Best Decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket: what is the current meta?

Pokemon TCG Pocket has already developed a meta that will start gaining much traction as the game progresses. The best decks are already being made in the game, so if you want to burn through the offline battles and beat people online, here’s what you need to know.

What is the current meta in Pokemon TCG Pocket?

The current meta of this game is to stock up primarily with Support and Item cards with only a few slots for your Pokemon. To make a deck usable, you must follow the game’s rules for having a complete deck. These are the following requirements:

• Have 20 cards in your deck.
• Your deck must have at least one Basic Pokemon.
• Your deck cannot have more than two of the same card (ie. 3 Mewtwos, 3 Potions, 3 Giovannis).
• Your deck must have Energy selected that allows at least one Pokemon to use its attacks.
• Your deck must be built using owned cards. No rentals.

Following these parameters, you want to stock up the majority of your deck with doubles of the following items:

• Potion
• Poke Ball
• Professor’s Research
• Giovanni
• Sabrina
• Miscellaneous Gym Leader card for an elemental boost (Blaine, Misty, Erika)
• Old Amber, Dome Fossil, or Helix Fossil 

The reason we’re using so many Item and Support cards to take up a majority of your deck’s space is that it will more likely guarantee you to pick the Pokemon you want to play without relying too much on chance to win.

With that set in place, building your deck around the current EX cards and matching their type with a basic evolution tree will massively increase your damage output and expedite card setup. So far, these are the best cards to use as your lead or basic starter:

• Articuno EX (Water)
• Moltres EX (Fire)
• Zapdos EX / Pikachu EX (Electric)
• Mewtwo EX (Psychic)

Best decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket

The best decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket will revolve around the aforementioned EX legendaries because they are considered basic cards.

Best Articuno deck build

So, let’s start with Articuno EX. This is the setup you’ll want:

• Articuno EX (starter) x2
• Squirtle x2
• Wartortle x2
• Blastoise (EX preferred) x2
• Giovanni x2
• Misty x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Potion x2
• Professor’s Research x2
• X Speed x2

With this setup, you have a 50% chance of getting Articuno as your starter. Squirtle isn’t a bad basic starter either, dealing decent opening damage. The gimmick of this build is to quickly ramp up Energy using the Misty support cards. 

While you do need to rely on luck a bit, the possible Energy gain will quickly ramp up your damage output and can even make your next match a quick sweep. With Misty in the deck, your chances of getting Energy will increase. It’ll be even more devastating if you can quickly get at least five points of Energy onto your Squirtle. 

If you have EX Blastoise with the five points, you can deal 160 HP worth of damage which basically one-shots most of the roster. Just know that this build is weak to Electric.

Best Moltres build

With Moltres EX, it’ll work similarly to the Articuno one, just with Fire-types. To get started, use this setup:

• Moltres EX x2
• Charmander x2
• Charmeleon x2
• Charizard (EX preferred) x2
• Giovanni x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Potion x2
• Professor’s Research x2
• Red Card x1
• Sabrina x1
• X Speed x2

If Moltres is not your starter, do not worry. You’ll either get ramping up starter damage with Charmander and its evolution tree, or a chance at getting early energy gain with coin flips as a Moltres.

Without Misty in your deck, you’re relying mostly on the luck of Moltres’ Inferno Dance to ramp up damage. It’s still very effective and can easily devastate your opponents. Other than that, you mostly have to watch out for Water types.

Best Zapdos build

Finally a bit different from the other two, the Zapdos build relies heavily on ramping up in the early game to deal some incredible damage into the mid and endgame. To start, use this deck setup:

• Zapdos EX x2
• Pikachu EX x2
• Old Amber, Dome Fossil, or Helix Fossil x4
• Giovanni x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Potion x2
• Professor’s Research x2
• Red Card x1
• Sabrina x1
• X Speed x2

This will work more akin to a standard deck without many early-game coin flip gimmicks. However, the strengths lie in your basic EX cards. Pikachu and Zapdos will take some time to get to really high damage potential, so soak up early-game damage with the fossil cards.

Make sure to toss them before your opponent destroys them, giving them a point. If you have a Pikachu on hand, start feeding it Energy and retreat using the X Speed if it’s available on hand. 

Once you have a charged-up Pikachu, make sure to play any Pokemon on your bench to maximize its damage. Switch to Zapdos when it can start casting Thundering Hurricane and when your Pikachu’s HP gets low. It’s all about switching and Energy upkeep here.

Best Mewtwo deck

Lastly, the Mewtwo deck is also a more standard type of deck. You’ll rely on early Energy gain, but once that gets going, you’ll easily destroy your opponent’s cards. Let’s start with the setup:

• Mewtwo EX x2
• Ralts / Gastly x2
• Kirlia / Haunter x2
• Gardevoir EX / Gengar EX x2
• Giovanni x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Potion x2
• Professor’s Research x2
• X Speed x2
• Red Card x1
• Sabrina x1

In this deck, you can either go with the evolution tree for Gardevoir or Gengar. Their EX abilities are fairly strong and have some slight variation in terms of gameplay. Gengar prevents the use of Support items while in play while Gardevoir is used for Energy gain on the bench. 

Both Gengar and Gardevoir’s early games are weak, so ideally, you’d want to swap out or even use Mewtwo when you can as a tank and ramp up your deck’s abilities. Just know this setup is weak against Dark types.

All in all, these builds can be considered cheap or cheesy, but they can deal a lot of damage with some luck and manipulation of the game’s rules. If any of these strategies get patched for nearly guaranteeing an evolution tree or if damage numbers get reduced, it wouldn’t be a shocker.