The popular grass type Pokémon TCG Pocket deck starring Celebi Ex is suddenly winning tournaments, taking first place in the biggest competition for the TCG app two weeks in a row. This comes just as the game nears its biggest update yet, with a massive influx of cards set to shake up the meta, and probably consign it the dustbin.
When Mythical Island first launched on December 17 we had big hopes for Celebi, which appeared to be the standout chase card from the set. We even devoted some time to thinking up ways to bring it down. Instead, Gyarados Ex turned out to be the true threat, followed by fighting type cards like Golem and Marshadow. The mighty sea serpent revolutionized water type decks, while tanky Golem led the punching energy type to many an underdog win.
Celebi decks, which uses Serperior’s energy doubling ability to pump up the Legendary Pokémon’s Powerful Bloom attack, weren’t a total flop, but in Pocket’s nascent competitive scene, they generally struggled to break into the top tens of tournament placements.
Well that’s all changed now. A Celebi player came in first place in Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly tournament on January 18 and 25. This is the largest regularly held Pokémon TCG Pocket competition, which consistently has a playerbase of 1,000-1,500 people.
What’s interesting about this sudden reversal of fortunes is that the decklists of the old, sad Celebi decks and the new, successful ones seem to be more or less identical. You’ve still got exactly the same setup of the Celebi and Serperior combo, plus an Exeggcute Ex to tank.
So it seems like Celebi decks just have a more favorable place in the meta than they once did. Digging into the stats, we can perhaps guess why. It looks like water decks championing Gyarados have pushed Charizard Ex decks off of absolute S-tier status.
In the January 18 tournament there were 355 water decks and only 181 fire decks, giving Celebi players ample opportunity to take advantage of a good type matchup. There were more fire decks and fewer water decks in the most recent contest, but the numbers hadn’t shifted much.
If the next Pokémon TCG Pocket expansion wasn’t dropping this week, I’d gradually expect the meta to rebalance, and for water decks to decrease in number a little as grass decks continue to trounce them. This would allow fire decks to increase in popularity anew, once again curbing Celebi’s success. Round and round we would go.
But instead, we’re going to see a ton of new decks appear as Space-Time Smackdown launches this week. With an influx of new Ex cards about to enter the format, it seems unlikely that a deck like Celebi, which is so reliant on a Stage 2 for its game plan, is going to remain top tier. But if this is its final hurrah, at least it went out in a leafy blaze of glory!
For more Pokémon TCG stories, check out our guide to Pokémon Pocket rarity, or our lists of the best Pokémon cards and the most expensive rare Pokémon cards.
Source: Wargamer
