Pokémon TCG Pocket: best decks to play right now

• x2 Sneasel
• x2 Weavile ex
• x2 Darkrai ex
• x2 Spiritomb
• x2 Poké Ball
• x2 Professor’s Research
• x2 Cyrus
• x2 Dawn
• x2 Rocky Helmet
• x1 Leaf
• x1 Pokémon Communication

The Space-Time Smackdown packs have a slew of new cards, and this Weavile ex and Darkrai ex deck is the best to come from it. The magic of this deck comes from its ability to deal a ton of extra damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon if it already has damage on it. Weavile ex does 40 more damage if the enemy’s Active Pokémon has damage, and Darkrai ex’s Nightmare Aura ability allows it to deal 20 damage to their Pokémon whenever you attach a Darl energy to the Darkrai. You also have Spiritomb which can spread out damage to all your opponent’s Pokémon, and the Rocky Helmet tool that deals damage to the attacking Pokémon when attached to your cards.

• x2 Mewtwo ex
• x2 Ralts
• x2 Kirlia
• x2 Gardevoir
• x2 Potion
• x2 X Speed
• x2 Poké Ball
• x2 Professor’s Research
• x2 Giovanni
• x1 Red Card
• x1 Sabrina

This Psychic deck becomes unstoppable with this setup if you start the game with the right cards. Your main attackers are your Mewtwo ex cards, but if successful, you should only need to use one to win. Ralts can evolve into Kirlia, which when evolved to Gardevoir has a passive ability to give any Psychic card in the active spot an extra Psychic energy. Since the Mewtwo’s most powerful ability requires four energy but will spend two, you can keep spamming this move each turn even with just one Gardevoir on your bench.

• x2 Dialga ex
• x2 Meltan
• x2 Melmetal
• x1 Mew ex
• x1 Skarmory
• x2 Poké Ball
• x2 Professor’s Research
• x2 Leaf
• x2 Rocky Helmet
• x2 Giant Cape
• x1 Cyrus
• x1 Budding Expeditioner
• x1 Dawn

There are a few different versions of the Dialga ex deck from Space-Time Smackdown, but this one serves as one of the best Steel decks in the game. All of these Pokémon have high HP and can dish out heavy damage, such as Dialga ex. Putting this out first is your best chance at winning since it can help put extra Steel energy onto your Benched Pokémon. Once they’re done, bring out Melmetal who takes 20 less damage from attacks and can deal 120 damage with four Steel energy.

• x2 Pikachu ex
• x2 Zapdos ex
• x2 Helioptile
• x2 Heliolisk
• x2 Potion
• x2 X Speed
• x2 Poké Ball
• x2 Professor’s Research
• x2 Giovanni
• x1 Red Card
• x1 Sabrina

The Pikachu ex deck is versatile since all this card needs is three other Lightning-type Pokémon sitting on the bench to get a full output of 90 damage each turn. While it’s best to have two Zapdos (or Zapdos ex), you can try other Lightning Pokémon if you don’t have Helioptile and Heliolisk. You could swap them with two Voltorbs and Electrodes, which have similar health and damage outputs, Pincurchin can paralyze your enemy, or Eevee to Jolteon can deal up to 160 damage if you’re lucky with coin flips.

• x2 Dratini
• x2 Dragonair
• x2 Dragonite
• x2 Koffing
• x2 Weezing
• x2 Potion
• x2 Poké Ball
• x2 Professor’s Research
• x2 Koga
• x1 Sabrina
• x1 X Speed

This is the only non-ex deck on this list, but it’s still just as powerful as the rest. It’s important to ensure you only allow Water and Lightning energy for this deck and not Dark because you won’t be using it for Koffing and Weezing. They’ll act as decoys to tank hits while you start building up to a Dragonite, but can still do damage in the meantime with Weezing’s ability to poison your opponent. Then use Koga to immediately put Weezing into your hand and replace it with your Dragonite. If you don’t have Koffing and Weezing, you can swap them out for any other Pokémon with a good chunk of health to withstand hits.

• x2 Palkia ex
• x2 Manaphy
• x2 Eevee
• x2 Vaporeon
• x2 Poké Ball
• x2 Professor’s Research
• x2 Misty
• x2 Cyrus
• x2 Leaf
• x1 Giant Cape
• x1 Pokémon Communication

Another big new deck from the Space-Time Smackdown update is the Palkia ex deck. Without Manaphy and Vaporeon in this deck, it wouldn’t work. Palkia ex’s most powerful move requires four Energy and deals 150 damage to the Active opponent and 20 damage to the Benched Pokémon, but it discards three Water energy to do so. Luckily, Manaphy has the ability to take Energy from the Energy Zone and give it to two Benched Pokémon during its turn. Then there’s Vaporeon which has a passive that allows it to move Water energy between your cards as often as you’d like during your turn.

• x2 Bulbasaur
• x2 Ivysaur
• x2 Venusaur ex
• x2 Petilil
• x2 Lilligant
• x2 Poké Ball
• x2 Professor’s Research
• x2 Erika
• x1 X Speed
• x1 Red Card
• x1 Sabrina
• x1 Potion

The Venusaur ex deck is the best Grass-type deck that utilizes Lilligant’s ability to grant extra energy to a benched Pokémon anytime they use their main attack. This will help you build up to a Venusaur ex with enough energy early on. You can then swap in the Venusaur ex that can deal 100 damage while healing itself for 30 HP. We also recommend you bring more Erika cards with you than Potions since Erika can heal 50 HP to any Grass-type Pokémon, while a Potion only heals 20.

• x2 Celebi ex
• x1 Dhelmise
• x2 Snivy
• x2 Servine
• x2 Serperior
• x2 Poké Ball
• x1 Potion
• x2 Erika
• x2 Professor’s Research
• x2 Sabrina
• x2 X Speed

From the Mythical Island pack comes the incredible Celebi ex deck that’s aided by Serperior and Dhelmise. Celebi ex can deal an extra 50 damage for every time it flips a coin and gets heads. The cool thing about it though is that it’ll flip a coin for every Energy attached, which becomes even more powerful when combined with Serperior’s passive ability. Jungle Totem makes it so every Grass energy attached to Grass Pokémon serves as two Energy instead of one. So if you have two Grass energy on Celebi, you’ll actually flip four coins, heightening the odds in your favor.

• x2 Charmander
• x2 Charmeleon
• x2 Charizard ex
• x2 Moltres ex
• x2 Potion
• x2 Poké Ball
• x2 Professor’s Research
• x2 X Speed
• x2 Red Card
• x2 Sabrina

The Charizard ex deck relies on the Moltres ex’s Inferno Dance ability that can give your benched Charizard cards extra Fire energy depending on your coin flips. It has 140 HP to tank hits until you’ve finally built up to a Charizard ex, and with four energy it can deal a whopping 200 damage (although it consumes two energy). Since this deck is already so powerful, you won’t need a Giovanni with you.