Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Best Dragonite Deck Made Battling Fun Again

I recently worked out that I can buy Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Mew card for £54 ($69, nice) right now. All I need is 270 pack points to cop the two cards I need to complete the Kanto Pokedex (Blastoise and Vileplume, if you’re asking), which I can get by opening 54 packs. But there’s no fun in completing my collection this way. And besides, what does this have to do with Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Dragonite deck?

While I’ve been trying to complete my collection, I’ve also been trying to build decks. These two ways to play the game are often at odds with one another. I’ve been pulling Pikachu to get the cards I most desperately need to complete my collection. I’ve been pulling Mewtwo so I can get the Ralts I need to run a horrible meta Mewtwo ex deck. And I’ve avoided Charizard at all costs because it’s boring.

If I’d focused on one aspect of the game and pulled packs solely based on that, I’d probably have either my completed Mewtwo ex deck, or a full Pokedex and that gorgeous Mew card. As it stands, I spread myself too thin, and have neither. But that’s been a blessing in disguise.

How To Make A Dragonite Deck In Pokemon TCG Pocket

I’ve been greatly enjoying the Lightning-type resistance in Pokemon TCG Pocket, led largely by my beautiful full art Zapdos ex card that cost me an obscene amount of pack points. Again, I could have completed the Pokedex instead of grabbing this, but I’m here for a fun time, not a min-maxing time, as the saying goes.

While I’ve focused on my Zapdos deck, which relies on flipping heads an obscene number of times in order to be most effective, I’ve tried out plenty of others. Aerodactyl is great fun if you want to win without doing any damage (no, seriously), the promo Mankey makes Primeape a valid counter to Pikachu ex decks, and I’m constantly trying to cook up something Darkness-flavoured to deal super effective damage to all those pesky Mewtwo ex decks I see.

But my favourite deck – aside from Zapdos, that is – has been . Most importantly, the Dragonite card art is beautiful, and Dragonair is pretty nice, too. From a mechanical perspective, it’s still got that element of RNG to make it fun, but it’s more consistent and easier to build. It’s got no ex cards to offer your opponents double prizes, and the Weezing/Koga combination would feel dirty if it offered any more damage.

Here’s the deck list in full:

• 2x Dragonite
• 2x Dragonair
• 2x Dratini
• 2x Weezing
• 2x Koffing
• 2x Red Card
• 2x Poke Ball
• 2x Professor’s Research
• 2x Koga
• 2x Sabrina

The trainers can be switched around a little, especially Red Card. I don’t find X Speed has much use in the deck due to both Weezing and Dragonite having three-energy retreat costs, and I wouldn’t play with Giovanni as eight supporters is too many.

Red Card can disrupt your opponent nicely, Poke Ball gets those important Dratini to hand so you can start building up energy reserves on them. Perhaps a couple of Potions could work in place of the Red Cards? Try a few different combinations and see what works for you.

What Makes Dragonite So Fun?

The premise of this deck is simple: stall with Weezing until you get the appropriate energy on Dragonite. Weezing can use its ability to poison your opponent’s active Pokemon and just acts as a wall. If it gets low on HP, play Koga to withdraw it back to your hand.

Dragonite requires four energy to use Draco Meteor, one of which must be Lightning and one of which must be Water. Here’s the first element of RNG. You will draw Lightning- or Water-type energy randomly each turn. You’d think that in four turns, you’d get at least one of each, right? Wrong. It can go very badly.

However, once Dragonite is set up on your bench, either Koga your Weezing to your hand or wait for it to be knocked out, as it only gives up one prize card. Then drop a Draco. Drop another Draco. Most monsters can’t knock out Dragonite in one turn, so you get to deal as much damage as possible in two turns.

The problem is RNG. Draco Meteor deals 50 damage to your opponent’s Pokemon four times. However, it picks the Pokemon it affects at random. This could be benched Pokemon, it could be their active Pokemon. Who knows. Sometimes you get lucky and hit 200 damage on a Charizard ex. Other times the damage is spread evenly across four different Pokemon, and you don’t get a single knockout. Very occasionally, you hit the jackpot and knock out a Mewtwo ex and the poisoned Meowth on the bench, gaining three prizes with one attack and winning the game.

This randomness makes Dragonite great fun. It’s not a hard counter to Mewtwo, but if you get set up quickly you can win that matchup. Dragonite also has no weakness, which helps defensively. If you want to have fun and don’t care about winning so much that you’ll turn to the dark side that is Mewtwo ex, Dragonite might just be the deck for you.

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It’s Pikachu ex’s world, and we’re all just living in it.