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Hey everyone! The new Mythical Island cards are finally here, and it’s time to start brewing some fresh decks! The Pokémon TCG Pocket meta has been feeling a bit stale lately, with a1-129-mewtwoex + a1-132-gardevoir and a1-96-pikachuex decks dominating the tournament scene. New cards to shake things up are definitely a welcome change!
The Mythical Island expansion introduces 68 new cards, many of which can improve older decks by boosting their consistency. However, in this article, I’ll be focusing on new decks that could become meta-relevant. I’ll share some early builds—both my own brews and standout ideas from the community—that are fun to test and explore in Pokémon TCG Pocket.
Celebi Serperior
The new a1a-3-celebi-ex relies on two things Energy and coin flip to win you games. a1a-3-celebi-ex's Powerful Bloom looks at the number of Energy attached to a1a-3-celebi-ex and then lets you flip a coin equal to that number. For each heads you get, a1a-3-celebi-ex's Powerful Bloom attack will deal an extra 50 damage.
Powerful Bloom needing only 2 Energy to activate means we can potentially start dealing 100 damage early in the game if we're lucky enough. However, getting 100 or 150 damage isn't in our favor, so we need to increase our odds for better consistency, this is where Serperior comes into play.
a1a-6-serperior is a Stage 2 Pokémon, so you'll need to play a1a-4-snivy and a1a-5-servine first before getting it ready to join the battle. However, once it's in play, a1a-3-celebi-ex becomes a massive threat to opponents with its attacks, capable of knocking almost anything in its path unless you're the unluckiest player in the world.
a1a-6-serperior's Jungle Totem ability turns makes each Grass Energy attached to your Pokémon give 2 Grass Energy, this means if you have 2 Grass Energy on Celebi ex, they now count as 4 Energy, allowing you to flip 4 coins. You're getting more Coin flips, extra damage, and higher odds to hit the damage you need to knock out a Pokémon.
We have a1a-62-chatot as an early Pokémon to have in play as we progress our Serperior win condition. Chatot's Mimic lets you shuffle your hand back into your deck and draw cards equal to the number of cards the opponent has. So after we've played all the cards we want, we can go for Mimic to replenish our hand with resources.
This list also has a1-219-erika for the healing, putting one of your Grass Pokémon out of range from an attack and slowing the opponent's progress to win the game.
Gyarados Vapreon Starmie
The new a1a-18-gyarados-ex and a1a-19-vaporeon are joining forces in this Water-type deck. In the early game, you have a1-76-starmieex as an early damage dealing, pushing 90 damage on the opponent's Active Pokémon with its Hydro Splash attack.
We mustn't allow a1-76-starmieex to get knocked out easily, and with its 0 retreat cost, you can easily put it back on the Bench for another Pokémon to take its place. a1a-18-gyarados-ex is usually the Pokémon we want next in the Active spot, however, its high attack cost can make it difficult for us to get much use from him in the mid-game. Luckily, the Water deck has a1-220-misty and a1a-19-vaporeon to help speed up our strategy and get a1a-18-gyarados-ex attacking as early as possible.
Ya1-220-misty lets you flip a coin until you get tails and for every heads, you get a Water Energy. This is very luck-reliant, but getting at least 1 Water Energy is usually worth it. If you're still short on Energy, a1a-19-vaporeon' can move 's Wash Out ability lets you move Water Energy from your Benched Pokémon to the Active one. So when we retreat a1-76-starmieex, we can move its Energy to a1a-18-gyarados-ex.
a1a-18-gyarados-ex is a tanky Pokémon, tough to knock out, and with its Rampaging Whirlpool, you're dealing 140 damage and discarding a random Energy from all Pokémon. The Energy discard could shut down the opponent from making certain plays, slowing down their game plan until you get the opportunity to win the game.
Since a1a-18-gyarados-ex has a high retreat cost, we rely on a1a-68-leaf to drop its retreat cost and have it back on the Bench before it gets knocked out.
Scolipede Weezing
a1a-55-scolipede is a Stage 2 Pokémon so it can be a bit slow to get it into play as we'll need to have a1a-53-venipede early on and evolve it into a1a-54-whirlipede. a1a-54-whirlipede is a threat in the early game, using Poison Sting to deal 20 damage and put Poison on the opponent.
