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The Pokémon TCG Pocket: Space-Time Smackdown (A2) expansion has finally arrived, introducing a wave of new cards—including powerful ex Pokémon, Supporters, and the new Pokémon Tool cards to hopefully shake up the meta.
For a while now, the Pocket format has been dominated by a1-129-mewtwoex, and frankly, players have had enough. This expansion brings exciting new win conditions and diverse playstyles that could redefine the competitive scene. However, it’ll take some time for players to experiment and discover the most effective Pokémon and synergies.
In this article, I’ll be sharing a few early deck brews for Day 1 testing—decks I believe have strong potential to make an impact. Let’s get started!
Darkrai Weavile
This deck plays around a2-110-darkrai-ex's Nightmare Aura, attaching Darkness Energy to a2-110-darkrai-ex will trigger its ability and allow you to deal 20 damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon. So it's important to have other Pokémon in the list who aren't Energy hungry.
a2-99-weavile-ex has the perfect synergy with a2-110-darkrai-ex, you'll first evolve a2-98-sneasel into a2-99-weavile-ex and be active a2-110-darkrai-ex's Nightmare Aura to deal 20 damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon.
a2-99-weavile-ex's Scratching Nails needs only 1 Darkness Energy to activate, dealing 30 damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon. However, if the opponent's Pokémon is damaged, Scratching Nails deals an additional 40 damage. This is why having a2-110-darkrai-ex on the Bench is important, allowing us to deal 20 damage through Nightmare Aura without passing the turn, and then have a2-99-weavile-ex go for a 70 damage attack.
Since we have to attach Energy on a2-110-darkrai-ex to activate Nightmare Aura, we will eventually be able to attack through Dark Prism and deal 80 damage.
Lucario Rampardos
A new Fighting non-ex deck that uses a2-92-lucario's Fighting Coach to boost the damage done by your Fighting-type Pokémon by 20 to the opponent's Active Pokémon. Your attacks will pack more of a punch once you evolve a2-91-riolu into a2-92-lucario, helping you knock out higher health Pokémon.
a2-89-rampardos is our strongest damage dealer, however, being a Stage 2 Pokémon, it does require a couple of steps before we get it into play. We need to find a2-144-skull-fossil as early as possible, evolve it into a2-88-cranidos, and then get to play a2-89-rampardos. a2-88-cranidos isn't a bad attacker, needing only 1 Fighting Energy to go for 50 damage attacks, and if you happen to have a2-92-lucario on the Bench, you can go for 70 damage.
a2-89-rampardos's Head Smash deals 130 damage, including the 20 damage from a2-92-lucario's Fighting Coach, you can now one-shot a 150 health Pokémon like a1-129-mewtwoex. However, with great damage, comes a drawback, and this is where a2-89-rampardos's weakness arises. When you knock out a Pokémon through a2-89-rampardos's attack, it will deal 50 damage to itself, putting it in a vulnerable spot to your opponent's attacker.
a1a-47-marshadow is the backup damage, once it sees one of your Pokémon get knocked out, it can join the battle and go for 100 damage with its Revenge attack.
Palkia ex
This deck uses a2-50-manaphy's Oceanic Gift to give two of your Benched Pokémon one Water Energy. In this case, we want to give Energy to a1-74-staryu and a2-49-palkia-ex.
Then, a1-76-starmieex can move to the Active spot as an early aggressor, pushing 90 damage with its Hydro Splash. a1-76-starmieex has no retreat cost, so we can easily move it back to the Bench and have another Pokémon take its place.
The main win condition is none other than a2-49-palkia-ex, but its Dimensional Storm is a bit expensive to set up. Requiring 4 Energy to activate, we're relying on a2-50-manaphy and a1-220-misty to get more Water Energy attached to it. The 150 damage can be devastating for opponents, followed up with 20 damage to all their Benched Pokémon, threatening to knock out damaged Pokémon hiding on the Bench. Activating Dimensional Storm will have you discard 3 Water Energy from a2-49-palkia-ex, so if you didn't win the game with that attack, it's a bit difficult for you to attack a second time with Dimensional Storm, and will have to retreat a2-49-palkia-ex for another Pokémon to take its place.
