By Xander Pero, Contributing Writer

It’s time to unmask the potential of new cards debuting in the newest Pokémon TCG expansion, Scarlet & Violet—Twilight Masquerade. This set dawns with new, powerful Pokémon ex and ACE SPEC cards that are sure to shake up the format. Will you choose the side of Ogerpon, join forces with the Loyal Three, or avoid the battle altogether? Read on to learn which cards from Scarlet & Violet—Twilight Masquerade will stand the test of time in the metagame.

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

The star of the expansion, Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, is first on the list. Its Teal Dance Ability allows a player to attach a Basic Grass Energy to it and draw a card. This Ability is great for providing both draw support and fuel for Myriad Leaf Shower, which does additional damage for each Energy attached to both Active Pokémon. After a few turns of Energy acceleration thanks to its Teal Dance Ability, Teal Mask Ogerpon ex’s Myriad Leaf Shower attack can begin to hit for some big numbers!

Ogerpon can swap masks to adapt to the situation. Also debuting in this set are Hearthflame Mask, Wellspring Mask, and Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex, each with their own attacks. With the new Ogre’s Mask card, you can swap between different versions of Ogerpon ex, maintaining Energy and damage counters on the new Ogerpon ex. Therefore, you can load up your Teal Mask Ogerpon ex with its Teal Dance Ability, then swap in a different Ogerpon ex as needed. Hearthflame Mask Ogerpon ex, Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex, and Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex each have situational attacks that can catch an opponent off guard. Bravery Charm and Penny can add much-needed longevity to the fragile Ogerpon ex’s 210 HP, which is rather low by today’s standards.

If the masquerade is not to your liking, there are other attackers that synergize well with Teal Mask Ogerpon ex. One such card is Raging Bolt ex, which traditionally was paired with Sandy Shocks ex. However, this is now old news with this new expansion. Teal Mask Ogerpon ex can accelerate Energy immediately—offering more discard fodder for Bellowing Thunder—while providing additional draw power. Professor Sada’s Vitality is still the main Supporter of choice and can accelerate the necessary Lightning and Fighting Energy for Bellowing Thunder.

Toedscruel ex hasn’t seen the competitive light of day yet but may be worth considering now. Teal Mask Ogerpon ex can boost Colony Rush’s damage quickly. Energy Switch allows you to move excess Energy to your other Pokémon, meaning you only need two or three Teal Mask Ogerpon ex in play to power up your Bench. The Energy Switch strategy can translate to any archetype that could use additional help in fueling its attacks. Thorton is another option to swap into a Pokémon other than Ogerpon ex after a few turns of dancing in greenery.

Munkidori

Munkidori is prepared to serve you as a loyal retainer. Its Adrena-Brain Ability uses the opponent’s damage against them, moving up to three damage counters from one of your Pokémon to one of theirs. Munkidori isn’t monkeying around—this is an extremely powerful Ability that will both cultivate new strategies and complement existing ones. If your opponent isn’t careful, the additional 30 damage can catch them off guard, changing the tides of battle.

Gardevoir ex decks will make great use of Munkidori. While damage from Psychic Embrace may be seen as a cost, it’s actually a benefit. Cards like Cresselia, Scream Tail, and Drifloon leverage the damage they’ve taken against their opponent, which allows Gardevoir ex decks to capitalize on the stray damage from Psychic Embrace. Now, players are incentivized to promote a Pokémon like Gardevoir ex, use Psychic Embrace to attach Energy to it, then retreat into their attacker of choice. This way, you can transfer three damage counters from Gardevoir ex to one of your opponent’s Pokémon at no additional cost.

Munkidori serves to facilitate a new archetype, namely Blissey ex. Blissey ex is a Colorless-type tank with 300 HP. Its Happy Switch Ability moves a Basic Energy from one of your Pokémon to another one. With multiple Blissey ex in play, you can happily shift around Energy with ease. The strategy here is to attach or move a Darkness Energy to a Munkidori, then keep moving that same Darkness Energy to your other Munkidori, activating Adrena-Brain each time. With your final Happy Switch, you can move the Energy to a Blissey ex if needed to attack. Happy Switch pairs well with Cheren’s Care, allowing you to move an Energy to a Benched Blissey ex, pick up your Active Blissey ex with Cheren’s Care (along with the Double Turbo Energy attached to it), and reattach that Energy to the next Blissey ex. This strategy can prove difficult for opponents who cannot Knock Out Blissey ex with a single attack!

If you are afraid of Dragapult ex and its incoming presence, look to Munkidori for help. Phantom Dive’s additional effect isn’t optional, meaning that if the opponent can’t Knock Out a Pokémon by distributing those six damage counters, that damage will stay on your Bench, giving you a prime opportunity to return it to the opponent with Munkidori’s Adrena-Brain Ability. This could provoke the opponent into spreading the damage among multiple Pokémon, which could be countered by Radiant Tsareena. Munkidori will leave your opponent scratching their head.

Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex

As the sun sets, Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex wakes to instill fear into the Standard format. Boasting a bulky 260 HP and Colorless attack requirement, many decks may opt to include one to Knock Out Basic Pokémon V or Pokémon ex with 240 HP or less, such as Iron Hands ex or Roaring Moon ex. Like Radiant Charizard, its attack costs an expensive five Energy, but that price is reduced as the game progresses (Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex needs time to hibernate).

