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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Fight Night! I am sure you are all familiar with the concept of Pokemons duking it out, mano y mano - or should I say Mon-o y Mon-o – but to contest an entire set against another? Hold onto your Rare Candies – this could get brutal!
Enough of the hubris. Why Paldea Evolved against Twilight Masquerade? Bear with me. Paldea Evolved was the second set to be released in 2023; Twilight Masquerade is the second set to be released in 2024. Paldea Evolved was the first set to introduce the Treasures of Ruin; Twilight Masquerade gives us Ogerpon and its various masks. Paldea Evolved gave us United Wings; Twilight Masquerade gives us Festival Grounds. See? Parallels. So, with this rather spurious set of links in mind, let’s look at these two slightly similar but definitely different sets.
Round One: That Difficult Second Set Syndrome…
When Scarlet and Violet (S&V) arrived back in the dark months of 2023, it caused a bit of a splash. More! Reverse holos! More! Art and Special Art Rares! No more! Non-holos in the rare slot! Not everyone was happy with all these More!s, but for the most part, it was good times all round – the set was smaller, there were some very nice cards (Miraidon ex, I’m looking at you) and the reintroduction of Stage 2 ex cards applied a dab to the gaming brakes that the meta so sorely needed. So, how do you follow that? With some difficulty, sire, with some difficulty…
Paldea Evolved contains only 193 standard cards, compared to S&Vs 198, but has a whopping 86 rare (including the Special Arts, Full Arts etc.) cards compared to S&Vs meagre 60. Like S&V before it, Paldea Evolved was made from two Japanese sets, Clay Burst and Snow Crash this time, and, if memory serves me, had a pretty good hit rate (though how many goldfish that are weak to water does a person actually need?) with 17 exs to choose from, three of which were Tera exs. Nice odds, I’ll take them.
Twilight Masquerade’s set to live up to is Temporal Forces (TF), which was also quite paradigm changing as it reintroduced Ace Spec cards – shocking pink items, tools and energy cards which were so powerful that you can only have one Ace Spec in your deck. Sure, Temporal Forces was not the first to feature Ancient and Future Pokemon, but it did have the futuristic Swords of Justice (Terrakion, Cobalion and Virizion – Keldeo got passed over. Again) and the prehistoric Legendary Beasts (Raikou, Entei and Suicune), which did, and continue to, stir things up.
Twilight Masquerade has 167 standard cards compared to TF’s 163, and has 59 rares compared to TF’s 46 – set sizes and rare cards have been reduced quite a lot, which will make the set easier to collect but will result in a lot more duplicates from buying boosters (not as bad as Obsidian Flames, hopefully). It also only has 14 exs, with half of them being Tera exs, and though this sounds less, with this being a smaller set, it might work out more in your favour with regards to hitting the fire. There are also another six Ace Spec cards in this set, which adds to the chances of pulling something good. Those odds are even better
Result of Round One: A win for Twilight Masquerade – its nimble size and additional hit box make up for its lack of special rares and actual exs.
Round Two: Battle of the Beasts
Pokemon is all about the Pokemon, so we better have a poke at the Pokemon. In particular, the special ones that appeared in Paldea Evolved, the Treasures of Ruin, and the ones that came from the DLC that appear in Twilight Masquerade, the Masks of Ogerpon (yes, it does sound like a Dr Who story).
First up, the Treasures of Ruin, namely Chi-Yu, Wo-Chien, Ting-Lu and Chien Pao (or Goldfish-That-Is-Weak-To-Water, Tree-Slug, Pot-Head-Moose and Spear-Mouth-Cat). They range in HP from Chi-Yu’s weedy 190 to Ting-Lu’s mighty 240 and are all… interesting… though there is definitely a Best In Show.
Bottom of the pile is probably Chi-Yu, though it has been turning up in mill decks and the like for its first attack (one fire) that discards the top two cards of your opponent’s deck and the second attack (two fire) that does 100 damage and attaches three energy from your deck to three of your benched Pokemon. Not bad, but very KOable.
