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The Pokemon TCG has a wide range of products for players and collectors of all levels. There are some for the most casual, and others for the more competitively-minded. One of the many products available is Battle Decks. Battle Decks are pre-made decks that can be played with out of the box and upgraded to reach their full potential. There are multiple levels a Pokemon product can have, ranging from one to three. Level one is meant to be a casual, two is the middle ground, and three is the most competitive product you can get.
Since this guide is going over the best Battle Decks, most of them will be level three as these tend to be the best. With the Temporal Forces expansion coming soon, these are the nine best Pokemon TCG Battle Decks you can buy ahead of the next sets.
Battle Deck Levels:
While each Battle Deck has a level, this doesn’t mean they are weak. All of the products can be improved on by adding cards that are absent from the decklists. However, the higher-level Battle Decks require the lowest amount of alterations since they are built with competitive play in mind, unlike the lower-level products.
9. Quaquaval ex
Quaquaval ex is a level two Battle Deck that is almost exclusively Water Pokemon with the exception of Indeedee (though since it is Normal type this hardly matters). Quaquaval is the main Pokemon of the deck, letting you control what Pokemon are active with its Exciting Dance attack while dealing damage to make it less enticing to bring that Pokemon back out less they want it knocked out.
Decks that require the evolution mechanic to be utilized can be weaker due to being slower than Pokemon that already come out full-power. The Quaquaval ex deck gets around this downside by using Rare Candy, which lets you skip a stage of evolution to turn your Quaxly into Quaquaval ex right away instead of needing to go through evolving into Quaxwell first.
8. Meowscarada ex
Meowscarada ex is the face of the Battle Deck, with its main gimmick being putting damage counters on benched Pokemon. Meoscarada ex can do this with its ability, which plays into its attaching that does extra damage if the Active Pokemon already has damage counters. This can even be forced with Boss’s Orders, which forces a specific Pokemon on the bench to become the Active Pokemon.
Radiant Alakazam is another way to move damage counters around, and you’re never actually using it for attacks. Dunsparce, while weak, can get any Pokemon into your hand so you can easily get your Meowscarada ex chain going with evolution. Jacq can also get the Meowscarada line into your hand with one card, as it lets you put two Evolution Pokemon directly into your hand. Even if a Pokemon gets knocked out before you can evolve, Klara helps you get those Pokemon (or basic Energy) back into your hand.
7. Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX
Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX’s Battle Deck wants to deal damage and constantly keep switching what Pokemon is your Active Pokemon. Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX is the one that takes advantage of it the most, dealing a ton of damage for just one Fighting energy. The Stadium card Tower of Waters makes this trivial, as it discounts all retreat costs by two colourless mana for all Rapid Strike Pokemon (which most of the Pokemon in the deck are).
Rapid Strike energy is great for all your Rapid Strike Pokemon as it provides two energy for just one card. This helps to use the strong attacks on your Rapid Strike Pokemon early on, playing into the deck’s primary focus of dishing out damage while being evasion by retreating your Pokemon to keep your best Pokemon save from being knocked out.
6. Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX
Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX is an explosive card with a high-risk, high reward. It can do a ton of damage if you discard energy from it, but if it gets knocked out your opponent gets half of their prize cards for doing so. However, this downside is counteracted with Path to the Peak, which treats the rule boxes on all Pokemon as if they didn’t exist, Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX getting knocked out will only reward one prize card.
You do go through a lot of Water energy with Ice Rider Calyrex’s ability, something that the Trainer card Melony helps to recover from. It lets you attach a Water energy from your discard pile to a Pokemon V and draw 3 cards. Capacious Bucket gets more Water energy cards into your hand from your deck to ensure you never run out of them to play. Since the Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX Battle Deck relies heavily on Trainer cards, there is an Inteleon engine that searches for Trainer cards when it evolves to make the deck more consistent in getting its key cards in play.
5. Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR
Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR is the main Pokemon of the deck. It gets its damage in by spreading damage to the opponent’s benched Pokemon, letting it knock out weak utility Pokemon that aren’t meant to be used as Active Pokemon and stick around on the bench. Echoing Horn is a way to enable this, as it lets you put any Basic Pokemon from your opponent’s discard pile onto their bench. This lets you knock out a weak Pokemon through Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR’s attack and bring it back to do it again on the next turn.
Radiant Greninja is the deck’s other primary source of damage. Its attack lets you deal 90 damage to two of your opponent’s Pokemon by discarding two energy attached to it. Since you have to go through so much energy, there are many ways to get energy back from the graveyard such as Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR’s ability and Klara. The Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR Battle Deck is about attacking your opponent’s weak Pokemon, ignoring the Active Pokemon in favour of picking off Pokemon with low health from the bench.
4. Single Strike Urshifu VMAX
The Single Strike Urshifu VMAX Battle Deck utilizes Pokemon that have Single Strike. Single Strike itself doesn’t do anything special, but it’s a trait that lets certain cards be used on them. For example, Single Strike Energy can provide both Fighting and Darkness energy (though only one at a time) but can only be put on Single Strike Pokemon. Single Strike Scroll Of Scorn gives a Single Strike Pokemon a unique attack that does ten damage plus ten more for every damage counter on it.
The deck is meant to deal explosive damage while taking advantage of the plethora of Single Strike support included in the deck. Single Strike Pokemon benefit from having damage on them thanks to Single Strike Scroll Of Scorn, and Houndoom Single Strike lets you put a Single Strike Energy from your deck onto a Single Strike Pokemon and put two damage counters on it. It’s a great way to ramp up on energy to ensure you can use the powerful attacks found on Single Strike Pokemon.
3. Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX
Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX puts a ton of Psychic energy onto all of your Pokemon. There are plenty of ways to put multiple energy cards on Pokemon in one turn, getting around the usual restriction of only being able to attach one of them on one turn. The number of Pshycic energy boosts the power of the main Pokemon attackers, such as Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX and Cresselia.
The deck also has a sub-theme of getting rid of Stadium cards in play. This helps shut down your opponent’s decks that need to rely on Stadium cards, and can prevent your opponent from taking advantage of your own Stadium cards, in this case, Training Court which can put basic energy into your hand from your discard pile.
2. Mew VMAX
Mew VMAX is unique in that its main Pokemon can use the attack of any of your Fusion Strike Pokemon that are on the bench. As you may expect, all of the Pokemon in the deck are Fusion Strike ones and can deal a ton of damage based on the energy attached to your Pokemon.
Elesa’s Sparkle easily gets Fusion Strike Pokemon Fusion Strike energy from the deck, and Power Tablet boosts the attack of your Fusion Strike Pokemon. Most of the deck consists of Psychic Pokemon, so Fog Crystal gets both a basic Psychic Pokemon and an energy card out from your deck to get set up early and start getting in for damage.
1. Miraidon ex
Miraidon ex is unique in that it cares about basic Pokemon. It can easily search them out with Miraidon ex’s ability, along with cards like Nest Ball and Ultra Ball. Electric Generator can help to get basic Lightning Energy onto your Lightning Pokemon.
Regieleki VMAX gives your basic Pokemon extra damage when they attack, and Beach Court lets them retreat for one less colourless energy. Since basic Pokemon tend to be weaker cards, they can retreat for low investment and Beach Court makes it free. There are also a handful of Pokemon Tool cards to make your basic Pokemon that much stronger to make up for their weaker attacks.
That’s as much as we have on the best Battle Decks for the Pokémon TCG. You might also want to have a look at the Temporal Forces release date which is coming soon.
