Pokémon TCG Pocket - Let’s Give a Big Hand (ver. 6.2.1)

This is the deck that I used afterwards in the Team Rocket’s ambition era (which was only five weeks, but it was an era nonetheless), as “Tinkaton Tailor Soldier Spy” wasn’t working too well. Alakazam on the regular TCG has been taking off as a Paychic deck based around massive card draw, so I thought I’d try my hand at seeing if I could make it work in TCG Pocket. It was not working out as well as I’d hoped, but I thought it worth sharing this deck anyway: POKÉMON (7) 2x Team Rocket’s Slowpoke (Team Rocket’s Ambition) 2x Team Rocket’s Slowking ex (Team Rocket’s Ambition) 2x Meloetta (Fantastical Parade) 1x Oricorio (Celestial Guardians 77) TRAINERS (13) 1x Cyrus 2x Elegant Cape 1x Iono 2x Peculiar Plaza 2x Poké Ball 2x Professor’s Research 1x Repel 2x Sabrina Team Rocket’s Slowking ex, like Mega Evolution Alakazam, deals 20 damage with each card in your hand, though Alakazam places damage counters, a mechanic that currently does not exist in TCG Pocket, so Slowking simply deals direct damage instead. I initially had Sylveon ex in here for its card-drawing Ability, but I realized it was card-neutral in terms of card draw versus its own place in the deck, whereas as long as there were still Pokémon in the deck and it is out for at least two turns, Meloetta is card-positive. Oricorio is in there to fight other Oricorio, namely the Pom-Pom one that’s becoming more popular lately. Elegant Cape puts Slowking’s HP from 130 to 160, allowing it to survive attacks from Mega Sceptile ex, Mega Venusaur ex, Hydreigon (but not if it has a Rocky Helmet or Darkrai ex in the corner), Mega Altaria ex at full power, Team Rocket’s Moltres ex, Mega Rayquaza ex with three Energy, Mewtwo ex, and in this case here, Vespiquen ex; and buy some time against Sleep Scam. Iono is a hand reset in case you have accrued a large hand but are still unable to get the cards you need. Like with Alakazam, this is not an easy deck to use because you have to hold off playing cards you would play immediately in most other decks (like Basic Pokémon) to maintain your hand size. And like Alakazam, you are most vulnerable at the start, before you can build up your hand: if you don’t get the right cards in the first couple of turns, you will likely be stopped before you can even start. TCG Pocket also has an additional limitation of a maximum hand size of 10, capping its Hand Kinesis attack damage to 200, rendering it unable to one hit KO some Mega Evolution Pokémon (not that there’s much in this game able to do that). As I have played, I have run into some difficulty accumulating a hand size big enough to land some hits, due to the nature of TCG Pocket decks being only 20 cards in size: I often run out of my deck, another limiter to Hand Kinesis damage. I also find myself with a Pokémon standing in the way that I have trouble against (like the aforementioned Oricorio), hence the abundance of cards like Sabrina, Cyrus, and Repel. I was up against Vespiquen ex, who deals 70 damage with its Chase Order attack, or 140 if you discard a Benched Pokémon first. To fulfill the second condition, the deck is filled with Pokémon like Poltchageist and Shuckle ex to hold the line. They wanted to get maximum value out of Copycat and attached Leaf Cape to Poltchageist instead of Vespiquen ex, allowing me to reach the 7 cards in my hand to knock out Vespiquen ex instead of 9 with Leaf Cape. Note that I could have attached Elegant Cape to ensure Slowking ex could withstand a Chase Order attack at 140 damage, but I needed them in my hand to deal enough damage with Hand Kinesis. Without a Combee on the Bench, they had no way of dealing more than 60 damage afterwards if I knocked out Vespiquen ex.