Best Lightning-Type Cards In Pokemon TCG Pocket

Key Takeaways

• Lightning-type cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket have cheap attack costs and can paralyze opponents, making them aggro-oriented.
• Pikachu EX is a strong basic attacker with the potential to deal up to 120 damage with a low energy cost.
• Raichu guarantees 140 points of damage but must discard all energy, providing a surefire attack option.

Lightning-type cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket are known for their extreme supply of energy, which makes their attack and retreat costs so cheap. But of course, there are cards with some high-cost attacks that deal a significant amount of damage. This makes lightning cards some of the most aggro-oriented in the whole game.

One of the most powerful status effects that can be often seen on Lightning-type cards is Paralyzed. It can seriously disrupt some of the key tactics and strategies of the opponents, which makes lightning cards so formidable. Beginner players will especially like playing with this type of card, as it offers a vast pool of basic options that are very strong.

8 Pincurchin

Best Basic Card For Inflicting Paralyzed

• Stage: Basic
• HP: 70
• Evolves from: N/A

Pincurchin can deal a little bit of damage, but that’s not its main purpose. It’s all about the Thunder Shock ability, which flips a coin and, if the result is heads, paralyzes one of the opponent’s active Pokemon. When a card is Paralyzed, it can’t attack or retreat, which renders it useless for at least one turn.

For a basic Pokemon, this is a very strong effect that could easily turn the game into its owner’s favor very early on. That’s why Pincurchin is one of the best basic Pokemon in the game.

7 Pikachu EX

Best Basic Attacker Card

• Stage: Basic
• HP: 120
• Evolves from: N/A

Pikachu EX is not only the most recognizable Pokemon in the game, but also one of the strongest Lightning-type attackers. It utilizes the Circle Circuit attack, which hits for 30 damage by default, but if there are benched Pokemon, it adds another 30 points of damage per each one. Since players can hold up to three benched Pokemon, Pikachu EX can potentially deal 120 damage.

The best part about this card is that the attack is very cheap, costing only two Lightning Energy, which makes it perfect during the early to mid game.

6 Zapdos EX

Most Overpowered Basic Attacker Card

• Stage: Basic
• HP: 130
• Evolves from: N/A

Lightning-type cards are renowned for dealing lots of damage, and Zapdos EX proves this statement like no other Pokemon. It has two types of attacks, such as Peck and Thundering Hurricane. The first one is nothing special, but the other one can deal up to 200 damage a turn.

It all depends on the four coin flips, where each flip adds up another 50 points. It’ll be very hard to compete against such a strong basic attacker, which has an extremely low cost of retreat and 130 HP.

5 Magneton

Best Card For Energy Acceleration

• Stage: 1
• HP: 80
• Evolves from: Magnemite

Magneton can literally attract energy using its Volt Charge ability. It allows players to attach one Lightning Energy to Magneton once every turn. The best part about this mechanic is that Magneton requires only a single Lightning Energy to attack, in addition to three Colorless.

The Spinning Attack deals 60 damage, which may not seem much in comparison to other cards, but when it’s this cheap, it’s definitely worth it.

4 Heliolisk

Best Low Cost Attacker Card

• Stage: 1
• HP: 90
• Evolves from: Helioptile

Attacking and spending a lot of energy is worthwhile only in case the attack deals tons of damage. Heliolisk, on the other hand, may not deal too much damage, but at least it’s super cheap. The Quick Attack ability can deal up to 80 damage and requires only two Colorless. It doesn’t even need players to accumulate Lightning Energy.

The retreat cost of this Pokemon is also extremely low at only a single Colorless. Thus, Heliodisk allows players to transfer their Lightning Energy to other cards.

3 Jolteon

Best Evolution Attacker Card

• Stage: 1
• HP: 90
• Evolves from: Eevee

Cheap attacks usually deal little damage, but Jolteon’s Pin Missile can deal up to 160 points of damage if the RNG is on the right side. If all four coins flip correctly, this much damage can be achieved for a mere one Lightning Energy and one Colorless. That’s basically free when comparing it to other cards of a similar kind.

Jolteon can be combined well with Zapdos EX, which has a similar mechanic, and together, they can deal as much as 360 points of damage.

2 Raichu

Best Card For Guaranteed Damage

• Stage: 1
• HP: 100
• Evolves from: Pikachu

Most lightning-type cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket have one or another type of RNG involved, whether it’s for attacking or activating abilities. But Raichu provides a 100% guarantee that it’ll deal 140 points of damage no matter what. Sure, the Thunderbolt attack is quite expensive at three Lightning Energy, but when there’s a need for a surefire attack, it’s the only real option.

Players will also have to discard all energy attached to Raichu, which means that it’ll have to leave the battlefield. But one precise attack of such power may be enough to win any match.

1 Eelektross

Best Evolution Card For Inflicting Paralyzed

• Stage: 2
• HP: 140
• Evolves from: Eelektrik

Eelektross combines all the best elements of a Lightning-type card under a single banner. It has a large HP pool for survivability, it has a powerful Thunder Fang attack, which deals 80 points of damage with no drawbacks, and it inflicts the Paralyzed status effect on one of the opponent’s active Pokemon.

When all of these elements are considered strong individually, they can make any card overpowered when brought together. That’s why Eelektross is considered the top evolution card of the Lightning-type.