Best known as the box Legendary of eighth-generation main-series Pokémon video game Pokémon Shield, Zamazenta’s appearance on a card in the Incandescent Arcana [S11a] set is no less impressive. Despite having gone under the radar for quite some time, Zamazenta’s niche in the Pokémon TCG metagame has now been found—as the secondary attacker in the Dialga/Metang deck.

Zamazenta’s Retaliate attack ordinarily deals 100 damage for three Energy cards—an output that more than holds its own. However, where things really go to the next level is when Retaliate is used following one of the player’s Pokémon being KO’d. When this happens, Retaliate connects for a massive 220 damage with just three Energy cards attached, becoming an attack with one of the best damage-to-Energy ratios in the entire Pokémon TCG.

On top of that, despite its relatively low maximum HP of 130, Zamazenta is no “glass cannon”. Thanks to its Ability of Metal Shield, it takes 30 less damage from each hit from an opponent that it sustains when it has at least one Energy card attached—which should be almost all the time.

From a collector’s perspective, the fact that this card depicts a box Legendary does drive up its appeal. This offsets the fact that this Zamazenta card is neither exceptionally rare nor includes a Full Art illustration.

In English, this card is card 097/159 in the Crown Zenith set.

A Zamazenta (Incandescent Arcana [S11a] 053/068) card is very affordable, coming in at a price tag of 320 JPY (~US$2.05).

In other TCG-related news, check out the Metang card from Cyber Judge [SV5M]. Alternatively, you can also head over to the SNKRDUNK App via the banner below and find the top trending and latest single cards and boxes.