Ting Lu could be great but… is hard to make work. It turns off the abilities of any Pokemon with damage on them as an ability and does 150 damage plus two damage counters to a benched Pokemon for three fighting. Great, if only it could be consistent.
Wo-Chien looks hard to make work, but with Fortress ex’s Ability (KO this Pokemon to search for and attach five grass energy), it is a lot easier than Ting-Lu – the first attack does 60 damage to one of your opponent’s Pokemon for each prize they have taken for two grass and a colourless, and the second attack does a flat 220 for three grass and a colourless. It actually swings pretty hard, especially in a format with a lot of dark types out there.
The best of the bunch is undoubtedly Chien-Pao, which has an ability that allows you to search the deck for two water energy (if it is in the active) and put them in your hand and an attack for two water that does 60 for each water energy you discard from all your Pokemon. Seeing as this set also saw Baxcalibur arrive, a stage two with an ability that could attach any number of water energy to your Pokemon in any way, and the return of Super Rod and Superior Energy Retrieval – more on those later – this card became, and still is, a legitimate deck.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and unfortunately, we don’t have that for Twilight Masquerade yet. We do, however, have the four Ogerpon ex, and like the Treasures of Ruin, there is a clear front runner. Each of them only have 210 HP, which is quite low for an ex, and all are Tera types, which means they have a limited amount of protection on the bench. The four masks are, in no particular order, Teal Mask Ogerpon, Hearthstone Mask Ogerpon, Wellspring Mask Ogerpon and Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon.
In reverse order, Hearthstone is probably the weakest. It’s first attack for one fire and two colourless does 20 damage for each damage counter on it – problematic - whereas its second attack for three fire does 140 damage, plus 140 damage and discard all energy if the opposing Pokemon is an evolution. Expensive and way too nerfed.
Cornerstone is next, and only has one attack, but a nice ability – it can’t be attacked by Pokemon with abilities. For one fighting and two colourless, it does 140 damage but is not affected by Strength or Weakness, so it only really works if you can hang on in there.
Wellspring has real potential. For one water and two colourless, it does 100 damage plus 120 damage to a benched Pokemon if you shuffle three energy from it back into the deck. This is ideal for knocking out support Pokemon such as Bibarel, which is everywhere, but can still be blocked by Manaphy, which is not so much. It also has potential to work in decks that use a spread of energy.
Which is an interesting point to side bar on, as the Ogerpon exs are also backed up by an item card, Ogre’s Mask. This allows you to swap out one of your Ogerpon exs for one from the discard pile, retaining all items, energy, damage and effects. Whether this will work with you needing so many different energies in your deck remains to be seen.
The final Mask, Teal, is probably the best of the bunch, but works best in partnership with another card. It has an ability that allows you to attach a grass energy to it for free and draw a card – energy acceleration and draw power? Busted! Its attack, however, costs three grass energy and does 30 plus 30 for each energy attached to both active Pokemon. Not so busted. If only there was another Pokemon that needed lots of disposable energy to work, but not on itself… helloooooo, Raging Bolt! Doing 70 for each energy discarded from all your Pokemon soon adds up to a lot of damage when you’re adding lots of energy for free. But who comes out better from this?
Result of Round Two: Paldea Evolved and the Treasures of Ruin (contested by Teal Mask Ogerpon’s coach). At the moment, Chien-Pao just has the drop as it is a legitimate attacker as opposed to Teal Mask’s support role. Trust me, this will probably change and I’m already doubting myself…
… actually, that Teal Mask/Raging Bolt combo is just too good, so I’m calling a draw.
Round Three: This Memes WAR!
I love a good meme deck, me – the sort of thing that is so goofy that nine times out of ten it doesn’t work, but when it does, it is hilarious. Fortunately, both Paldea Evolved and Twilight Masquerade have some very memetastic cards and potential decks, so let the memes commence!
If you have been in the game for as long as me (though I am still considered a neophyte in most Pokemon circles), the words Night March will still probably evoke a certain amount of fear and rage – a totally busted deck. In the Sword and Shield era, we got a sort of return in the shape of Mad Party, but there were never quite enough Mad Party Pokemon to make it work. But hey, third time lucky with United Wings, eh?
