Top 10 BEST And Strongest Sceptile Cards

What’s popping everybody, SaberWolf94, gonna be ranking what the Top 10 strongest and best Sceptile cards are from what we got so far obviously. If I had to rank the Hoenn starters themselves the Sceptile line comes third as I like the Mudkip and Torchic line more, with Mudkip being my favourite starter and Blaziken having some of my favourite TCG cards. But that doesn’t mean Sceptile isn’t cool. Over the years it hasn’t been a TCG powerhouse often if not ever but as with all prints, some cards are a lot better than others.

A few ground rules first though, number 1 I won’t be factoring M Sceptile EX as it’s a mega form and not considered a straight Sceptile. More importantly cards will be judged on their playability as standalone cards without partners but strong partnerships with other cards may also be considered. Stats, attacks, effects are all factors and keep in mind cards will be judged on their respective formats, otherwise the newest cards would be stronger by default. If I talk about artwork know that it wasn’t a factor in the card’s ranking. All good? Here we go!

Instead of making 1 really good Sceptile card Primal Clash split a few good aspects between 2 cards, and the result was none of them ended up good enough to compete on the highest levels. The only semi-good thing on this Sceptile card is the Nurture and Heal ability giving you some grass energy acceleration from the hand but not quite the Blastoise Rain Dance style. You see you only get 1 extra attachment as opposed to however many you want. Additionally you will get a 30 damage heal on the pokemon you attached which is nice but not a good trade-off in terms of speed. Given how similar energy acceleration abilities work you’d rather be able attaching as many energies as you want and for this reason it limited the type of pokemon you could reliably power up.

Blessed to get an ex in the gen 3 era, on paper you may think Sceptile ex is one of the strongest Sceptile cards but the reality is this card has a lot of downsides. For starters, it’s one of those ex cards with a double weakness which isn’t a good thing. 150 HP is standard, so we can’t complain about that and the same could be said about the 2 retreat cost. It’s really the attacks that hold this card back, despite having 3 of them they all have shortcomings. Green Heal is very situational and pretty much will waste your turn of doing any damage. Poison Ring sacrifices base damage for auto poison and preventing your opponent from retreating. The auto poison is definitely welcome any day but preventing your opponent from retreating doesn’t always work out and even if they stick around you’re only at 60 damage at the end of your opponent’s turn anyway.

Just like Emerald Sceptile Celestial Storm Sceptile has an ability that can be extremely useful or irrelevant, however in this case if it comes up then it’s pretty much a guaranteed auto win. Power of Nature will make all your pokemon immune to damage from Ultra Beasts as long as they have any grass energy attached. Ultra Beast cards and decks were popular in the Sun and Moon era because they were strong so having such a widespread barrier against them automatically gives this card merit. Even so, Ultra Beast decks weren’t the ones being played so as I’ve said your luck with this ability will be pretty hit or miss. Good news is this card isn’t only an Ultra Beast wall, its powerful Storm attack can be build up to be dangerous if allowed, but having said that it won’t be so easy. It does 20 damage times all of your energies on the field and you’re gonna need 6-10 around to be doing any serious damage.

I tie these 2 Sceptile cards together because they have a lot of things in common and their differences can be both an edge or irrelevant depending on your match up. The original holographic Sceptile from ex Ruby and Sapphire has 20 more HP than Emerald Sceptile and that will make a big difference in a lot of situations. Emerald Sceptile has a slightly better retreat cost but it still doesn’t make up for that HP difference. If it had 110 HP I would have put them as even but that isn’t the case. Emerald Sceptile is more of a team player though. With its Green Essence pokebody any of your active pokemon with grass energy can’t be affected by special conditions.

At first glance, it may appear that I tied these cards because they share the same Energy Trans poke-power but it’s not as simple as that. You see, while this is definitely a good effect to have, opening up doors for various combos it didn’t have the same significance in both eras. Gen 3 has Mr. Briny’s Compassion giving Ruby and Sapphire Sceptile a lot more merit while in gen 4 Stormfront Sceptile could only gamble with Super Scoop Up for the same scoop up heal combo. On the other hand Stormfront Sceptile has a stronger overall card package with its attacks and retreat while Ruby and Sapphire Sceptile is pretty helpless on its own.

