Pokemon Card Game :: Diamond and Pearl Theme Deck Reviews

New Pokemon, new powers and more - we review the biggest Pokemon card game set in years, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl!

Courtesy of Pokemon

The new Pokemon card game set, Diamond and Pearl, has three new Theme Decks! Each one is based around one of the three Pokemon you can start with in the video game for Nintendo DS. Here's the 411 on each deck, including which is the strongest, with Gary's card game reviews.

Inferno Zone Theme Deck Review

Fire and Fighting team up for a flaming karate chop of doom! With tons of attack power from Chimchar, Meditite and Ponyta, this deck can clobber almost any Pokemon, especially the Grass Pokemon from the Terra Firma deck. Unfortunately, almost every Pokemon in the deck is vulnerable to Water attacks so Royal Frost will walk all over it. However you play it, Inferno Zone makes for fast and furious Pokemon battles!

Thumbs Up:

Tons of fast and powerful attacks.

Can clobber Terra Firma.

Chimchar is so cute!

Thumbs Down:

Royal Frost clobbers it.

No defense and lots of moves damage your own Pokemon.

Theme Deck Rating:

Royal Frost Theme Deck Review

Piplup leads the way with this Water and Metal deck! It has lots of sneaky moves that let you attack your opponent's benched Pokemon, giving your opponent nowhere to hide. It also has a good selection of Pokemon, including ones that can clobber both other decks. With strong Pokemon, good attacks and no real weakness, this deck is the strongest of the three!

Thumbs Up:

Attacks that damage benched Pokemon.

No weakness against the other decks!

Water attacks soak the Inferno Zone deck, fast.

Thumbs Down:

Empoleon should have a Metal attack!

Hoothoot is unreliable.

Theme Deck Rating:

Terra Firma Theme Deck Review

Turtwig's Grass and Darkness deck brings healing power to your Pokemon battles! With Giga Drain and Leaf Storm to keep your Pokemon healthy, plus attacks to stun your opponent's Pokemon, this deck is slow but steady. It has resistances to the Royal Frost deck to give it a bit of an edge, but the Inferno Zone's fire attacks can cook it, so watch out!

Thumbs Up:

Healing powers really help out!

Lots of ways to slow down your opponent's Pokemon.

Thumbs Down:

Inferno Zone's fire attacks roast the Grass Pokemon.

It's slow and battles take a while.

Theme Deck Rating:

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