Ascended Heroes: Top 5 Best Cards for Players

Ascended Heroes has been released and in spite of the recently announced delays, we are pretty excited to see new cards enter the frey. 

With 13 New Mega Evolution Pokémon, a bunch of ex’s and some of the most beautiful Illustration rares we have seen yet, this set is looking like it’s going to be very sought-after. So, if you’re a player, this article will help you pick out which cards you want to keep. Just consider that we are not including any reprints in this Top 5 list, only new cards for the English format. If you’re a collector, stay tuned for our next blog covering the best and most valuable cards from the set.

Before we start, let’s address the elephant in the room. The recent events in North America have caused some of the products from the Ascended Heroes line to be delayed from the scheduled January 30th release, to February 20th. This, in turn, made Pokémon push the legality date of the set all the way down to March 6th. Which sadly means that EUIC will be played in the current, and let’s be frank, kinda stale, format. The earliest tournament with the new format will be the San Juan SPE in Puerto Rico. A smaller destination event with no stream announced, which is a real bummer for anyone not attending the event. So we set our eyes on Houston, taking place a week after. This means, we’ll have to speculate for a little longer, which cards will make the biggest impact in the Meta and if any of the new decks can compete with the current powerhouses like Gardevoir and Dragapult.

Let’s begin with some of the best cards that barely missed a spot on our Top 5. Mega Meganium ex is a great new attacker that can fit right into the Venusaur ex or the Teal Mask Ogerpon/Meganium decks. With aid of Forest of Vitality, your small Chikorita can quickly turn into a 360 HP behemoth that can easily OHKO any opposing Mega Evolution Pokémon, as long as baby Meganium is in play. Next card up, Erika’s Vileplume ex, poses as a very viable counter to spread decks like Grimmsnarl/Munkidori and Frosslass/Munkidori. All thanks to Vileplume’s ability healing 30 HP from each of your Pokémon, rendering Munkidori useless. If the spread archetypes become stronger, this card will definitely help as a counter that will hopefully keep these decks in check. Last, but not least, we got Nighttime Mine. A stadium card that makes the attacks of Tera Pokémon cost one colorless more. This is great to keep Dragapult, Charizard and Wellspring Mask Ogerpon in check. We didn’t mention Tera Box as a whole, as we believe

Team Rocket’s Watchtower does a better job at disrupting their strategy, shutting down both Noctowl and Pidgeot ex. That’s why it just misses the number 5 spot.

We really wanted to have a new deck archetype in the top 5 list and thankfully, Ascended Heroes brought a great new asset, Mega Dragonite ex. This 370 HP Dragon-type Pokémon has a really good ability, Sky Transport, allowing you to switch your Active Pokémon with any of your benched Pokémon, for free. This is great considering its attack, Ryuno Glide, discards two of the attached energy to make 330 damage. Enough to KO a bunch of Pokémon in the current meta. So build a couple of Mega Dragonite, make use of the Dynamotor engine and rotate out your Dragonite to ensure an attack each turn. That’s a solid game plan. Unluckily, Dragonite has a critical weakness: Lillie’s Clefairy ex. But as long as you don’t run into Gardy, you should be good to go.

Speaking of Gardy, it just gained a new valuable attacker in Spectrier. This new one-prizer allows you to snipe a bunch of support Pokémon in the bench with Phantasmal barrage. The big difference with Scream Tail is that Spectrier places damage counters instead of doing damage and it has 120 HP, meaning that you can charge it up, heal with Munkidori and hopefully tank a hit in the early game. 12 damage counters is enough to KO a lot of support and Stage 1 Pokémon. You can snipe crucial Pokémon like Drakloak and Charmelon, or simply target common bench sitters like Noctowl. Spectrier has been a very popular one-off in Japan, but we’ll just have to wait and see how it feels in the English meta.

N’s Zoroark ex has had some amazing runs in tournaments, but it’s been lacking a little bit more punch. Thankfully, N’s Zekrom is here to give Zoroark that much needed boost in the early game, thanks to its Rampaging Thunder attack. It does 250 damage but it prevents Zoroark from attacking next turn, so you’ll have to be careful not to leave Zoroark stranded in the active. Zekrom’s first attack, Shred, it’s not affected by any effects on the opponent’s active Pokémon. Which means that Zoroark finally has an answer to those pesky wall decks and techs, such as Mimikyu and Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon. For this reason we believe this card deserves the number 3 spot on the list.

Ok, we cheated a little, this is two Pokémon in one spot. But they’re both important for the point we are trying to make, and that is that they make both the Grimmsnarl/Froslass/Munkidori and the straight Frosslass/Munkidori lists so much better. Starting with the best card from the two, the new 70 HP Snorunt. This is great against some scary matchups like Gardevoir and Dragapult. With 70 HP, your opponent will need to use Munkidori’s Adrena-Brain 3 times or Dragapult’s Phantom Dive twice to target the little fella. This can be the difference between scooping and victory in so many instances. Now that our Snorunt is safe, at least for another turn, we can simply evolve into Mega Froslass ex and surprise your opponent with a 310 HP Pokémon that seriously punishes hand size. Just remember to include some basic water energy or Luminous Energy in the decklist.

Our last card on the list is by far the most impactful. It might not feel like it yet, but post-rotation it’ll be our main means of search over Ultra Ball. Enter Poké Pad, an item card that allows you to search your deck for a non-rule box Pokémon, and put it in your hand. This is an instant staple in any evolution deck, allowing you to search for your basics and even the middle stage 1 Pokémon like Drakloak, Kirlia, Pidgeotto and Charmeleon. This card is almost obligatory in any Tera Box type deck, being a card that can chain your Noctowl and allow you to fully set-up in a couple of turns. For now, you can add 1-2 copies to your deck, but as soon as rotation comes you can make the argument for 3-4 copies easily. This will be a staple for years to come, so make sure to grab your set now and wait for the Full Art version coming up in Perfect Order.

This has been our Top 5 cards for players from Ascended Heroes. Do you agree with our list? Let us know in our social media pages. We are active on Facebook and Instagram. Ascended Heroes is shaping up to be a fun set, both for players and collectors. We are excited to grab all the different products coming out, specially the cute Elite Trainer Box and the amazing new Mega Gardevoir ex and Mega Lucario ex collections. Don’t miss out on these products, sell your excess bulk and all the singles taking space in your binder, and grab all the Ascended Heroes collection boxes you need!