This can be a completely irrelevant or phenomenal body depending on your circumstances but nonetheless it’s a useful effect to have around. The similarity factor here comes with the attacks, both of these Sceptile cards have a cheap and an expensive attack each and their damage output is similar. Emerald Sceptile can always do a consistent 1 for 30 and for back then that was solid. Ruby and Sapphire Sceptile will do 1 for 20 with auto sleep but will inflict more status conditions if you have more energies on. In terms of their big attacks I put both of these cards ahead of Sceptile ex because they can both make use of Boost Energy but also Scramble Energy and will also put pressure on your opponent faster than Sceptile ex with their cheap attacks. Overall, they’re more consistent and as a result more reliable but many other Sceptile cards are still better.

As a GX card this Sceptile aims to join the meta as opposed to trying to counter it. By being a GX pokemon alone it has advantages over other cards but at the same time, it also means it has to stand out in some way from other GX pokemon. 230 HP wasn’t the highest stage 2 GX pokemon could reach but they’d also never have only 1 retreat so stat wise this card isn’t bad, however 240 HP would have likely elevated it on this list. It plays it safe with cheap and simple attacks that do decent damage for 2HKOs but it’s just that, decent. Mach Cut will let you discard special energies and Leaf Cyclone ensures energy conservation which is handy. After some serious damage time your Jungle Heal GX right and get rid of all of it. Unfortunately this GX attack isn’t very practical, particularly because it doesn’t do any damage and this is what holds back Sceptile GX.

I burned a lot of time deciding between the Energy Trans Sceptiles and this one but ultimately Arceus Sceptile is the more reliable card from many angles. It doesn’t stand out much in terms of stats having 10 more HP than Stormfront Sceptile but also an additional retreat. It won’t be a big threat on its own just like the Energy Trans Sceptile but unlike those cards it can become very good with a little support. The Green Breath poke-body heals 2 damage counters every time you attach a grass energy to it from your hand. Partner this with some other healing cards like Platinum Blissey for example and all of a sudden Sceptile is tanking hits. The biggest partner that pushes its effectiveness though is Great Encounters Sceptile, belonging in the same line that card will double all your grass energies on the field turning Leaf Blast here into a 2 for 80 attack.

To talk about Sceptile EX from Ancient Origins is ironic, as it’s more of an attacker than its mega form from the same set, an uncommon occasion as it usually went the other way around most of the time. It might be a bit confusing if you’re unfamiliar with this card, but it is actually one of the few Sceptile cards that saw some attempts at serious play. As a basic EX pokemon from the gen 6 era all you gotta do is just play it down and it’s nearly ready; there’s a reason EX pokemon were so dominant in gen 5 and gen 6 and it’s true, this Sceptile card is much faster to use than all the other ones before it. Its stats were also pretty common for an EX from that era so nothing else to add on its stats. It has 2 simple and cheap attacks that also combo with each other surprise, surprise. Sleep Poison isn’t consistent as a coin flip attack, but if you do get the heads getting auto sleep and poison is strong for 1 energy and either way you’re always doing 10 damage.

10. Sceptile (Primal Clash)

9. Sceptile ex (ex Team Magma vs Team Aqua)

8. Sceptile (ex Ruby & Sapphire + ex Emerald)

7. Sceptile (Celestial Storm)

6. Sceptile GX (Lost Thunder)

Unseen Claw does 60 for 2 but will do 130 if your opponent’s pokemon is affected by a special condition. For just 2 energy this damage was definitely considerable, and this doesn’t even factor Muscle Band and the extra damage from poison. It wasn’t that difficult to set up 2HKOS on other EX pokemon especially if you got a heads with Sleep Poison. This card was commonly paired with Ariados from the same set inflicting auto poison with its ability and made for a quick and aggressive deck that was also very simple. There isn’t much to criticize, sitting at number 3 only because the other 2 Sceptile cards are even better.

Delta Species Sceptile ex from Crystal Guardians is the easiest and potentially the most dangerous Sceptile card you can use which makes it an easy number 1 for me here. It carries the same double weakness as the original Sceptile ex from the era and has a better retreat cost at the cost of having 10 less HP. Being a Delta Species pokemon has its perks and downsides, but for the most part it’s more of a plus. Unlike Sceptile ex from Team Magma and Aqua it has a very strong poke-body and a strong and easy to use attack. Every pokemon ex can’t use any poke-powers and their attacks cost 1 colorless more to use. This is extremely huge for the era and will cause serious problems to many strong cards. Even if you don’t use any pokemon ex with poke-powers your own attack is still affected, but this is why it initially costs 2 energy to use Power Revenge.

