New Pokémon TCG Pocket Deck Turns Heads With Strong Tournament Appearance

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A new deck has raised some eyebrows after placing in a recent tournament for not using any of the game's strongest cards. players have focused mainly on collecting cards, although a growing competitive scene has emerged in recent weeks. Influencers like Ursiiday have organized tournaments with thousands of participants, providing a steady look at which cards and decks are emerging as dominant options in play. While most of these decks feature obviously strong cards like Pikachu ex, a new deck showcased a different strategy that might become viable in tournament play.

The new deck, run by a user named Obamna, came in third place in the most recent Ursiiday Pocket Weekly tournament using a combination of Greninja and Articuno ex. The deck's strategy, as explained on, focused on targeting Benched Pokémon, with both Articuno ex and Greninja able to hit non-Active Pokémon. What's more, Greninja can also attack from the bench, dealing 20 damage per turn to any Pokémon thanks to its Water Shuriken ability.

The deck is anchored by Articuno ex, a Basic Pokémon that deals 80 damage to the Active Pokémon and 10 damage to each of an opponent's Benched Pokémon with its Blizzard attack. The main play is to use Articuno ex in the Active spot, with one or two Greninja on the bench to deal up to 40 extra points of damage per turn. Using Greninja as support, Articuno ex can either deal up to 120 damage to an Active Pokémon or 50 damage to any Benched Pokémon.

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The deck also has a type advantage against Charizard ex decks, which likely helped it in the tournament. The main drawback to the deck is that Articuno ex requires three Water-type Energy to use its main Blizzard attack. The deck uses Misty as an Energy generator, but that card is decidedly swingy and requires multiple successful coin tosses to generate a large amount of energy.