Best Pikachu EX deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket

Pikachu is certainly one of the best EX Pokemon to pack in the early days of Pokemon TCG Pocket, and you can build a pretty awesome deck with it.

Unlike the traditional formats of paper Pokemon TCG, Pocket is far more streamlined. While this makes deckbuilding easier, you’ll still need to strategize based on the cards in your collection. To win consistently, you’ll have to prepare a deck that has synergy among each other. The following Pikachu EX deck not only has that, but it also offers you plenty of scope to outthink your opponent.

Pokemon TCG Pocket Pikachu EX deck guide

Packing Pikachu can be a matter of luck as it’s an EX card. The odds of finding one aren’t very high, but you do get plenty of them if you’re opening all your packs regularly. In fact, several cards on this deck can be obtained by clearing the tutorial challenges and missions.

Let’s first take a look at the cards I have used in my Pikachu deck.

• 2x Blitzle
• 2x Helioptile
• 1x Voltorb
• 2x Heliolisk
• 2x Zebstrtika
• 1x Electrode
• 1x Meowth
• 1x Pikachu EX
• 1x Zapdos
• 1x Potion
• 1x X Speed
• 2x Poke Ball
• 2x Professor’s Research
• 1x Sabrina

Note: You can use a card like Chansey in place of Zapdos, but it’s not an essential part of the deck.

Screenshot by Destructoid

The card you’ll want to open with is Meowth. It’s the only non-electric card on this deck, and his ability to consistently draw cards is fantastic. You’ll also chip away your opponent’s health, but the main objective is to draw as many cards as possible. You can either sacrifice it or retreat it quickly with the help of X Speed.

If you don’t get Meowth in your opening hand, don’t even put it on the bench. Pikachu EX does 30 damage for every Electric Pokemon on the bench. The idea is to do 90 damage every turn, and Meowth on the bench doesn’t help to achieve that.

Blitzle is a great opening-hand option if you can evolve it. Zebstrika’s single energy attack might do just 30 damage, but you can apply that on any opposition Pokemon. While your opponent might be building up their EX Pokemon’s 3 or 4 energy attack, you can take away a couple of creatures on their bench and get a victory.

If you’re the type of person who relies on luck, Heliolisk is pretty fun. It’s 2 energy attack does 80 damage if you manage to pull a Head. With 90 HP, Heliolisk can usually withstand two attacks (unless it’s coming from a top nuker/EX).

As for the items, Professor’s Research is an excellent complimentary piece if you don’t manage to get Meowth in your opening hand. Sabrina is the ultimate trump, which you should preserve at all costs. It’s most useful when you already have two victory points, and your opponent is one step away from building their EX/last card. It becomes near impossible for them to navigate the involuntary switch, and they will mostly only have options on the bench that can be taken down with a single attack.

As for Poke Ball, its role is to fill the bench with your Electric Pokemon to help Pikachu scale up its attack. While I played with this deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket, drawing Pikachu wasn’t necessary to win. In fact, you could still win quite consistently without even drawing Ash’s first Pokemon.

Once new cards are released in the upcoming weeks, I expect this deck to improve even more. For now, you’ll really enjoy this deck, but note that it has its counters, and you’re not going to win every game.

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