Every online card game sees a deck develop that has everyone just want to quit. For Pokémon TCG Pocket, it’s Mewtwo/Gardevoir. And I love playing it.
There are so few drawbacks, too. Occasionally you’ll get plain unlucky, and the game will just refuse to give you a Ralts or a Mewtwo, which leaves you with a pile of mediocre cards that’ll fall to any other solid deck. But that happens far less often than you’d think.
It’s outrageously easy to win with this, to the degree where you start wondering if The Pokémon Company is going to be forced to issue a nerf. If they did, it would make sense to prevent it from attacking two turns in a row. But please don’t, because it’s too fun right now.
Advantages
- All-dominating
- Hard to mess up
- Hard to counter
Disadvantages
- Can be tricky to evolve Gardevoir
- People quitting on you
Cards
The essential cards for this deck are two of Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir, and at least one Mewtwo ex. I’ve not been fortunate enough to pull a second of those, so back it up with a standard Mewtwo that lacks the two-energy 50 damage attack but otherwise works the same. Then, you’re going to want two Poké Balls, two Professor’s Research, and at least one X Speed. After that, you can experiment. My setup is:
- Jynx x2
- Ralts x2
- Kirlia x2
- Gardevoir x2
- Clefairy
- Clefable
- Mewtwo ex
- Mewtwo
- Potion x2
- X Speed x2
- Poké Ball x2
- Professor’s Research x2
How to play the deck
The trick here is that Mewtwo ex (and even the regular Mewtwo) has a devastating 150 attack, which the game attempts to temper by having you require four energy to use it and discard two of them every time you do. Except, along comes Gardevoir, evolved from Ralts and Kirlia, with the Ability to add an energy to your Active Pokémon every turn. That means, along with the energy you get per turn anyway, you can replenish back up to four every single turn. It’s unrelenting.
The two key things are to get Mewtwo in the Active Spot and Gardevoir evolved. So, you want Ralts on deck ASAP, and then put Jynx or Clefairy into play from the start. They can absorb early attacks while you prime Mewtwo with energy and get Ralts into Kirlia, then Kirlia into Gardevoir. When the cards fall right, this can happen in just two turns. Otherwise, hold your nerve, let your starting card take a dive if you need to, and then put Mewtwo in when you’re ready.
The Professor’s Research and Poké Ball cards should help you get any missing Pokémon out of the deck, and it’s worth having those X Speeds so you can pull out Jynx or Clefairy for free when you’re ready to move in Mewtwo—otherwise you’ll end up an energy behind, spent on the retreat cost. Then, blast, replenish, blast, replenish, and your opponent is likely going to be dependent upon unlikely coin flips to outdo it.
If anything, the main failing with this deck is that when people see you setting it up, they concede before you even get going. They lack spirit. Although, it’s hard to blame them, given there’s very little that can stand up to it.
I think, eventually, people are going to start countering with decks featuring Aerodactyl, given every attack has a 50 percent chance of the opponent having to shuffle their Active Pokémon into their deck. That’d be a devastating blow against Mewtwo, so shhhh, don’t tell anyone else.