By Xander Pero, Contributing Writer

The most recent expansion, Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together, brings back beloved Trainer’s Pokémon. Despite their similar appearances, these Pokémon are different from their wild counterparts. For instance, you can play four copies of N’s Reshiram and four copies of Reshiram in a Standard-legal deck because their names differ. In a similar vein, Trainer’s Pokémon cannot evolve from or into wild Pokémon. The final piece to this puzzle is that Trainer’s Pokémon synergize exceptionally well with each other. You could build an entire deck around a specific Pokémon Trainer, including most or all of that Trainer’s cards. Let’s jump into a few of these archetypes and explore strategies that you can bring to your next tournament.

N’s Zoroark ex, N’s Darmanitan & N’s Reshiram

N has been a central figure of the Pokémon TCG since his debut as a Supporter card in the Black & White—Noble Victories expansion, which released almost 15 years ago. N’s Pokémon make an appearance in 2025, and N’s Zoroark ex is the leader of the pack. It boasts a powerful Ability, Trade, which allows the player to discard a card to draw two more. Its only attack, Night Joker, copies the attack of an N’s Pokémon on your Bench. How’s that for synergy? N’s Zoroark ex does need a companion to copy—it cannot attack alone.

We have a few options for Pokémon to pair alongside N’s Zoroark ex, but I’ve chosen N’s Darmanitan and N’s Reshiram. N’s Darmanitan has two powerful, situational attacks, but let’s focus on Flamebody Cannon for now. For the high cost of discarding all attached Energy, this attack does 90 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon and one of their Benched Pokémon. Though this might not seem like a lot, it’s enough to Knock Out two low-HP Pokémon at once. Noctowl is used to set up and maintain pressure throughout the game in most decks in the Standard format; with Flamebody Cannon, you could Knock Out one or two Hoothoot with a single attack, taking Prize cards and disrupting your opponent’s options simultaneously.

Manaphy is no longer legal in the Standard format, so the only option for protecting Benched Pokémon is Rabsca from the Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces expansion. Both Pokémon would make good targets for N’s Darmanitan.

When Flamebody Cannon is ineffective, we can instead use an attack from N’s Reshiram, Virtuous Flame. Its 170 damage is enough to Knock Out most Pokémon in one or two attacks, and if your opponent isn’t careful, you can retaliate with damage proportional to the number of damage counters on your N’s Zoroark ex with Powerful Rage. Though not as fancy as Flamebody Cannon, N’s Reshiram adds a convenient attack in a variety of situations.

As attractive as N’s Reshiram’s attacks are, to make full use of N’s Pokémon, you’ll still want to lean into maximizing the utility of Flamebody Cannon. Because your attacks aren’t as powerful in terms of damage relative to some other decks, it’s likely that your opponent will take the first Prize card. Reversal Energy and Counter Catcher can maximize the impact of a single Flamebody Cannon, allowing you to attack two high-priority targets at once for a single Energy attachment. When you aren’t behind on Prize cards, N’s PP Up and N’s Castle can empower and pivot N’s Zoroark ex into your Active Spot to begin attacking anyway.

Hop’s Zacian ex, Hop’s Cramorant & Supporting Players

The next Pokémon Trainer we’ll look at is Hop. His Pokémon focus on taking quick Prize cards by augmenting damage output with multiple supporting effects. Let’s first look at our two attackers, then consider the damage boosts afterward.

Attacker number one is Hop’s Zacian ex. Its Insta-Strike attack does 30 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon and a Benched Pokémon for a single Colorless Energy. This doesn’t do much damage on its own without the additional modifiers, but Hop’s Zacian ex’s second attack, Brave Slash, does an impressive 240 damage for 4 Energy. This is a hefty cost, but when paired with Archaludon ex, you can fully supply the attack requirements in a single turn.

The second attacker for us to consider is Hop’s Cramorant. Its Fickle Spitting attack does 120 damage for a single Colorless Energy but stipulates that the opponent must have exactly 3 or 4 Prize cards remaining. You’ll want to make use of this time window to dish out a heap of damage for little investment. You may even be able to attack with Hop’s Cramorant two turns in a row if the opponent was only able to take a single Prize card, going from four remaining to three remaining.

