The colorful, ever-changing world of thePokemon Trading Card Gamebrings a whole new shake-up of interesting, fresh cards every couple of months with a new expansion. While many cards may be looked over, some become deck-defining staples that everyone uses.
With the return of Trainer’s Pokemon for the first time in over a decade, Journey Together has brought in some dangerous archetypes and useful support to make nearly every deck stronger. Since this was the firstpost-rotation 2025expansion, many players took advantage of the weakened meta to make use of the fun new cards introduced in this set.
In this list we have only included decks that received significant changes or boosts in performance thanks to cards from Journey Together and have prioritized any new decks that focus on the new cards introduced.
Milotic ex SSP (x3)
Farigiraf ex TEF (x2)
Dudunsparce ex JTG (x2)
Arven (x4)
Crispin (x3)
Iono (x3)
Artazon (x1)
Fighting Energy (x3)
Water Energy (x3)
This deck, as the name suggests, attempts to wall off all potential meta-game decks by providing answers and blocks to nearly all of them using some underrated Pokemon and strategies. With useful ex-Pokemon that have a ton of stall power, this deck can force opponents to use Pokemon outside their main attackers and bring Pokemon specifically to counter them.
Dudunsparce-ex is a great walling Pokemon added to this deck that works as an early game option. Its attack, Destructive Drill, also helps this deck break through mirror matches as it isn’t affected by the opponent’s Pokemon’s effects. Combined with Farigiraf ex, Milotic ex, and Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon-ex, this deck can perfectly avoid all damage from nearly any offensive Pokemon.
Darkness Energy (x2)
Psychic Energy (x8)
Ever since the Scarlet & Violet Base Set, we have seen the Psychic-type being one of the most consistently powerful types, thanks to the introduction of Gardevoir-ex. Even with the loss of the Sword & Shield era Kirlia through the rotation, Gardevoir-ex is still one of the best Pokemon around and, alongside Mew-ex and a powerful addition, this deck is better than ever.
Journey Together introduces another incredible Psychic-type in the form of Lillie’s Clefairy ex. This adorable Pokemon helps make this deck unstoppable against any fierce Dragon-type foes by making all of them have a Weakness to Psychic-type Pokemon. TheScarlet & Violet eraintroduced so many strong Dragon-types, and this deck gives you plenty of ways to easily squish them all with its cute Psychic powerhouses.
Mamoswine ex JTG (x4)
Iono (x2)
Kieran (x1)
Reversal Energy (x1)
Fighting Energy (x7)
In the Scarlet & Violet era, we have seen a massive number of dominating Stage Two Pokemon all over every expansion, and Mamoswine ex has come stomping in to provide a niche yet powerful deck. Mamoswine-ex’s Ability and attack help push this deck to its limits and make evolution feel trivial.
Usually, evolution-based decks can have a hard time succeeding if they can’t find ways to search for each Stage of the evolution they need, but Mamoswine ex allows you to directly search your deck for any kind of Pokemon and put them into your hand. Combine this with an attack that scales based on how many Stage Two Pokemon you have in play, and Mamoswine-ex is a threat that many decks should be afraid of.
Volcanion ex JTG (x2)
Iono (x4)
Arven (x1)
Surfer (x3)
Switch (x4)
Pokegear 3.0 (x3)
Unfair Stamp (x1)
Jet Energy (x4)
The Scarlet & Violet era of the TCG has seen the rise of status-condition-based decks, especially with heavy support for Poison in many sets, but with Journey Together, it’s finally time for Burn to join in the fun. The Burn condition usually puts two damage counters on the Pokemon during Pokemon Checkup, but with a single Magmortar, this can increase to a whopping five per Checkup.
Combining this with Volcanion-ex, also from the expansion, you can inflict Burn using its Ability for free as long as it is in the Active Spot. While it may not be as powerful as other Pokemon, Volcanion-ex can make this Burn deck super-consistent. Since Magmortar’s Ability can stack, you have four on your Bench to deal a devastating 140 damage in between turns, and with the amount of disruption this deck has, your opponent won’t be able to do much but hope and pray.
Jacq (x1)
Darkness Energy (x1)
Fighting Energy (x1)
Gholdengo-ex is one of the lesser-played decks, but those who do adore its fun Energy-heavy playstyle, which can be destructive, if is played correctly. Dudunsparce-ex is an addition that many decks run fromJourney Togetherbecause of its Colorless-typing and powerful walling potential, and it works very well alongside Gholdengo-ex.
