I’ve been playing Pokemon TCG Pocket for a little over a month (I took an extended holiday to New Zealand, if anyone asks) and in that time I’ve tried a whole lot of decks, and been impressed by very few. There are some quirks in the battle system that make certain decks stand head and shoulders above the rest, and try as I might to brew some off-meta spice, it just felt like there was no way to beat a turn-one Misty or a Gardevoir-buffed Mewtwo ex.
The fact that you can force an ex Pokemon into your starting hand puts a real limitation on the type of viable decks out there, and the small card pool means there are only going to be so many competitive decks, but the thing that really felt like it was holding me back more than anything else is the energy system. More specifically, the fact that multi-color decks are inherently inconsistent because the type of energy you get each turn is random.
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Card games are all about reducing variance as much as possible. Every deck you see plays two copies of Poke Ball and two copies of Professor’s Research because they are cards that help you dig deeper into your deck for the tools you need to win. There’s already a lot of random chance when it comes to the cards you’ll draw each turn, so the last thing you want to do is add variance to the type of energy you’ll have access to each turn.
One Energy Is Better Than Two (Or Three)
This is why almost all of the best decks use just one energy type. Mewtwo/Gardevoir is Psychic-type, Articuno/Misty is Water-type, and Zapdos/Pikachu is Electric-type. It’s one thing to only have 200~ cards to work with, but only being able to use one color at a time severely limits how creative your decks can be.
That hasn’t stopped me from trying. Recently I put together a Zapdos deck that uses Pincurchin, an Electric-type Pokemon, and Hypno, a Psychic-type. The idea is that by paralyzing the opponent’s Pokemon with Pincurchin and putting it to sleep with Hypno, I might be able to stall the game out long enough to power up one or two Zapdos ex, then finish the game quickly once my big mean birds are in play. The problem was that my stall wasn’t stalling enough, because nearly half the time I’d draw a Psychic energy instead of an Electric one.
I was describing this problem to a friend who very bluntly asked me why I don’t just turn off the Psychic energy in that deck, and suddenly I realized I have been playing Pokemon TCG Pocket all wrong. As it turns out, even if you’re using different types in the same deck, you don’t have to use multiple energy types. This is a game changer for deck-building, and I had no idea.
Did Everyone Else Know About This?
I have to assume I’m not the only clueless Pokemon trainer out there, so if you’re like me and this is news to you, here’s how to change the type of energy in your Energy Zone. All you have to do is open up your deck editor by navigating to the My Cards menu (second from the left on the bottom of the screen) and choosing Decks.
Once you’ve picked the deck you want to edit, you tap on the top half of the screen to open the customization menu, then tap on the box labeled Energy. Here you can choose any energy type you want, up to three, that will appear in your Energy Zone. The type of Pokemon in your deck is irrelevant – you can assign any energy type you want to any of your decks.
If you didn’t already know about this, I hope this will open up your deck-building avenues significantly. Now you can utilize Hypno’s Sleep Pendulum ability in any deck, or Pidgeot’s Drive Off ability to force your opponent’s Pokemon out of the active spot.
As more cards with abilities get introduced, this is going to be an even more essential part of deck building. I’m glad I figured it out now, and if you didn’t know about this either, now you do.
Experience the fun of collecting Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) cards with Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, an upcoming game for iOS and Android devices from Creatures Inc., the original developers of the Pokémon TCG, and DeNA Co., Ltd.
In this game, you will be able to open two booster packs every day at no cost. You can collect digital cards featuring nostalgic artwork from the past as well as brand-new cards that are exclusive to Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.
Be on the lookout for new “immersive cards,” which will make you feel as though you’ve leapt into the world of the card’s illustration.