The Pokémon TCG Pocket meta must’ve recently turned 30 — because it’s finally settling down!
Released in late 2024, Pokémon TCG Pocket is a card-collecting game with a competitive streak — a streamlined iteration on the classic Pokémon trading card game. There’s incentive to play battles, as winning earns you XP, which helps you level up, which helps you open more booster packs, which helps you build better decks to win more battles. Ah, the great mobile game feedback loop.
What follows is a summary of the Pokémon TCG Pocket meta as of April 2025, including the best decks and the best cards in the wake of the Space-Time Smackdown expansion and Triumphant Light and Shining Revelry booster pack.
Update (April 8): Explained the state of the meta in light of Shining Revelry’s arrival, which has added new ‘best cards’ to consider for any deck.
What is the Pokémon TCG Pocket meta right now?
Once upon a time, if you didn’t have the card(s) of the moment, you were done for. That is no longer the case. With eight expansion packs to choose from — the three Genetic Apex launch packs, two Space-Time Smackdown packs, and the singular Mythical Island, Triumphant Light, and Shining Revelry boosters — there’s a wealth of options to build your decks.
The Pokémon TCG Pocket meta has evolved to a point where it’s less about the flavor of month, and more about a series of stalwart archetypes that can be customized based on the cards in your collection. The most recent expansions, Triumphant Light and Shining Revelry, didn’t upend the meta so much as introduce a handful of versatile cards.
For instance, Arceus ex from Triumphant Light is a popular one, not just because of its sheer damage output (up to 130!) but also because it fits into many decks. Shining Revelry, meanwhile, added an alternate version of Charizard ex, but it doesn’t appear to be much more popular than the original. Meanwhile, it’s the trainer cards from Shining Revelry that have really made the biggest impact (which we also get into below).
In other words, for the most part, the decks that have been popular this year attained that popularity for a reason: They’re really good, and continue to be really good to this day. Expect to see a bunch of these while climbing the Ranked mode ladder. Read on for details.
Pokémon TCG Pocket best decks
Knowing the best cards of the moment is one thing, but getting those cards is another matter. Right now, the Pokémon TCG Pocket meta is largely defined by ex cards — high-power cards that are also extremely rare — but a number of a cards that can increase your energy production are also quite popular.
Pretty much every deck that has been dominant to date is still powerful, though you don’t see them around as frequently with the arrival of Space-Time Smackdown. To be clear, they’re no less effective — just a bit passé. With that in mind, we’re keeping them on this list of the best decks, and are adding the three newest additions to the top — meaning the eight best decks in Pokémon TCG Pocket as of April 2025 are:
Darkrai ex (darkness-type)Dialga ex (metal-type)Lucario (fighting-type)Celebi ex (grass-type)Charizard ex and Moltres ex (fire-type)Articuno ex and Lapras ex (water-type)Pikachu ex (electric-type)Mewtwo ex and Gardevoir (psychic-type)
You’ll see that the best decks are still built around a single energy type, to minimize yet another coin flip in battles. We’ll get into detail about why these decks are so successful below. And if you’re on a bad luck streak with opening booster packs, you can also use pack points or trading the get the exact card(s) you’re looking for.
Here are the best decks in Pokémon TCG Pocket, with the key cards for each deck highlighted in bold.
Darkrai ex deck
Darkrai ex is the stuff of nightmares. As an ex card, its stat line (140 HP and an attack that costs three energy and deals 80 damage) isn’t particularly amazing. But its ability, Nightmare Aura, makes up for the deficit. Every time you attach a darkness energy to Darkrai ex, you’ll automatically deal 20 damage to your opponent’s active Pokémon.
That extra 20 damage is often enough to eliminate an opponent’s active Pokémon when combined with an attack from yours. And if you’re worried about Darkrai ex hogging energy from the rest of your team, you can use the Dawn trainer card, which allows you to move energy from a benched Pokémon to your active Pokémon.
While Darkrai ex has synergy with most popular darkness-type Pokémon (like Weezing, Toxicroak, Arbok, or the Nido evolution chains), the hack here is unconventional: Magnezone, with its powerful 110-damage attack, Thunder Blast. Its earlier-stage evolution, Magneton, has an ability that allows you to add one lightning-type energy to it per turn — regardless of what energy type you’ve set for your deck. The result is one Pokémon that accrues energy all by itself and another Pokémon that consistently deals damage simply by existing.
Dialga ex deck
The addition of Dialga ex to TCG Pocket has singlehandedly turned metal-type decks from laughable to competitive. It has 150 HP. One of its attacks deals 100 damage (albeit at the cost of four energy). But the secret weapon is its Metallic Turbo attack, which only deals 30 damage but allows you to attach two metal-type energy to any Pokémon on your bench.
This immediately lowers the previously prohibitively high energy cost for powerful metal-type cards like Melmetal. But because colorless-type Pokémon can use any type of energy, it’s also helpful. As a result, Dialga ex pairs just as well with Pokémon like Regigigas (whose damage-scaling Raging Hammer attack requires four energy), Wigglytuff ex (whose Sleep Song attack puts active Pokémon to sleep), and Pidgeot ex (whose Scattering Cyclone attack deals more damage based on how full your opponent’s bench is).
Lucario deck
With the prevalence of dark-type decks these days, fighting-type decks have emerged as a natural counter. And Lucario is an essential inclusion for fighting-type decks.
Lucario isn’t exactly great on its own merits. It only has 100 HP and its attack, Submarine Blow, only deals 40 damage. But its ability, Fighting Coach, is arguably the strongest support ability in the game right now. When in play, Lucario increases the damage output of your fighting-type cards by 20 — and it stacks, too! If the luck of the draw lands such that you can get two copies of Lucario on your bench, all of your fighting-type cards will deal an additional 40 damage per attack.
So while Lucario isn’t worth building a deck around, it’s absolutely worth slotting into any of your existing fighting-type decks. Machamp ex, for instance, could deal up to 160 damage per attack. Kabutops becomes nigh unstoppable with a 90-damage attack (that also heals 90 HP). Golem, already pretty evil when paired with Brock’s energy-ramping tricks, turns into one of the toughest non-ex cards in the game.
Celebi ex deck
Celebi ex has held fast as the strongest grass-type deck in the game. Celebi ex’s attack, Powerful Bloom, costs two energy. For every energy attached to Celebi ex, you flip coin — and for every heads you get, you deal 50 damage. Stack enough energy on Celebi ex and you won’t even need luck on your side to take out literally any Pokémon in the game with a single hit.
[Content truncated due to length...]
From Polygon via this RSS feed