Paldea Evolved Elite Trainer Box Vs Build & Battle Stadium Review

Despite what some people would have us believe, ‘now’ is a golden age for Pokemon TCG. Scarlet and Violet saw the end of the non-holo rare and the birth of the triple holo combo – every pack has at least two reverse holos and one holo rare – so there is something for everyone in every pack. Kinda. The matt feel and silver/grey borders make the cards feel and look nicer; the separation of items and tools and the evolution of ex’s means that games don’t woosh past at break neck speed. The only thing that could make things a bit better is a decent comeback mechanic.

Oh hello, Paldea Evolved. What’s that you’ve got there? A decent comeback mechanic? How very kind of you.

Paldea Evolved is the sophomore set of Scarlet and Violet and if it had a subtitle, it would be ‘bringing balance to the force’, because this set is all about the underdog. Or the ‘under-ice-cat/dog-with-spears-in-its-mouth’, to be precise.

There are, of course plenty of Pokemon products out there to choose from, from the flash-the-cash Booster Box to the so-not-flush one pack blister, with all points between, but I’m going to compare two products that lie very much in the middle of the range, the old favourite with a new twist, the Elite Trainer Box, and that Johnny-come-relatively-lately Build and Battle Stadium. Which is better? Well, there’s only one way to find out.

Fight?

No, review. And you’ll also be getting a bit of insight into some of Paldea Evolved’s cool cards. Much better than fighting.

I Ain’t Your Paldea, Buddy…

Paldea Evolved is the second set based in Paldea, Pokemon’s love letter to Spain. It is a combination of Japan’s Snow Hazard and Clay Burst with some cards kept over from the three starter sets. There are 193 base cards and 86 special rares – the one, two and three gold star cards that bring the spicy meatballs. The base set alone has 14 ex cards and three Tera ex cards, so that makes for a lot of heat whilst still not being over-bulked out with unplayable filler Pokemon (Ed. Is this another dig at Fusion Strike, Rob? You really need to let this go…). And even the not-so-hot Pokemon look like they might make for some interesting new decks and, more importantly, a chance to get back in the game and hit back at some of those ever-present meta decks. Take that, MLGs!

Welcome To The Road To Ruin

As mentioned earlier, Paldea Evolved is a combo of Snow Hazard and Clay Burst, and features in particular two new and pretty odd, even for Pokemon standards, Pokemon – the Treasures of Ruin. If you are familiar with Scarlet and Violet, you will have possibly come across Legendary Overbite Pokemon Chien-Pao (they have a broken sword; in their mouth) and Legendary Crockery Pokemon Ting Lu (they have a bowl; on their head). Well, here they are, in card form. And both of them are rather good.

Starting with the pot-head moose first (what? It’s a moose; with a pot; on its head), Ting Lu is a fighting Pokemon (good against those Regieleki-boosted electric decks out there), which has an attack that does 150 damage to the active (see ya, Raiku!) and 20 to the bench. But here’s the thing; Ting Lu has an ability that turns off the abilities of any non-ex Pokemon if it has damage in it (see ya, Regieleki!). Irritating? You bet. Fun? Definitely.

But icky-kitty-overbitey? Oh, this card… It has an attack that does 60 damage for each water energy discarded from all your Pokemon. Yeah, that’s good, especially as it has a weakness to steel rather than electric. Like Ting Lu though, it has an ability: if it is in the active spot, you can search your deck for two water energy. That is also good, but there’s more, because it’s time for a triple decker combo! In this set, there is a stage two Pokemon, Baxcalibur, with an ability that allows you to attach any number of water energy from your hand to any of your Pokemon. Good, you say? Broken I say. C-c-c-c-combo broken!

Team Work Makes The Murkrow Work…

On the subject of combos… well, there’s a lot in this set, and I love a good Pokemon synergy. First up is a little triple threat comprised of a giant angry tree slug, an exploding Swarovski gun-chestnut and a trainer who appears to be wearing the corpses of two Magnemites as head gear - Wo Chien, Forretress Tera ex and Iono. Wo Chien has two attacks, one that does 60 damage to one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon for each prize card they have taken, costing two grass and one any, and the other that does 220 damage for a very pricey three grass and one any. Oh, to get that energy. Luckily, Forretress has an ability that attaches five grass energy to your Pokemon for the cost of knocking out the Forretress – two prize cards to the other peep! This also helps turn Wo Chein into an active killer AND a bench sniper. And as for Iono? Well, Iono is going to end up everywhere (like, everywhere, dude) because it has both players shuffle their hand, put it on the bottom of their deck and then draw a number of cards according to their prize cards. Is this a comeback card? You know, N, I think it might be…

Another great comeback card comes in the form of the best energy card since… oh, I don’t know… Dragon Energy? Maybe. Reversal Energy gives one colourless to the Pokemon it is attached to… unless that Pokemon is a non-ex/V evolution that is behind in prizes, in which case it gives three of any colour energies. Been wanting to make that Wailord deck work? Bingo. Want to make Wugtrio the mill-king? Done. There is also a very nice Luxray in here too. Luxrays have a habit of dodging evolution because EFFORT, and this one is no different. If you are behind on prizes, you can play it straight to the bench. Do not pass basic, do not even level 1. Just DO IT. It also has an attack for two lightning and one any that does 180 damage and 20 to itself. Not bad for a one-prize queue jumper.

