Irida – Triumphant Light
Date Reviewed: March 9, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Irida (A2a 072, 087) is a Trainer-Supporter that heals 40 damage from each of your Pokémon that has a (W) Energy attached to itself. Irida is available as a ♦♦ or ★★ rare. She’s also a card that I really should have included in my countdown. Oops.
There are no card effects in Pocket that specify “Trainer cards”, but there are three that specifically affect Supporters. Psyduck (A1 057) and Gengar (A1 122) have single-Energy attacks that do a little damage, while preventing your opponent from playing a Supporter during their next turn. Gengar ex (A1 123, 261, 277) has an Ability that prevents the opposing player from using Supporters while it is in play, Active or not.
Plus, you can only play one Supporter during your turn; any others in hand won’t be playable until your next turn. Which means, more so than most other cards, Supporters are competed with each other for the same deck slots. Exactly how many depends on the deck; some run as low as four, while others might cram in 11. The determining factor is how many Pokémon and/or Item the deck needs.
Irida has already earned a place in many, if not most, (W) Energy using decks. Yeah, (W) Energy; unlike the other iconic (W) Supporter Misty (A1 220, 267), Irida works for any Pokémon Type. The only requirement is that the Pokémon has to have at least one (W) Energy attached to it, as well as at least 10 damage on it. I also want to be clear that it can work on multiple Pokémon; if you have four Pokémon in play, each with damage and a (W) Energy, you can heal a total of 160 damage!
Even for just one Pokémon, healing 40 damage with a Supporter is good. Yes, the other healing Supporter, Erika (A1 219, 266), heals 50 damage… but its only for (G) Pokémon, and only one at a time. Irida is like a double Potion (P-A 001), except for anything with damage and a (W) Energy. If Irida had only healed a single Pokémon with (W) Energy attached, it’d would still have been a good card, and inline with typical Item to Supporter scaling.
Now, requiring the Pokémon (plural or singular) have a (W) Energy attached, is restrictive. The Energy Zone can be very fickle when you’re not running a mono-type deck. I don’t think Irida is worth the risk caused by that… but there are workarounds. Besides actual (W) Types, there are Colorless Pokémon, with all those (C) Energy requirements. There are also non-Colorless attackers, like Yanmega ex (A2 007, 180, 196), who can also run on (W) Energy.
Then there are non-attackers, like Druddigon (A1a 056). If you’re running something for an Ability, or as a meatshield, its Energy requirements don’t usually matter.1 There are also Pokémon like Magnezone (A2 053) and Leafeon ex (A2a 010, 082, 091). Magnezone relies on on Magneton (A1 098), whose Ability attaches (L) Energy to itself, once per turn. Leafeon ex has an Ability that let’s it attach a (G) Energy to one of your (G) Pokémon, once per turn…
…so you just cover their non-(C) Energy requirements with those Abilities. For all of the above, you could also utilize Manaphy (A2 050, 162); it’s attack requires (W), and lets you attach a (W) Energy to up to two of your Benched Pokémon. I don’t know if Manaphy is a great fit for every one of these, I’ve seen Irida used with them all. Of particular note, it has elevated (W) based 18 Trainer decks to the High Tier, over on Pokémon Zone.
The only real downside of Irida, besides requiring an attached (W) Energy, is the risk of keeping too many injured Pokémon on your Bench. Holding out to heal multiple targets can backfire spectacularly. There are decks that can hit Benched targets, but almost every competitive deck runs Cyrus (A2 150, 190) and Sabrina (A1 225, 272) are in almost every competitive deck. It also means keeping (W) Energy attached to everything you want to heal.
Rating: 4/5
I didn’t realize I’d score Irida this high when I began this article. I almost scored it higher as well. Irida has strengthened existing (W) Energy using decks, and given a reason for some more to exist. She’s great healing, and we’re still in a metagame where Potion – let me repeat, Potion – is a competitive card! I don’t know how long Irida will remain this good, but for now she might be the best card from this set.
1Yes, I know Druddigon actually requires (W) for its attack… but it also requires (R), so few decks actually attack with it.
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