With the recent release of Chaos Rising, a lot of Pokémon TCG fans have spent the past few days pouring over all of the new Chase cards. Collectors have plenty of Illustration Rares and other full art cards to slot into their binders, but many competitive players have had their eyes set on a far more unassuming prize. The trainer card known only as ‘Special Red Card’.
Hand disruption is a powerful tool in the Pokémon TCG. It’s much easier to draw cards in Pokémon than in competitors like Magic: the Gathering, and there’s no hand size limit, so you can hold onto masses of cards turn after turn without needing to discard. This makes cards that can reign in opponents who’ve gone on massive card drawing sprees vitally important.
Prior to rotation in April, Iono was one of the best Pokémon cards in Standard. Iono was an effective hand disruption tool that also enabled the player casting it to refresh their own card once they’d depleted it. With Iono out of the format, the only means players had of interfering with their opponent’s hand was the card Unfair Stamp, which is an ACE SPEC card and thus capped at only a single copy per deck.
This is where Special Red Card comes in, since it’s a brand new hand disruption card that’s neither an ACE SPEC like Unfair Stamp, or a supporter like Iono. This gives it some advantages compared to both of its counterparts, since you’re not capped at only a single copy, and playing it doesn’t use up your single chance to play a supporter in a turn .
There are some drawbacks, though, as Special Red Card can only be activated if an opponent has three or fewer prize cards, and its effect is not symmetrical, meaning that you won’t be able to use it to reload your own hand. Nevertheless, if you’re looking to interfere with your opponent’s plans. this card will definitely have them seeing red.
Are there any trainers from Chaos Rising that you’re hoping to slot into your decks? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord.
Our list of the best Pokémon cards features some trainers that are even stronger than Special Red card.
Source: Wargamer