Despite only being a Stage Two Pokemon, Dudunsparce-ex comes with a large 270 HP as well as two excellent attacks, one of which does 60 damage for each ex-Pokemon your opponent has in play. Only requiring one Energy for this attack makes Dudunsparce-ex excellent at being able to stall and deal decent damage while you hoard Energy in your hand for Gholdengo-ex.
Blaziken ex JTG (x3)
Fezandipiti ex SFA (x1)
Jacq (x2)
Fire Energy (x1)
Water Energy (x1)
Blaziken-ex is a card that many decks can use as an excellent supportive Pokemon thanks to its incredible Ability. Seething Spirit allows you to accelerate any single Basic Energy from your discard pile to one of your Pokemon once per turn, and this is especially good with any Pokemon that discard Energy for attacks.
Many decks put a lot of resources into hand disruption, but with Blaziken ex, you can counter that since you do not need to have Energy in your hand. With Blaziken-ex, Pokemon such as Tera Stellar Pikachu-ex can easily attack nearly every turn, as the discarded Energy from their attack can be instantly accelerated back to it if you have multiple Blaziken-ex set-up.
Levincia (x2)
Lightning Energy (x10)
Fighting Energy (x4)
This fast deck brings the spark of the Lightning-type alongside the energetic energy of everyone’s favorite Generation Nine Gym Leader and Streamer Iono. The focus of Iono’s Pokemon is all about accelerating your board as fast as lightning, and nothing shows that better than the combination of Iono’s Belibolt-ex and Iono’s Kilowattrel.
Iono’s Belibolt-ex has the Ability Electric Streamer, which allows you to attach as much Lightning Energy to your Iono’s Pokemon from your hand as you like. This can power up Iono’s Kilowattrel’s Ability, which requires it to discard an attached Energy to draw till you have six cards in hand. With Levincia in play, you can recover two discarded Energy to repeat the cycle over and over. Adding Raging Bolt ex to this archetype gives it a much-needed attacker that synergizes super well with the Energy overflow.
Darkness Energy (x6)
Reversal Energy (x2)
If you ever played the TCG during the Sun & Moon era, you may remember the Zoroark-GX card fromShining Legends. This card had a wonderful Ability called Trade and a sneaky attack called Trickster-GX, both of which were meta-defining, and with N’s Zoroark-ex, they both come back into the fray reworked and with a brand-new tool set from N’s other Pokemon.
This entire deck focuses on N’s Zoroark as its Night Joker attack allows you to use any of your Benched N’s Pokemon’s attacks for only two Darkness-type Energy. With powerhouses such as N’s Reshiram and technical cards such as N’s Darmanitan, this deck has been hand-crafted to give you a wide array of options.
Just keep in mind that N’s Pokemon are a bit weak and do struggle a bit against some of the best decks, but it is a great deck.
Psychic Energy (x2)
Grass Energy (x5)
This deck is very flexible, but it was mainly crafted to be the answer to Dragapult ex as well as other common meta-game threats. With a bunch of Tera Pokemon that protect themselves on the bench and greatSupporter cards,this deck has many options to help you face whatever you go up against and work your way out of any bad situation.
Lillie’s Clefairy ex brings supportive utility to this fresh deck by allowing Mew ex and Latias ex to hit big Dragon-type foes such as Dragapult ex for super-effective damage. This skyrockets this deck’s usability, as before the new addition, it would likely stand no chance against the oppressive Dragapult ex, but it can now shut it down with ease.
Switch (x2)
Postwick (x3)
Secret Box (x1)
Metal Energy (x8)
Out of all the Trainer’s Pokemon archetypes in Journey Together, there is one which reigns supreme and that crown goes to Hop and his royal Legendary Zacian. Storming in from the Galar Region, Hop’s Pokemon all play around, increasing their damage through items and Abilities, and this allows each of them to deal ridiculous amounts of damage.
Combining all of Hop’s damage-boosting potential with Hop’s Choice Band, Hop’s Snorlax and Postwick onto Hop’s Zacian-ex, its Brave Slash attack does a total of 330 damage, which is enough to almost one-hit Knock Out any Pokemon. If Hop’s Zacian-ex does get Knocked Out, there are plenty of other great attackers in this deck to work with.
