In case Oricorio’s antics didn’t make it obvious, Celestial Guardians is a fantastic set for enabling trolls. The new Pokémon Pocket set has allowed fans to create some of the meanest decks we’ve ever seen. From making every attack a miserable chore to stopping you from attaching energy altogether, these builds seem a nightmare to play against. I pray I don’t come up against either deck on the Ranked queue.
First up, a Pokémon Pocket deck posted on Reddit by user realrolox, this build is classic bullying, of the ‘stop hitting yourself’ variety. Of course, it runs the classic combination of Druddigon and Rocky Helmet, which can make attacking particularly perilous. But the new Celestial Guardians card Poison Barb pushes it to a new level, and – this is a rarity – this Druddigon can even attack!
Then the deck also runs two copies of the new card Pyukumuku, whose Innards Out ability allows it to deal 50 damage when KO-d. With one of the aforementioned Pokémon Tools attached, that means hitting Pyukumuku is likely to hurt you more than it hurts them.
I don’t expect to see this deck arrive in Ultra Ball tier anytime soon, but it does look a lot of fun to play and very aggravating to face. Turning the troll dial to 11, realrolox has thrown in Supporter cards such as Mars and Team Rocket Grunt – not necessarily good for the deck, but extremely annoying!
The other troll build I’ve been seeing is more subtle in its fiendishness (but no less fiendish for it) and centers around the new Psychic-type Pokémon card Banette. This card’s attack, Night Bind, stops your opponent putting energy onto their active Pokémon. With fewer trainers running Leaf, that’ll often just leave them trapped in the battle, unable to take any action, slowly being whittled away by Banette.
Oricorio can deliver a big hit when Banette eventually goes down, and Tapu Lele can punish your opponents benched Pokémon, which they’ll be forced to build up energy on. I’ve seen this strategy tried with basically every big Psychic Pokémon from Alakazam to Mewtwo. It even works with Gengar ex, for even greater toxicity.
It feels like Pokemon Pocket produces a greater number of frustrating cards with each subsequent set. Fortunately, none of these strategies seem about to challenge the best Pokémon decks – most of which are Giratina/Greninja builds.
Would you still click ‘Thanks’ after facing one of these decks? Share your view on our Discord. And for more Pokémon stories, check out our list of the most expensive rare Pokémon cards and the highest HP Pokémon cards.
Source: Wargamer
