With Paldea Evolved pre-relases finished, it's time to start looking at what the new meta for the Pokemon TCG will become.
With the addition of powerful ex Pokemon, such as Fortress and Skeledirge, as well as new supporters and special energies, the game could be heading for a real shake-up.
Chien-pao ex is the card on everyone's lips right now. The basic Pokemon has 220 hp and an ability that lets you seach your deck for two water energies and put them into hand whilst in the active.
Combined with Baxcalibur which has the ability to let you attach water energy from your hand as many times as you'd like during your turn to any of your pokemon, this is already a handful. Then you have to remember that Chien-Pao's attack does 60 damage for each water energy you discard from any of your Pokemon and you have the power to one hit KO any card on the field.
Super rod and supreme energy retrieval then let you take these from discard and back into deck or hand, thus creating the perfect cycle of attacking.
Iono and Giacomo can then control your opponent too, with Giacomo letting you remove special energy from your opponent's Pokemon, gettin rid of the risk of reversal energy, and Iono forcing them to shuffle their hand to the bottom of deck and draw a card for each prize card remaining.
Here's a look at what my take of the Chien-pao meta deck could be:
Chien-pao ex 3
Palkia V 2
Pakia Vstar 2
Frigibax 4
Baxcalibur 3
Radiant Greninja 1
Battle VIP Pass 4
Nest ball 2
Ultra Ball 4
Super rod 4
Supreme energy retrieval 3
Switch 2
Rare candy 4
Irida 4
Boss' orders 2
Proffesor's research 2
Giacomo 1
Iono 1
Poke stop 2
Water energy 10