We put the top decks in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket (PTCG Pocket) against the Pikachu ex deck in a best-of-10 match test. Read on to see our findings as we pit these decks against each other and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses!

Pikachu ex Deck Matchup Statistics

Many people have their own opinions of which deck is the strongest in Pokemon TCG Pocket.

To answer this query, we decided to put 5 decks against a Pikachu ex deck, which is considered one of the strongest decks in the current meta.

The first to win 10 games wins.

Decks Facing Against Pikachu ex

Decks	Commentary
Articuno ex Deck	The Articuno ex Deck's Misty can generate energy even on the first turn, which can quickly build Articuno ex.
Dragonite and Weezing Deck	Although difficult to evolve, Dragonite's Draco Meteor can inflict 50 damage 4 times to any of the opponent's pokemon.
Venusaur ex Deck	The Venusaur ex Deck's Exeggutor ex only needs 1 evolution, making it very easy to set up early game. This may be a potential counter to Pikachu ex's attack conditions.
Charizard ex Deck	Once set up, Charizard ex has a lot of HP and does 200 damage with its Crimson Storm. It can easily defeat pokemon in one turn.
Machamp ex Deck	Pikachu ex is weak against Fighting types. This could make Machamp ex a good counter, especially since its Mega Punch can one-shot pokemon.
Raichu and Pikachu ex Deck	Raichu makes up for Pikachu ex's attack power with its 140 guaranteed damage.

Best Decks Tier List (November)

Pikachu ex Deck Information

Decks	Commentary
Pikachu ex Deck	With Pikachu ex's attack dealing extra 30 damage for every Pokemon on the Bench, this deck is one of the hardest to beat in-game.

Pikachu ex Deck Strategy Guide

Overview of 10-game Matchup

The Pikachu ex Deck will go against another popular deck. The first deck to win 10 battles is the winner of the match-up. Game is retried when a deck has been receiving too many 1st or 2nd turns from the coin toss. These games are tested in a private match with the same players and same builds as recommended on Game8.

Deck Matchup Statistics

Deck vs Pikachu Ex Matchup Results

Summary of Results

1st Deck	Wins	2nd Deck
	0-10
	2-10
	4-10
	10-5
	4-10
	10-8

Among the 10 battle matchups, the Pikachu ex deck had victories against the Articuno ex, Dragonite Weezing, and Venusaur ex decks. The Charizard ex and Raichu Pikachu ex deck is the only deck that was able to win against Pikachu ex.

On our tier list, Pikachu ex is considered to be an S-tier deck. Any deck that cannot compete with the speed and power of Pikachu ex will be ranked lower.

The only exception is the Charizard ex deck. Charizard ex is difficult to set up due to its 2-evolution line as compared to Pikachu ex, who needs very little set-up as a basic pokemon. However, once Charizard ex was fully built, Charizard ex gains a massive advantage over Pikachu ex during the late game.

We were expecting Machamp ex to be a direct counter to Pikachu ex because of its type advantage. Theoretically, Machamp ex would be able to one-shot Pikachu ex and use Giovanni to also one-shot Zapdos ex. However, in-game, Machomp ex's evolution can be easily hindered through Red Cards and as long as Giovanni is no longer in play, Zapdos ex can easily survive.

Bonus Match

1st Deck	Wins	2nd Deck
	9-10

We conducted a bonus set of games with the Pikachu ex and Charizard ex due to Charizard ex's overwhelming success. This time, Pikachu ex won but with a very close score of 9-10.

Charizard ex has one of the strongest attack power in the game, but Pikachu ex's attack condition of adding +30 damage per benched pokemon can tip the scales of a game—even if its attack power does not match up to Charizard ex's strength.

Articuno ex VS Pikachu ex

vs

The Articuno ex deck suffered a devastating loss against Pikachu ex with 0-10 match victories. Although Articuno ex has very advantageous attack abilities, it was unable to put pressure on Pikachu ex due to its reliance on Misty's energy generation.

If Misty is not able to land on heads then Articuno ex is immediately placed at an early game disadvantage, highlighting the flaws of the Articuno ex deck. This places the Articuno ex deck under Pikachu ex in terms of rating.

