Pokémon
Neither Arceus nor Tyranitar: This is the best card of the new Pokémon TCG Pocket Triumphant Light
Triumphant Light, the new Pokémon TCG Pocket mini-expansion, is here. One of its best cards is not Arceus ex, but Irida, the leader of the Pearl Clan in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Triumphant Light, a Pokémon TCG Pocket miniset focused on Arceus and featuring the Creator Pokémon, has been available since February 28, 2025. However, as with other card games, sometimes the cards that drastically change the metagame are not the most obvious, or the ones that are pictured on boxes and booster packs. Irida, a new Supporter card in this expansion, is a perfect example of this: thanks to her advanced healing potential, she’s shaping up to be an essential part of Water decks like Starmie ex, Gyarados ex, or Palkia ex, which were already quite powerful.
What is Irida’s strategy in Pokémon TCG Pocket and how do I get her card?
Irida is a card that can be randomly obtained by opening envelopes in the Triumphant Light set, and we can get it in both the basic and full art versions. If we have no luck opening envelopes, we can buy each regular copy directly for 70 Pack Points, and each full art copy for 1,250 Pack Points. Remember that each opened envelope gives us 5 Pack Points, which can only be used for cards from that expansion.
Generally speaking, Irida is the perfect support for the Water decks we use, though its use is not strictly limited to them. Its effect is “Heal 40 damage to any of your Pokémon with Water Energy." This powerful effect makes it potentially the best Healing card in the entire Pokémon TCG Pocket. While Erika, previously considered the best Healing card in the game, heals 50 damage to a single Grass Pokémon, Irida can heal up to 40 damage to four different Pokémon (the one in the Active Station and the three in the Bench) under the right conditions.
Irida’s strategy goes beyond simply using it on multiple Pokémon. As a Healing card, it can also be used alongside standard Potion cards to increase our healing options in games, keeping our Pokémon in the fight longer and increasing our chances of victory.
As a Supporter card, its main limitation is clear: we can only use one card of this type per turn. Despite this, Irida is one of the best cards in the Triumphant Light miniset because it is very useful in Water-type decks and even in Normal-type decks, since it can use Energy of any type. This versatility once again gives her an advantage over Erika, since her usefulness is not limited to single-type decks.
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