This is a VERY basic guide to getting started building original and experimental decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket. This is not for people looking to play to the meta, but rather for people new to the game who want to try out new things or don't have a lot of cards to work with as a F2P player.
If you're just wanting a list of meta decks and what's considered the strongest, I suggest to use
this guide over at Pokemon-Zone.
Let's get on to some deck building basics!
Deck Building Basics: Drawing More Cards
In TCGP, you get energy from an energy well instead of from cards in your deck, with decks being smaller than normal. This means you're not having to worry about drawing energy, and can focus on just what makes your deck run. As of the Genetic Apex set, there's no deck-searching cards, so you're going to want to try to draw as many cards from your deck as possible to increase your chances of getting what you want. There's no punishment for reaching the end of your deck, so feel free to draw as many cards as you want!
There are three cards that allow you to draw more cards from your deck: Poke Ball, Professor's Research, and Meowth.
Professor's Research is the easiest to understand, it basically just lets you draw an extra card. on your turn. I've never felt a reason to not just use these as soon as you draw them, unless you're terrified your opponent might Red Card you and you want to keep your hand at exactly two or three cards to lessen the chance of them deciding to do it.
Poke Ball puts a random Basic Pokemon card from your deck into your hand. This not only gives you a basic Pokemon which is nice, but it "clears out" cards from your deck to allow you to draw other cards you will also need. Technically you're not drawing any EXTRA cards, but it's still allowing you to draw from a curated list, which is nice.
Mewoth has an attack called Pay Day that deals 10 damage and allows you to draw a card from your deck. Meowth's 60 HP means you're probably only going to get one or two cards drawn at the most before getting knocked out, though, giving your opponent an easy lead on you. Personally I don't recommend using this except in casual Beginner stance. If you can evolve to Persian quickly you can have a bit more survivability, but you're sacrificing the ability to draw cards, so it's not super amazing. Persian, however, has Shadow Claw, which allows you the chance of discarding a card from your opponent's hand. This is very powerful against stall decks that send out something like Weezing or Snorlax to waste time while they set up, and can potentially ruin their entire setup altogether. The most popular meta decks do NOT run stall, though, so you're countering something fairly uncommon.
In short, I feel all decks need two Professor's Research and two Poke Balls. Try Meowth at your own risk.
Deck Building Basics: Basic Pokemon
The core of your deck is your Basic Pokemon, as these determine what exactly you have on the field at once, and you're going to want to get as many of your "needed" Pokemon out as soon as possible. Because we're unable to search decks like the full game and our deck isn't as big, as well as because we don't have to worry about mulligan (the game automatically gives you a hand with at least one Basic Pokemon in it at no cost to you),
it's actually better to use as few Basic Pokemon as possible.Now I don't mean using, like, one, which is the bare minimum, but I mean you
don't want to be filling your deck with filler Pokemon for "just in case" scenarios. You want to use whatever your key win conditions are that your deck revolves around, and then usually a few other things to give you a few options for the early game while you set up or whatever.
More Basic Pokemon in your deck means more of a chance of drawing one you DON'T want with your Poke Balls, and a lower chance of getting one you want as your "starter." With a well-crafted pool of a few Basic Pokemon, you can increase your chances of getting exactly what you want in your hand.
Often it will be tempting to put two of a Basic Pokemon in your deck, but unless you're specifically wanting to run two of that Pokemon on the field at once, it might not be necessary.
Deck Building Basics: Balancing the Rest
Now you've got your 4 important trainers and a well-selected handful of Basic Pokemon set in stone, what's left is to decide how you're going to balance what else you have in your deck. You're going to need more Trainer cards to manipulate the field, and of course, Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokemon cards for evolution.
Personally, when building a new deck, I like to make sure any required Trainer cards are in place first. So for example, when I built my Erika deck, I made sure to place two Potions and two Erikas in the deck right away, as the deck revolves around healing as much as possible.
After that, it's finding a balance of evolutionary Pokemon and trainer cards to fit your needs. Trainers have a wide variety of uses and are generally "stronger" cards than overloading on evolution cards, but you are going to need evolution cards. If your deck revolves around a fast aggro strategy, bring along lots of evolutions of the Pokemon you need to increase your chance of drawing the one you need. If your deck is going to stall and take a long time to set up, consider using fewer since you're eventually (or rather, hopefully) going to draw one by the time you need it anyway. I go back and forth between running one Venusaur ex and two Venusaur ex in my Erika deck, as I only ever will have one on the field at once (since I'm only running one Bulbasaur and Ivysaur anyway). Two means I have a better chance of drawing it before I need it, but it comes at the sacrifice of not getting to use another Trainer Card.
