M Alzamora 
Every new Pokemon TCG Pocket drop shakes up the game’s competitive meta, and Celestial Guardians offers new best deck options for players to try out in their ranked battle journey.
Competitive deck building and battles are among the biggest draws for Pokemon TCG Pocket. Every new set requires players to adjust their strategy based on current cards and meta strengths. Celestial Guardians is the latest set to join the fray, based on Gen 7 and highlighing Lunala and Solgaleo.
Players have a lot of new cards to choose from in building decks to fit the competitive play meta. Some cards from Celestial Guardians, however, stand out for their potential as part of new best decks.
Best new decks from Celestial Guardians
Celestial Guardians introduces a number of new and powerful cards for deck-building, like Solgaleo ex, Alolan Muk ex, and Decidueye ex. Some decks are already being tested for lucky pullers or those willing to grind pack openings using real-world currency. Here are some potential best strategies to build new decks with following the release of Celestial Guardians.
Lunala ex/Giratina ex
Following the release of Shining Revelry, Giratina ex took over the meta because of its ability to attach energy to itself. This meant that despite needing four energy to attack, it can deal damage in just three turns.
Lunala ex is one of the new cards introduced in Celestial Guardians and has the ability to move all Psychic energy from benched Pokemon to the active one. This immediately makes it easier to get high damage cards in play if they show up in later rounds. Combined with Giratina’s self-generating energy, Lunala ex is an easy way to deal mass amounts of damage every turn.
Other possible cards that could play well with Lunala ex are Gardevoir, Mewtwo ex, and Mew. Having a good retreat strategy to avoid losing energy to a knock-out is also essential to make the most of this Celestial Guardians deck.
- Cosmog x2
- Cosmoem x2 or rare candy x2
- Lunala ex x2
- Giratina ex x2
- Leaf x2
- Cyrus x2
- Giant cape x2
- Potion x2
- Pokeball x2
- Professor’s Research x2
Alolan Raichu ex/Pikachu ex/Oricorio (electric)
Though perhaps not immediately obvious, this strategy is based around the electric-type Oricorio. It takes zero damage from ex Pokemon, a major boon when the current meta revolves around ex cards. Additionally, it only needs to spend one energy retreating or two energy attacking despite being a three-diamond card.
Oricorio would be a valuable part of any electric or mixed deck, especially one containing the new Raichu ex. Alolan Raichu deals extra damage for every energy attached to the opponent’s active Pokemon, making it extra effective against cards that have high energy requirements. Specifically, it’s a decent counter to Giratina ex or Celebi ex decks. Alolan Raichu also can take any energy, making it useful outside of electric decks as well.
- Oricorio (electric) x2
- Pikachu x2
- Alolan Raichu ex x2
- Pikachu ex x2
- Dedenne x2
- Leaf x2
- Cyrus x2
- Pokeball x2
- Professor’s Research x2
Celestial Guardians’ rare candy may be major part of new meta
Introduced in Celestial Guardians, the rare candy item card may end up being a major player in the new best decks as it enters the game’s Pokemon TCG Pocket meta.
Rare candy allows a player to skip the middle evolution of a given Pokemon’s line, taking a basic Pokemon up to its Stage 2 form immediately. This saves a turn of evolving and gets more powerful Pokemon into play faster. When most of the best competitive Pokemon, like the classic Charizard ex or the newly introduced Lunala ex, require at least two rounds of build-up, rare candy could be a game-changer.
Only two rare candy are allowed in each deck at a time due to Pokemon TCG Pocket’s rules on duplicate named cards. Players who have two two-stage Pokemon lines in their deck will still need to have Stage 1 cards on hand. Still, rare candy could be an essential for most meta decks.
The only sure way to complete one of the best decks from Celestial Guardians is to keep pulling. Otherwise, collecting the highlight card for a premade deck can help identify best strategies in competitive play as the meta settles.
