Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket gets its first big card drop since launch with Mythical Island themed boosters, and the long-established meta has already been shaken up with Mewtwo Ex up, Pikachu Ex down and the new Celebi Ex potentially above them. Both
Genetic Apex Meta stands above the rest of the four decks. Pikachu Ex was probably the best, followed or rivaled by Mewtwo Ex. Charizard Ex in third place and Stormy Ex in fourth place. In between, Mewtwo Ex and Starmie Ex got a slight boost, while Pikachu Ex seems to be the target of a meta shift as a number of new cards are set to take it down.
The mythical island is built around Mew, the mythical relative and ancestor of Mewtwo. So it has a lot of Psychic type cards, but it’s not the headliner like Mu X that provides a bump but instead a new item called Mythical Slab.
“Look at the top card of your Deck. If that card is a Psychic Pokemon, put it into your hand,” the effect reads. “If it’s not a Psychic Pokemon, put it at the bottom of your deck.”
Card draw effects are incredibly important in card games because they essentially reduce the element of random chance and allow players to draw exactly which cards they need to execute winning combos. This is why every deck in the game runs Poké Ball and Professor Oak; They allow players to draw cards.
Mythic Slab is another card draw that’s exclusive to Psychic types, so including it in a Mewtwo ex deck is practically an instant bump. This allows players to quickly dig out their deck and pull the likes of Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir to execute the deck’s best play, removing some of the random chance that is perhaps the biggest flaw of the Mewtwo ex-deck.
As Starmie ex, a new Vaporeon variant threatens to make the infamous Misty card even stronger. This allows water energy to be transferred between Pokemon, basically three or more Misty Coin flips are no longer wasted and can boost countless Pokemon at once.
Charizard Ex, a Fire type deck that is weak to Water, may see some less play as a result of this increase, but is otherwise unaffected by the Mythic Islands expansion.
It’s Pikachu Ex that seems to be the biggest hit, with several new cards seemingly designed with Pikachu Ex in mind. Pidgeot Ex, for example, despite being weak to Electric Pokémon like Pikachu, has an ability that works directly against Pikachu Ex.
Three Colorless Energy attacks deal 80 damage plus 20 more for each Benched Pokemon on the opponent. Unlike other meta leaders, Pikachu’s former relies on having a full bench, as its attacks do 30 times the damage of the number of Pokemon there.
Bench stacking against Pidgeot ex will only lead to disaster, though Scattering Cyclone does 140 damage in that case, enough to take down Pikachu ex in one hit.
Another colorless card can also take down Pikachu Ex in one turn. A new Tauros card is fairly simple, a basic Pokemon with 100 HP and a single attack called Fighting Tackle. It does 40 damage for three Colorless Energy, unless the opponent is an Ex Pokemon, in which case it does 120 damage.
It won’t take down Mewtwo ex, or Charizard ex, or Stormy ex in one hit, but it’s enough to take down Pikachu ex in one hit. These colorless cards probably wouldn’t fit into the aforementioned meta decks, but they would also fit into the popular anti-meta category, where players build decks with the sole purpose of taking down the likes of Pikachu ex and Mewtwo ex.
Finally, Celebi Ex has emerged as a potential new threat to the meta. This can be combined with a new Serperior card that doubles the value of all Grass Energy, allowing Celebi Ex to deal up to 100 damage with just one energy, up to 200 with two, up to 300 with three, etc.
Mythic Island just arrived yesterday, December 17th, and the meta will no doubt continue to chop and change and players will discover new combos over time.
The original game arrived about six weeks ago on October 30, and it was Creatures Inc. And The Pokémon is a certified hit for the company, earning an estimated $200 million in its first month across more than 60 million downloads.
This huge amount of money comes as Pokémon TCG Pocket follows the standard mobile and free-to-play model of the game, flooding players with rewards for the first few days before soon drying up, with real-world money spending the only real way to relive that early experience. Sometimes sets like this drop outside the thrill.
Completing Genetic Apex, the first set of cards that officially totals 226 but also includes 60 rare alternate art cards, is estimated to take players about two years without spending money, when it rains they can wrap up the collection after it drops. About $1,500
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He would talk about The Witcher all day.