But the award for ‘Best Synergy In A Set Called Paldea Evolved’ must be The Birds. For all those of us old enough to remember when the power creep was just a twinkling in Gamefreak’s eye and Float Stone was still a thing, there was a really evil deck called Night March – loads of irritating little Pokemon like Joltik, Pumpkaboo and Lampent which would do 20 damage for each Night March in the discard pile. It was everywhere, and so, SO annoying. It has recently tried to return as Mad Party and Lost March, but nothing could match Night March because of support cards like Battle Compressor and VR Seeker. So here come The Birds with United Wings. Will it work? Maybe…

As said, a decent discard deck only really works if it has the support, and this might do it. The birds are Murkrow, Wattrel and Flamigo – nothing special at all, but all are basics with United Wings, which does 20 damage for each United Wings card in the discard pile. Basics. That’s important. Also, Flamigo has an ability that allows you to search your deck for three other Flamigos and put them in your hand. That’s important. Then there’s also Pelipper, which, when it evolves, can either retrieve a Trainer from discard or find one from the deck. That’s important. Finally, there’s Squawkabilly ex, which allows you to discard your hand and draw six cards on your first turn. That’s important. Now there is one more non-avian player from another set that we need. It’s good old Ditto from Pokemon Go, which can copy the attack of any basic Pokemon from the discard pile. Are you vibing on what I’m vibing? 240 damage for one dark energy on a single prize lump of putty. Will I play this deck? Do you even have to ask?

The Big Unboxing Match…

Now Paldea Evolved, like all second offerings, is not quite as exciting as Scarlet and Violet - I mean, there’s nothing as mind-bogglingly useful as Miraidon ex, Gardevoir ex or Electric Generator – but it is no set to be sleeping on, as goes the parlance of our times. Iono, Chien-Pao and Reversal Energy will be around for a long time, so it’s a good idea to get some now.

But which of the ‘quarter of a booster box’ products to go for? Let’s have a look at the contents first:

The Elite Trainer Box (ETB), as seen in Scarlet and Violet, has had a bit of an upgrade with regards to its content. Whereas there used to be only eight packs, there are now nine, and where you only used to get a promo card with the holiday boxes, every ETB now contains a promo. This one is quite the pretty thing: a special illustration art of Pokemon’s poster rodent, Pikachu, with the three Paldean starters – Fueco, Sprigatito and Quaxly. It’s really colourful, the artwork is really striking and no, it is never being taken out of it’s wrapping. I also really like the dice in this site – the blue-green-red tricolour on the flipping dice is really appealing and the mottled gray/pale greeny-blue of the damage dice looks like they are made from some kind opalescent material… very pleasing to the eye. The sleeves, featuring the three Paldean starters, are also bold and colourful, and though they aren’t the most play-friendly, one can never have too many sleeves. Plus, it makes a handy storage box and has energy and dividers for building and organising your decks and cards.

The Build and Battle Stadium (BABS) contains essentially a take away pre-release experience for two: it has two Build and Battle boxes, each of which contains a forty-card playable deck, including one of four different promo cards (for Paldea Evolved, the cards are Baxcalibur, Pelipper, Murkrow and Tinkaton), and four Paldea Evolved booster packs. The Stadium also contains the same dice, status counters and energy block as the ETB, but also has three additional booster backs.

The deciding factor is: do you want to play or collect/construct?

Though the Paldea Evolved ETB has fewer boosters, it does have an exclusive promo card and the sleeves are nice if… pointy. ETBs have also been notoriously hit-free in the past, but the cards I drew from it were Meowscarada ex (an interesting card that has discard a grass and damage ability), a Special Illustrator Art Quaxly and a Full Art Squawkabilly ex (completing my United Wings deck – thank you kindly!), which works out about one hit every three cards – so much better than the one hit every four or five boosters of previous sets I could mention (Ed. Don’t). Not every ETB promises the same hit rate, but this is a lot better than it was, believe me.

BABS doesn’t have the exclusive promo card, but it does have two potentially different promos… not quite as pretty as that Pikachu, but probably a lot more playable. It also has everything you need for two players to get their game on, as in previous BABS, though you will have to share damage dice. The four additional boosters in each pack, included to give each player a chance to customise their pre-release play deck, can be a bit hit or miss. You might get a hit, you might not, and like at organised pre-releases, drawing just one playable ex card can give you a very unfair advantage over your opponent(s). I managed to pull a Paldean Clodsire ex from my two Build and Battle boxes (which has a very nice poison-your-opponent-if-there-is-a-stadium-in-play ability) which would definitely have given me the edge with its 200 hp attack. The BABS also comes with three prize boosters, which is going to be a bit awkward to divide between two players – I dunno, I’m sure that something can be worked out without too much violence. In my three packs I got Ting Lu ex (the moose!) and Chi Yu ex (a fire-type goldfish that is weak to water. Oh Pokemon, you kill me sometimes!). A not bad haul, but comparatively not quite as good as the ETB, but again this is not a guaranteed thing – I got pretty lucky on both, but it’s still a gamble.

For the money, I would say that the ETB juuuuuust edges ahead of the BABS for value for money… this time. If you are wanting to sit down with a friend and Pokemon at your dining room table, the BABS is good way of doing it, and as I’ve said in previous reviews, there are worst ways of spending £48 for an evening’s entertainment for two.

One comment I will make about hit rates and card distribution in booster packs: the terminology for card rarity is not entirely accurate. The rarity terms are common, uncommon, rare, ex, full art, Special Illustrator Rare(s) and Gold cards. The last four are still as hard to get as the order suggests, but when it comes to commons, uncommons and rares… that’s not so cut and dried. For example, Iono, Reversal Energy and Wattrel are uncommon, uncommon and common respectively, yet I have only drawn one Iono, one Wattrel and no Reversal Energy in 30 or so booster packs; in the same number of packs, I have drawn five Garganacals, a ‘rare’ card. Pokemon, I love what you’re doing, but please, sort out the card distribution – much as I love walking ziggurats made of salt (and who doesn’t), getting five of them is a bit much…