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InPokemon TCG Pocket, Water decks often rule the roost. Early on, this was aided in large part by Misty; as other types have caught up more, Misty remains a powerful asset. The addition of Irida, who provides healing across multiple Pokemon so long as they have Water Energy attached, has only bolstered the situation. Not to mention the wide array of viable Water Pokemon themselves, of course.
We’ve isolated our two favourite Water decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket’s present meta. These can, and will, shift over time. But as of Shining Revelry’s earliest days, they’re still impressing the heck out of us. Hopefully, they’ll impress the heck out of you, too!
Exeggutor ex / Arceus ex
Palkia ex x2
Manaphy x2
Misty x2
Irida x2
Leaf x2
Cyrus x1
Sabrina x1
Giant Cape x2
Analysis
Palkia exwas one ofSpace-Time Smackdown’sall-star cards. Its four-Energy main attack has a steep cost, amplified by the fact that you’ll lose two Energy when using it. But150 damageplus20 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokemonis a powerful mix.
Many Palkia ex decks containManaphyin order to double up onMisty’s already-significant potential Water Energy gains. (And the nice thing about Manaphy is that it’s not up to chance; you’re guaranteed toadd one Water Energy to up to two Benched Pokemoneach turn.)
TheOrigin Forme Palkiadeck is no exception; in fact, other than the pairs of Palkia ex and Origin Forme Palkia, a pair of Manaphy are all it takes to complete the six-pack of Pokemon cards here.With 14 Trainer cards,there’s plenty of functionality to be found throughout your match.
So, what makes Origin Forme Palkia so useful? For three Water Energy, it dealseither 60 damage or 120 damage, based on a coin flip. The fact that it’snot an ex card, and comes with a reasonably bulky120 HP, lends it a great deal of strength for only a one-point potential loss on KO.
The basic early-game play here is similar to so many other Water Decks these days, including the several other Palkia ex variants.
If at all possible, you want tostart off with Manaphy to get a couple of Ocean’s Blessing moves in,building Energy for your Palkia ex and/or Origin Forme Palkia.
Different situations inevitably call for different approaches, but by and large,you should aim to have Origin Forme Palkia on the field as your early-to-mid-game attacker, with Palkia ex taking care of the back end forbrutally powerful late-game attacks.
As Origin Forme Palkia doesn’t sacrifice any Energy when it attacks, you’re able to rely on what is effectively a90-damage averagewith itsZone Smashattacks, and thenuse Leaf to get awayif it’s still alive in time forPalkia ex to sweep in and seal the gamein your favor.
Alternative Cards
Getting the two Palkia ex can be a time-consuming procedure - certainly for all of us free-to-play players! - but bear in mind,without Palkia ex, this deck rather falls apart. Therefore, the Palkia ex/Origin Forme Palkia deck isnot necessarily budget-friendly.
For what it’s worth,Origin Forme Palkia can be snagged with a (somewhat) modest 150 Pack Points. That’s 300 for the pair, if you’re unlucky enough to never draw either one. Crafting Palkia ex, on the other hand,costs 500 Pack Pointsa pop for the standard version.
So, what sorts of alternative cardsarethere, here? Again, you really need those Palkia ex, but beyond that, things are quite malleable. For instance,you could swap out the Origin Forme Palkias in favor of two Staryu and two Starmiefor swifter guaranteed damage.
If you do that, however,you might well want to include two Pokemon Communicationto ensure you get what you need. In which case, considerremoving the two Manaphy- consider thatStarmie ex’s two-Energy cost for its 90 damage attack is quite modest.
You might also risk some real danger for more guaranteed hits ofDimensional Stormfrom your Palkia ex byremoving Origin Forme Palkia for two Rocky Helmets, or another Sabrina and/or Cyrus, and so forth.
This means even fewer Pokemon, and if you have to start with a Palkia ex,you can always use Slash for one Water Energy and 30 damage. Those Rocky Helmets, should you swing for them, willpotentially keep your opponent from whittling away Palkia ex’s HP in the early game.
Articuno ex x2
Mars x1
Potion x2
Sabrina x2
A reasonably inexpensive and tremendously focused classic, the18 Trainers Articunovariant builds uponthe 18 Trainers archetype’s steadily increasing viability as Pokemon TCG Pocket continues to add more and more worthwhile Supporter cards with each expansion.
18 Trainers decks areall about constant versatility. You have so many Trainer cards at your disposal that there’s virtually never going to be a turn that doesn’t offer yousomethinghere.
Of course, the flip side to this equation is thatyou only have two Pokemon in the deck. You have got to make them count.Articuno ex, which nets your opponent two points on KO, but isvery powerfulin its own right, is a great choice here.
After all, it’s not like you’d have a third point to spare if “only” one of your Articuno ex go down for the count!
Here’s the drill:You’re guaranteed to start with Articuno ex, and you shouldrefrain from placing a second Articuno ex on the Bench if you have that as well, asopponents are likely to Sabrina you into swapping if you’re building Water Energy on your Active Pokemon.
Fortwo Water Energy, Articuno ex deals40 damage. That’s not a terrific cost ratio in and of itself, butfor just one more Energy, Blizzard deals 80 damage to your opponent’s Active Pokemon,and10 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon.
Sure, this means Articuno ex is no heavy hitter. But it’sswift as heck once it’s online, and with an 18 Trainers deck, you have so many ways to keep things going.Mistyfor potential speed gains,Leafto move between your Articuno ex as needed,IridaandPokemon Center Lady for heals.
Don’t discount the usefulness ofMars, who is atournament mainstay but rather infrequently sees usage in more common matches by comparison. The ability toreduce your opponent’s large hand in the late-game by a substantial amountcan seriously hamper them.
It’s a consistent strategy among Arceus ex deck players to hold on to all their Pokemonrather than Benching them until Arceus ex is fully powered up,so as to hide how much damage it can do via the number of Benched Pokemon. With Mars, your foe can be punished for this!
18 Trainers decks are, by their very nature,remarkably adaptable. There are very few cards here that you absolutely must have; we’d considerArticuno exitself (duh),Irida,Sabrina, Mars, and the Giant Capes to be the only ones that must stay. (And even then, some of this is debatable.)
You might opt to includeX Speeds rather than Leafsfor a nearly-as-effective retreat strategy that doesn’t eat up Supporter Card usage on a given turn. You could also addBlue,whoreduces incoming damage by 10.
Blue doesn’t see much play at all, given that - all things considered - it’s not a very good card. But therein lies the beauty of it all, asit’s highly unlikely that any opponent will ever suspect you have it handy.
Really, the sky’s the limit with 18 Trainers Articuno decks. It’s alsonot particularly costly to acquire the necessary cards, andalmost everything can be crafted on the cheap.
Articuno ex itself costs500 Pack Points, which isn’t nothing, but crack open enoughGenetic Apex - Mewtwoboosters and you’re fairly likely to get these in due time.
