Hybrid Pokémon - Top 10 Best Cards

Today, we'll discuss hybrid Pokémon, that is, those Pokémon that have two types. They starred in the Ruby & Sapphire block, released quietly in the Team Magma VS Team Aqua set, and stopped being released in the X/Y block.

10 - Team Aqua's Manectric & Team Magma's Claydol (Ruby/Sapphire: Team Magma VS Team Aqua - 4/95 & 8/95)

These Pokémon have the same ability, which previously had two names: Poké-Body, an automatic ability, and Poké-Power*, which needed to be declared.

They can move any energy cards among the Pokémon with the same name as them.

Team Aqua's Manectric MA 4's Thunderspark attack was a useful "sniper" attack, just like Team Magma's Claydol MA 8's Dark Hand attack.

At that time, they also had the "Darkness" type, and Darkness Energy RS 93 was considered a special energy card, so it dealt an extra 10 damage to the opponent's active Pokémon.

It is a pity they can't be used in Expanded.

9 - Dark Slowking (Ruby/Sapphire: Team Rocket Returns - 9/109)

Its Poké-Power, Cunning, allowed you to look at the top card in your opponent's deck and shuffle the deck itself; it was a control deck strategy, and prevented your opponent from drawing what they needed.

However, its attack was rare, considering that, in the entire history of this TCG, there was a total of 11 Rocket Secret Machine cards, and 6 of them were from the Wizards of the Coast era. There were only 5 of them we could use:

This limitation when it was time to use more tools made it a bit limited itself.

8 - Mega Gardevoir-EX (X/Y: Steam Siege - 79/114)

Despair Ray combos with Sky Field ROS 89, which increases your bench slots to eight - so, Mega-Gardevoir-EX's attack could go up to 190, as you would add 110 + 80 for just two energy cards.

What places this card in this position is its Fairy type, considering there are just a few Dragons we can take down through their weakness.

7 - Gardevoir -Delta Species- (Ruby/Sapphire: Delta Species - 6/113)

Its ability is classic in this Pokémon: it moves and makes your energy cards more dynamic.

As an attacker, Gardevoir was also strong because its attack, Black Magic, dealt up to 70 damage for just three energy cards; later on, its first attack, Psychic Rage, was a way to deal "sniper" damage to your opponent's Pokémon.

6 - Metagross -Delta Species- (Ruby/Sapphire: Delta Species - 11/113)

This Pokémon occupies this position because of its ability, Delta Control, which was incredibly strong - it allowed you to look at the top four cards in your deck, choose one to place in your hand, and the others would go to the bottom of your deck.

As the format was quite slow then, the faster you would draw your resources, the better it was for the quality of your setup in general.

But what made it absurdly strong is that, at this time, there were Pokémon that worked with effects in special energy cards, such as Double Rainbow Energy EM 87, which was the focus of three Pokémon in particular: Holon's Castform HP 44, Holon's Electrode DS 21 e Holon's Magneton DS 22.

5 - Team Magma's Groudon (Ruby/Sapphire: Team Magma VS Team Aqua - 9/95)

Analyzing the importance of this "Behemoth" of the Pokémon World: it dealt a significant amount of "sniper" damage to begin with and would win the game by slowly chipping away at your opponent. Then, we'd use its second attack, which increased your damage output if your opponent already had a Pokémon in play with at least two damage counters. So, we'd deal 70 damage, which was quite powerful.

Remember we added Team Magma's Claydol MA 8 to our tenth spot? More than ever, this Pokémon was essential in this deck to accelerate energy cards with Team Magma Pokémon.

4 - Dark Tyranitar (Ruby/Sapphire: Team Rocket Returns - 20/109)

Dark Tyranitar TRR 20 isn't very different from its predecessor, Team Magma's Groudon MA 9. The main goal in the metagame at that time, 2003/2004, was precisely taking down your opponent's basic Pokémon as fast as possible.

However, how could Tyranitar be as fast to setup as its "competitor", Team Magma's Groudon MA 9, considering Tyranitar is a stage 2 Pokémon?

Rare Candy EM 83 became a historical mark at that time. Larvitar UF 61 could evolve directly into Dark Tyranitar TRR 20, and, then, you could use its ability in the best way possible.

Usually, these decks had the Tyranitar base, which dealt damage first, and then, if you drew a Pokémon ex, you could use Dark Tyranitar TRR 19's third attack.

The good thing about this Tyranitar is that, at first, it was in Jessie's deck, released in that same set.

3 - Dark Electrode (Ruby/Sapphire: Team Rocket Returns - 4/109)

In our third place, we have Dark Electrode TRR 4, with its ability, Darkness Navigation - if it didn't have any energy cards attached, it would activate its effect, look for a Darkness Energy EX 158 in your deck, and attach it to itself.

This energy combo, alongside Dark Dragonite TRR 15 with its ability, Dark Trance, was essential for Darkness-type Pokémon in the Team Rocket archetype. Additionally, it was easy to access part of the Dark Dragonite setup thanks to James' deck, which had this entire evolution line.

2 - Dragonite -Delta Species- (Ruby/Sapphire: Delta Species - 3/113)

Just like its "corrupted" Rocket version, which was a support card thanks to its "ability", this card also acted as a support card for energy setups, only its “delta δ” version has Metal and Electric types, and fits the parameters we used for this article.

This Dragonite was an excellent way to attach basic Electric energy cards from the discard pile to your benched Pokémon.

1 - Volcanion-EX (X/Y: Steam Siege - 26/114)

In our first place, we have this Pokémon because of its excellent performance as an attacker and support Pokémon.

Its ability, Steam Up, allows you, in your turn, to discard a basic Fire energy card from your hand; if you do, in this turn, your active Pokémon will deal an extra 30 damage against your opponent's active Pokémon. Keep in mind that this ability can stack with other Volcanion-EX STS 26 in play - which means, if you have three of them in play, you can use this ability 3 times!

Its attack, Volcanic Heat, deals 130 damage, but, next turn, you won't be able to attack. Obviously, if you retreat this Pokémon, you will be able to attack as usual, and, if it is promoted as the active Pokémon again, it will be able to attack too.

This Pokémon has always been in the "Volcanion Box" archetype, in which you'd have Volcanion PR-XY XY145, whose first attack you used to attach basic Fire energy cards from your discard pile to your benched Pokémon. They were usually discarded by Scorched Earth PRC 138.

In Standard, one of the most common decks that used Volcanion PR-XY XY145 itself was Ho-Oh-GX PR-SM SM57, which used it to boost its second attack by using its ability and dealing 210 damage, besides using Kiawe BUS 116a to also increase your energization.

In Expanded, if we used it in a list with Reshiram & Charizard-GX UNB 20, with three copies of Volcanion-EX STS 26, we'd have an extra 90 damage whenever our Pokémon attacked. Like this, the Flare Strike attack would go from 230 to 320 in a single blow; if we used the Double Blaze GX attack, we'd deal 390 damage instead of 300, and we'd also still have the bonus from the GX effect, which ignores all enemy effects!

And, as it was a Water/Fire hybrid Pokémon, it would face Grass-type Pokémon on equal grounds, just like the Fire type in "mirror matches" against this Pokémon type!

Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND (Heart Gold/Soul Silver: Undaunted - 89/90 & 90/90)

Pidgeot -Delta Species- (Ruby/Sapphire: Holon Phantoms - 14/110)

Volcarona (X/Y: Steam Siege - 15/114)

Bisharp (X/Y: Steam Siege - 64/114)

Which Pokémon stood out to you? Comment down below!

See you next time!