The Shining Revelry A2b expansion adds 111 new cards to the Pokémon Pocket game, and the long-awaited Giratina ex has finally arrived! Its non-ex version in the A2a expansion fell short of expectations, but now, all eyes are on the ex version to see if it can live up to the hype.
A2b also introduces powerful Supporter cards that will fit into existing decks, making them even stronger in the upcoming meta. Red, Iono, and Team Rocket Grunt are just a few of the game-changing cards set to shake up different archetypes.
Wugtrio ex
Cyclizar is the early Pokemon to join the Active spot, acting as a tank, and for 1 Energy, you can deal 20 damage with Overacceleration. Activating Overacceleration a second time in a row will double its damage to deal 40 to the Active Pokemon.
We’re evolving Wigglet into Wugtrio ex, which will be the main carry of this deck. Its Pop Out Throughout attack costs 3 Water Energy to activate, choosing 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon at random 3 times and dealing 50 damage to the chosen Pokemon. So Pop Out Throughout is dealing a total of 150 damage, but it’s not necessarily targeting one specific Pokemon. Instead, it’s choosing random Pokemon on the opponent’s side, and the more Pokemon they have in play, the less likely we’ll hit the target we want.
Giratina ex Greninja
Giratina ex has a built-in ramp ability, Broken-Space Bellow, to take a Psychic Energy from the Energy Zone and attach it to Giratina ex, speeding up your attack turn. However, activating Broken-Space Bellow will end your turn, so you have to make all your plays before activating the Ability.
Once you have 4 Energy on Giratina ex, you can attack with Chaotic Impact to deal 130 damage to the opposing player’s Active Pokemon. On the downside, Giratina ex will deal 20 damage to itself, putting it in a riskier spot to get knocked out.
Since Giratina ex has a self Psychic Ramp ability, we’ll use Darkness Energy in this deck, which we’ll attach to Darkrai ex, activating Nightmare Aura ability to deal 20 damage to the Active Pokemon, chipping away at its health until Darkrai ex can attack with Dark Prism.
Grafaiai Clodsire ex
The Grafaiai Clodsire ex Darkness deck uses Poison as part of its game plan. Wooper‘s Poison Jab deals 10 damage and Poisons the opponent’s Active Pokemon before evolving into Clodsire ex. Clodsire ex can later use that Poison to its advantage. Venoshock deals 60 damage, but if the opponent’s Pokemon is damaged, it will deal 60 more damage, becoming a 120 damage attack for 2 Darkness Energy.
Since we can’t rely on Wooper’s Poison Jab as the only way to Poison an opponent’s Pokemon, we have Grafaiai in the list to maximize Clodsire ex‘s potential. Grafaiai‘s Poison Coating flips a Coin, and if it’s heads, you can Poison the opponent’s Active Pokemon, getting Clodsire ex maximum damage output.
Pikachu ex Luxray
Pachirisu is the early ramp Pokemon, using its Plasma attack to deal 1 damage and attach a Lightning Energy to one of your Lightning Benched Pokemon. So we’re attaching that Energy to Pikachu ex or Luxray to get to 3 Energy quickly.
Luxray being a Stage 2 Pokemon means we have to evolve Shinx into Luxio before getting Luxray in play. Luxray‘s Volt Bolt deals 120 damage to an opponent’s Pokemon of your choosing, so you can snipe a Benched Pokemon and knock it out. It’s especially good to target an ex-Pokémon and get the 2 Match Points. You are discarding all Energy from Luxray when activating its Volt Bolt attack, but Volkner lets you attach 2 Lightning Energy to Luxray to use its Volt Bolt attack on the upcoming turn.
We can then attack with Pikachu ex, dealing 150 damage with Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt forces you to discard all Energy from Pikachu ex, so we’re usually only attacking once with Pikachu ex to knock out a high HP Pokemon.
Beedrill ex
The Grass-type Pokemon has Beedrill ex as a Stage 2 carry Pokemon. We’ll evolve Weedile into Kakuna, which can slow opponents down using its String Shot, dealing 20 damage and flipping a coin. If it’s heads, you can Paralyze their Active Pokemon.
Beedrill ex then joins the battle, attacking with its Crushing Spear to deal 80 damage and discard a random Energy from your opponent’s Active Pokemon. So you’re essentially slowing your opponent down from attacking or setting up their strategy by discarding Energy from their Pokemon. We can use Sabrina or Cyrus to pull a Benched Pokemon with Energy on it to discard an Energy.
Lucario ex
The Fighting type deck now has Lucario ex joining its forces! We’re using both versions of Lucario, the ex and nonex, in this list! The nonex version can increase the damage of your Fighting-type attacks by 20 through the Fighting Coach ability. The nonex verison doesn’t offer much of offensive pressure, but that’s why we have the ex version!
Lucario ex needs 3 Fighting-type Energy to activate Aura Sphere, dealing 100 damage (120 with Life Coach ability) and 30 damage to one of the opponent’s Benched Pokemon, helping you weaken a Pokemon or knock out a damaged one. Red can also increase our damage output by 20 if we’re attacking an Ex type Pokemon, making sure we can one-shot certain Pokemon.
Charizard ex Heatran
The new Charizard ex Pokémon can self-ramp with Stoke, attaching 3 Fire Energy to itself. Steam Artillery is a high-cost attack requiring 5 Energy to activate, so the ramp effect is well needed for Charizard ex to work, speeding up the process and going for the 150 damage attacks. With Red, you can one-shot 170 HP Pokemon with Steam Artillery.