Though 30 and 120 damage aren’t much compared to the high-HP Pokémon ex of today’s Standard format, Hop has three tricks up his sleeve to level the playing field: Hop’s Snorlax, Hop’s Choice Band, and Postwick. Each of these cards boosts damage done to the opponent’s Active Pokémon by 30, which increases our numbers to 120, 210, and 340, all of which are perfect in their own way. 120 damage—90, in fact—is enough to Knock Out most Basic Pokémon with an Evolution, such as (Gimmighoul, Charmander, Dreepy). And 210 damage can Knock Out Basic Pokémon ex, including (Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Fezandipiti ex); and 340 damage is enough to take down the likes of Charizard ex and Dragapult ex. Hop’s Pokémon turn into a powerful force with the right support!

Competitive decks that can make use of Hop’s Pokémon include Archaludon ex, Slaking ex, Iron Valiant ex, and Dragapult ex. These decks aim to apply early pressure with Hop’s Zacian ex, hopefully picking up one or two Prize cards before the opponent can set up and then Knocking Out high-HP targets with Brave Slash or a tough Pokémon. Iron Valiant ex deck strategies make the most of the 30 damage from Insta-Strike by supplying an additional four damage counters, which combined is usually enough to Knock Out other Basic Pokémon.

Hop’s Dubwool

I’ve chosen to highlight Hop’s Dubwool because it can function without Hop’s other Pokémon. When you evolve Hop’s Wooloo into Hop’s Dubwool, you can drag up one of the opponent’s Benched Pokémon to their Active Spot. Essentially, you get the effect of Boss’s Orders without needing to play a Supporter card.

Though you might be thinking that Boss’s Orders, Counter Catcher, or even Pokémon Catcher are more efficient ways to gust up a Pokémon of choice, let’s think about when this addition may be useful. Unlike the previously mentioned cards, Hop’s Dubwool is a Pokémon, meaning that it can be found with Ultra Ball or Night Stretcher. While Arven, Ciphermanic’s Codebreaking, or Pidgeot ex can guarantee finding these Item cards from your deck, they require the use of a Supporter card or Stage 2 Pokémon. Hop’s Dubwool works well with decks that aim to play powerful draw Supporters each turn—like Professor’s Research—and not bother with Arven or Boss’s Orders.

The most common application of Hop’s Dubwool I’ve seen is in Archaludon ex decks. Typically, the decks deploy one of two strategies: using Hop’s Dubwool or using Hop’s attacking Pokémon with supporting damage modifiers. The former chooses to attack with Archaludon ex and target specific Pokémon as needed. The latter sometimes attacks with Archaludon ex but also leans on Hop’s Zacian ex for Brave Slash.

If you’re looking to use Hop’s Dubwool in decks, look to identify core ideas that fulfill a few criteria. Your core strategy should allow for a few Bench spaces to provide adequate room for at least one Dubwool. Moreover, your core idea should be low maintenance, requiring only a few cards in combination to function. Archaludon ex is a great example of this; after Assemble Alloy, you only need a single Metal Energy to begin attacking for serious damage. Miraidon ex decks are another good example. Lastly, your core strategy shouldn’t mesh well with Counter Catcher—if it does, you should probably play Counter Catcher instead!

Lillie’s Clefairy ex

In my opinion, Lillie’s Clefairy ex is the best standalone card from the new set. A great strength of Dragon-type Pokémon is that they don’t have a Weakness; it can be difficult for decks to Knock Out beefy Pokémon like Dragapult ex and Raging Bolt ex in a single attack. Decks are favorable for Dragapult ex when this is possible (e.g. Raging Bolt ex, Gholdengo ex) and unfavorable otherwise. Now, Lillie’s Clefairy ex can even the playing field, inducing Psychic-type Weakness for each of your opponent’s Dragon-type Pokémon in play.