If you are not familiar with Night March, Mad Party or United Wings, the whole schtick is that a load of Pokemon have that attack, and that attack is increased depending on how many of those Pokemon are in the discard pile. Night March was supported by Battle Compressor, which allowed you to dump a whole load of cards in the discard pile, and Vs Seeker, which allowed you to put a supporter card from your discard pile into your hand, so still remains the top discard dog. That said, United Wings is not too shabby, doing 20 damage for each United Wings card in your discard pile. All the cards are basic and single prize, Murkrow will attack for a single darkness energy, Wattrell is good against water types and Flamigo has an ability that, when played from your hand, allows you to search your deck for up to three Flamigos – the Three Flamigos! All you need to do is dump them, which is where cards like Kirlia, Professor’s Research and Ultra Ball come in handy (there’s another too, but.. later). There is also the Pokemon Go! Ditto, which copies the attack of any non-rule box Pokemon in your discard pile, so it has the potential to do 240 damage. Does it work? Not really, but it did nearly place in tournaments last year. Do I play it? Heck, yeah!
When it comes to Twilight Masquerade, we have a more thematic meme deck, and one that is a bit more limited but a whole lot more potentially consistent and damaging. It all revolves around a stadium card called Festival Grounds and a couple of abilities to do with this stadium. The stadium itself is very meh – it prevents special conditions if the active or defending Pokemon have an energy attached. *shrugs* There are, however, four cards in the set that have abilities linked to this. The first three, Swirlix, Goldeen and Dipplin, have an ability called Festival Lead, which allows that
Pokemon to attack twice in a row if Festival Grounds is in play. To be honest, Swirlix and Goldeen are very poor, putting two damage counters on one of your opponent’s Pokemon or doing 10 damage and flipping to remove an energy respectively – so weak, these look like misprints. Dipplin, however, has potential – for one grass energy it does 20 damage for each of your benched Pokemon, and because it is a grass Pokemon and can potentially attack twice – a Dark Charizard killer. There is a fourth card though – Thwackey. This Pokemon’s ability, Boom Boom Groove, allows you to search the deck for a card of your choice if the active Pokemon has the Festival Lead ability. This makes for some seriously dangerous synergy, especially considering that the ability can be used as many times as you have Thwackeys on the bench.
Result of Round Three: Much as I love United Wings and despite it getting another card in the forthcoming Shrouded Fable, the Thwackey/Dipplin combo is just unreal – Pidgeot ex reminded us how devastating card search could be – stick it on a single prize stage one and have it work directly with the attacker? Boom Boom Bonkers.
Round Four: And The Award for Best Supporting Role Goes To…
A deck will only be as good as its supporting cast, and when comparing Paldea Evolved to Twilight Masquerade, it’s a bit of a game of two halves and all that. Both have absolutely game-changing cards and cards that are going to appear in every deck from here until rotation. But who, in this bout, will get the points and who will get the Raboot?
If you were just looking for support Pokemon, Paldea Evolved doesn’t look amazing, but it does have some notables. Baxcalibur is an absolute beast when it comes to accelerating water energy with its ability that allows you to attach any number of water energy from your hand to your Pokemon in any way you like. Though it’s a stage two, when played with Irida, it is broken. There’s also the very specific Squawkabilly ex, which has an ability that can be only played on your first turn, but allows you to dump your hand and draw six cards (remember United Wings? Yeah, that’s the card). The most annoying and ‘at least one of’ card, though, has to be Mimikyu. It only does 70 damage for a psychic-colourless, but has an ability that blocks attacks from V and ex Pokemon – nothing better to upset the meta. All of these are good, but things get even better when you look at the Trainer cards.
