It’s been almost three weeks since the release of Eevee Grove to the wider world of Pokemon Pocket. Out of all the cards that have been tested and used, Sylveon ex has distinguished itself as being the biggest game changer of the expansion.
In a game where your deck size is limited to 20 cards, with a maximum of 2 copies each, being able to draw out an extra 10% of your deck list (2 cards) is a boon to both speed and consistency for many strategies in the game.
For those unfamiliar with facing Sylveon ex, here are some of the best decks capitalizing on this new Eeveelution.
Greninja and Giratina ex
Possibly the most common variant of a Sylveon ex deck you’d likely meet in Ranked Battles.
This variant of a Sylveon ex deck has seen top representation in online tournaments like the one held last July 6th by Pokemon Pocket ambassador, Ursiiday, featuring over 700 players.
Regardless of the slight variance in Trainer cards between decks, the Pokemon roster has generally stayed the same:
- x2 Froakie,
- x2 Greninja,
- x2 Eevee,
- x2 Sylveon ex; and,
- x1 Giratina ex
Despite being a Stage-2 Pokemon, all Sylveon decks running Greninja eschew the use of Frogadier because of Rare Candy.
This deck is almost reminiscent of the Darkrai ex deck also featuring Giratina ex because they largely operate in almost the same manner.
You have constant chip damage from one or both Greninja, and you can essentially clean house with Giratina ex once online.
The difference between Greninja and Darkrai ex is the fact that the former doesn’t need you to spend an energy for the chip damage. This leads into activating Giratina ex faster as you can put all of your generated energy into it.
Greninja also acts as an out for Lightning-type Oricorio from Celestial Guardians. It’s the reason why this deck runs both the Water and Psychic for energy generation.
Even with the type disadvantage, a single paired hit from Greninja’s Mist Slash attack and Water Shuriken ability is enough to put down the yellow-themed bird Pokemon.
This deck has it all: a) speed and consistency (Sylveon ex), b) a win condition (Giratina ex), and c) an enabler for the win condition (Greninja).
With this deck as capable as it is, it’ll be down to luck and player skill if the opposing deck can’t keep up with the draw engine that Sylveon ex enhances.
Charizard ex (Shinning Revelry)
The second most common variant of the Sylveon ex deck. This deck emphasizes getting out Charizard ex as fast as humanly possible. With all the consistency tools thrown into this deck (e.g. Rare Candy), this won’t be a tall order.
In terms of Pokemon roster, this deck has the following distributions:
- x2 Charmander,
- x2 Charizard ex,
- x2 Eevee,
- x2 Sylveon ex, and
- x1 Flareon
Outside of a thorough brick on all the card draws, a deck focused on Charizard ex would have to be wary of any hand disruption.
Red Card and Mars are now common tech choices because of how much Sylveon ex has affected the metagame when it comes to deck consistency. They existed beforehand as well, but they are now more popular than ever.
An opponent can easily delay the deployment of Charizard ex or its Stoke with a well-timed reshuffle.
With its huge body and access to Lillie for pretty potent healing, it’s very difficult to dislodge Charizard ex once it’s established on the board.
If you find yourself facing this deck, you can expect to be on the receiving end of a Steam Artillery on the 3rd or 4th turn. And like Greninja in the previous deck, the Flareon comes in as an out to the Lightning-type Oricorio.
Eevee Toolbox (Leafeon, Leafeon ex, and Flareon ex)
With the debut of Eevee ex into the Pokemon Pocket roster, this Eevee toolbox deck has more than enough bodies to justify so many Eeveelutions.
Currently, this deck would feature this general line-up on the Pokemon side of things:
- x2 Eevee & Eevee ex (Eevee Grove) [4 cards],
- x2 Leafeon (Space-Time Smackdown),
- x2 Leafeon ex,
- x2 Flareon ex, and
- x1 Sylveon ex
This deck has a lot of answers for a lot of match-ups. Regardless of what version of Eevee starts off the match, the controlling player is either drawing more cards with the basic version or hitting harder with the ex variant.
Leafeon ex comes in as an early game vanguard, being able to start attacking on its second turn due to its inherent energy acceleration. It can also feed the regular Leafeon from Space-Time Smackdown, once again an out for Oricorio.
The regular Leafeon can also come in as a quick clean-up if the opposing active Pokemon is at 90 health or under.
Flareon ex can also come in as part of the clean-up crew if the game stalls out for long enough. Despite the fact the deck is running 3 different Eeveelutions, the deck itself only generates Fire-type energy.
Once a Fire-type energy is discarded, Flareon ex can make its best Giratina ex impression as it energy accelerates itself with its Combust ability. And if the Leafeons are already online, it just means the ramp for Flareon ex is that much quicker.
Due to all the Eeveelutions being ran, Eevee Bag helps in either bridging the gap in terms of damage threshold or you can go wide with its healing.
It goes without saying that Sylveon ex is relegated to being a pseudo Professor’s Research. Due to the focus on the Leafeons and Flareon ex, this deck will almost never be able to attack with Sylveon ex.
But given the consistency power Sylveon ex brings to the table, it more than makes up for its weight.
The other elephant in the room for this deck is that it has a pretty low damage burst ceiling. You’d be playing the long game with this deck as you will essentially need two turns to take out any of the beefier ex Pokemon used in ranked battles.
Questions About Sylveon ex:
How to beat a Sylveon ex deck?
You need to either attack Sylveon's benefit or weakness to beat it consistently. The benefit that this card offers is the extra card draw, and the weakness of the card is that it pairs up poorly into bulkier ex Pokemon with high attack values.
To attack Sylveon ex's strength, your best bet is hand disruption. Cards like Mars or Red Card can delay the inevitable. Delaying the opponent’s win condition may be enough to swing the tide in your favor.
If you want to take advantage of Sylveon ex's weaknesses, the card has a bad matchup into Charizard ex and Solgaleo ex. Both of these Pokemon have far too much HP for Sylveon to deal with consistently, and Solgaleo's extra boost in damage from Sylveon's metal weakness allows it to knock out the Pokemon one one hit.
How often will you face Sylveon ex?
Sylveon ex decks are the most popular meta decks at the moment so, at higher ranks, expect to play against these decks a lot.
With a quick preface, we’re basing our answer from the data collected by LimitlessTCG from the annual weekly tournaments held by Ursiiday.
Eevee Grove was released back on the 26th of June. Since then Ursiiday has held three different weekly tournaments; one on the 29th of June, 6th of July, and most recently, the 13th of July.
With each passing tournament, there’s been an increase in the use of a Sylveon ex deck variant.
Player Population: 686 Players
Number of Sylveon ex Decks used: 140
Player Population: 714
Number of Sylveon ex Decks used: 263
Player Population: 572
Number of Sylveon ex Decks used: 277
With this sample size, if you plan to enter any tournaments, you’re likely to face-off against one of the many variants to Sylveon ex more than half the time.