Lost Zone decks can reasonably empower Blood Moon for three Energy in one turn with Mirage Gate. Importantly for them, they can play both Radiant Greninja and Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, effectively getting the benefits of the Radiant Charizard version in previous formats while reaping all benefits from Radiant Greninja. Other archetypes may be all right waiting until the opponent has taken three or more Prize cards, reducing Blood Moon’s cost to a single Double Turbo Energy or Basic Energy. If the opponent has taken five Prize cards, Blood Moon can be used for free.

One card that really complements Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex is Cheren’s Care. Assuming your opponent attacked Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex and didn’t score a Knock Out, you can both heal and reset its attack with a single card. Control decks may look to use Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex to deal with an opponent’s main attacker to stage a comeback. Opponents will need to try for a Knock Out with a single attack, which can be made more difficult with Bravery Charm. 310 HP is enough to withstand attacks from almost everything in format—that’s one bulky beast!

Unfair Stamp

I present Unfair Stamp, the newest ACE SPEC card that makes Prime Catcher look fair. To summarize, Unfair Stamp is like Roxanne—except it’s an Item card and doesn’t have the Prize card restriction. This Item can facilitate strong swing turns, either paired with Boss’s Orders or a draw Supporter. One immediate combo that comes to mind is enabled by Arven or Irida. If you have Counter Catcher or Unfair Stamp in hand, you can search for the other card with Arven or Irida, combining hand disruption with a gust effect. Opponents will need to think twice about overextending for a Knock Out, which could leave them vulnerable to a timely Unfair Stamp.

Like Prime Catcher, Unfair Stamp is versatile and complements any deck. Aggressive decks may continue to prefer Prime Catcher, but there’s a case for Unfair Stamp too. One potentially overlooked effect is that you draw a new hand of five cards. With Professor’s Research, you can see 12 cards while disrupting the opponent, leaving them potentially unable to respond to your attacker.

On the other side of decks, Unfair Stamp may empower hand-locking decks that attempt to rid the opponent’s hand of playable cards. Luxray V discards a Trainer card from the opponent’s hand, and the new Luxray ex discards any card from the opponent’s hand. Combined with Unfair Stamp, the opponent only has one card, plus their top deck, to garner a response. Counter Catcher, Crushing Hammer, and defensive Pokémon Tools like Bravery Charm or Defiance Vest can make it harder for the opponent to score a Knock Out in return. An opponent can counter this strategy by setting up one or more support Pokémon like Pidgeot ex, Bibarel, Xatu, or Drakloak to draw additional cards after Unfair Stamp. Because Luxray ex attacks for 100 damage after the -20 from Double Turbo Energy, you can Knock Out most of these Pokémon with Counter Catcher. Supereffective Glasses and Defiance Band fix the math for Pidgeot ex and Bibarel.

Dragapult ex

Dragapult, the Stealth Pokémon, returns to the limelight in the most recent expansion. Longtime fans of the Pokémon TCG will remember Dragapult VMAX from Sword & Shield—Rebel Clash. Its Max Phantom attack did 130 damage and spread five damage counters among the opponent’s Benched Pokémon. This is eerily similar to Dragapult ex’s Phantom Dive attack. With six damage counters, you can pick up multiple Knock Outs simultaneously. Most evolving Basic Pokémon range from 50 to 70 HP, leaving them vulnerable to Phantom Dive’s secondary damage. Bend spoons with Radiant Alakazam to further capitalize on the additional damage.

Dragapult ex is not the only star of the show, however. Drakloak can look at the top two cards of the deck, draw one, and return the other to the bottom of the deck with its Recon Directive Ability. This effect is strong enough to be its own support Pokémon, but fortunately for us, it is the previous Evolution of our powerful attacker! Like Kirlia and Gardevoir ex, we can maintain a few Drakloak in play and evolve into Dragapult ex as needed. A list focusing on Technical Machine: Evolution with two or three Rare Candy seems especially strong. You can make use of the reliable Arven engine along with Rotom V and Forest Seal Stone, which is popular in the current Charizard ex archetype.

One question that must be answered regarding Dragapult ex is fulfilling its Energy cost—one Fire Energy and one Psychic Energy. The good news is that there are multiple answers! One common approach is to include a thin Xatu line, making use of its Clairvoyant Sense Ability to accelerate Psychic Energy. Another option is to use Charizard ex, which accelerates Fire Energy with its Infernal Reign Ability.

Mela is another possibility to accelerate a single Fire Energy in a pinch. Finally, you can also play the ACE SPEC card Neo Upper Energy, which fulfills Phantom Dive’s cost with a single attachment. Though it’s impressive—as an ACE SPEC card should be—you miss out on playing a more traditional ACE SPEC like Prime Catcher or Unfair Stamp. These are directly searchable with Arven, unlike Neo Upper Energy, which may be hard to find when needed. I’d recommend focusing on Xatu or Charizard ex. If you’d like to forgo both, consider playing Pidgeot ex to search for Mela or Neo Upper Energy as needed.

These are just a select few of the potentially impactful cards in the Scarlet & Violet—Twilight Masquerade expansion. There are many more disguises to try and strategies to employ! With over 160 new cards, 14 Pokémon ex, and six ACE SPEC cards, the possibilities are endless. Will you rise to the challenge?

For more Pokémon TCG strategy and analysis, visit Pokemon.co.uk/Strategy.