If you’re playing Pokémon Pocket competitively and trying to rank up to the Master Ball rank, well, you’ve come to the right place! The Pokémon TCG Pocket meta keeps evolving as new cards are released and players figure out the best competitive decks out there.
Here you’ll find the best decks with the highest win rates to increase your chances of winning and climbing fast to Master Ball rank!
Giratina ex Darkrai ex
Giratina ex Darkrai ex is one of the popular choices to play. Using Darkness Energy, you can attach them to Darkrai ex to activate Nightmare Aura, dealing 20 passive damage without passing the turn. This weakens an opponent’s Active Pokemon, enabling you to knock it out easier with your attacks. Darkrai ex can later attack with Dark Prism to deal 80 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon.
Giratina ex can ramp through Broken-Space Bellow, getting access to Psychic Energy and eventually becoming capable of attacking. Since it can use 1 Colorless Energy, you can attach a Darkness Energy to Giratina ex to attack a turn earlier with it.
Snorlax Greninja Giratina ex
The Greninja Snorlax Giratina deck is performing well in the A3 meta, mainly thanks to the addition of Rare Candy. You’re able to skip the Stage 1 evolution and go from Froakie to Greninja in one turn and start making use of Water Shuriken to deal 20 damage to one of the opponent’s Pokémon. Usually, we use Greninja for its Water Shuriken ability only, however, this list runs Water Energy to also use Greninja as an attacker, dealing 60 damage with its Mist Slash.
Snorlax is a massive tank with its 140 HP, but we have Barry to reduce its attack cost by 2 Energy, meaning we’ll only need to attach 2 Energy to use Collapse and deal 100 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon.
Although most lists I’ve seen are running Water Energy only and relying solely on Giratina ex’s Broken-Space Bellow to ramp Psychic Energy. This list uses both Water and Psychic Energies, making sure it gets to attack with Giratina ex as early as possible. However, you might be punished if you need to attack with Greninja and you don’t have a Water Energy to activate Mist Slash.
Giratina’s Chaotic Impact deals 130 damage, so with Gerninja’s Water Shuriken, you’re one-shotting a 150 HP Pokémon.
Some lists were running Ilima as an option to remove Snorlax from play and prevent the opposing player from KOing it.
Oricorio Magnezone
The Oricorio Magnezone deck uses Oricorio as a staller, but potentially a win condition with its Zzzap attack. You’re not too worried about slowing down your Magnezone turn by attaching Lightning Energy to Oricorio since Magneton can self-ramp with Volt Charge, speeding up the Energy attachment so Magnezone can join in and go for the heavy Thunder Blast attack.
This is one deck that opts not to include the Rare Candy play since Magneton’s Volt Charge is too important to pass! This list is also running 2 Guzma to punish Tool users, especially if they have two Tools played at once. However, it’s mainly used to protect your Oricorio from a Rocky Helmet or Poison Barb.
Oricorio Greninja Giratina ex
This deck cuts out Snorlax ex for the Oricorio win condition, using it to stall the game while pushing 50 damage with its Zzzap attack. It has Greninja to deal back-up damage with Water Shuriken, pushing 20 damage to one of the opponent’s Pokémon, which can snipe damaged Pokémon on the Bench.
This deck is running Water Energy alongside Lightning Energy, so you can attack with Greninja’s Mist Slash if you need the 60 damage. As for Giratina ex, it can self-ramp, so we’re not too worried about the Psychic Energy attachment.
This list has Shaymin for its Fragran Flower Garden to heal all your Pokémon for 10 damage. This is a great ability to keep Oricorio in play for longer, since in most cases, your opponent won’t have a high damage output attack to one-shot.
Incineroar ex Charizard ex
Incineroar ex Charizard ex is currently the strongest Fire-type deck out there. It uses Rare Candy to speed up the evolution of Incineroar ex and Charizard ex, and have a win condition online as early as possible. Incineroar ex deals 30 damage with its Fire Fang attack, but you can later go for a heavier swing with Scar-Charged Smash, dealing 80 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon. If Incineroar ex is damaged, Scar-Charged Smash will deal 140 damage instead.
