX STS 26 in the X/Y era especially because of its effect of recycling up to 2 fire energies from the discard pile and connecting them to one of your fire type Pokémon, making this archetype’s energy acceleration very dynamic, and obviously, it needs to be in the list of any type of fire deck.

3 - Welder

Stupidly amazing for the simple fact of being able to speed up fire energizing in any of your Pokémon and still has a “Draw Power” of 3 cards from the top of your deck.

The good thing is that it doesn’t focus only on fire type, but any Pokémon that needs two colorless energies to pay for the attack tribute they need to do. And usually what did that a lot was our dearest Mewtwo & Mew-GX UNM 71, which also energized it quickly.

It could also copy attacks from GX and EX fire Pokémon in the discard pile, keeping it useful and pleasant. This way, this Mewtwo/Mew could copy cards such as Reshiram & Charizard-GX UNB 20, Charizard & Braixen-GX CEC 22, Heatran-GX UNM 25, Magcargo-GX LOT 44, Blaziken-GX CES 28, Blacephalon-GX LOT 52.

Of course, it is an indispensable card for the fire type in general.

2 - N

Loved by many and hated by even more, it is undeniable its importance when it got into the Black/White phase in many decks, especially as it was a form to control the enemy hand, but which also affected you as a player. It was an extreme card, which could at the same time favor you or harm you, and your opponent as well.

Its effect is that you and your opponent shuffle your hands back into the deck and draw cards based on the Prize cards that you have left in the match.

In case your opponent was winning by one Prize card left, and you were at the disadvantage with 5 Prize cards, imagine making your opponent shuffling it all back again and they remain with only one card in hand? It is extremely absurd. But there’s also a dilemma as if you have 1 Prize card left and your opponent decided to play N NVI 92, they could sabotage you.

1 - Professor’s Research

Of course we couldn’t leave him out, our dearest Professor Oak that had its “reprint” in Sword/Shield: Celebrations, the 25 years of Pokémon special collection. But the concept of “Professor’s Research” as a whole, be it Magnolia, Juniper, Roward, etc, all come from the classic Base Set from the Wizards of the Coast era, with Professor Oak BS 88, which before wasn’t classified as a “Supporter” and so couldn’t be played as many times as you’d like in the same round!

It got its first reprint in Black/White: Base Set, rescuing this concept, but staring with the region’s professor, Juniper. And that would repeat itself with Professor Sycamore in X/Y: Base Set years later.

The current system changed in Sword/Shield, classifying them in the same category as Professor’s Research.

Cynthia & Caitlin

Card recycling from the discard pile is always welcome and useful, right? And even more so when it’s as if it’s a type of VS Seeker? Released at the time of Sun/Moon: Cosmic Eclipse, you could choose among these two options:

- Put a Supporter card from your discard pile into your hand

- When you play this card, you may discard another card from your hand. If you do, draw 3 cards

Bird Keeper

This one is a type of Switch enhanced with “Draw Power”. It promotes your Pokémon to the active position, and you draw 3 cards.

Lysandre

This card revolutionized closing specific benched enemy Pokémon knockouts. It’s nothing more, nothing less than Gust of Wind BS 93’s reprint in the Base Set era of Wizards of the Coast.

So, in X/Y: Flashfire, they presented this card which saw a lot of play and was practically essential in all decks possible.

Currently, in Sword/Shield there was the reformulation of cards with Boss’s Orders names, showing up in Rebel Clash with Giovanni, Shining Fates with Lysandre and Brilliant Stars with Cyrus.

Guzma

This card was a success when it was released in Sun/Moon: Burning Shadows, as it was a type of more enhanced Lysandre FLF 90, forcing your opponent’s benched Pokémon to the active position and at the same time, you trade out your benched Pokémon to be the new active Pokémon.

Pokémon Ranger

This card is precisely the counter for Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156, as it removes the attack effects from all Pokemon in play (be it yours or your opponent’s). And as the GX Attack can only be done once in the whole game, then, this card disables the effect of Altered Creation.

Again, I stress that this is a personal list of cards that had a relevancy factor, besides general playability and deckbuilding traits.

What about you? Which were your relevant cards? Comment down below your personal list and share your opinion.

See you next time!