How To Play The Cresselia ex Drop Event In Pokemon TCG Pocket

It seems like at the beginning of every month there’s a new Solo Battle event in Pokemon TCG Pocket, giving you access to new challenges and new cards. This month is no different, except that for the second time you can win a powerful new ex Pokemon that isn’t available anywhere else.

The Cresselia ex Drop Event introduces the Cresselia ex card, along with four other promos, and all you need to do is beat a handful of simple solo battles to collect them all. So grab your best Darkness-type deck, and shoot for the crescent moon!

What Is The Cresselia ex Drop Event?

The Cresselia ex Drop Event is the monthly Solo Battle event for February 2025. It runs from February 3, 2025, until February 17, 2025. Since you gain one Event Stamina every 12 hours, this gives you time to knock out about 32 Solo Battles before the event ends. That should be plenty of time to get a playset of each card, but you can also earn Event Hourglasses for more attempts.

Unlike currency in Wonder Pick events, the Event Hourglasses don’t disappear after Solo Battle events. Once you have all of the promos you need, save those hourglasses for the next one, in case you have bad luck getting the promo you want later.

Following the pattern established in the previous three Solo Battle events, the Cresselia ex Drop Event introduces five new cards, including two unique new cards and three with new artwork not found on other copies.

Cresselia ex Drop Event New Items

Like previous Solo Battle events, the Cresselia ex Drop Event introduces five new cards, along with previews of accessories not yet available to players.

The chase card this time is Cresselia ex, which, like Lapras ex, is exclusive to the event, so you’ll want to grind for two copies. Cresselia ex has a decent attack in Psychic Flash, which deals 80 damage for three Energy, but the Lunar Plumage ability allows it to heal 20 HP each time you attach a Psychic Energy to it.

The other functionally unique promo card is Misdreavus. This version doesn’t have the Mumble attack from the Space-Time Smackdown version of Misdreavus, but it instead gains Confuse Ray, which Confuses your opponent’s Active Pokemon for one Psychic Energy. This is likely to see play in Mismagius ex decks and is worth picking up.

The new printing of Electivire is also notable because it features art from Sumiyoshi Kizuki not previously available outside the Japan-exclusive Everyone’s Exciting Battle collection. While this card won’t make a big splash, it’s a fair upgrade to a Lt. Surge deck.

The remaining two cards are straight reprints from Space-Time Smackdown featuring exclusive art from older physical cards. Turtwig uses the same art as the version in the 2009 Supreme Victors expansion, while Skarmory uses art from 2016’s Sun & Moon expansion.

The event also teases new Cynthia-themed sleeves, a playmat, and a coin. Based on previous events, these are likely to be available in an upcoming Wonder Pick event.

Cresselia ex Drop Event Battles

There are four levels of battles you can play, ranging from Beginner to Expert. Each deck has its own set of missions and rewards, and each has a chance of rewarding Promo Packs. The higher the difficulty, the greater the odds of receiving a Promo Pack, so try for the highest levels.

Beginner – Cresselia Deck

The Beginner deck is a simple deck featuring 17 Basic Psychic-type Pokemon, one Stage-1 Pokemon (Kirlia), and two Poke Balls. Of the 18 Pokemon in this deck, 16 are weak to Darkness, with Drifloon standing out as the only Pokemon weak to Lightning.

This deck is pretty simple to beat with pretty much any deck that you have assembled, but to complete both Battle Tasks without repeating the match you should try to use a deck with Darkness-type Pokemon and multiple Basic Pokemon to put into play, like Ben Sledge’s Team Rocket deck.

Intermediate – Cresselia & Drifblim Deck

The Intermediate deck swaps out a bunch of one-of Basic Pokemon for some Stage 1 Pokemon like Dusclops, Drifblim, and Beheeyem, plus a second copy of Cresselia and two copies of Professor’s Research. This makes the deck significantly more consistent, but not much more powerful.

Like the previous deck, it’s worthwhile to bring a Darkness deck to this battle, just for the Battle Tasks. But remember that if a Pokemon is Knocked Out via Poison damage, you don’t get credit for the task to KO your opponent’s Active Pokemon with your own Darkness Pokemon.

Advanced – Cresselia ex & Gardevoir Deck

The Advanced version of the deck shows more refinement, dropping Misdreavus, Duskull, and Dusclops and picking u[ Gardevoir, Kirlia, and Giratina, plus a Potion and a Giant Cape. It also trades a Cresselia for a Cresselia ex.

Gardevoir makes Cresselia ex a major threat, allowing it to heal up to 40 HP each turn and to start attacking almost immediately after being played. Giratina further exacerbates Cresselia ex’s bulkiness with its Levitate ability, allowing it to switch in and block while your opponent heals Cresselia ex, then retreat for free.

Despite type advantage, lower-power Darkness decks can struggle here. We were still able to win with an Arbok/Weezing deck and earn the low rarity task rewards, but it was a tight match. This is a good time to bring out your reliable competition deck, and we found the Celebi ex/Serperior deck to make short work of it.

Expert – Cresselia ex & Mismagius ex Deck

The Expert deck is the most advanced deck in the Cresselia ex Drop Event and may be the most powerful event deck to date. This deck trades out the Elgyem and Drifloon lines, plus Giratina and Cresselia, for another Gardevoir and Cresselia ex, plus Misdreavus and Mismagius ex. It also drops the Potion and gains two copies of Leaf and one of Giant Cape, making the deck extremely flexible to play around threats.

Mismagius ex’s Magical Delusion hits for 70 damage and causes Confusion, making it more difficult for your own Pokemon to land a blow while your opponent winds up for a second shot and heals Cresselia ex on the Bench by attaching Energy. Meanwhile, one or two Gardevoir can sit on the Bench and pass out Energy to accelerate the deck and heal Cresselia ex.

This deck is fast, consistent, and tanky, and it can be difficult to land the final hit as your opponent keeps switching and healing. High-tier decks like Mewtwo ex and Celebi ex, that can one-shot the ace Pokemon are strongly recommended.