The Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution expansion invites you to enjoy mighty big battles, using the immense power of Mega Evolution Pokémon ex! We couldn’t contain our curiosity about how the strength of Mega Evolution Pokémon ex would play out in a deck, so we reached out to experts Natalie Millar, Tord Reklev, and Ross Cawthon to break down building decks around Mega Absol ex, Mega Gardevoir ex, and Mega Venusaur ex. This Triple Play will guide you in harnessing the strength of these Pokémon in mega fun battles.
Discarding cards from your opponent’s hand is a very powerful effect for any card. You can deny your opponent crucial resources on their next turn, and some cards with the discarding effect can even impact their attacks turn after turn. Mostly these effects are limited to Trainer cards or attacks that don’t do damage, but not Mega Absol ex—its Claw of Darkness attack does 200 damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon while letting you choose a card to discard from their hand.
If you can use this attack repeatedly, you can effectively strand your opponent with a hand that doesn’t allow them to play the game. When considering how to build a Mega Absol ex deck, the two main strengths I would want to include are ways to power up Claw of Darkness quickly and ways to disrupt your opponent’s hand. If your opponent has seven cards in hand, they may have duplicates of their “good” cards, which would make Claw of Darkness worse, but if they only have two or three cards in hand, you would be disrupting them much more with Claw of Darkness. This was why I decided early on to include Unfair Stamp as the ACE SPEC card for this deck. While many players use Secret Box in a ton of different decks, Unfair Stamp is still an incredibly powerful card. Many opponents will be unable to recover from having their hand reduced to two cards and then having their best card taken away by Claw of Darkness.
To help hit the 3 Energy requirement, I chose to use Janine’s Secret Art and Energy Switch. With this combination, you can power up Mega Absol ex in one turn if you have another Darkness-type Pokémon in play. While Janine’s Secret Art does make your Active Pokémon Poisoned, you can take advantage of this by playing Binding Mochi to do extra damage. Playing Janine’s Secret Art would prevent you from drawing cards with another Supporter card that turn, which is why I also decided to include a 3-3 line of N’s Zoroark ex. N’s Zoroark ex decks are among the strongest in the current Standard format, and the card itself also plays a great role in Mega Absol ex decks because its Trade Ability can still draw cards when you use Janine’s Secret Art as your Supporter for the turn. And wait, there’s more: N’s Zoroark ex also functions as a second Darkness-type Pokémon to attach the Energy to! With this inclusion, I could also justify playing Arven to find Technical Machine: Evolution, Unfair Stamp, and Energy Switch more often. With these concepts in mind, I came to the 60-card deck list below.
To synergize with the discarding cards from your opponent’s hand effect, I chose to also include two copies of Eri: it lets you target important Item cards such as Superior Energy Retrieval and Rare Candy from your opponent’s hand. You are usually going to fall behind on Prize cards with this deck, which makes Counter Catcher a very strong card to bring up an opposing Pokémon that can’t attack and trap it by removing the cards from your opponent’s hand that allow them to retreat.
One card that significantly punishes the game plan is Fezandipiti ex. If you take a Knock Out with Claw of Darkness, your opponent can use Flip the Script to draw 3 extra cards, likely giving them enough cards to mount a counterattack. The main way I’ve chosen to play through Fezandipiti ex is with Munkidori and Pecharunt ex. Pecharunt ex is usually used to switch your Darkness-type Pokémon in; however, since it also makes them Poisoned, they will take damage between turns. Munkidori is what makes the trapping strategy viable against Fezandipiti ex: you can use Adrena-Brain to move this damage off and Knock Out your opponent’s Pokémon during your turn, or you can set up for a massive swing turn where you take a ton of Prize cards. I even included a copy of Gravity Gemstone to assist with this, as upping the Retreat Cost for your opponent’s Active Pokémon by 1 sometimes is the difference-maker when they attempt to retreat it. If you use both Munkidori, you can even set Mega Absol ex up to get a Knock Out with Terminal Period. This rarely comes up, however, as you usually just want to use Claw of Darkness.
The rest of the deck is a relatively straightforward N’s Zoroark deck, with one N’s Reshiram for a slightly easier attacker, some Iono for further disruption, and Pal Pad for reusing your Supporter cards. If you want to play a deck that will frustrate your opponents to no end by constantly discarding their cards, I would give Mega Absol ex a shot.
Tord says: Mega Absol ex is one of my favorite cards from this expansion, as it reminds me a lot of the Stantler from the EX Unseen Forces expansion with its iconic Push Away attack.
