The Best Card Combos On Launch In Pokémon TCG Pocket
October 8, 2024
Pokémon TCG Pocket's first set brings plenty of variety in strategy, giving players ample room to get creative with their deck building. While some cards are very clearly designed to shape the early metagame, there are also plenty of low-key powerhouses that can hold their own against any opponent.
Here, we'll be covering some of the strongest card combos available in Pokémon TCG Pocket at launch. These cards are sure to define the early metagame. If you want to build a competitive deck, the card combos here will make for a very strong backbone.
Weezing, Muk, Koga, and Arbok — Chemical Warfare
Weezing, on its lonesome, doesn't offer a whole lot. Its ability to poison opposing Active Pokémon for free is pretty decent, but it needs other cards to truly shine. Thankfully, Muk and Koga were specifically designed to synergize perfectly with this Pokémon.
The general gameplan of this trio necessitates Weezing. Activating its ability, Gas Leak, is crucial for enabling Muk. You want to leave the opponent's Active Pokémon poisoned at all times.
While you could totally pay the expensive retreat cost to swap Weezing out, if it's your Active Pokémon, that's mainly what you want Koga for. Sending Weezing to the hand isn't the best thing in the world, but it will, at the very least, be fully healed if you ever get to play it again.
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Muk should then easily slide into the active spot. Venoshock is a bit costly, but 120 damage is nothing to scoff at off of just three energy. Accounting for poison damage at the end of the turn, Muk can effectively one-shot Mewtwo EX. That's the ideal scenario, but it's not necessarily the most realistic one. In truth, Muk is a bit too hard to set up regularly. Fortunately, players can easily pivot to Arbok instead, which also works out more than well. Preventing opposing Pokémon from retreating is very valuable disruption. At the very least, Arbok can soften up an opponent, leaving another card to come clean up the mess.
Moltres and Charizard — Fire Feeding
Given how popular Charizard is, you should expect to see this combo a lot. There's also the fact that Moltres EX into Charizard EX takes almost no effort at all. Really, it's only held back by its inconsistency. The plan is very simple, otherwise. You want Moltres EX to feed fire energy into your Charizard EX (or any of its pre-evolutions) via Inferno Dance. Because that move is so cheap, you can start setting up this combo very early in your matches.
Once Charizard EX is fully built up, Moltres EX should be retreated. 2 energy honestly isn't too expensive for that, but adding X Speeds into your deck also won't hurt you. Once Charizard EX gets fielded, you can basically just tear through everything that gets in your way. Crimson Storm will OHKO everything currently in the game. With good Inferno Dance luck, Charizard EX should be able to get at least two Crimson Storms in. Charizard's staggering 180 HP makes it very likely that he'll get the opportunity to attack again.
Charizard and Moltres make a very strong combo, but they're not exactly invincible. Again, success is predicated heavily on luck. You'll have to accept the fact that a bad opening hand might already spell your doom.
Magneton, Raichu, and Lt. Surge — Surging Energy
Magneton's ability, Volt Charge, is, frankly, amazing. Generating extra energy is super valuable in Pokémon TCG Pocket. Better yet, Magneton can easily funnel all that energy into a card that can better use it, thanks to Lt. Surge.
This is how you're supposed to get the most out of Raichu, whose Thunderbolt threatens a majority of cards in the game. While Raichu can easily do 140 damage with just one single move, discarding all of its energy makes it mostly unplayable outside of this strategy. With everything working together, you can ideally get two Thunderbolts off in a game. That should be good enough to seal a win.
Of course, you can always fall back on other options with a deck built around these cards. Pikachu EX, in particular, makes for a great backup plan. It has solid health, does solid damage, and can retreat at a cheap cost. Go electric if you want a shockingly good deck.
Gardevoir and Mewtwo — Psychic Pass
Gardevoir works very similar to Magneton, but needs even less support to properly contribute. Its ability, Psy Shadow, already allows it to transfer energy right to another Pokémon, specifically your Active one. This, of course, is of huge help to Mewtwo EX, who is really energy hungry. Pysdrive is an incredibly expensive attack, but the damage mostly makes up for it.
There really isn't much more to say on this combo. It's consistent. It works. It's safe. Kinda boring. If you really want to use Mewtwo, though, this is definitely the way to go. You can spice up the deck with any cards that may help preserve Mewtwo's health. That's essential if you want to hold a greater advantage, starting from the early-game.
These are just a few combos to consider, but they are the main ones to keep in mind. The first set, Genetic Apex, is split between three different booster packs: one each for Pikachu, Charizard, and Mewtwo. To build out any of these combos, just make sure to pick out your packs wisely. If you want to go all in on Raichu, then go for the Pikachu packs. If you want Charizard, go for the Charizard packs. You should be able to have a fairly complete deck in no time by sticking to a set plan. You'll have a very strong core to boot, too.
