One of the most complicated parts of a new card game, digital or otherwise, is knowing which cards to pursue en route to building a competitive deck. For Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, what decks you should run highly depends on which cards you’ve pulled as there are so many.
To help you start building to be the very best, we’ve put together a tier list, along with a handful of budget-friendly and top-tier decks to help you get your PokéFooting.
Plenty of cards in these decks can be subbed out until you pull the cards required, so don’t fret. In other words, if you only have one Marowak EX rather than the suggested two – just sub in a regular Marowak or another set of Fighting-type cards until you pull the card you want.
Note that these decks are exclusive to the first set of cards, Genetic Apex.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket Tier List (Genetic Apex)
Below are what we believe are the ten most viable decks in Pokémon TCG Pocket as of the Genetic Apex Set, ranked by Tiers. S Tier is obviously the best, followed by other extremely good decks in A-Tier and below.
For each deck, we've included the main win condition alongside a key support card or an alternate win condition to make it easier to understand what cards you’ll need and how the deck functions at a glance.
S Tier
The S Tier decks are the best decks right now in Pokemon TCG Pocket's Genetic Apex set. The two we've listed are both consistent and powerful, proving tough to beat even with a perfect draw.
Much of the meta is centred around beating these decks, and if the list your running isn’t prepared for them, you won’t stand a chance unless you draw very well and they draw abysmally.
A Tier
For the A Tier decks, these are close to S Tier in that they're either consistent or powerful, but they're not both. You may have to retreat early when you don’t get a key support card or flip heads and tails, or you may have lots of options but sometimes fall a little short when up against more aggressive lists.
In short, they can stand up against S Tier with a little bit of luck.
B Tier
B Tier decks are strong but will often fall to S Tier decks before their game plan comes to fruition. They require several evolution stages or stalling tactics until you can fully power up your main win condition with multiple types of energy.
However, these B Tier decks can usually stand up against A Tier decks and have good matchups against some of them.
C Tier
Despite being bottom of our Tier List, the C Tier decks will find their fair share of wins but are hampered by more than one bad matchup from either the S or A Tiers.
Otherwise, they may provide direct counters to some of the most popular decks at the expense of losing against most others.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket - Best TCG Pocket Budget Decks
Below, we've got the best decks for those on a budget, or for those who perhaps don't want to spend money (understandably!) but still build a competitive deck.
Marowak EX/Sandslash Deck
The easiest way to put this deck together is to select the Mewtwo pack upon starting a new account as you’ll obtain several of the cards required, including one Marowak EX card.
With this deck, you want to get Marowak EX out early. Its attack, Bonemerang, requires only two Fighting Energy and deals 80 damage for each head you flip. It inherently makes this deck a gamble as you can hit two tails and deal no damage, but you can also burst down opposing EX Pokemon extremely quickly.
Want our recommendation for the best Marowak EX deck? Our guide will be able to help there.