I think Natalie made a great list to highlight Mega Absol ex’s strengths. Terminal Period has excellent synergy with Munkidori, as it can easily move exactly 6 damage counters over to the opponent’s Active Pokémon to activate Terminal Period.
To add to the disruptive package, I would consider adding the newly released Yveltal from Mega Evolutions to the deck, as it can be a great help to slow the game down, buying time to spread more damage with Pecharunt ex and Munkidori.
Ross says: This is a really cool deck built by Natalie. The Janine’s Secret Art+Energy Switch is a great idea to get Mega Absol ex attacking quickly. I really like the poison your Pokemon+use Binding Mochi strategy here, which can be accomplished with Janine or Pecharunt ex. Increasing from 200 to 240 damage knocks out most Basic Pokemon ex. I think my main comment is I’d probably lean further into this combo, with a fourth copy of Janine’s Secret Art and a second copy of Binding Mochi. Tatsugiri could also be a nice card for this concept to find the Janine’s Secret art (or Arven or Eri). With the Pecharunt ex combination, you also do not need to worry about retreating the Tatsugiri.
Gardevoir ex is already the most successful deck of the current season, at least judging by tournament wins. This makes the new Mega Gardevoir ex one of the most anticipated cards of the set. It is undoubtedly great, but I found it challenging to simply incorporate it into existing Gardevoir ex lists as it doesn’t align too well with current builds, so I made a few changes to the overall strategy of the deck. Here’s my take on how to best embrace using Mega Gardevoir ex.
The first thing I did was make the Gardevoir line thicker, as ideally both the Mega Gardevoir ex and the regular Gardevoir ex should be established at the same time to execute this strategy. Thanks to Mega Symphonia, Gardevoir can now Knock Out anything in the format with ease if enough Energy is attached. Its first attack, Overflowing Wishes, can also function as a backup when struggling with the rest of the setup.
To reach important targets, the deck needs at least six—but ideally more—Psychic Energy in play, so I upped the number to 10 total, to account for some being Prized and to make them easier to find. The increased Energy count also has great synergy with the new Mystery Garden Stadium card as well, which can help draw more cards and discard additional Energy.
The new Ralts and Kirlia are also great upgrades for Gardevoir decks, with Ralts being able to Collect in a pinch and Kirlia’s Call Sign attack being incredibly strong during the setup phase. Especially against Budew’s Itchy Pollen, I think Kirlia will be one of the strongest responses available.
This set also introduces a rare scenario with Lillie’s Determination: The format now has three strong hand-reset draw Supporters available at the same time! Formats of the past usually only had two of these Supporters available max, but now you can play three unique ones that can all draw six or more cards. As this is the first deck I made in this format, I felt the need to take advantage of this opportunity. Lillie’s Determination is an instant staple in most decks and functions even better in slightly slower Stage 2 decks like Gardevoir ex, which takes a couple of turns to get going.
The list runs nine Psychic-type Basic Pokémon, which I think is a good number to be able to take full advantage of Mystery Garden. I decided not to include Fezandipiti ex in this build simply because of its poor synergy with Mystery Garden. Also, Buddy-Buddy Poffin seemed like a more natural inclusion instead of Nest Ball, which has been more common lately. Since the focus of the deck now is to set up multiple versions of Gardevoir, we will also need access to multiple Ralts right away. Cleffa can also be found with Buddy-Buddy Poffin to help with setup. Scream Tail is also a little too good to not include and is an excellent early- and late-game attacker.
For recovery, a split of two Night Stretcher and one Super Rod has been the norm. I figured that this build is probably better off with a heavier Super Rod approach instead, not only to recycle Gardevoir lines but also to get Psychic Energy back into the deck for protection against an Iono and Mystery Garden combo.
The list also has a healthy amount of discard options, including the maximum number of Ultra Ball, Earthen Vessel, Professor’s Research, and Secret Box. Ideally, this bounty should help in getting Energy cards in the discard pile and in implementing better Stadium usage. Even with no Pokémon Tool cards, Secret Box is still a great ACE SPEC for the deck.
With all that said, the synergy between Munkidori’s Adrena-Brain Ability and Gardevoir ex is still one of the absolute best available in the Standard format, so I still wanted the list to have a strong emphasis on that. Many cards are activated after Knock Outs right now, and being able to manipulate damage so freely with Mega Symphonia and Munkidori gives the deck a lot of control, even to the point where the deck can miss Knock Outs on purpose to delay the opponent’s comeback cards like Fezandipiti ex, Counter Catcher, and Iono. On the following turn, Adrena-Brain can then help clean up and take multiple Knock Outs at once instead.
