Rare Candy – Celestial Guardians
Date Reviewed: May 25, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The best card in Celestial Guardians is Rare Candy (A3 144)! This Trainer-Item let’s you directly evolve a Basic Pokémon into its Stage 2 self, skipping the Stage 1. You cannot use Rare Candy on your first turn, or on the first turn that a Pokémon was in play. Rare Candy is only available as a ♦♦ rare, which is similar to the Uncommon rarity in the full TCG… and just like those, they can sometimes be disproportionately hard to pull from a pack.
There are no card effects in Pocket that apply to all Trainer cards. There are currently two cards with effects that apply to Trainer cards: Alolan Raticate (A3 107) and Vikavolt (A3 065). The former has an attack that forces the opponent to discard a random Item from your hand, the latter has an attack that prevents the opponent from using Items during their next turn. Plus the attacks do some damage. Neither has seen significant competitive success, however.
Let’s clarify Rare Candy’s effect. The Basic and the Stage 2 must be part of the same Evolution line. The wording makes it completely clear; you cannot use Rare Candy on your first turn, nor the turn the selected Basic was put into play. In other words, you can only use it when you’d be able to evolve the selected Basic into its Stage 1 counterpart. This is relevant because yes, effects like that of the “Primeval Dawn” Ability – found on Aerodactyl ex (A1a 046, 078, 054) – will prevent you from using Rare candy to evolve an Active Basic Pokémon.
Rare Candy has changed the metagame. Stage 2 Pokémon have always struggled; you need an extra turn and card to run them, over what a Stage 1 requires; two turns/cards versus what a Basic needs! Rare Candy lets you reduce the speed disadvantage of a Stage 2 to one turn, the same as a Stage 1. Basics are still faster, and both Basics and Stage 1 Pokémon require fewer cards to hit the field.
With Rare Candy, either you run it instead of the usual Stage 1, or alongside it. If you just leave out your Stage 1, you’ll avoid using any extra deck space, beyond what a Stage 2 normally requires. However, you may find your deck a bit less reliable. Yes, there will be games where it all works out and is more reliable, if you count your Stage 2 hitting the field a turn early as “more”. However, it will be less reliable in the sense that Rare Candy is a dead card in hand if you don’t have the needed Stage 2 in hand, at the same time.
This is why you’ll find some decks running both the Evolution line’s Stage 2 and Rare Candy. While it means a Stage 2 line now eats up 4 – 8 slots in your deck, and you’ll likely end up with dead cards for which you have no use, you have more ways to evolve your Basic; normally with the Stage 1, or with Rare Candy and the correct Stage 2. Another benefit is that there are card effects that can add a random Pokémon to your hand, but not any that add a random Trainer.
I love and hate Rare Candy addition to Pocket. The short explanation is, we’re not fixing the game balance issues between fully evolved Basic, Stage 1, and Stage 2 Pokémon. Nor is the answer just “make Stage 2’s strong!”. The advantage non-evolving Basics have over a Stage 2 is hitting the field two turns earlier, and having two extra “slots” of leftover space to fill with other cards (usually Trainers). Which is remedied by making the evolving Basic and Stage 1 forms that go with the Stage 2 actually useful parts of the deck, instead of filler.
Likewise, taking advantage of the fact Stage 2s cannot be put into play on a player’s first or – prior to Rare Candy – second turn. Some effects are not a problem so long as they don’t hit the field too early. I’d also up the HP on evolving Basics and Stage 1 Pokémon. Unlike in the video games, it does not require sequence breaking for your low level, twice-evolving Basic to be up against a “Legendary” Pokémon or the like.
Moving on, not every Stage 2 benefits equally from Rare Candy. You want to look for Stage 2 Pokémon with stats or effects that significantly improve by hitting the field a turn sooner. For example, a Rampardos (A2 089) evolved in the normal manner is already dangerous, but one using Rare Candy can take Advantage of it’s single-Energy-attack to swing for 130 damage as early as Turn 3!
Another good example is Charizard ex (A2b 010, 080, 108); by hitting the field a turn early, you are more likely to have the time needed to attack with Stoke. Thus readying “Steam Artillery” so it can be used Turn 5. Or there’s Greninja (A1 089; P-A 09); it’s “Water Shuriken” Ability is already great, but it hitting the field a turn sooner ups your effective damage output that much more quickly.
Even Stage 2s that don’t have an Ability or attack that can really exploit Rare Candy, still can benefit from it greatly. This is where the “Run the Stage 1 and Rare Candy” is more likely to matter. It can be about greater reliability, like with the original Charizard ex (A1 036, 253, 208, 284). It can also be about running two Stage 2 evolution lines in the same deck. Rare Candy can work with either Evolution line, after all.
What’s an exception to the rule? As a reminder, it makes all filler Stage 2 line better, but not all of them become competitive. Next, there are Stage 2 lines where the evolving Stage 1 is vital. The best – and possibly only – example is Magneton (A1 098) and Magnezone (A2 053). The reason this line has seen so much success is Energy independence. You can run it in a deck and have your Energy Zone set to not produce (L) Energy; you just use Magneton’s Ability until you have enough to fuel Magnezone’s attack!
Rating: 4.5/5
Possibly a little high, but I don’t believe this is the time to be conservative with my estimates. If you’re running a Stage 2 deck, Rare Candy is pretty much a staple in Stage 2. I actually had to double check how I scored Professor Oak’s Research (P-A 007) back in the day… I also gave it a four-and-a-half-out-of-five, and now wish I’d just accepted it was a five-out-of-five card in Pocket. Some Stage 2 decks will only use one Rare Candy, and rare exceptions will use none, but for most, it’s two copies!
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉 Click here to read our Pokémon Card of the Day Archive. We have reviewed nearly 5000 Pokémon cards over the last 25 + years!
