Hey everyone, today's guide will cover a1-76-starmieex, an aggressive deck that wants to start pushing early damage and get Matchpoints before opponents can fully get their strategy online. You can run different Water Pokemon as support for a1-76-starmieex, however, the two popular choices are a1-89-greninja or a1-84-articunoex. I'll cover both lists in this guide and share other Pokemon you can also include.
Gameplan
Starmie ex Articuno
a1-76-starmieex is the main aggressor in this deck, dealing 90 damage with Hydro Splash, enough to knock out a Basic Pokemon on the spot or require at least two attacks to knock out higher health Pokemon.
It is a stage 1 Pokemon, so you have to evolve it from a1-74-staryu first, but Hydro Splash requiring only 2 Water Energy to activate means you can play a1-76-starmieex and start going for the aggro attacks. a1-76-starmieex has 130 HP, so it doesn't easily get knocked out by one hit. On top of that, a1-76-starmieex has no retreat cost, so whenever there's a threat of it getting knocked out, we can retreat it back to safety and prevent opponents from getting an easy 2 Match point.
a1-220-misty is an accelerator, synergizing with Water type Pokemon. Getting one Water Energy on a1-76-starmieex with a1-220-misty should be enough to get the Hydro Splash attack ready.
a1-84-articunoex is more of a threat than a1-76-starmieex, but it will require 3 Water Energy to activate Blizzard. Ice Wing is still an option at 2 Energy, dealing 40 damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon. a1-220-misty play a crucial role here to accelerate a1-84-articunoex's Energy. Getting two Water Energy on a1-84-articunoex will set you up for an early Blizzard attack, pushing 80 damage to the Active Pokemon and 10 damage to each of the opponent's Benched Pokemon.
Although we're dealing less damage than a1-76-starmieex's Hydro Splash, we're still damaging Benched Pokemon, threatening to Knockout low-health ones and setting the stage to knock out the rest with one attack if moved to the Active spot.
Starmie ex Greninja
a1-87-froakie and a1-88-frogadier don't pose much of a threat in the Active spot, so we usually prefer having a1-74-staryu in the Active spot so a1-76-starmieex can carry the early game. The plan here is to get a1-89-greninja in play and have it support a1-76-starmieex.
a1-89-greninja doesn't pose much of a threat in the Active spot. It has 120 HP and can only deal 60 damage with Mist Slash. Its true strength lies in its ability, Water Shuriken. Water Shuriken can be activated once per turn to deal 20 damage to 1 of the opponent's Pokemon. This can be used to back up a1-76-starmieex and get an immediate knockout, or to knock out a low-health Pokemon that retreated to the safety of the Bench.
Techs and Options
a1-57-psyduck can be a real pain for opponents with his Headache attack, dealing 10 damage and preventing the opponent from playing any Supporter cards on their upcoming turn. This means that cards like Professor's Research will be unplayable, which will stop them from finding the specific cards they need for their strategy.
Evolving a1-57-psyduck to a1-58-golduck will create a damage dealer, pushing 70 damage with Aqua Edge.
a1-78-gyarados only works in this deck thanks to a1-220-misty attaching Water Energy and speeding up the Hyper Beam attack. We're dealing 100 damage on the opponent's Active Pokemon and discarding an Energy from it, forcing the opponent to attach another Energy to it if they want to attack.
Closing Words
The Starmie ex deck is a popular meta choice among players and has proven to perform well against most of the decks you'll go up against. The deck's aggressiveness can catch opponents off guard, knocking out their Pokemon before they set up their strategy.
You can check out more Pokemon Pocket meta decks in my Meta Tier list! If you enjoy my Pokemon Pocket content and want to keep up with me, please follow my Twitter account!
