Pokémon TCG Pocket: Celebi EX Deck Guide

It was too much to hope that a meta-dominating card wouldn’t be added to Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket with its first expansion, Mythical Island. From anti-meta cards like Mew EX to some great additions to type archetypes in Vaporeon, Celebi EX and Serperior had people running scared when they first debuted.

Celebi EX saw a lot of play during Mythical Island’s run but now Space-Time Smackdown is here. Much like other decks, Celebi EX gets a few new tools to play with that make it a little bit more consistent.

In this guide, we've covered all bases for this meta-staple Grass deck as of the release of Space-Time Smackdown, including the best cards for the deck, the best match-ups, and any alternatives you can use to take control of the game.

Note: This guide has been updated to reflect the new cards introduced with the Space-Time Smackdown expansion.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket - Best Celebi EX Deck (Space-Time Smackdown)

Because of the sheer power of Serperior but the general unreliableness of coin flips, Celebi EX fits snugly into A Tier. Fire type decks aren’t particularly strong as of the release of Space-Time Smackdown. As such, this is still a great deck to continue playing while you collect the key cards in Space-Time Smackdown as it requires few upgrades.

Core Celebi EX Cards

• 2x Celebi EX
• 2x Snivy
• 2x Servine
• 2x Serperior
• 2x Exeggcute (Mythical Island)
• 2x Exeggutor EX
• 2x Poké Ball
• 1x Pokémon Communicatio
• 2x Professor’s Research
• 2x Erika
• 1x Leaf

Flex Celebi EX Cards

As you can see, Celebi EX is a pretty tight list with 20 cards already slotted in. The only new addition from Space-Time Smackdown is Pokémon Communication, which can help you find the Serperior evolution line more easily. Leaf and Pokémon Communication are both flexible with one another, as Leaf helps you retreat your Exeggutor EX out of danger.

Combee from Space-Time Smackdown might have a place in this list, as its Call for Family ability draws a basic Pokémon from your deck; however, we have a hard time fitting it in there.

How to play Celebi EX

Regardless of the route you take, Celebi EX is your main win condition with Exeggutor EX serving as a wall and Serperior as an engine. Celebi EX has the Powerful Bloom attack which reads: Flip a coin for each Energy attached to this Pokémon. This attack does 50 damage for each head.

Combine this with Serperior’s ability, Jungle Totem, which doubles the effectiveness of each Grass energy from either the bench or active spot. That means that a single Grass energy functions as two for all purposes.

With two Grass energy on Celebi EX, you can flip the coin 4 times with Serperior in play. With 4 Grass energy, you can flip 8 times. You can see how powerful this is – if you’re not super unlucky, that is.

To make sure you can build up Celebi EX to this level, you’ll want to make use of the aggressiveness and high HP of Exeggutor EX from the Genetic Apex set. It’s one of the best walls in the game and isn’t energy hungry like other grass cards, meaning you can power up Celebi EX while attacking with it. 2x Erika make this list to keep Exeggutor EX and Celebi EX alive for as long as possible.

Celebi EX Best and Worst Matchups

Celebi EX has single-handedly kept the Ninetails and Blaine deck alive, as both Rapidash and Ninetails work a bit too quickly for Serperior to get set up. After that, Celebi EX’s biggest counters are other fast decks like Pikachu EX mostly because you have to get a Stage 2 Pokémon online. If you don’t have luck on your side, Celebi EX has a hard time winning.

The emerging Darkrai EX & Weavile EX deck, however, looks like it will also outpace Celebi EX. Thankfully, Infernape EX seems too unreliable to run.

Either way, Celebi EX has a chance at beating the rest of the meta, with even matchups against Gyarados EX and Mewtwo EX, making it a great choice to continue to run as you finish your Space-Time Smackdown collection.

Budget Celebi EX Options

There aren't a lot of budget options for Celebi EX as you really do need two of the cards along with two Serperior and its prior evolutions. That said, if you don’t have Exeggutor EX it’s not a bad idea to experiment with the likes of Dhelmise and Shiinotic.

That's it for one of the best new decks from the Mythical Islands pack, Check out our Tier List for all other recommended decks.