Charizard ex is the power-house in this deck, using its Stoke to ramp Fire Energy and set up for Steam Artillery to deal 150 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon.
Charmeleon and Litten have been the saviours for this deck against Oricorio decks.
Oricorio Greninja Darkrai ex
This deck crushed it in the tournament, having Oricorio as an answer for ex Pokemon to shut them down from dealing damage and using Darkrai ex and Greninja for the abilities to deal passive damage. You’re dealing 50 damage through the ability of your Pokémon, slowly chipping away at the opponent’s Pokémon until you can knock them out.
This deck is heavily relying on Oricorio’s Safeguard to stall out the game, giving you enough time to get your ability damage through until you start getting your match points. This deck is locked into the Darkness Energy to get the most from Darkrai ex’s Nightmare Aura, which means you won’t be attacking with Oricorio.
Arceus Crobat Carnivine
The Arceus ex Crobat Carnivine version was the best performer in the Ursii tournament! Arceus ex enables Crobat and Carnivine’s ability Links to get the most out of them.
Carnivine is an early attacker, dealing 20 damage with its Vine Whip, but becomes a 50 damage attack if Arceus ex is in play, thanks to the Power Link. You’ll also have Crobat’s Cunning Link to deal 30 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon, perfect to back up your attacker and knock out a higher HP Pokémon.
Arceus ex can’t be affected by special condition effects, which can be useful in the current meta. Ultimate Force is your strongest attack, dealing 70 damage and an additional 20 damage for each of your benched Pokémon, so at max, you can deal 130 damage.
With the popularity of Darkrai ex decks, Carnivine was a solid choice to two-shot with Vine Whip.
Solgaleo ex Skarmory
This deck relies on Skarmory as an early attacker, dealing 50 damage with Metal Arms if you have a Took attached to Skarmory. In the meantime, you’ll be working on evolving into your Stage 2 Solgaleo ex to carry the game, and with Rare Candy in the list, you can skip the Stage 1 evolution to have Solgaleo ex in play a turn earlier.
Solgaleo ex needs two Metal Energy to activate its Sol Breaker attack, dealing 120 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon and 10 damage to itself. Being a 180 HP Pokémon means we’re not too worried about taking the 10 damage, but against the Charizard ex deck, things can be awkward since falling to 170 HP puts us in range of Charizard ex’s Steam Artillery (Solgaleo’s weakness is Fire decks).
Solgaleo ex’s Rising Road ability lets you move it from the Bench to the Active spot without having to discard any Energy from your Active Pokémon. It’s not too useful when swapping with a Skarmory, but in other versions like Solgaleo ex Snorlax, it can be more useful to avoid the 4 retreat cost on Snorlax.
Garchomp ex Rampardos
1 Gabite A2a 46
2 Garchomp ex A2a 47
1 Cranidos A2 88
2 Rampardos A2 89
2 Professor’s Research P-A 7
2 Lillie A3 155
1 Cyrus A2 150
1 Iono A2b 69
2 Rare Candy A3 144
2 Skull Fossil A2 144
1 Poké Ball P-A 5
1 Giant Cape A2 147
This deck runs two Stage 2 Pokémon, so Rare Candy is a must for the strategy to work. Rampardos is your strongest attacker, dealing 130 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon with its Head Smash attack. However, the drawback is massive, as Rampardos will deal 50 damage to itself, falling to 100 HP, vulnerable to most attacks in the meta. Giant Cape will be crucial here to keep Rampardos from easily getting knocked out, and using Lillie to heal it for 60 damage and go for another attack.
Garchomp ex is another damage dealer, it’s a tankier Pokémon with an early Linear Attack to deal 50 damage to one of your opponent’s Pokémon. This means you can target the opponent’s Bench and snipe a low HP Pokémon. Dragon Claw has more of a punch, dealing 100 damage to secure a knockout on a higher HP Pokémon in the Active spot.
