Welcome to Rare Candy's "Questions Answered," series, where we look into your burning questions about the world of TCG and collectibles.
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Are you getting into the Pokémon TCG and ready to up your game in 2024? Building a good deck is one of the most important skills in the competitive environment, and is challenging to master even for seasoned players. Today’s guide will dive into what makes a winning deck, from strategic building tips to insights on the top decks dominating the scene. We’ll end with an analysis of the best Battle Decks available to purchase in order to bolster your collection of competitive cards.
What Makes a Good Deck?
Building a deck in top-level Pokémon TCG is an extremely challenging and nuanced task. However, there are several general rules you should try and be mindful of as you’re searching for the perfect 60 cards:
Consistency/Streamlining: Almost every deck that sees high level tournament success is built around just one or two core Pokémon . This is no accident, as a more widespread lineup of Pokémon leaves your deck vulnerable to being too inconsistent and disorganized. Most decks utilize very high counts of Trainer cards and supportive Pokémon to execute their game plan as quickly and consistently as possible. A collection of these cards which help a deck function consistently is called an ‘engine’; when building your own deck, stay focused on the main Pokémon and make sure you have a good engine!
Effective Strategy: Pokémon TCG, now more than ever, is a highly refined game. The game’s top decks have been optimized through countless hours of communal strategizing and tournament experience. For this reason, very few Pokémon are powerful enough to compete with the winning archetypes. For the most part, building the best deck will involve selecting one of these existing strategies and instead focusing on optimizing the counts of various supporting cards.
Synergy: In a deck where you are only allowed 60 cards, every single choice matters. This means that in order to build the best deck, you must clearly understand your strategy and how each card synergizes with each other to aid that strategy. It’s important to understand a deck’s strengths and weaknesses, and especially how it matches up into the other top contenders!
Adapting to the Evolving Meta: The Pokémon TCG metagame is constantly changing, with new expansions and yearly rotations shaking up the competitive landscape. Staying informed about the top decks and popular strategies is crucial. Limitless is a fantastic online platform where you can find major tournament results from each Regional or National level event–including the full deck lists of the best performing players! This is one of the best resources in the game right now, and you should study it as often as you can.
With these things in mind, as you examine the best players’ deck lists, approach them as curiously as possible: why might they have chosen this deck? What factors might have led to this particular deck’s success at this event? If they made an unusual card choice, what might they have been preparing for? Asking yourself questions like these is key to becoming the best deck builder you can be, and getting a leg up on the competition!
A Close Look at the Best Battle Decks in 2024
If you are newer to the game and looking to build a competitive collection, the thought of buying all the singles necessary can be daunting. Many decks utilize multiple copies of cards that can be quite expensive or difficult to track down. Battle Decks are ready-made decks centered around a certain Pokémon ; while they may not be as powerful as the decks played in major tournaments, some can be extremely useful because they contain full playsets of staple competitive cards! Here are the best value Battle Decks available right now:
1. Gardevoir ex Battle Deck
This is far and away the best value Battle Deck purchase for prospective competitive players. While it may not be tournament-ready out of the box, Gardevoir ex is a powerful archetype and contains many cards which are widely used in current Standard decks.
Key Cards: Kirlia to draw cards throughout the game, Gardevoir ex to accelerate Energy to your Pokémon , Bravery Charm to power up Drifloon’s attack. Iono/Professor’s Research/Arven are all ubiquitous supporters in many decks, making this a versatile choice.
Playing Tips:Set up as many Kirlia as possible to draw through your deck and pump Energy into the discard pile! Drifloon needs to be damaged by Gardevoir ex’s ability, so having as many Psychics in the discard as possible is very important.
Weaknesses: Decks that can outpace its setup or apply early pressure can be difficult to deal with, as it takes a few turns to set up Gardevoir ex and multiple Kirlia.
2. Miraidon ex Battle Deck
This deck features Miraidon ex, a powerful lightning Pokémon that can set up your board and dish out big damage. Its simple and aggressive strategy makes it suitable for newer players to learn the game, and it contains many relevant staple cards. The deck itself is far from optimal, but can be a good starting point to get familiar with the main strategy.
Key Cards: Bibarel to draw cards. Miraidon ex to set up your board and attack. Regieleki VMAX to boost your damage against higher-HP Pokémon. Boss’s Orders and Forest Seal Stone are used in almost every deck!
Playing Tips: Build up energy quickly with Electric Generator and attack as quickly as possible. Speed is your advantage!
Weaknesses: Miraidon ex struggles to beat decks which can match its early aggression or resist it, particularly those which attack with Pokémon only worth a single Prize card.
3. Chien-pao ex Battle Deck
This deck is not quite as strong as the other two on this list; it is far off from the versions of Chien-pao ex which are dominating major tournaments. However, there are still some useful cards which can be salvaged to create your own decks.
Key Cards: Chien-pao ex to search out Energy and attack, Baxcalibur to accelerate it to the board for big Hail Blade plays. Pokegear 3.0 is a commonly used card.
Playing Tips: Prioritize getting Baxcalibur in play as quickly as possible, and make sure you have a backup Frigibax ready in case your opponent chooses to target it!
Weaknesses: Watch out for decks that utilize quick attacks or spread damage (such as Radiant Greninja) that can knock out your Frigibax before they get a chance to evolve.
Looking to pick up a battle deck of your own? See what's available on Rare Candy's shop listings right now!
