Summary
Every set inPokemon TCG Pockettypically adds anything between a few dozen cards to over 150, and the recent Celestial Guardians expansion is no exception to this rule. This Alola-themed expansion will seemingly be completed next month with set A3a, asPokemon TCG Pocketleaks tease an Ultra Beast-based booster packcoming to the game. Celestial Guardians is nothing to scoff at on its own, though, as it features plenty of very good cards that either enabled new playstyles or made existing ones stronger, such as Lunala Ex with Giratina Ex. Yet, one card is currently sitting at the top of the meta for being a punitive counter to most decks, and it even killed a whole deck archetype in the process.
Several cards fromPokemon TCG Pocket’s Celestial Guardians ended up finding their spot in meta decks, including anything from the titular Solgaleo Ex and Lunala Ex to less renowned critters like Lurantis and Passimian Ex. Many good decks are flooding tournaments, and the new Rare Candy card helped further diversify the meta, thanks to Stage 2 Pokemon being more viable across the board. Between all these changes and the introduction of an incredibly powerful 3-Diamond card in the form of Oricorio, one deck archetype essentially went extinct.
Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Oricorio Decks Explained
Why Pokemon TCG Pocket’s 18-Trainer Decks Are Suddenly Unplayable
Despite never being the single best deck to play,Articuno Ex decks inPokemon TCG Pockettook over the meta because they were reliable, effective, and relatively easy to use and even build. The whole strategy was based on the fact that every starting hand in the game will always feature a Basic Pokemon to make sure the match is not automatically lost, so a deck with two copies of Articuno Ex and 18 Trainer cards will always start with one Articuno Ex in hand and four other cards.
The same strategy was then employed with other variations of this idea, such as Pachirisu Ex in Space-Time Smackdown, and Articuno Ex even had the ability to potentially end games on turn one withPokemon TCG Pocket’s Misty card, provided players were lucky enough to get a few heads in a row. However, Oricorio from Celestial Guardians single-handedly makes this strategy outdated, as a deck with two Ex cards simply cannot do anything against this bird critter. Oricorio has the Safeguard ability, which makes all damage dealt to Oricorio from attacks of Ex Pokemon be 0, making it mostly immune to some of the best cards in the game.
What follows is that the usage rate for Articuno Ex and similar decks plummeted after the release of Celestial Guardians, and rightfully so; any two-Ex card plus 18-Trainer card deck has no tools to deal with Oricorio, no matter what. The only option would be to use cards like Sabrina to force Oricorio out, but one can play twoOricorio inPokemon TCG Pocketand have another ready on the bench. On top of that, it’s easier to fish for Oricorio than it is for Sabrina, as the former can be found with a Poke Ball. Simply put, the risk of finding opponents with Oricorio in their decks is enough to stop playing Articuno Ex decks entirely, hence whyPokemon TCG Pocket’s meta changed even more.
How Oricorio Counters Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Meta Decks
If that was not enough, Oricorio can also shut down several good combos in the game as well as some of the biggest attackers around, such as Charizard Ex, Arceus Ex, Giratina Ex, and so forth. This forces players to have decks with decent counters to Oricorio unless they skip Ex cards entirely. For example, somemeta Solgaleo Ex decksrun one or two copies of Magearna to one-shot Oricorio and then switch to Solgaleo. Overall, Oricorio has dramatically changedPokemon TCG Pocket’s meta, and it may never be fully the same moving forward.
Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket
WHERE TO PLAY
Experience the fun of collecting Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) cards with Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, an upcoming game for iOS and Android devices from Creatures Inc., the original developers of the Pokémon TCG, and DeNA Co., Ltd. In this game, you will be able to open two booster packs every day at no cost. You can collect digital cards featuring nostalgic artwork from the past as well as brand-new cards that are exclusive to Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.Be on the lookout for new “immersive cards,” which will make you feel as though you’ve leapt into the world of the card’s illustration.