Which brings us to another point -- carefully choose your cards. Giovanni is only useful if you're going to encounter situations where you NEED ten extra points of damage. If your deck doesn't revolve around needing this (like a Dragonite deck), Giovanni is less useful, and you might get better value out of, say, Sabrina or Red Card.
Deck Building Basics: Card Combos
The key to victory in any TCG is card combinations -- building your deck around cards that work well in tandem with one another. This is where most of the "experimentation" is going to come in, but here's some examples of card combinations:
Gardevoir + Mewtwo ex - Mewtwo ex's strongest move Psydrive requires you to discard two psychic energy from Mewtwo ex to use. Because you can only place one energy per turn, this would normally mean you can only use it every other turn, as you'd have to build it back up; however, Gardevoir's ability Psy Shadow allows you to place an EXTRA psychic energy on a psychic Pokemon in the active slot. This allows you to dish out 150 damage with Mewtwo ex
every turn.
Misty + Articuno ex - Articuno ex is a Basic Pokemon that requires 2-3 water energy to function. Normally, this will take up to 3 turns to set up, but with Misty's ability, a lucky coin flip can set it up in one turn. Running two Misty allows you two chances at this, or with luck, the chance to set up another backup Pokemon as well.
Venusar ex + Butterfree - This is my own personal combination that's not on-meta, but still very fun. Butterfree's ability Powder Heal allows you to recover 20 HP from each of your Pokemon every turn. That means with two Butterfrees and Venusaur ex's Giant Bloom attack, you'll recover 70 HP to your Venusaur every turn. Use that along with Potions (20HP) and Erika (50HP) and you'll be able to last a long time dishing out 100 damage every turn without getting knocked out in the process.
Pikachu ex + Giovanni - This is more of a "knowing the meta" strategy than a real card combination, but there are many cases where Pikachu ex needs to deal exactly 100 damage against certain decks/Pokemon, while its Circle Circuit attack only deals 90 at the maximum. Because of this, Giovanni is a more valuable card in a Pikachu ex deck than other decks.
Deck Building Basics: Universally Useful Colorless
There are some cards that work in a lot of decks, and if you're unsure of what to do with your extra slots once you have everything you are sure you want in your deck, there's a few Colorless Pokemon that can round out your deck.
I'll just cover the main two I see used the most, so feel free to experiment with others.
Farfetch'd - Farfetch'd is used because its attack Leek Slap does 40 damage and only costs 1 energy of any kind. This makes it a great "opener," though if you don't draw it in your starting hand, it's not terribly useful.
Wigglytuff ex - Wigglytuff ex's attack Sleepy Song automatically puts your opponent to sleep, giving you a 50% chance that they will not be able to do anything during their next turn. It also boasts 80 damage which is not terrible at all, and because its requirement is colorless, it can run in dual-type decks more easily.
There are other more situational colorless cards, such as using Chansey or Snorlax to stall your opponents out, Meowth and Persian as I explained in the drawing cards section, and Pidgeot's Drive Off ability which is basically free Sabrina every turn, but these aren't necessarily good in all decks.
Basically my point is not to sleep on Colorless Pokemon. Check and see if any would do well in your deck.
Conclusion
And that's it! Hopefully this gave you a good start to building decks with what you have available to you in Pokemon TCG Pocket and will let you start experimenting off the meta. Once you know what cards you want, too, you can better decide what packs you're going to pull. For example, Gardevoir and Mewtwo ex are BOTH pulled from Genetic Apex: Mewtwo packs, so you can more easily find them there. But if you're wanting to build a Pikachu ex deck, for example, you might want to pull a few Mewtwo packs once you get your main cards to try to get Giovanni. Building a meta Articuno ex deck will require pulling from all three packs for Articuno ex, Starmie ex, and Misty.
So if you're strapped for cash or don't want to spend money, consider building from a deck you can finish mostly with cards from one pack. You can look at the Offering Rates to see what all is available from one pack's pool.
Have fun with Pokemon TCG Pocket! Maybe I'll see you on the battlefield!
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