Some cards I have not included but am considering for future versions of this deck are Wally’s Compassion, also from Mega Evolution, and Abra from Scarlet & Violet—Twilight Masquerade. Wally’s Compassion could fully heal Mega Gardevoir ex, making it even harder to Knock Out. Abra is an easy Psychic-type Pokémon to fill up the Bench, and it can also help shuffle Psychic Energy back into the deck for Mega Gardevoir ex to find, if you attach Energy and then use its Teleporter Ability.
Natalie says: Pokemon that have branching evolution lines always offer very interesting deckbuilding opportunities, and Tord has taken full advantage of it here! Gardevoir ex is already a solid attacker, but gives the opportunity for you to use massive Mega Symphonias. I also really like his decision to not include Fezandipiti ex and instead focus on Mystery Garden as a draw engine, since your bench will usually be filled quickly by multiple Ralts and multiple Munkidori. Additionally, since we are looking to tank with Mega Gardevoir ex and heal it with Adrena Brain, we aren’t going to get that many uses of Flip the Script each game. I was surprised to see no Tool cards such as Technical Machine: Evolution or Bravery Charm, however, since this decklist doesn’t include any copies of Arven to find the Tools, and Technical Machine: Evolution is competing with Kirlia’s Call Sign attack, I can get behind its exclusion. Gardevoir ex is the deck that has seemingly always found a way to survive every hit thrown at it, and Mega Gardevoir ex may continue that legacy in the future!
Ross says: I think Tord’s deck has created a nice balance of Gardy’s new tricks (Mega Gardevoir ex) and Gardy’s old tricks, like Munkidori and Scream Tail. While it doesn’t feel like Mega Gardevoir ex needs the extra damage of Munkidori’s Adrena-Brain ability, having very different possible game plans is always a strength. The option to go into full attack, one-hit knockout mode with Mega Gardevoir ex, or doing the present Gardevoir ex+Munkidori spread damage strategy to slowly destroy an opponent’s board makes it very hard for decks to gameplan against Gardevoir. Many of the game’s best decks over the years have this ability to pivot into different game plans as needed. I am also excited for the Mystery Garden stadium. We haven’t seen a Stadium card that could possibly draw you 6 cards since…Tropical Beach!
Mega Venusaur ex is one of the most exciting cards in the new Mega Evolution set. At 380 HP, Mega Venusaur ex is a big player that can hit for power with a prodigious Jungle Dump attack for 240 damage. But what really sets it apart is its Solar Transfer Ability, which allows you to freely move Basic Grass Energy around on your side during your turn. Here’s the deck I went with:
Mega Venusaur ex isn’t arriving in the Pokémon TCG alone—it gains some very powerful cards to partner with in Mega Evolution. The new Meganium also has a powerful Ability, Wild Growth, which doubles all your Basic Grass Energy in play.
The other key new card is Forest of Vitality. Similar to the older card Forest of Giant Plants, Forest of Vitality allows you to evolve your Grass-type Pokémon instantly (except during the first turn of the game, and only into another Grass type). This means you can play down a Bulbasaur, evolve it into Ivysaur, and evolve it into Mega Venusaur ex all in one turn.
The Pokémon that really powers this whole deck, though, is Teal Mask Ogerpon ex. With its Teal Dance Ability, you get an extra Energy card in play each turn, and you get to draw a card too. Meganium doubles the value of each of these Energy cards, and Mega Venusaur ex can move that Energy wherever you want—even to other Teal Mask Ogerpon ex.
Teal Mask Ogerpon ex’s Myriad Leaf Shower attack has no damage limit: it does 30 damage plus 30 more damage for each Energy attached to both Active Pokémon. Most decks that use Teal Mask Ogerpon ex do not attack with it, as it needs a lot of Energy to Knock Out most Pokémon ex. But that won’t be true with this team: the three Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Meganium, and Mega Venusaur ex can effectively put 8 Energy onto Teal Mask Ogerpon ex in a single turn. Now that’s a grand slam!
I’ve added some other useful Grass-type Pokémon, Toedscruel and Toedscruel ex. Toedscruel’s Slime Mold Colony Ability stops your opponent from using Trainer cards or Abilities to bring cards from the discard pile to their hand. This is especially good against decks like Gholdengo ex and Raging Bolt ex that use Superior Energy Retrieval or Night Stretcher. Toedscruel ex’s Protective Mycelium Ability prevents all effects from your opponent’s attacks (not including damage) done to your Pokémon with Energy attached. These Toedscruel really give this deck a few extra pitches to strike out your opponent’s strategies, and they can even stop cards like Dragapult ex from placing damage counters on your Pokémon via its Phantom Dive attack.
