The Pokémon Trading Card Game has evolved and developed throughout the years. Much like the popular video game it's based on, the addictive nature of collecting and trading these fantastic creatures has long been something for children to look forward to, and this is, somewhat surprisingly, very true for older fans as well. Many adults who collected Pokémon cards when they were kids find much joy in reminiscing on the memories of their collecting days.

At the time, cards like Charizard and Chansey were royalty, with a staggering 120 HP. Many players, even today, likely think these cards from those earlier sets are still some of the strongest Pokémon cards of all time. However, this couldn't be farther from the truth. Newer Pokémon cards are much more powerful than the older ones, to the point where it nearly regulates older Pokémon cards to collector's items rather than actual competitive cards. Why has The Pokémon Company decided to make newer Pokémon cards radically stronger than the old ones?

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The modern Pokémon Trading Card Game has been slowly but surely experiencing what many card game players call "power creep." Power creep is when newer cards in a game are so much stronger than the older ones that the old ones become irrelevant to play. This has happened in Pokémon. In the first couple of sets, a Pokémon with 100 or more HP was considered a strong and tank-y card. Over time, The Pokémon Company has slowly pushed the boundary of how much health and attack power a Pokémon card can realistically have while still being balanced.

Powerful Pokémon Cards Keep Getting Better

Pokemon Sword Shield Snorlax V Max Preview

The effects of Pokémon's power creep were immediately apparent when the first EX Pokémon cards came out. At the time, a Wailord card with 200 HP was printed, making it the card with the highest health in the game. Wailord EX remained the king of HP for quite a while. However, other cards were starting to catch up. Now, with "Tag Team" cards on the scene, cards can have almost a limitless amount of HP. The next card that would top Wailord EX was, oddly, another Wailord card. Although this Wailord was teamed up with Magikarp to create the Wailord and Magikarp Tag Team card, they had a colossal HP stat of 300. Hilariously enough, in the Sword and Shield Base SetSnorlax V-Max trumped even Wailord with a disconcertingly large 340 HPAs of right now, Snorlax V-Max remains the card with the highest HP stat ever.

Of course, HP isn't the only way to determine a Pokémon's strength. The attack power of cards has also fallen victim to the notion of power creep. For example, the infamous Charizard Base Set card does 100 damage for 4 fire energy. At the time, this was a decent attack, but it simply can't stack up to modern cards. Zacian V can deal 230 damage for only 3 metal energy. Also, Zacian V itself is a basic Pokémon with 220 HPDue to new cards being so powerful compared to older ones, the older cards have become little more than an esteemed collector's item.

Power creep happens in many different card games. However, it is perhaps most obvious in The Pokémon Trading Card Game. One can only wonder how strong and bulky new cards will become in the future.

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