First, it has one of the best Stadiums for years – Artazon. Search your deck for a non-rulebox basic and put it on your bench? That’s a solid yes! It also has one of the best Tool cards in years – Bravery Charm. Add an extra 50 HP to your basic Pokemon? Go on then! But then your get the items, reprints, true, but GOOD reprints – Super Rod allows you to shuffle a mix of up to three pokemon and/or basic energy from your discard into your deck, and Superior Energy Retrieval allows you to discard two cards and retrieve up to four basic energy from your discard pile (as long as they weren’t the ones you discarded) – it’s almost like this set was made for Chien-Pao. Not only that, but three Special Energies rolled up that are highly desirable – Luminous Energy can be any flavour (as long as it is the only Special energy on that Pokemon); Jet Energy switches the Pokemon it is attached to into the active; and Reversal Energy, if you are behind on prizes and attach this to a non-rulebox evolution Pokemon becomes three of any colour. Don’t call it comeback – it’s a beat down.
The best supporter card by far though, and possibly the best card in the whole set, is Iono. A ‘N’ card for a new generation, each player shuffles their hand, puts it at the bottom of the deck and draws cards equal to their prize cards. Great for cycling dead hands at the beginning of the game, great for scuppering your opponent or refilling your deck at the end of the game, this card remains a must have in any deck.
Twilight Masquerade is possibly more impressive in the actual supporting Pokemon stakes, but they are mainly all about the aggro and annoyance. The new Froslass has an ability that puts 10 damage on all Pokemon with an ability (apart from Froslass’ ability) and Iron Thorns ex blocks all rulebox abilities (apart from Future abilities) if it is in the active slot. Munkidori, with a darkness attached, has an ability that can move up to 30 damage from one of your Pokemon to one of your opponent’s Pokemon and Blissey ex has an ability that can move energy about and does 160 for 3 energy whilst allowing you to draw up to six cards in your hand. And then there’s the dragons – oh, the dragons! Tatsugiri’s ability, whilst in the active, allows you to look at the top six cards of your deck and put a Supporter card you find there into your hand – baby Mew, part two. Drakloak’s ability lets you look at the top two cards of your deck and put one in your hand and one on the bottom of the deck, but Dragapult Tera ex is… nasty – for a psychic and a fire, it does 200 damage to active and puts 60 worth of damage on your opponent’s bench however you like. And that’s not all! You also get Bloodmoon Ursaluna, which does 240 for five energy, but the cost is reduced by one energy for every prize your opponent has taken. Take it from me, Twilight Masquerade has a very strong Pokemon game.
The Trainer cards? Not so much, but it does have the unfair (heh) advantage of Ace Spec cards. As for the rest… Bug Catching Set makes grass good, allowing you to look at the top seven cards and put two grass energy or Pokemon you find there into your hand; Keiran allows you to either switch or do 30 more damage; and the Jamming Tower Stadium deactivates all tools. Okay, I guess.
It does have one heck of an Ace Spec card though – Unfair Stamp. If your Pokemon is knocked out, you can play this card and have your opponent shuffle their hand into their deck and draw two whilst you shuffle your hand and draw six – for all those who remember Reset Stamp… yeah, it’s that again. How wonderful.
Result of Round Four: Going into this, I wasn’t entirely sure how this was going to play out, but the more I look at it, and despite the lack of decent Trainer cards, it has to be Twilight Masquerade. The sheer volume of interesting/annoying Pokemon make for some really ‘what if I build this deck?’ moments, and though the cards from Paldea Evolved are consistent, I must confess that the cards from Twilight Masquerade are more maverick and… fun.
And The Winner Is…
I think by now it is fairly clear that there is one set that has the drop on the other here in almost every category, and that set is… Obsidian Flames.
Jokes. Obsidian Flames might as well be a ‘Fates’ set.
It is, of course, Twilight Masquerade. It has all the tweaks that have made the Scarlet and Violet era improve, set upon set (151 doesn’t count): More Tera Pokemon, more new mechanisms, more new Rares whilst still having less cards. There is still the issue of Uncommons sometimes being rarer than Holo Rares, but I think this problem is here to stay, at least until the format changes again. However, just because Twilight is better than Paldea, this doesn’t mean that Paldea Evolved isn’t a great set. If you’re new to the game, every set that is in Standard is worth something, but Paldea still has more potential for bringing the fire than anything in Sword and Shield era. There, I said it.
AND THAT INCLUDES CROWN ZENITH!
Paldea Evolved Score: three losses, one draw – 65%
Twilight Masquerade: three wins, one draw – 95%