Chien-Pao
Chien-Pao arrived with Surging Sparks on 8 November 2024. Here is what it does once it is on the table, and what it is worth right now.
What the card itself says
Every line in this block is copied straight off the card. Nothing rounded, nothing judged.
ITS ABILITY
ITS ATTACKS
Printed exactly as it appears on the card.
What to make of it
Every line below comes from a number. Either it is printed on the card, or we counted it on tournament lists. You will not find a score here — you will find what matters when you decide whether to run it.
WHAT IT HAS GOING FOR IT
- Retreat cost 1. One Energy to discard and it is back on the Bench, which matters a lot on the turn you need to swap attackers.
- It has an Ability, Snow Sink. An Ability costs you no attack, so you can use it and still swing the same turn.
- Lillie's Clefairy ex runs it in 20 of the 22 lists we have read, seen across 19 different tournaments.
- It is a Basic Pokémon. You can put it down on your very first turn, with nothing to evolve through.
WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
- Weakness Metal ×2. Against a Metal Pokémon, apply that to the damage it takes — it climbs fast. Of the 1,351 tournament lists we have read, 199 run at least one Pokémon of that type.
- Mark H, and that is the letter the next rotation takes away. After that you will not be able to play it in Standard.
What it costs
We have no price to show you for this card today. The link below takes you where it sells, and you will see the day's numbers there.
Who plays it
We read tournament decklists one by one. The match is made on the set code printed at the bottom of the card, the one the player copied onto the list — never on the name, because two cards sometimes share one.
| Deck | Lists | Tournaments | Printing listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lillie's Clefairy ex | 20 of 22 | 19 | SSP 56 |
| Raging Bolt ex | 20 of 23 | 19 | SSP 56 |
| Flareon ex / Noctowl | 13 of 21 | 13 | SSP 56 |
| Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex | 11 of 21 | 10 | SSP 56 |
| Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex | 10 of 24 | 9 | SSP 56 |
| Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex / Fan Rotom | 8 of 22 | 8 | SSP 56 |
| Toucannon | 7 of 20 | 7 | SSP 56 |
| Mega Lopunny ex / Dudunsparce | 6 of 23 | 6 | SSP 56 |
| Mega Dragonite ex | 2 of 21 | 2 | SSP 56 |
| Dragapult ex / Dudunsparce | 1 of 22 | 1 | SSP 56 |
| Dragapult ex | 1 of 22 | 1 | SSP 56 |
| Mega Absol ex | 1 of 20 | 1 | SSP 56 |
| Mega Greninja ex | 1 of 22 | 1 | SSP 56 |
| Mega Starmie ex | 1 of 24 | 1 | SSP 56 |
When it came out
Surging Sparks landed here on 8 November 2024.
In Japan these cards were already in shops on 18 October 2024, under the code SV8. That is 21 days ahead of us.
Where to find it
You've just read a page about the game. We can do far more with one match.
Everything above is about the game in general. The thing we're really good at is one single match: yours. When a game ends, Pokémon TCG Live leaves you a log — the written record of everything that happened, turn by turn. Paste it here and we'll replay each of your decisions hundreds of times, then tell you which one actually cost you the game.
It's free and there's no account to make. Your log stays in your browser: your browser is what replays the game.