Dialga ex Yanmega
This deck uses Meta Energy only to ensure we can activate a2-119-dialga-ex and a2-111-skarmory attacks. Our other Pokémon, a1a-32-mew-ex and a2-7-yanmega-ex need Colorless Energy to attack, so attaching Metal type Energy will work for them.
In the early game, we want a2-119-dialga-ex or a2-111-skarmory in the Active spot, while we work on evolving a2-6-yanma into a2-7-yanmega-ex and hold off a1a-32-mew-ex until the opponent has a Pokémon worth copying their attack.
In this list, we're usually only going for a2-119-dialga-ex's Metallic Turbo, acting as an Energy ramp, while pushing 30 damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon. You're attaching 2 Metal type Energy to one of your Benched Pokémon, getting closer to attacking with a2-7-yanmega-ex or a1a-32-mew-ex. You could use Dawn to move one of your Energy to a2-119-dialga-ex to help attack with Heavy Impact.
When possible, we want to retreat a2-119-dialga-ex before it's KO'd and have a2-7-yanmega-ex or a1a-32-mew-ex carry the late-game for you. a2-7-yanmega-ex can deal 120 damage with Air Slash, whereas a1a-32-mew-ex can copy one of the opponent's Active Pokémon's attacks. a1a-32-mew-ex is perfect if opponent has a heavy hitter with high health, turning their attack against them and knocking them out with one hit.
a2-111-skarmory is a great option early into the game, requiring only 1 Metal type Energy to attack with Metal Arms. You're only dealing 20 damage, but attaching a tool card like a2-147-giant-cape or a2-148-rocky-helmet will increase Metal Arms' damage by 30, going for 50 damage early in the game.
Mismagius ex Togekiss
This deck has multiple damage dealers that can act as a threat to the opponent's Active Pokémon. We'll first rely on evolving a2-66-misdreavus into a2-67-mismagius-ex as early as possible and start attacking with Magical Delusion to deal 70 damage to the opponent's Active Pokémon. Magical Delusion will also Confuse the opponent's active Pokémon, forcing the opponent to flip a Coin and hope for a Heads if they wish for their attack to go through.
This is buying us time as we evolve a2-63-togepi into a2-64-togetic and then we can get our Stage 2 a2-65-togekiss in play. a2-65-togekiss's Overdrive Smash deals 60 damage, combined with a2-152-cynthia damage boost, you can deal 110 damage. Additionally, the second time you attack with a2-65-togekiss's Overdrive Smash, it'll deal 120 damage and you can use a2-152-cynthia to go up to 170 damage, one-shotting almost anything in your path.
Infernape Moltres Ex
a2-29-infernape-ex is a Stage 2 Fire Pokémon, requiring only 2 Fire Energy to activate Flare Blitz and start dealing 140 damage. You're dealing a lot of damage for only 2 Energy, however, you will have to discard all your Energy attached to a2-29-infernape-ex whenever you activate Flare Blitz.
We want to have a1-47-moltresex in the Active spot early into the game and use Inferno Dance to attach Fire Energy on a2-27-chimchar and a2-28-monferno. Once we evolve a2-28-monferno into a2-29-infernape-ex we get to start dealing damage.
However, on our upcoming turn, we won't have any Energy on a2-29-infernape-ex, which forces us to retreat it to the Bench so another attacker can take its place. This doesn't feel too optimal, so we have 2 copies of the new Supporter card a2-154-dawn, allowing us to move one Energy from our benched Pokémon, for example a1-47-moltresex, and attach it to a2-29-infernape-ex + the Energy we attach from our Energy Zone, we're not set to go for another attack with a2-29-infernape-ex.
Equipping a2-148-rocky-helmet to a2-29-infernape-ex ensures we deal 20 damage to the opponent's Pokémon when a2-29-infernape-ex is damaged. This means if the opponent's Pokémon is 160 health, they'll fall into range for Flare Blitz to knock out.
Closing Words
A lot of cards to experiment with and the decks I shared can be tweaked to your liking! Darkness is looking strong, and hopefully makes a comeback in the upcoming meta.
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