Celestial Guardians is out in Pokémon Pocket, and there’s a ton of new cards to explore. There are a lot of really exciting cards to try, but which cards will actually impact the metagame?
As exciting as the new, incredibly rare, ex Pokémon are, we have some good news for Pokémon Pocket gamers. The most impactful cards from this set are largely uncommons. This means that acquiring the cards that have the highest chance of impacting the metagame shouldn’t be too difficult.
Here are some of the cards you should be on the watch for as you crack your first Celestial Guardians packs.
Oricorio (Electric)
This bizarre basic Pokémon doesn’t boast a particularly interesting attack or health pool. What it does do, however, is completely invalidate ex damage. Since the last metagame for Pokémon Pocket completely revolved around Basic ex Pokémon, Oricorio has a lot of potential.
For example, the best deck in Shining Revelry’s metagame was Giratina ex/Darkrai ex. This deck has no way of dealing damage to Oricorio outside of Darkrai’s ability and Rocky Helmets. This means that Oricorio can both provide chip damage and buy tons of time.
This could mean that Oricorio could see play outside of Electric decks as a way to stall while you set up your main attacker. This could also help make Electric decks more viable, as they haven’t been a part of the Shining Revelry meta at all.
Decidueye ex
Early gameplay has Decidueye looking pretty good. This ex Pokémon gets perfectly set up by its pre-evolutions, dealing damage to any Pokémon your opponent has. Decidueye can then deal 100 damage to any Pokémon they have that’s damaged, even Pokémon on the bench.
This makes Decidueye very difficult to play around. Retreating against this guy simply won’t work. To make matters worse, Decidueye’s Pierce the Pain attack can use any color of Energy to work, allowing the Pokémon to get splashed in decks with other Energy. This could create a nasty combination with Darkrai ex, whose ability pings active Pokémon for 20 damage whenever Dark Energy is attached to it.
Lunala ex
Solgaleo ex and Lunala ex are the featured Pokémon from Cosmic Guardian, and are also the big reason that Rare Candy exists in Pokémon Pocket at all. If these two Pokémon have any chance of seeing competitive play, it’s because Rare Candy can get them out quickly.
Solgaleo certainly looks promising, but Lunala ex synergizes incredibly well with Shining Revelry’s Giratina ex, the kingpin of the Shining Revelry metagame. Using Lunala ex’s Psychic Connect ability, you can turn Giratina ex into an Energy battery, moving all the Energy created by Spacetime Distortion to a powerful attacker like Mewtwo ex.
This might be too convoluted to be good, but the potential is there.
Alolan Raichu ex
Alolan Raichu offers Psychic, a powerful attack that gets stronger for each Energy attached to the opposing Pokémon. If Stoke Charizard ex ends up being as strong as players think it’s going to be, Alolan Raichu could be dishing out tons of damage. The card can knock out a charged-up Charizard ex in one blow, provided they don’t have a Giant Cape attached.
As exciting as this is, the biggest boon for Alolan Raichu ex is that its Psychic attack does not require colored Energy. This means that Alolan Raichu ex can be splashed with any number of different Pokémon. Moltres ex, Pachirisu, Manaphy, and Dialga ex can all be used to load up Alolan Raichu with Energy, turboing its attack out.
Leaf Cape
Based on the cape worn by Decidueye, this isn’t the most exciting card out of Celestial Guardians, but it is very good. Now, Grass Pokémon decks can load up on an additional 30 HP. Other types only have Giant Cape available, boosting their HP by 20 instead.
10 HP may not seem like much, but in a metagame centered around one-hit KO’s, surviving an attack to return one before getting knocked out is a really big deal. Now, Meowscarada and Beedrill ex can showcase insane amounts of bulk.
Solgaleo ex
Solgaleo ex is leading the early Pokémon Pocket Celestial Guardians metagame. This card comes out extremely fast thanks to Rare Candy, and is incredibly consistent thanks to Rising Road.
Combine this with Skarmory, Drampa, or even Oricorio, and you have a deck that can take on anything as long as it doesn't brick for extended periods of time.
Rare Candy
This is, by far, the most impactful card released in Celestial Guardians. There was a massive gap in reliability between Basic ex and Stage 2 Pokémon in consistency. Rare Candy helps to bridge this gap by granting the ability for Basic Pokémon to go right to Stage 2, bypassing Stage 1 completely.
This not only ups the consistency of Stage 2 decks by offering more ways to bridge between Basic and Stage 2, but it also speeds up the rate at which your Stage 2s can enter play. This can create incredibly fast sequences that are very difficult to combat without another Rare Candy sequence.
It’s important to remember that Pokémon Pocket decks only have 20 cards. Even when copies are cards are capped at two for a deck, Rare Candy sequences are going to happen more than you think. This card could be so powerful that it creates a bunch of non-games. Whoever has Rare Candy wins, and whoever doesn’t loses. Pokémon Pocket Best Rare Candy Decks