Pokémon TCG Pocket has boiled the main Pokémon card game down to an incredibly simple form, to make it as easy as possible for players to hop in and blast through a few matches on their card-collecting journey. But already, some fans are taking the game a little more seriously than most. On November 9, the biggest Pokémon Pocket tournament to date took place, with over 1,000 competitors taking part.
Organized via the Limitless TCG website by Pokémon streamer Ursiiday, the tournament featured a $350 cash prize and had 1,101 people duking it out over the weekend to be the biggest fish in this fairly titchy pond.
The winner goes by the username Saitama. They brought monsters from the Lightning Pokémon card type like Pikachu ex and Zapdos ex to shock their way to success. Pikachu ex was the standout star of the tournament, in fact, found in roughly a third of decks. The electric mouse can deal 90 damage with the right Pokémon on the bench, with an attack that only takes two turns to power up. The fact that it’s a basic Pokémon also helps with consistency.
For Saitama, Pincurchin was also a clutch component of the deck, able to paralyze opposing Pokémon and lock them out of attacking or retreating for an entire turn.
While Pokémon TCG Pocket has been out for less than a month (the full Pokémon TCG Pocket release date was October 30) it’s interesting to see an early meta start to crystallize already.
Because it’s so new, Pocket’s card pool is far smaller than most trading card games. For instance, while the main game currently uses cards from over a dozen of the newest Pokémon sets, Pocket has just the one, with only 250 cards total for the dedicated deckbuilders to pick from.
This does present a potential danger, however. It’s going to be a lot easier for Pokémon TCG Pocket’s meta to become solved and stale before the next set releases.
However, judging from this tournament, there are still a few contenders jostling to be top of Pokémon TCG Pocket’s tier list. While there were plenty of contestants with Lightning type decks featuring Pikachu and Zapdos, Fire decks and Psychic decks also performed well.
The Fire decks mainly used Charizard ex and Moltres ex, while the Psychic types mirrored one of the best Pokémon decks in the TCG, using Gardevoir to load a Mewtwo up with Psychic energy.
For more pieces on Pocket Monsters, check out the most expensive Pokémon cards ever printed, and our primer on Pokémon TCG Pocket rarity.