Ethan J. Strowger

Eeveelutions take centre stage, while Buzzwole fades away.

Greninja

Greninja returns to the meta after months on the sideline, finding some new partners in Sylveon ex and Oricorio. Rare Candy also enters into this deck as a quick way of getting Greninja online and ready to snipe with Water Shuriken. Greninja’s strengths lie in its ability to put out considerable damage every turn, 20 from its ability and a further 60 from its attack, Mist Slash for just 2 energy, making it a very speedy card for quick setup and early damage, as well as steady damage output from the bench throughout the game.

Potential partners for Greninja include Oricorio, Giratina ex, and the card that really makes this deck tick, Sylveon ex. The Oricorio variant of this deck placed a very respectable 4th place in this weekend’s largest tournament, combining all the aforementioned cards, with a wide variety of trainers, with this variant running a copy of Irida to keep Greninja alive to put out more hits with Water Shuriken.

The list that won the tournament omitted Oricorio entirely, instead opting for a trimmed down decklist of just 12 unique cards, compared to 4th place’s 14 cards, making it more consistent and reliable when requiring certain draws. This list, like its 4th place counterpart also ran a copy of Giratina ex to apply serious time pressure on opponents to deal with the treat before Broken Space Bellow powers up Giratina to use Chaotic Impact, a move that can single-handedly win games. This list strips out Irida and 2x Oricorio in favour of a second copy of Cyrus, Eevee and Sylveon ex.

This winning list takes its place at the top of the week’s rankings. Many different decks made it to top 8 this week, but the combination of Greninja and Sylveon ex was present in 3 of the top 8 decks, and 7 of the top 16, making it by far the most popular deck of the tournament, and bringing home the most places in the top 16, this is the deck to go for if you want to be on top during this season of ranked.

Leafeon ex / Flareon ex

The closest thing to Eevee Box in TCG Pocket?

Those of you who read my Winners and Losers of Eevee Grove article from two weeks ago may well remember me saying that I wish somebody could make a fun Eevee box deck work in TCG Pocket, and I think this may be the closest we can get, and I’m so excited to see something like this in the game. For those that don’t know, a “box” deck (short for “toolbox”), is a deck that has a variety of cards of different types and abilities to suit all kinds of situations, and while this deck doesn’t nail the concept completely, I think this is the best example we’ve seen in TCG Pocket.

This deck utilises the two cards shown above, Leafeon ex and Flareon ex as its main attack/support combo, while other eeveelutions fill the gaps. Leafeon (non-ex) will be your grass type attacker in this deck, powered up with Leafeon ex‘s Forest Breath ability, with Sylveon ex providing unrivalled card draw for the deck. Of course, this deck is propped up by 2 copies of Eevee and 2 copies of Eevee ex to allow you to evolve your multicoloured menagerie of eeveelutions.

This deck has a huge focus on accelerating energy, with Leafeon ex having access to Forest Breath to attach an energy to one of your grass types, and Flareon‘s Combust ability, allowing it to attach a fire energy to itself at the cost of 20HP. At its best, this deck can be attaching 5 energies per turn, a number that can only be matched by Misty.

I’m so pleased that this deck exists, it really showcases Eevee in the way that this set intended to, and it’s even more refreshing to see a deck that plays in this “box” style see usage in TCG Pocket, something I never really expected due to the 20 card deck limit, but hey, that’s not the first time I’ve been wrong in one of my articles (I’m looking at you, Buzzwole ex!).

Silvally/Oricorio

Shining the spotlight on a deck that isn’t a new addition to the game, Silvally returns as a solid A-Tier pick this season, following a promising debut in Extradimensional Crisis. This deck hinges on having enough supporter cards in the deck to keep Silvally‘s Brave Buddies attack dealing its maximum 100 damage. Silvally is backed up by Oricorio, the defensive wall who is immune to all attackss from ex pokemon, and Zeraora, who, if you draw it on Turn 1, can attach an energy to itself on the first turn, allowing it to attack early. Coupled with Dawn as one of Silvally‘s supporters, Zeraora‘s energy can be moved to Silvally, allowing it to attack on Turn 2 for 100 damage, a very fast option.

Gladion is also present here of course to allow you to put either a Type:Null or Silvally into your hand, making it possible to set up as quickly as possible. The deck only runs 2 trainer cards that aren’t supporters, those being Poke Ball and Giant Cape, two staple cards for any deck in the game, but other than these cards, this deck contains 10 supporter cards, giving Silvally all the support it needs to charge up Brave Buddies.

This deck placed 2nd and 7th this weekend, with a third Silvally deck appearing in 13th place running the Rampardos variant, which some websites cite as the better Silvally deck, nut you can’t argue with results, and I think the Oricorio is too strong of an option to ignore, as ex pokemon continue to run rampant in both tournament settings and the online ladder.

Honourable Mentions

Whilst the new set has significantly shaken things up, ending Buzzwole ex‘s reign of terror, there’s still life in the old guard of TCG Pocket. Both Giratina ex and Solgaleo ex appeared in the Top 8 of the weekend’s major tournament, with the undying Giratina/Darkrai deck taking home a 3rd place finish, and Solgaleo ex finishing in 8th, there’s still absolutely life left in these decks that are becoming older and older, and i think the longer this pattern continues, the more Darkrai ex may be cementing itself as the most meta-defining card in Pocket’s short history.