The Melmetal Deck is a Defensive Steel-types Deck featuring Melmetal and Mawile from the Genetic Apex Set in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket (PTCG Pocket). Read on for the complete list of cards in this deck, basic information on the deck, how to play the deck, and optimal matchups for it!

Melmetal Deck Guide

Deck Evaluation

Ace Pokemon						Tier Ranking
Melmetal Genetic Apex (A1)			Mawile Genetic Apex (A1)
						Energy Type(s)
						F2P Friendly?
						✔️
						Deck Difficulty
						★★★
Deck Strengths
Meltan can accelerate Energy onto itself with Amass. Melmetal can deal a solid 120 damage with Heavy Impact. Has Mawile, a disruptive, single-point backup attacker.
Deck Weaknesses
Weak to Fire-type decks. Meltan is easy to KO. Melmetal is difficult to set up on the Bench.

Best Meta Decks Tier List

List of Cards

Melmetal Deck List
Pokemon Cards
Mawile ×2				Meltan ×2				Melmetal ×2
Trainer Cards
Giovanni ×2				Sabrina ×2				Potion ×2				X Speed ×2
Poke Ball ×2				Red Card ×2				Professor's Research ×2

Deck Building Guide

Packs Required for Melmetal Deck

Pack	Featured Card

How to Play Melmetal Deck

How to Play Melmetal Deck
Core Combos and Interactions Starting Hand Deck Strategies Game Phases

Melmetal Deck Core Combos and Interactions

Primary Attacker	Secondary Attacker	Description
Melmetal	Mawile	・Melmetal is the deck's main attacker, which requires 4 Energy, but can deal a whopping 120 damage. ・Melmetal's Hard Coat Ability can mitigate 20 damage, making Melmetal harder to KO. ・Mawile can be disruptive when necessary, as well as being an efficient one-Energy attacker.

Best Starting Hand

Best Starting Hand

Meltan is a solid starter, being able to ramp Energy onto itself. However, it has a low 60 HP which makes it easy to KO. You would need to use Amass twice to get Melmetal ready to attack, so consider using it only once, and retreating to the Bench for manual attachments.

Use Potion to keep Meltan healthy, X Speed to mitigate its retreat cost, Poke Ball to find Mawile, and Professor's Research to dig for these cards.

Other Good Starting Cards

Recommended Starting Hand

Mawile can start some matches while Meltan sits on the Bench while you manually attach Energy to it. Use Sabrina to annoy your opponents and attempt to discard Energies with Crunch.
Best Cards Tier List

Melmetal Deck Strategies

Melmetal Deck Strategies
Tanky Melmetal Mawile Disruption

Strategy 1: Tanky Melmetal

Tanky Melmetal

The deck's primary objective is to set up Melmetal and get it to attack, while making it difficult to KO. Use Professor's Research to dig for cards like Potion for healing, and Red Card for disruption.

Strategy 2: Mawile Disruption

The deck can pivot to a disruptive Mawile gameplan, which is able to discard Energy from the opponent's Active Pokemon on a lucky heads flip. This can give us the chance to delay our opponents for a turn, and allow us to set up another attacker for later.

Game Phases

Early Game

Key Card(s) Required
Step	Description
1	Start with either Mawile or Meltan, attach an Energy and swing.
2	Use Professor's Research to dig for more options like a Supporter for the following turn.

Mid-Game

Key Card(s) Required
Step	Description
1	Evolve Meltan into Melmetal when it has four Energy attached.
2	Use Potion to keep Melmetal healthy, and use Red Card to disrupt your opponent's gameplan. Consider using Red Card when the opponent has plenty of cards in-hand to limit their options.

Late Game

Key Card(s) Required
1	Continue attacking with Melmetal until you take all 3 points.
2	Use Giovanni for extra damage, or Sabrina to gust out a vulnerable Pokemon from the opponent's side of the field.

