Top 10 Best Item Cards of All Time in the Pokemon TCG

Much like Pokémon and Basic Energy Cards, Item Cards have always been a key part of the Pokémon TCG. Up until Black & White the term Item cards actually didn’t exist at all, but with Supporters, Stadiums and Tool Cards all having some kind of special regulation in how they are to be used, it just made sense to introduce the term Item card for any card that didn’t fall into those three categories. At their core, Item cards are the easiest to use cards as there is no restriction to how many of them you can use per turn, unlike Stadiums and Supporters, of which you can only play one per turn. As this video will also include cards from pre Black & White, we will consider every of those unrestricted Trainer cards as Items, except Ace Specs, as those will be featured in a different video.

Script by Rahul Reddy
Edited by Lily

-The List-
Intro: (0:00)
10. Lillie’s PokéDoll: (0:17)
9. Luxury Ball: (2:19)
8. Reset Stamp: (3:43)
7. Computer Search: (5:19)
6. Vs Seeker: (6:06)
5. Item Finder: (9:44)
4. Scoop Up: (11:34)
3. Gust of Wind: (14:31)
2. Energy removal: (17:09)
1. Professor Oak: (18:46)

#pokemon #pokemontcg

[bootortle]

Shoutouts to Rare Candy, always a way to actually consider using stage 2 Pokémon

[MarioPokemon]

I've already posted this below, but all old Trainer cards are considered Items, for anyone wondering. From the compendium:

Q: In Unlimited, can I use Korrina to get old Trainer cards like Professor Oak, Item Finder, etc.?

A: Yes. If a card is not a Supporter or a Stadium card, it would be considered an Item card by a new card effect.


Source: TPCi Rules Team (2014-09-04)

[kkim]

as someone who played the TCG all the way back when base set was the only set, i looked through my old deck recently.

four gust of wind, four super energy removals, one energy removal, two computer searches, two item finders, three professor oaks. and the only reason why i didn't have more is because computer search and item finder were rare cards that i couldn't pull from boosters, and i couldn't fit more item cards into my deck.

that era of the pokemon TCG was hilariously broken.

[Redfire]

Hypnotoxic Laser would have been one of my choices, or at least close to entering the list.
It is a case like reset stamp where it is an ok card on its own, but because of the context around the card it becomes really powefull and enables some nasty strategies
With virbank city gym you got guaranteed 30 damage from poison with a chance to also confuse the opponent, and if they fail to remove the stadium/poison the damage kept adding between turns, so now decks that had low damage started doing decent damage, and decks with already high damage got into OHKO ranges.

[thevintagevaluesexperience]

Catcher wasn't the only reprint in the history of the TCG that wasn't based on a mistranslation. There's also Rare Candy, which originally could be used on the turn you play the basic, but received an official errata during Black & White.

[lucatronfietti]

Since you talked about this topic in the video, why don't you go for "top 10 cards that received an errata for being mistranslated"? Seems like a fun idea!

[keldeo]

One more thing that really helped vs seeker on it's latest reprint was that the meta had shifted around discarding your own resources to get other ones with cards like ultra ball and professors research, this made discarding your supporters a mostly risk free strategy if you could get them back at a later turn

[adoorwithstaronit]

Battle compressor is basically pokemon's foolish burial. No wonder its good

[DaneeBound]

Idea for a future video:
Top 10 best Pokémon with 0-cost attacks (Alolan Vulpix from Guardians Rising for reference).

[Mitjitsu]

Super Energy Removal is the best item card ever. It straight up stops your opponent from playing. It will never be reprinted, even as a Supporter or 1 copy per deck card.

[EnpatsuShakuganLover]

VS Seeker was such an amazing card in SP decks though. Not being limited to only 4 Cyrus's Conspiracy changed the gameplan for SP decks exponentially.

[oxfordbambooshootify]

I think it's unfair to treat cards before B&W as items when there is no text on the card stating that they are categorized as such. They're just vanilla trainers

[jtap]

Another great vid. Would love one about the most dominant decks of their respective era

[eanoy]

i think the list should be
1 professor oak
2 bill
3 energy removal
4 gust of wind
5 scoop up
6 ultra ball
7 vs seeker
8 battle compressor
9 pow hand extension
10 rare candy

[nolanhock]

Lass was busted, being able to get rid of ALL of your opponents trainer cards leaving them stranded is insane for an “item” card

[anewfuture]

I just noticed that the Pokemon Tcg is kinda like the Magic Tcg. Both first set's Non-monster cards were completely overpowered and are still the best cards even by today's standards, and both of their monster cards were extremely weak by today's standards.

[gabrielcastillo]

The beauty of VS seeker is that in combination with battle compressor, it allows you to play just a single copy of any situational supporter cards and still have access to them pretty consistently. This opens up space for more cards. For example most expanded decks only play a single copy each of Guzma, Ranger, N, Raihan, Colress or Guzma&Hala, and still can get away with it because of VS Seeker.

[kiraangle]

cards get errata'd all the time, you showed one in the video, quick ball. another was hyper potion. usually it happens when the pokemon company wants to reclaim an iconic item

[augie]

Max Elixir deserves some mention for allowing you to bypass the usual 1 energy per turn limit

[MrCandeiasjr]

Pre errata rare candy should on the list.
All 3 Team Galatic Inventions should've got a shout out at least. Although belonging to an archetype, they were really powerful.
-Scoop up a pokemon and ALL cards attached
-Making a pokemon require 1 less colorless energy to attack (mind you at the time tool removal wasn't really a thing)
- And block poke powers that could even be used on your opponent's turn
SP pokemons were something else back then