However, since it is a valuable Stage 1 Pokémon to get a1a-55-scolipede in play, we'll usually rely on a1-177-weezing to tank hits, deal 30 damage with tackle, and put Poison with Gas Leak ability. Once a1-177-weezing is at the threat of getting knocked out, we can use a1-222-koga to return him to our hand and get a1a-55-scolipede in the Active spot.
a1a-55-scolipede's Venoshock only needs 2 Energy to activate and deal 70 damage. However, that attack gains 50 damage if the opponent's Active Pokémon is Poisoned, becoming 120 damage to knock out higher-health Pokémon. Since we have a1a-54-whirlipede and a1-177-weezing to put Poison on the opponent's Pokémon, we can reliably get the most out of Venoshock.
Pidgeot ex Druddigon
An early a1a-57-pidgey into a a1-187-pidgeotto and then we get a1a-59-pidgeot-ex in play. The 170-health Pokémon can be tough for opponents to one-shot, so we're confident we can go for at least two attacks. a1a-59-pidgeot-ex's Scattering Cyclone needs 3 Colorless Energy, so you can pair it with any Pokémon from other types and still have him as a win condition. Scattering Cyclone's damage is dependent on the number of Benched Pokémon on the opponent's side, increasing by 20 damage for each Pokémon. So being at 80 damage, Scattering Cyclone can become a 140 damage attack if the opponent has three Benched Pokémon.
Now if the opponent knows what we're up to, they'll deliberately avoid filling up the Bench to weaken a1a-59-pidgeot-ex's attack. Luckily, we have 2 copies of a1a-64-pokemon-flute to put a Basic Pokémon from the opponent's discard pile onto their Bench, bumping its damage.
Since a1a-59-pidgeot-ex is a Stage 2 Pokémon, we're relying on a1-203-kangaskhan and a1a-56-druddigon to stall the early game until the late game win condition is ready.
a1-203-kangaskhan only needs 1 Energy to start going for those Dizzy Punch attacks, potentially getting you an early knockout. As for a1a-56-druddigon, its Rough Skin allows us to dish out 20 damage whenever opponent attacks you, helping you put them low enough for your next Pokémon to knock out.
Aerodectyle Ex
We've seen how annoying the non-ex a1-210-aerodactyl has been in the previous Pokémon Pocket meta, and the ex-version is living up to that reputation. You need to evolve a1a-46-aerodactyl-ex from a1a-63-old-amber, but once in play his Primal Law ability prevents the opponent from leveling up their Pokémon, potentially shutting down their strategy completely and buying you the time to win the game. a1a-46-aerodactyl-ex's Land Crush deals 80 damage, which isn't much, but since we're disrupting the opponent's game plan, we have more time to win the game.
a1-142-primeape is great as an alternative damage, especially when damaged. a1-142-primeape's Fight Back deals 40 damage, but if he's damaged, a1-142-primeape will deal an extra 60 damage, going for 100 damage. Since promo-17-mankey damages itself with Reckless charge, it sets you up for the a1-142-primeape attack.
a1a-47-marshadow's Revenge is usually best used when one of your Pokémon got knocked out on the opponent's last turn, bumping your damage from 40 to 60, best used as a follow-up when a1-142-primeape is knocked out.
Mewtwo ex Mew Ex
I keep seeing players adding a1a-32-mew-ex to the well-known Mewtwo Gardevoir deck. This list has the new item card, a1a-65-mythical-slab, allowing you to look at the top card in your deck and if it's a Psychic Pokémon, you can draw it. So we're including as many Psychic Pokémon in the list as possible to increase the odds of finding one of them.
a1-132-gardevoir is how you ramp up, getting extra Psychic Energy on your Active Pokémon and attacking on earlier turns. a1a-33-sigilyph's Spike Draw gets more cards in your hand, increasing the odds you find what you need to have a1-132-gardevoir in play as early as possible. Being a Stage 2 Pokémon means we might struggle to consistently have it in play for the Psy Shadow ability.
a1a-32-mew-ex is a situational Pokémon, that mostly finds use when opponent has an Active Pokémon with high damage output. Genome Hacking lets you copy 1 of your opponent's Active Pokémon's attacks and use it as its own attack. This opens up room for versatile and fun games as you could copy all sorts of attacks that change up your strategy and even be the reason you win games.
a1-129-mewtwoex remains the main win condition in this deck, attacking for 150 damage with Psydrive and knocking out most threats in your path.
Closing Words
We're still early into the new Pokémon TCG Pocket meta, and players are busy figuring out the new cards. There are a lot of decks to build, but old archetypes can also benefit from these cards and improve their strategies. It'll be interesting to see how the tournament meta shapes up, but the a1a-3-celebi-ex deck is looking the scariest so far.
If you’d like to stay updated on my card game shenanigans, feel free to follow me on Twitter or BlueSky.