Gardevoir ex decks can easily include a copy of Lillie’s Clefairy ex. It already makes use of a variety of Psychic-type attackers, so making them capable of Knocking Out Dragapult ex or Raging Bolt ex in a single attack is exceptional. However, Lillie’s Clefairy ex is much more than a Pokémon with a useful Ability—its attack can do enough damage on its own, too. Full Moon Rondo hits the same as Raikou V’s Lightning Rondo, doing 20 plus 20 damage for each Benched Pokémon in play. Therefore, Lillie’s Clefairy ex can do 320 damage to a Dragapult ex if there are at least seven Benched Pokémon in play, removing the need for other Psychic-type Pokémon to get the job done. Full Moon Rondo requires two Energy—only one of which is Psychic Energy—meaning that Lillie’s Clefairy ex is easy to add to other decks and quick to power up with Crispin or Counter Gain.

A popular new deck in the post-rotation Standard format is a Tera toolbox deck. It revolves around Noctowl and situational Tera Pokémon attackers, such as Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex, and Pikachu ex for a variety of opposing matchups. Crispin and Teal Mask Ogerpon ex’s Teal Dance Ability are used to flood the board with Energy, fueling each attacker at the right time. Lillie’s Clefairy ex slots itself nicely into this archetype, serving as the deck’s main answer to Dragapult ex.

Blaziken ex

Now that we’ve looked at all the new Trainer’s Pokémon, let’s explore possibilities with other powerful Pokémon ex also debuting in Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together.

In a format dictated by ways to accelerate additional Energy to your Pokémon, Blaziken ex provides an additional means of doing so. Its Ability allows you to attach a Basic Energy from your discard pile to one of your Pokémon, essentially giving you one additional Energy attachment per turn. Though some Pokémon have more powerful effects attached to them (think Charizard ex or Gardevoir ex), Blaziken ex is not limited to any specific Energy type. I’ve seen Blaziken ex paired with Dragapult ex, Slaking ex, or the newly released Mamoswine ex.

These Pokémon need the constant fuel from Blaziken ex and are well-equipped to support the additional space. Each deck list should already include copies of Rare Candy and Technical Machine: Evolution, which make it easy to set up multiple Stage 2 Pokémon at the same time. The main benefit of doing so is that you aren’t reliant on Crispin to power up each of your attackers and are less susceptible to a late-game Iono. The obvious downside is that you’re somewhat reliant on a Stage 2 Pokémon, which can be more difficult to establish than a single Crispin.

Dudunsparce ex

The final Pokémon we’ll look at today is Dudunsparce ex. You may remember previous decks that utilized Dudunsparce from Scarlet & Violet—Temporal Forces for its Run Away Draw Ability, which drew three cards and burrowed Dudunsparce back into your deck. These decks were happy to continuously cycle through Dudunsparce, drawing into key cards like Professor Sada’s Vitality or Boss’s Orders that were otherwise difficult to find. Because you could activate the Ability by choice, Dudunsparce was also an easy way to guarantee additional cards off an opposing Iono. Some smart players would leave one or two Dudunsparce in play near the end of the game, benefiting greatly from the additional three to six cards they could draw.

Dudunsparce ex allows this supporting strategy to become an offensive one as well, specifically against Pokémon ex decks. Its first attack does 60 damage for each of your opponent’s Pokémon ex in play. This is most useful against decks like Raging Bolt ex or the Tera box deck that rely on Pokémon ex to execute their strategy. Moreover, this can be useful against certain wall-based decks that focus on Milotic ex, Farigiraf ex, and Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex to limit which Pokémon can do damage. Conveniently, Dudunsparce ex can attack all three of these Pokémon, potentially providing an opportunity to get ahead in an otherwise unwinnable matchup. The cherry on top is that Dudunsparce can use any type of Energy to fulfill its attack cost.

These are just a few of the new cards released in the Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together expansion. I’m excited to see what combinations players come up with as they adopt each Trainer’s Pokémon as their own and debut unique creations at upcoming tournaments!