Pokémon Card of the Day: Week of July 27th, 2026
Monday, July 27th, 2026
Hitmonchan Platinum 129/127
This Hitmonchan Secret Rare from Platinum Base Set is one of a unique series that reprinted cards from Base Set as Secret Rares with a gold-bordered modern design. Unlike a set like XY-Evolutions, however, this card is mechanically the exact same.
Hitmonchan was chosen since it was one of the most lethal cards at the beginning of Pokémon. A 70 HP basic was huge and 20, then 40 damage with a common weakness could simply steamroll everything. This is a really unique type of secret card designed for veterans of the game. I think it's really cool when mechanically unique, but not necessarily special or rare, cards are referenced.
Although this art doesn't quite pop like most secret rare cards, the gold makes this card feel special while not over-the-top.
Tuesday, July 28th, 2026
Mega Dragalge ex Chaos Rising 65/86
Mega Dragalge is a unique card since it's a Mega Evolution card that can't deal any damage. It can only discard Tools, Special Energy, and Poison. This means that Mega Dragalge ex is somewhat weak. Those effects are neat, but by no means make the card worth three Prize Cards.
Another odd feature is the Energy requirement. Water and Dark is very unique for Dragon types. It would seem that this is because, before evolving and acquiring the Dragon Type, Skrelp is Water and Poison type. This makes Skrelp eligible for Dark or Water type. This makes sense as, when Poison was represented as Psychic type, Dragalge used Water and Psychic Energy. Being the first Dragon-type Dragalge since Poison became Dark, this is the first Dragalge to have this Energy requirement.
Interestingly, this is also the first Dragalge chase card.
Wednesday, July 29th, 2026
Eevee GX Promo SM174
One of three distinct artworks of Eevee GX, this one corresponds to Flareon GX as featured in the Flareon GX special collection. This card is the predecessor to Eevee ex, allowing you to evolve a GX into another one. Ascension DNA is much stronger, however, since it completely heals all of the damage already on Eevee GX.
Although popular not fully-evolved Pokémon like Pikachu and Meowth get ex-type cards more often in 2026, this was the first time Eevee received this treatment. 160HP isn't awful for a basic GX, but you can see how the card developers didn't have much of an idea after the Ability. Boost Dash is just a flat attack and nobody is using Joy Maker as their GX attack.
For a GX Eevee that's still able to evolve, this card is neat, but I don't really see the point.
Thursday, July 30th, 2026
Wishiwashi Evolving Skies 46/203
The Sword and Shield generation brought forward a neat new example of how to make Wishiwashi's Schooling form make sense. This version has Water Energy somewhat represent each Wishiwashi in the school. With three Energy, Wishiwashi is a 180 HP Basic that deals 120 damage. With 5 Energy, Wishiwashi deals 180 damage.
Having the Rapid Strike attribute means that Wishiwashi can benefit from Rapid Strike Energy, which is a Double Water/Fighting Energy. This means that Wishiwashi can ramp up its stats very quickly. Despite this, 30 HP is still a liability and this card didn't really go anywhere.
This is the last Wishiwashi card as of today, although a new ex is coming soon in Delta Reign.
Friday, July 31st, 2026
Ditto Promo XY40
This is a neat Ditto card that appears to be half-transformed into Pikachu. Its Ability is okay but far weaker than Mew EX's Ability. Stick On is a neat attack that helps Ditto reach the high Energy cost of any attacks it may want to copy. 70 HP isn't bad for a Basic in the XY generation, but 2 Retreat is somewhat high.
The card art features the Phantom Forces design motif, as, according to Bulbapedia, this card was released in Japan as a gift with purchase for Phantom Gate booster boxes. Interestingly, this is the only Ditto card from Generation 6. Since this is a Promo card, as far as I can tell, Ditto never appeared in an XY expansion.
Saturday, August 1st, 2026
Dusknoir Lv. X Stormfront 96/106
The fact that Level X cards could still use the attacks and Abilities of the previous stage meant that the Level X could experiment with more interesting effects without needing to worry about an attack. Ectoplasm is one of the longest card texts ever, allowing it to become a Stadium card when Knocked Out. However, it could be bumped like any other Stadium, except it returned to your hand.
Although the effect is really cool, having to evolve all the way up to a Stage 3 and then get Knocked out isn't always worth one extra damage counter between turns. However, the Dusknoir from Diamond and Pearl Base Set was extremely strong, so it wasn't completely out of the question for this card to see play.
Sunday, August 2nd, 2026
Chandelure EX Legendary Treasures 77/113
Chandelure EX, along with Excadrill EX, is an interesting case - they are the only EX cards from Black and White that were not Legendary or Mythical Pokémon. Released in the very last Black and White set, Legendary Treasures, Chandelure is a very unassuming, bulk EX card. What it implied about the future of the game, however, was much more fascinating.
The fact that Chandelure was not Legendary was neat but also revealed that all EX cards would be Basic. All Legendaries and Mythicals at the time were Basics, so this fact was not so obvious before. Introducing something like this at the end of the generation is bizarre, but ultimately hinted at the return of EX cards in XY.
Chandelure and Excadrill also both received Mega Evolutions in Legends: Z-A, both featured in Pitch Black.
Card Artwork from Pokémon TCG Card Database, used for review purposes.