Iron Thorns ex
Iron Thorns ex has appeared in several sets: Twilight Masquerade (TWM 77) and Prismatic Evolutions (PRE 32). It is the same card every time — it plays the same, only the artwork and the price change. Here is what it does once it is on the table.
What the card itself says
Everything below is written on the card itself: how much health it has, what it fears, and what its attacks cost.
ITS ABILITY
ITS ATTACKS
What to make of it
Have a look at what it does well, then at what will get in your way. After that you'll know whether it belongs in your deck.
WHAT IT HAS GOING FOR IT
- It has an Ability, Initialization. An Ability costs you no attack, so you can use it and still swing the same turn.
- iron-thorns-ex runs it in 29 of the 29 lists we have read, seen across 24 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
- Retreat cost 4. Once it is out front, it stays there. Pack something that moves it another way, or you will burn whole turns discarding Energy.
- It is an ex card. The turn it goes down your opponent takes 2 Prizes instead of one, and games do turn on exactly that.
- Weakness Fighting ×2. Against a Fighting Pokémon, apply that to the damage it takes — it climbs fast. Of the 3,150 tournament lists we have read, 733 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
These decks really played this card at a tournament. We spot it by the little set code printed at the bottom, the one players copy onto their list — two cards sometimes share a name, the code never lies.
| Deck | Lists | Tournaments | Printing listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| iron-thorns-ex | 29 of 29 | 24 | TWM 77 |
| eelektrik-blk | 2 of 20 | 2 | TWM 77 |
When it came out
Prismatic Evolutions landed here on 17 January 2025.
In Japan these cards were already in shops on 6 December 2024, under the code SV8a. That is 42 days ahead of us.
The other cards of this Pokémon
Two cards of the same Pokémon can be worth wildly different amounts — it depends on the set, the rarity and the artwork. We put all 5 Iron Thorns cards on one page, priciest first.
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.