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The Starmie ex and Articuno ex Pokemon TCG Pocket deck is a high-risk, high-reward deck that relies on the Misty Trainer card to quickly apply Water Energy to Starmie or Articuno ex, which then lets you sweep through the enemy team with ease.
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This deck is fairly expensive to construct, and takes some good luck to win consistently with, but is incredibly satisfying when you pull off a high Misty roll. Below, we’ll take a look at how to build this deck, how to pilot it, and some strategies for various matchups.
Starmie And Articuno ex Decklist
The stars of this deck are Starmie ex and Articuno ex; every other card is to support them, especially the Trainer card Misty. Professor’s Research and Poke Ball are used to draw these two Pokemon, while Giovanni and Sabrina are good cards that are included in almost every other deck.
Here’s the full decklist.
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Starmie ex/Articuno ex |
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Staryu x2 |
Starmie ex x2 |
Articuno ex x2 |
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Misty x2 |
Giovanni x2 |
Sabrina x2 |
Potion x2 |
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Poke Ball x2 |
Red Card x2 |
Professor’s Research x2 |
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This deck requires you to pull from all three Genetic Apex packs, making it difficult to completely assemble. While Starmie ex is absolutely necessary, you can sub Articuno ex for Lapras ex, which is obtainable for free from its related event.
Deck Strategy
Due to the relatively small deck size and ability to draw Basic Cards, strategies in Pokemon TCG Pocket are fairly consistent. However, this doesn’t end up being the case with this deck, as there is a slight reliance on high Misty rolls to ramp up your offense. Failing Misty rolls will leave you behind, and could end up costing you the match.
Starmie ex is one of the strongest cards in the game, with a 90-damage attack for only two Energy, no retreat cost, and decent HP. Your goal with this deck is to get out Starmie ex as quickly as possible, use Misty to attach at least two Energy to Starmie, then blast through the enemy team with Hydro Splash.
Even without Misty, Starmie is very strong, and outpaces most other Pokemon in the game in terms of energy-to-damage ratio.
Articuno ex can also be used when you don’t draw Starmie, especially since, as a Basic Pokemon, you can play it on the first turn and immediately stack Energy with Misty.
Articuno’s Blizzard costs three Energy instead of Starmie’s two, and it does ten less damage, but it also hits the opponent’s benched Pokemon for ten damage each. This lets you take out a low-health Pokemon that the opponent has retreated, or weaken Pokemon before they enter battle.
Deck Matchups
Both Starmie ex and Articuno ex are weak to Electric, which makes this deal extremely unfavorable against the popular Pikachu ex Decks. Even with optimal play, winning against a Pikachu ex deck is very unlikely, unless you happen to get lucky with an early Misty and manage to sweep through their team.
On the other hand, this deck is very favorable against Charizard ex decks, and Fire-type decks in general due to type advantage bonuses.
Overall, outside of Pikachu or similar Electric-type decks, this deck performs well against high-tier decks like Mewtwo ex or Venusaur ex, mainly due to Starmie’s inherent strength.
