The Best Tricks To Improve Your Deck In Pokemon TCG Pocket

Pokemon TCG Pocket may have fewer cards than the full version of the card game, but there are countless possibilities for those who love building decks. Competing against other players is a big step towards putting your deck to the test and it can get brutal at times.

However, there are ways to make sure that your deck is always up-to-date and countering every possible threat you may encounter. Even one tiny adjustment to your deck can make it more powerful if you know what you’re doing and, luckily, there are plenty of tricks to instantly boost your skill ceiling.

8 Slide In A Single Fossil

A Fossil Will Save You From Sabrina

Sabrina is one of the best Supporters in the game since it can force your opponent to switch out Pokemon. One fantastic tip to make your deck better against this play is to add a single Fossil Item to your 20-card deck.

This Fossil can be placed on the Bench, so when your opponent tries to use Sabrina, you can put the Fossil in the Active Spot. Next turn, you can discard the Fossil directly from the field, which will allow you to move one Pokemon from your Bench to the Active Spot. Naturally, this will be the same Pokemon that your opponent tried to get rid of. Decks are stronger just for having this option.

7 Use Single Point Pokemon

Make Your Deck Harder To Score Points Against

If your ex Pokemon keep getting knocked out and your games are going too quickly, one great trick to deal with the issue is to use decks made out of single-point Pokemon. This means no ex Pokemon, so your opponent can only score one point at a time.

This will slow down your opponent’s path to victory but also allow you to score more hits in the long run. There are plenty of great single-point Pokemon including non-ex versions of the best ex Pokemon in the game. While single-point Pokemon may not be as powerful, they can allow you to outlive your opponent until they simply run out of gas.

6 Add Variety To Your Items

Trading Consistency For Diverse Options

One trick you can do to instantly make your deck better is to go for a single Trainer structure for the less essential Items and Supporters. While Red Card can be powerful, having two will not help you if your opponent is not playing Evolutions.

So, even if you aren’t seeing the same Supporters or Items consistently, having a few single copies of some of them will improve the variety of what your deck can do, and what it can respond to. It’s better to have two different Items in your hand rather than two copies of one Item that are simply dead in your hand.

5 Draw Power

Increasing The Speed Of Your Deck

If you’re using Stage Two Pokemon, you have a significantly longer set-up period before your board is at full power. This is where it becomes important to go through your deck faster before cards like Pikachu ex can kill you.

The trick here is to squeeze in a Meowth or two into your deck instead of just filling up on random items. If you open Professor’s Research, Meowth, and Poke Ball, that’s a total of five cards you get to draw once you include your draw phase. This one trick will help you get your Stage Two Pokemon in play faster. The only downside is that your deck is more susceptible to Red Card.

4 Add Options To Manipulate Your Draws

Take A Peak Ahead

Believe it or not, there is a way to manipulate the cards that you draw next. Cards like Porygon and Pokedex let you see what your next draw is. As an Item, it doesn’t interfere with using cards like Professor’s Research to draw into them.

The idea here is to play your cards in the right order. Pokedex or Porygon will show you what comes next. If you approve of your next few draws, use Professor’s Research to get them in your hand. If you don’t, use Poke Ball to search for a Basic Pokemon and shuffle the deck. Now, when you use Professor’s Research, you will draw into two new selections of cards. This trick makes your deck better by giving it options to manipulate your draws.

3 Add A Third Basic Option

Having More Retreat Options

One trick that will instantly let you utilize Retreats more often is throwing in a Basic Pokemon into your decklist. Ideally, this Pokemon will be able to tank a few hits if you draw into it in your starting hand while also being able to throw a good punch.

This trick works because it gives you a Pokemon to guard you while you prepare but also allows you to retreat it and stall the game with a fresh new Pokemon. If all you have are essential Pokemon for your strategy, seeing one of them get knocked out early can be devastating. So just adding that extra Basic Pokemon allows your strategies to go through more often.

2 Add Options To Stall For Time

Keep Your Opponent From Getting Ready

With some decks being incredibly fast, the best trick you can do to make your deck better against them is to add plenty of stall tactics. These are Pokemon that can prevent damage on your opponent’s next turn, force your opponent to discard Energy, or even keep their Pokemon at bay using Status Effects.

Even Colorless Basic Pokemon that can be splashed into any deck can make you a tougher opponent to deal with. Not only does this trick stall your opponent, but it can even make the job so hard, that they will deck out before scoring enough points, thus, giving you a win by default.

1 Take Note Of Cards With Potential

Improving Your Deck In The Long Run

If you want to win more games in the long run, one trick you can do is to take note of what would make your deck stronger but is not available. Would your deck be better if you could redo a coin flip? Would Evolving work better if an Item could let you skip from Basic to Stage two?

Also, keep note of what cards you would be willing to drop if those effects ever became available. This will ensure that whenever a new set drops, you aren’t stuck figuring out what works best. Instead, you will be able to make modifications faster and be one step ahead of the meta. One example of this is Primeape becoming great with a Mankey that has just the right attack effect.