5. Sceptile (ex Ruby & Sapphire + Stormfront)

Great Encounters Sceptile has only one, only one thing going for it, but it’s such a good and rarely printed effect that pushes this card at number 2 even though the rest of the package is underwhelming. Of course, it is the Wild Growth poke-body doubling the amount of grass energies you have on your grass pokemon. This effect is so good that you can only get one regardless of how many of these Sceptiles are out. 100 HP with 3 retreat is horrendously bad in the D/P era but the strength of Wild Growth still prevails. Leaf Blade would have been a terrible attack as well, but becomes an okay attack when you factor in wild Growth halving the cost. 50 for 2 with a chance to be 70 for 2, means if you seriously need to attack with it, it can put in some damage.

This is gonna do it for the strongest Sceptile cards! I hope you guys enjoyed reading this article and I’ll see you guys on the next one. Wazzuup!!!

4. Sceptile (Arceus)

3. Sceptile EX (Ancient Origins)

2. Sceptile (Great Encounters)

1. Sceptile ex (ex Crystal Guardians)

This card greatly improves every other Sceptile card in the era and every grass pokemon in general; you could pair this with Torterra, Tangrowth, Shaymin, Leafeon and any other grass pokemon you can think of. Even though I think they overdid it, there’s a reason they balanced out the card with bad stats and an average attack. If those were a bit better this would have been the best Sceptile card easily, but in the end there is one more card that I think is stronger overall. So here we go….

If you could miraculously have 2 or 3 of these out then it can become pretty amazing and the healing will start to add up but as a stage 2 post the gen 4 era this would be very difficult and inconsistent. Besides the semi-good ability, it has below average HP for a stage 2, a 2 retreat and a weak attack. If this ability went on the Ancient Trait Sceptile from the same set it would have been a lot better and definitely a lot higher on this list too.

Slashing Strike is what you probably want to exploit the most as 100 damage will go a long way in the ex era. Of course, as you guys can see, it takes 5 energies to use this attack and you won’t be able to use it next turn. This drawback isn’t too bad it’s just that matter of powering up the attack in the first place. Thankfully, Boost Energy makes this attack a lot more reasonable and pushes this card to be a little better. Whether you use Boost Energy or combine it with Team Aqua’s Lanturn you should be able to launch at least few Slashing Strikes throughout a game making this a solid Sceptile card but not the best.

It’s certainly a card that needs a lot of help to do real damage but at least some potential is there. Stat wise it’s average for the Sun and Moon era and that also plays a part on why I didn’t put it higher.

This would have worked much better as a VSTAR power but having to burn your attack without doing any damage usually negates the benefit of healing if your opponent’s going to deal heavy damage next turn anyway. Compare this with Tapu Bulu’s GX attack and Celebi and Venusaur’s and it’s not a coincidence those cards were more popular. You’d need to heal a bunch of big pokemon to really reap Jungle Heal GX and you won’t have that luxury most of the time, especially since the pokemon need to have grass energy on too. Compared to all the previous Sceptile cards though, this card is the most self sufficient and needs the least amount of extra support to perform. Just watch out for that fire weakness in the Sun and Moon era.

If it actually had a better attack or better stats I wouldn’t put both of these cards together in spite of Energy Trans as it’s just simply not the same ability in both eras. Because moving energies around is good, it makes these cards some of the better Sceptile cards by default but it’s just too bad they couldn’t be as successful as other pokemon that had a similar effect, like Aromatisse or Weavile GX for example.

The other benefit of Leaf Blast is that you can start doing damage immediately with it as you build it up to become stronger. As far as grass tanks go, Torterra cards in the era are stronger, but compared with its Sceptile siblings you’re looking at one of the better ones no doubt.

As the name suggests this attack gets stronger the more prizes your opponent has taken maxing out at 110 if they’re at 1 prize left. Just doing between 80-100 is very good and the best part is that if they negate your poke-body then it only becomes even better. Obviously it won’t be that strong in the beginning of the game and depending on your opponent’s deck Extra Liquid could be useless, only negatively affecting you on top of that. But the advantage you get is too broken when it does affect the opposition, and either way it’s always gonna be a strong attacker mid to late game.

Originally Written in 2023