Our upcoming Pokémon TCG set, Shrouded Fable, aims to shake up our current Standard format one last time before the 2024 Pokémon TCG World Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii.  You might be confused because Twilight Masquerade just came out, is only legal for the first time at NAIC, and you would be right!

Shrouded Fable is a mini-set, similar to Pokémon 151, that features a handful of new cards! While most cards in mini-sets aren’t the most competitive cards of all time, Shrouded Fable seems like it might make a larger dent in the format than most originally anticipated! In this article I’ll be sharing my thoughts on some of the cards that have me excited so far, the reasons why, and more! Let’s get it!

Translations of Shrouded Fable cards are from Justin Basil’s website, and can be found here. Translations are unofficial, and are subject to change.

The Great Return of United Wings | Pokémon

In a surprising turn of events, United Wings gains a new partner in the form of Dartrix [Shrouded Fable]. The deck works by doing 20x the amount of Pokémon in your discard pile that have the United Wings attack, and Dartrix can add +80 damage by discarding four copies! This gives Flamigo [Paldea Evolved], Wattrel [Paldea Evolved], and Murkrow [Paldea Evolved] a chance at becoming a real threat for the first time in a long time. On top of the damage buff, and having another general attacker, Dartrix adds another type advantage to this deck in the form of Grass-type. Being able to do double the amount of damage to a Charizard ex [Obsidian Flames] or a Roaring Moon ex [Paradox Rift] can be monumental for this deck! I don’t have a list yet, but I promise you that I’ll work on it once we have a finalized set list for the global release.
Getting hyped for the return of the United Wings? A Synergy Black / Green Sidewinder deck box would complement the aesthetic of United Wings incredibly well! You can check those out here.

A New Dark Deck | Pokémon

Shrouded Fable is a set that is themed around Darkness-type Pokémon, and there are a handful of interesting cards that might end up being a successful deck. Pecharunt ex [Shrouded Fable] allows us a switching effect per turn for our Darkness-type Pokémon, and it gives us the benefit of Poisoning our own Pokémon. Benefit? Yeah, you read that correctly! Okidogi ex [Shrouded Fable] allows you to do 130 damage + an additional 130 damage if it’s Poisoned,  which makes for a hefty attack!

Binding Mochi [Shrouded Fable] is another card that can add to this impressive combo by further increasing your damage output by an additional 40 damage if your Active Pokémon is Poisoned! You might be wondering how we are going to power up these Pokémon, and that is a solid question … I gotchu! Janine’s Secret Technique [Shrouded Fable] accelerates Darkness Energy to your Darkness-type Pokémon in play, and also makes them Poisoned. It should also be said that Dark Patch [Astral Radiance] is still Standard legal, and would easily take this deck over the top! There are support Pokémon, like Darkrai VSTAR [Astral Radiance], Munkidori ex [Shrouded Fable], and Fezandipiti ex [Shrouded Fable] that can put any needed final touches on this deck! I don’t have a final build in mind yet, but something is there!

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Control Gets Better | Pokémon

You either love them or hate them, but Control decks are a part of our game! In recent sets, we’ve received many powerful Trainer cards to add to these decks, like Counter Catcher [Paradox Rift], Eri [Temporal Forces], and Accompanying Flute [Twilight Masquerade], and Shrouded Fable isn’t any different. In this set, we get Xerosic’s Plan [Shrouded Fable], and that card forces your opponent to discard cards until they only have three cards left in their hand! Most decks try to build up a few cards in their hand to play at once against Control decks, but that option is off the table now! I could see this card being played in either a Snorlax [Pokémon Go] Stall deck or a Pidgeot ex [Obsidian Flames] Control deck as a singular  for sure!

The End of Lost Zone Box? | Pokémon

In a surprising turn of events, Kyurem [Shrouded Fable] is designed to beat… *checks notes*… Lost Zone Box? It can use its Trifrost attack for a single Colorless Energy if your opponent has any card with "Colress"' in its name in their discard pile, and that allows you to snipe 110 damage to three of your opponent’s Pokémon. It could be Colress’s Experiment [Lost Origin], or even the new Colress’s Tenacity [Shrouded Fable] from this set, but it’s likely the first option! We’ve seen a few cards get countered like this before, like Mew VMAX [Fusion Strike] via Drapion V [Lost Origin], which makes for more options all around to beat more decks! It’s a great day if you’ve been losing against Lost Zone Box decks lately!

An Exciting World Championships | Pokémon

All of the above cards should be coming out in the global release of Shrouded Fable this Summer! All of the above cards, and more, will be legal for Worlds in August! I’m excited to see how this set adds to our currently new Twilight Masquerade format, and that we will actually have a different format between NAIC and Worlds! And I can only imagine that we’ll have a  new main set shortly after Worlds too! Regardless, there are a lot of new cards to test, and that means I’ll have plenty of content to share with everyone soon!