Hello! My name is Ryan and I have played a lot of games of the Pokemon TCG. I used to do writeups for decks that I built and had available to use at the store and figured with the new rotation hitting, this is a good time to write about the decks I’ve been playing and testing for the new format! I’ll give you a proper description and game plan for each of the decks I’m talking about. That way you can try them for yourself! You can see the full decklist by clicking on the pictures before each writeup.
Jellicent ex + Dusknoir
This is a slow, consistent control deck. What that means is that your winning strategy will be to play very calculated and intentionally. Frillish is your primary Pokemon. For 1 psychic energy it deals 20 damage and prevents your opponent from playing item cards on their turn. A lot of decks play anywhere from 15 ~ 20 item cards, so this effect will essentially make almost a third of their deck useless. This effect is really strong early when your opponent’s deck & starting hand is still diluted with item cards but its efficacy usually drops the later you go into the game since there’ll be more time to find supporters and Pokemon that can assist your opponent in getting their own strategy off. That means we need to play some other Pokemon that help us close out the game by actually knocking out Pokemon. Frillish evolves into Jellicent ex which can deal 160 damage with 4 energy attached. Certainly not the most efficient attacker, but it’s ability is similar to Frillish’s in that it also item locks your opponent. However, if your Jellicent leaves the active position, that lock is broken and your opponent is free to play items again. We pair Jellicent with Dusknoir, which has an ability to deal 130 damage before you attack at the cost of giving your opponent a free prize card. There’s also 2 copies of Lillie’s Clefairy ex, 1 Mega Diancie ex and 2 Munkidori to provide supplemental or even game-ending damage. All of your basic psychic Pokemon can be searched from your deck simply by attaching a Telepathic Energy to a Pokemon you already have in play. Your gameplan is to use Frillish & Jellicent to slow your opponent down and eventually take 6 prizes.
Mega Lucario ex
This deck is super simple! You are punching your opponent’s Pokemon directly in the face with Mega Lucario at every opportunity. If you find yourself going second, you have a cheeky play with Lunatone & Solrock where you can deal 70 damage for a single energy. But most of the time you’re just using the rock engine to draw 3 additional cards every turn. Hariyama functions as a gusting effect (Like Boss’s Orders which we also play 2 copies of) while also being a pretty serviceable single prize attacker. You can force your opponent into some weird prize mapping by making them KO your Solrock or Lunatune (1 Prize), Lucario (3 prizes), Hariyama (1 Prize) and then your other Lucario for a total of 8 prize cards. With all your gusting effects and damage boosts from Premium Power Pro, you should be able to take 6 prize cards before your opponent secures a KO on your second Lucario.
Dragapult ex
It’s really interesting coming back to Dragapult after a year and a half because the deck is literally the same thing. It’s been good forever and has had some changes over the course of the last 18 months, but the gameplan is the same. You can basically follow the same writeup I wrote back in 2024, just replace some of the old cards with new ones. Roxanne rotated so you can use Unfair Stamp. Lumineon V is replaced with Meowth ex which has essentially the exact same text. Instead of Arven & Forest Seal Stone, you just evolve your Hoothoot into Noctowl and it’s kind of the same thing… Tldr; Draw with Drakloak, explode your Dusknoir and attack with Dragapult.
Steven’s Metagross ex
I have already deceived you! This is not a Metagross deck. This is a big basic Pokemon deck that uses Metagross 70~80% of the time. What’s the difference? You’re not attacking with Metagross and you don’t automatically lose the game if you don’t get it set up. The entire goal of this deck is to use your basic beefsticks to hit your opponent’s Pokemon really hard. We have 2 basic Pokemon that exist solely to cheat out energy to your other guys (Smoochum & Mega Audino) and a Budew. Metagross - when you get it set up - lets you attach energy from your deck to your Pokemon. You can still attach energy to your Pokemon without Metagross - he’s just really good at doing it. Your attackers are Diancie/Clefairy (Dragons & Fighting types like Lucario & Dragapult above), Skarmory (everything with 220 HP or less) and Mawile (literally everything at the end of the game). The main weakness in this deck is finding the Pokemon you want to attack with, so we play a good amount of cards that help us find those Pokemon. Poffin for your little guys like Budew, Smoochum & Beldum (to evolve into Metagross later). Mega Signal, Ultra Ball & Precious Trolley for everything else. Those are all items, so we play a single copy of Brock’s Scouting so we have an option even under item lock. Lastly we just add some consistency to our strategy! Crispin for the extra energy attachment, Petrel + Transceiver to find our Pokemon searches & Lillie to draw cards.
Mega Manectric ex
You will probably not have many close games with this deck. It is incredibly volatile and either wins really convincingly or loses really badly. But it’s really fun though. Your strategy centers around your main attacker: Mega Manectric ex. It either prevents all damage from basic Pokemon or hits for 330 damage in one turn. You have Eelektrik here to refresh your energy from the discard pile and Stunfisk to not only prevent your opponent from retreating, but also increase the amount of damage they take on your following turn. Turning Manectric’s 330 Damage into 430 Damage - KOing everything in the standard format. Tapu Koko & Meowth are just good for the early and late game support respectively. Your supporter line is basically dedicated to getting your Electrikes & Tynamos into play as soon as possible. Don’t be surprised if your opponent slaps down a Mega Lucario ex and slaughters all of your hopes & dreams. That’s the trade off for locking your opponent out of the game if they rely on basic Pokemon and/or a lack of switching options.
N’s Zoroark ex
The last deck I want to talk about is Zoroark. Zoroark copies the attack of any of your N’s Pokemon that you have on your bench. Like Zekrom’s Rampaging Thunder for 250 damage, Darmanitan’s Flamebody Cannon for 90 damage to your opponent’s active Pokemon and one of their benched Pokemon, and Reshiram’s Powerful Rage which deals double the damage that your Zoroark has taken earlier. That makes Zoroark the most versatile attacker in the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Not only that, but it has a built in ability to draw extra cards every turn. Your trade off for such a powerful card, is that it requires a bit of practice and skill to manage your bench every game. You want to have 2-3 Zoroark on the field because it’s your draw engine. You also need to have at least 1 Pokemon that you can copy the attack of. And you need support options so that you don’t lose to strategies that involve damage manipulation (Munkidori), retreat locking (Pecharunt ex) and hand disruption (Fezandipiti, Meowth & Tatsugiri). Zoroark is a very powerful deck that requires some practice.
That’s 6 decks for you to consider! If you found any of these writeups helpful or you have more questions about these decks (or others) please feel free to join our community Discord server! I’m very active on it and love helping our community improve at the Pokemon TCG. https://discord.com/invite/PBHzqFvmRt
