Pokémon TCG: Top 10 Best Item Cards

Hello everybody. I'm Rodrigo, bringing news, curiosities and information about the Pokémon TCG.

Aiming at cards already released in Pokémon TCG, there are those that have marked us for generations - whether from the beginnings in the Base Set of Wizards of the Coast, Ruby / Sapphire era. Diamond and Pearl and the Expanded format taking the Black/White era onwards, with our affective memory as well as the memory of decks in the format that works with combos, or that play on uncommon builds.

Below I leave my top 10 of the Item cards that I consider relevant, both for power level and gameplay, and for memories.

10 - Aqua Patch GRI / Dark Patch / Metal Saucer

What do they have in common? Recycling Basic Energy from the discard pile for your Pokémon on the bench, Aqua Patch GRI 119 for Water Pokémon, Dark Patch DEX 93 for Dark Pokémon, and Metal Saucer SSH 170 for Metal Pokémon.

9 - Dowsing Machine

It's basically the reprint of the card Junk Arm TM 87 from the time of the Heart Gold/Soul Silver: Triumphant block, only it was "nerfed" as an Ace Trainer, that is, cards that players can only have one copy in the deck.

Its effect is excellent: you discard two cards from your hand to look for a Trainer card you want in the discard pile and put it in your hand (if you don't have two cards for that, you won't be able to perform the card's effect).

8 - Rescue Stretcher

With a strong presence on Expanded in recent times, mainly in “Single Prize” decks such as Charizard VIV 25, Greninja BREAK BKP 41, Gyarados TEU 30, Ultra Necrozma CEC 164, this item works as a resource recycling, allowing to choose a Pokémon from the discard pile and put it in your hand or choose 3 Pokémon from the discard pile and return them to the deck.

7 - Trekking Shoes

Basically, it has an effect similar to Acro Bike CES 123. The difference is that with Acro Bike, you look at the top two cards of the deck to choose one for your hand and the other is discarded in the process, without reuse. With Trekking Shoes ASR 156, you look at a card from the top of the deck and have the choice of taking it or discarding it, and if you discard it, you draw a card.

6 - Scramble Switch

This card is extremely absurd. It has the effect of being able to switch one of your Active Pokémon to the Bench, and the energy of that Active Pokémon will be transferred to the new promoted Pokémon.

And this is combined, for example, with healing cards, usually with heavy Pokémon that depend on 4 basic energies or more, like Charizard VMAX DAA 20, or those Pokémon that use special energies like Mewtwo & Mew-GX UNM 71 to replace them using the Scramble Switch, using healing cards like Acerola BUS 112, without losing those energies.

5 - Rotom Phone CPA 64

Launched in 2020, having a peak in 2021 towards the beginning of 2022, Rotom Phone gained this strength due to the Fusion Strike expansions onwards, in which it started playing in many decks, mainly with Mew VMax and synergy with Oranguru SSH 148 for its ability to switch cards in the top of the deck.

4 - Trainers' Mail

You look at the top 4 cards of the deck, look for a Trainer card and put it in your hand.

Unlike Pokégear 3.0 SSH 174 which looks at the top 7 cards of the deck to look for only Supporter-type cards, Trainers' Mail ROS 92 takes any Trainer card, be it Supporter, Stadium, Item or Tool, making it more versatile.

3 - VS Seeker PHF 109

This one couldn't be missing from the list, being practically a must-have in Expanded. Since its debut in the Fire Red/Leaf Green expansion in Ruby/Sapphire, it has been reprinted in the X/Y: Phantom Forces era.

Its effect is to cycle a Supporter card from the discard pile and put it into your hand.

2 - Battle Compressor Team Flare Gear

This card saw play with Night March and Mad Party decks, and it also has synergy Mewtwo & Mew-GX UNM 71 due to discarding EX and GX-type Pokémon from the deck, and also with “Rain Dance” decks that discarded Blastoise BCR 31 to create the Archie's Ace in the Hole PRC 124 combo.

Its effect is to take 3 cards from the deck and put them in the discard pile.

1 - Computer Search

This card has a whole historical point. Being practically a reprint of one of the Base Set cards back in 1996, it played in many decks back in the day. And since it was considered as broken, it was reprinted as “Ace Trainer”.

Its effect is simple: You discard two cards from your hand to perform the Tribute (if you don't have two cards for this, you cannot perform the card's effect): you search any card in the deck and put it in your hand.

Rare Candy

Another card that needs no introduction. It first appeared in the Ruby/Sapphire block of the Emerald expansion. It was an incredible card that played a lot in the period it was released, and I remember that in tournaments here in Brazil, a copy of this card was around R$ 200. And it underwent changes in its effect as, in the first version, if you had a basic Pokémon and a stage 2 in your hand on the same turn, you could evolve directly without having to wait a turn after putting the basic one into play, and of course that changed over time.

Its effect is to evolve a basic Pokémon in your game into a stage 2 evolution in your hand corresponding to that Pokémon, and you can only do this when some basic Pokémon have already been played in the previous turn.

Pokémon Communication

This card was also strong at the time of its launch in the Heart Gold/Soul Silver block, where it was very versatile to search for Pokémon in your deck, changing one from your hand to another one you wanted in the deck and making the switch.

Players used to combo it with Rare Candy to use Pokémon Prime and strong stage 2 Pokémon of the time.

Enhanced Hammer GRI

It is a Special Energy Remover, discarding a Special Energy from one of the opponent's Pokémon.

This is very useful, for example, against Mew VMax decks in Expanded that use Fusion Strike Energy FST 244 as much as Mystery Energy PHF 112; and of course, against the deck that runs Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156 with the Double Dragon Energy ROS 97.

Starting Megaphone

It's basically an enhanced Tool Scrapper RCL 168, since it discards all the opponent's tool cards

It is a personal list of cards that had a relevance factor between the stories behind these cards and their impact in Pokémon TCG's history, and also from my personal matchups on tabletop and PTCGO.

And to you? What are the best and most relevant Item cards? Comment below your personal list and share your opinion.