Melmetal Deck Best and Worst Matchups

Best Matchups

Deck	Commentary
Dragonite Decks	Type: ・Melmetal's Hard Coat Ability reduces Draco Meteor's damage to 30 for each heads from 50.

Worst Matchups

Deck	Commentary
Fire Decks	Type: ・Melmetal is at a type disadvantage against Fire decks

Overall Consistency

Melmetal decks can be very consistent but difficult to pilot because of how long it takes to get Melmetal ready. Using Meltan to ramp or Mawile to disrupt also takes up careful skill and point management.

Melmetal Deck F2P & Substitutes

Melmetal Deck Card Substitutes

Card	Explanation
Hand Scope	・ Allows you to check the cards in your opponents hand. Works in tandem with Red Card.

Pokemon TCG Pocket Meta Guide

Melmetal Deck Other Viable Options

Card	Possible Cuts
Bisharp	・ Bisharp is a quick and efficient secondary attacker that can consistently deal 70 for only two Energy.

F2P Melmetal Deck List

F2P Melmetal Deck List
Pokemon Cards
Mawile x2	Meltan x2	Melmetal x2
Trainer Cards
Giovanni x2	Sabrina x2	Potion x2	X Speed x2
Poke Ball x2	Red Card x2	Professor's Research x2

Melmetal can be easily built on a F2P budget, with only Melmetal being a holo rare.

Pokemon TCG Pocket Beginner's Guide

Pokemon TCG Pocket Related Guides

Deck Building Guide

All Deck Tier Lists

All Tier Lists
Best Cards Tier List	Best Meta Deck Tier List
Best Rental Deck Tier List	Best F2P Beginner Decks

Deck Articles

Deck Articles
How Rental Decks Work	Staple Cards for Decks
Aggro Decks Explained	Deck Matchup Statistics
Best 18 Trainers Decks	Best Misty Decks
Best Erika Decks	10 Match Tests vs Pikachu ex Deck - Statistics
List of Non-ex Decks

Meta Decks

Best Meta Decks
Mewtwo ex	Celebi ex and Serperior	Pikachu ex
Mew ex and Weezing	Vaporeon and Articuno ex	Volcarona and Arcanine ex
Scolipede and Weezing	Starmie ex	Arcanine ex
Blaine	Pikachu ex and Raichu	Gyarados ex and Vaporeon
Pidgeot ex	Venusaur ex	Charizard ex
Aerodactyl ex and Primeape	Exeggutor ex	Articuno ex
Dragonite	Lt. Surge

Off Meta Decks

Dragonite and Weezing	Lapras ex	Greninja
Mewtwo ex and Weezing	Marowak ex	Primeape
Venusaur and Weezing	Arbok Lock	Zapdos ex
Blastoise ex	Gengar ex	Machamp ex
Wigglytuff ex	Alakazam and Jynx	Melmetal
Koga	Omastar and Articuno ex	Kingler and Articuno ex
Frosmoth	Lapras ex and Butterfree	Poliwrath
Tentacruel and Greninja	Victreebel and Exeggutor ex	Gengar ex and Golbat
Persian and Mawile	Lickitung and Primeape	Exeggutor ex and Alakazam
Frosmoth and Articuno ex	Gyarados	Centiskorch and Moltres ex
Grapploct	Cinccino and Weezing	Brock
Kabutops	Aerodactyl and Dragonite	Eeveelutions and Ditto
Lickitung	Articuno	Zapdos
Moltres	Venusaur	Charizard
Blastoise

Rental Decks

All Rental Decks
Venusaur ex Rental Deck	Charizard ex Rental Deck	Blastoise ex Rental Deck
Pikachu ex Rental Deck	Mewtwo ex Rental Deck	Machamp ex Rental Deck
Nidoking and Nidoqueen Rental Deck	Kanto Fossils Rental Deck	Koga Rental Deck
Brock Rental Deck	Blaine Rental Deck	Lt. Surge Rental Deck

Starter Decks

All Starter Decks
Pinsir Starter Deck	Rapidash Starter Deck	Sandslash Starter Deck