The Pokémon TCG hasn’t seen a metagame-viable mill deck for 12 years (and four generations). As Gens 6, 7, and 8 passed, many Pokémon TCG players assumed that the mill deck had gone the way of the dinosaur. Ironically enough, it seems as though a prehistoric Paradox Pokémon will be the card that restores the mill deck to relevance—the Great Tusk card from Wild Force [SV5K].

Great Tusk’s Land Collapse attack pairs perfectly with Ancient Supporter cards. By playing any such card, Land Collapse discards the top four cards of the opponent’s deck. While it’s true that this attack denies opponents the resources they might need to mount a serious challenge, that’s not the primary purpose of this card.

The idea behind these Great Tusk cards is to use Land Collapse repeatedly in a deck loaded with Ancient Supporters. This is where the concept of the mill deck comes in—such a deck is designed to claim the win via the opponent’s deckout.

Like the visuals of many cards featuring Paradox Pokémon, this Great Tusk card’s illustration by GIDORA depicts the Pokémon in what is most likely Area Zero. The illustration’s bottom-up view from near Great Tusk’s foot does much to capture the violence and savagery of the Ground/Fighting-type’s nature.

The English version of this card is 097/162 in Temporal Forces [TEF].

As this Great Tusk card isn’t particularly rare, it’s thus affordable, coming in at a retail price of ¥440 (~US$2.91).

In other TCG-related news, check out the Raigeki card from Quarter Century Chronicle side: Unity. 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.