Let’s take a brief look at some of the 29 Trainer cards I selected. In addition to Forest of Vitality is another new card from Mega Evolution, Lillie’s Determination. If it just allowed you to shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 6 cards, it would be strong and reminiscent of Cynthia or Professor Oak’s New Theory from years past. However, Lillie’s Determination is even better—in the early game when you have 6 Prize cards left, you get to draw a whopping 8 cards. This will certainly be one of the most played Trainers from Mega Evolution, and I think it will in particular help slower, Evolution-based decks like Mega Venusaur ex.
The other Trainer I want to highlight is my ACE SPEC, Max Rod. While this card has seen little play since coming out, this deck can really utilize it. Getting back 5 Pokémon or Energy sounds great, but usually you can only play down maybe one or two of those Pokémon and just attach 1 Energy per turn. In this deck, thanks to Teal Mask Ogerpon ex’s Teal Dance and Forest of Vitality, you get to play many more Pokémon and Energy cards every turn. You can fish out your fallen crew members (like a Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Mega Venusaur ex) and put them all back into play in one turn—and get 2 Energy back as well.
The last Trainer card I want to mention is Bug Catching Set. It serves as the perfect equipment for this Mega Venusaur ex deck, with half the deck being targets for it. You’ll nearly always get 2 cards for 1 with this Catching gear. The rest of these Trainers, including the typical Nest Balls and Ultra Balls, just make this deck worthy of the consistency Hall of Fame.
Mega Venusaur ex can be a big hitter in your lineup or the coach in your clubhouse, calibrating your strategy, rallying your team for a comeback by moving Energy to other attackers like Teal Mask Ogerpon ex that are waiting to Knock Out just about any opposing Pokémon. Combined with Meganium as well, your Teal Dances can turn into victory dances!
Natalie says: Drawing extra cards and accelerating extra Energy are some of the strongest things you can do in the Pokemon TCG and Teal Mask Ogerpon ex lets you do both at the same time! It was previously used in conjunction with Energy Switch to power up Regidrago VSTAR; however due to the limited damage output of Myriad Leaf Shower it was usually relegated to being a niche attacker. With Meganium’s Overgrowth ability the damage output from Myriad Leaf Shower is almost effectively doubled and if your opponent’s active Pokemon has multiple Energy attached you will usually get a one hit knockout! It does seem tough to chain attacks if your Teal Mask Ogerpon goes down, but Mega Venusaur ex can also be an alternate attacker in the meantime. I love the synergy between the two Toedscruels and Forest of Vitality, the decks that struggle against Slime Mould Colony often try to KO the Toedscruel as soon as possible, and you can immediately put it back into play! This deck looks like it has the potential to put on a ton of pressure quickly, and overwhelm opponents with an onslaught of Grass Energy!
Tord says: As a long-time Grass-type fan, I am so excited that we finally have strong support for the typing. Forest of Vitality is an incredible Stadium, enabling all these Grass-type evolutions to truly shine. The synergy between the cards Ross has selected is incredible and makes me excited for the future of Grass-type Pokémon.
Another card I would love to add to this list is the Tapu Bulu from the Scarlet & Violet—Shrouded Fable expansion. Normally, this card is too difficult to get going, but with Meganium and Venusaur ex it should be a breeze. Tapu Bulu can serve as a strong single-Prize attacking option, while also giving the deck an out to the pesky Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex.
Natalie has been playing Pokémon casually since late 2013 but started attending more competitive tournaments in late 2017. She won the first Regional Championships after the pandemic in her home city of Brisbane, Australia, and has been attending most major tournaments since. Outside of Pokémon, she studied psychology, but it doesn’t help with reading opponents as much as you would think. You can find her at most major tournaments and can follow her on X at @nataliem9999.
Tord Reklev is a contributing writer for Pokemon.com. He is a longtime player from Norway, playing the game since he was 6 years old. In becoming Champion at the 2022 Latin America International Championships, Tord is the first player to win all four International Championships and complete the Grand Slam. Outside of the game, he is a student and enjoys playing tennis. You can find him at most big events and can follow him on X at @TordReklev.
Ross Cawthon is a longtime player, starting to play tournaments in 2000. He is the only player to compete in all 20 Pokémon TCG World Championships, finishing as a finalist in 2005 and 2011, and a semifinalist in 2016. He is known for creating many new “rogue” decks over the years. Ross has a Ph.D. in astrophysics and studies dark energy (not to be confused with Darkness Energy cards).
Source link
