Blinding light burst into thePokemon Trading Card Game Pocketwith its third main expansion, Celestial Guardians. This expansion is themed all around Generation Seven and the Alola region, with countless great cards to mix up your deck.
One of the biggest parts of any deck is not actually the heavy-hitter Pokemon ex, but often times the other Pokemon that allow your ex’s to get set up and work to their full potential. InCelestial Guardians, there were some excellent new non-ex additions that help make some of the strongest decks even more powerful.
10Klefki (A3-121)
Simple Yet Effective
Outside the Legendary powerhouse with Solgaleo ex, Metal has received a little supportive Metal Basic, who is a wonderful addition to any Metal decks. While Metal-type has powerful energy acceleration withDialga ex,it lacks decent opening support Pokemon, and that’s where Klefki comes in.
Klefki is one of the best setup Pokemon for the type, as for just one Metal-energy, it does 10 damage and draws you a card. This works excellently for going second, as you can instantly start drawing key items and Pokemon that your opening hand may have lacked.
9Tapu Fini (A3-056)
Legendary Power
Water deckscan be so varied due to the sheer number of options they have. Tapu Fini is joining that pool as one of the best Basic non-ex Pokemon of the type with its attack Spiral Drain, which, for two Water and one Colorless Energy, does 60 damage and heals it for 20 HP.
Since the Water-type has countless ways to get tons of Energy flowing across the board, Tapu Fini’s attack is actually easy to set up despite costing three Energy. With decent damage and healing, you’re able to use it to deal with squishy Pokemon in the early game without any scratches left after, and then finish off bigger threats in the late game. Doing 60 damage as a Basic non-ex is not to be scoffed at.
8Oranguru (A3-140)
Disrupting Energy Costs
While Passimian got a strong ex in this expansion, its counterpart Oranguru may not have gotten the same flashy ex card treatment, but it is equally strong. Oranguru has the attack Primate’s Trap, which, when used, does 40 damage and makes your opponents' Defending Pokemon’s attacks and retreat cost one Colorless Energy more for their next turn.
Since Oranguru is Colorless and only requires two Colorless Energy to use Primate’s Trap, it can easily be nestled into any deck as an annoying way to stall your opponent’s attack and give you an extra turn if you need it to set up. This is especially great if they have an attacker powered up and ready, as they will now have to waste a turn attaching another Energy to use the attacker instead of getting backup ready, which will buy you extra time.
7Tapu Lele (A3-084)
Psychic Finisher
Psychic-type decks have some of the best attackers around with Giratina ex and Mewtwo ex as well as plenty of support with Gardevoir (A1-132), but one thing this dominating type does lack is decent bench snipping, and Tapu Lele solves that. For one Psychic-Energy, Tapu Lele can use Energy Arrow, which attacks one Pokemon for 20 damage times the amount of Energy on the targeted Pokemon.
This attack can be perfect for dealing with just about anything on the bench as long as they have Energy on them. Even if your foe tries to retreat their damaged Pokemon to the bench they will likely still have at least one or two Energy left on them for you to finish them off. With Tapu Lele on the field, no Pokemon will ever be safe on the bench.
6Banette (A3-075)
Hauntingly Scary Attack
As TCG Pocket becomes more like the properPokemon TCGby bringing overmechanics from its history,we get more powerful cards that focus on controlling and disrupting your opponent’s game plan. No other Pokemon is as good at doing this as Banette, who, for just a single Psychic Energy, does 30 damage and blocks your foe from attaching Energy from their Energy Zone to their Active Pokemon.
Denying Energy attachment to your opponent’s Active Pokemon for even a single turn can be detrimental to any game, as it can stop any kind of offensive Energy attachment as early as turn two. It gets even worse if the opponent’s Pokemon have a high retreat cost, as without any way to attach Energy, the only way they can move their Pokemon out of the Active Spot is by using X-Speed or Leaf if they even include them in their deck.
5Primarina (A3-048)
Harmonic Healing
With how fast-paced matches can be, it’s always a good idea to have some sort of healing in your deck to save you from potential Knock-Outs, and no type is better at healing than the Water-type. Primarina is a wonderful Stage Two that gives this type even more free healing through its ability Melodious Healing, which heals 30 damage from all of your Water-type Pokemon when used.
Water-type has fantastic healing with the Supporter card Irida (A2a-072) from Triumphant Light, and, when combined with Primarina, you can get up to 70 HP back on all your Water Pokemon in a single turn, or even 110 HP on a single Pokemon if you also use two Potion items. As long as an attack doesn’t one-hit Knock Out your Pokemon you will be able to sponge up tons of damage and recover from dangerous situations with ease.
4Lycanroc - Midnight Form (A3-084)
Alpha Levels Of Damage
Lycanroc comes storming through the night to be a gem of an attacker with its Blood Fang attack, which does 50 damage for two Fighting Energy but if the opposing Pokemon has more HP than it, the attack does 50 more.
This attack can be great for dealing with Pokemon with lots of HP, such as any Pokemon-ex, as even if they drop below your HP amount, they will likely retaliate back, reducing your HP and allowing you to hit for 100 HP two turns in a row. This doesn’t even account for Lucario (A2-092), which can boost the damage even further to a whopping 140 HP per turn, all for just two Fighting Energy.
3Pyukumuku (A3-054)
The New Stalling Champion
Stalling Pokemon have seen massive usage across countless decks and Pyukumuku may just be the champion of them all. Often, you want to protect all your Pokemon with care to not let your foe get a point closer to victory, but with Pyukumuku and its Innards Out ability, you may just want to let the little champ take the fall. When Pyukumuku is Knocked-Out in the Active, its ability deals a whopping 50 damage to the Attacking Pokemon.
Popular stall Pokemon such as Druddigon (A1a-056) rely on being attacked while in the Active to get their extra damage off, but Pyukumuku provides a massive burst of damage that can easily help set up Knock-Outs on big HP Pokemon without worrying about it being Knocked-Out in one hit. Using Pyukumuku is risky as it does give your foe a point, but protecting your main attacker and setting up a Knock-Out on theirs is more than worth it.
2Comfey (A3-080)
No More Status Conditions
Status Conditions in Celestial Guardians gave Poison-focused decksnaccess to the nasty Poison Barb Pokemon Tool, which Poisons Pokemon that attack the holder. However, they also get more counters as well, and Comfey is the answer to any of them for the Psychic-type.
Comfey can make any Pokemon immune to any Status Conditions as long as they have Psychic Energy on them, and this can ruin many deck strategies. By simply having Comfey on the Bench, Psychic-type decks can better counter Darkness-type decks, as they often rely on Poison chip damage or require the opposing Pokemon to be Poisoned to deal larger amounts of damage.
1Oricorio - Pom-Pom Style (A3-066)
Your Pokemon-ex Wants To Attack? How Cute!
This Lightning-type Basic is one of the most game-defining cards ever introduced to Pocket, all due to one simple ability that every deck will need to build around. This Oricorio, in its Pom-Pom Style form, has the ability Safeguard, which prevents all damage from attacks by Pokemon-ex to it.
The existence of Safeguard requires every single deck to run at least one non-Ex attacker unless they want to get stuck against an invincible wall. This ability is literally game-changing as it makes a lot of decks crumble at the sight of this silly little bird unless they come prepared and ready.