Dragonite and Weezing VS Pikachu ex

vs

The Pikachu ex deck won against the Dragonite and Weezing deck with a win of 10-2. These match tests highlighted the lack of stability within the Dragonite and Weezing build.

Since the Dragonite deck had very few base pokemon, there were three games where Dratini was forced into the Active Spot using the Sabrina supporter card. As long as you are able to prevent Dragonite from being built, this deck can be easily beaten.

Venusaur ex VS Pikachu ex

vs

Venusaur ex lost to Pikachu ex with 4-10 match wins. Venusaur ex has both 190 HP and can restore 30 HP through its attack, making it one of the most durable cards in the game. However, facing off against Pikachu ex's Circle Circuit and Zapdos ex's Thundering Hurricane, even Venusaur ex is bound to struggle.

Zapdos ex's Thundering Hurricane is determined by Coin Toss

In the matchup, Pikachu ex deck's strategy heavily depends on Zapdos ex's Thundering Hurricane. Thundering Hurricane's special condition states that the attack does +50 damage for every Heads flipped in a 4-coin toss.This means that the attack can do between 0-200 damage in a single turn.

Out of Pikachu ex's 10 wins, 4 of the victories were won from Zapdos ex's Hurricane Thunder dealing 150 damage to Venusaur ex. Unable to recover from such a massive hit, Venusaur ex found itself in a very precarious position.

Slow Evolution Always Leads to a Loss

There were many cases where if you were just one turn behind in your evolution, you were already guaranteed to lose to Pikachu ex.

Even at 90 HP, Ivysaur can be beaten by Pikachu ex's Circle Circuit if you have a completely full bench. To counter this, you will need to put Exeggutor ex in the Active Spot by at least the second turn or when Pikachu ex is not yet built.

Charizard ex VS Pikachu ex

vs

Charizard ex beats Pikachu ex with a 10-5 victory. The Pikachu ex deck contains cards like Sabrina, who could switch out Charizard ex, and also Zapdos ex, who could potentially one-shot Charizard ex if it gets 200 damage. However, other than that, even if Charizard ex's evolution gets delayed by 2 turns, it will still be able to catch up.

It is difficult for Charizard ex to counter Sabrina. Taking Charizard ex out of the active spot usually lead to the opponent getting points since Pikachu ex would defeat any weaker pokemon. The only remedy is to build another Charizard ex even if it might delay the set-up. This makes Sabrina one of the most feared cards in the Pikachu ex deck.

Bonus Match

The Pikachu ex deck was surprisingly underperforming during the extra match. There were many games where the opponent was unable to build Pikachu ex and was forced to attach energy to Zapdos ex instead. However, they were still able to catch up on games where Charizard ex could not be built in time.

In the end, Pikachu ex won the bonus match test but only by a tight margin. The Pikachu ex deck is still rated higher and has a slight advantage, but the Charizard ex deck in itself is a very strong deck. If set up correctly, it can contend with the S-tiered Pikachu ex deck.

Machamp ex VS Pikachu ex

vs

Surprisingly, the Machamp ex match ended with a victory for Pikachu ex. If Machamp ex can switch Mankey with Machoke by the second turn, even Pikachu ex would not be able to defeat it easily. However, Pikachu ex is able to make a comeback through the help of Zapdos ex, who is only weak against other electric types.

The Machamp ex deck is mainly composed of 1st evolution and 2nd evolution cards so if they are not able to evolve, or if the Red Card reshuffles the hand, Machamp ex is immediately put at a disadvantage.

Raichu and Pikachu ex VS Pikachu ex

vs

The Raichu and Pikachu ex deck won in a close game of 10-8. The 140 combined damage done by Raichu and Lt. Surge is enough to one shot both Pikachu ex and Zapdos ex, leading to its victory.

With both decks having nearly identical cards, the match came down to a matter of luck depending on the players' starting hand. However, with Raichu dealing more damage than Pikachu ex's moves, it can do a larger range of maneuvers giving the Raichu deck a bigger advantage.

Pokemon TCG Pocket Related Guides

Deck Building Guide

All Deck Tier Lists

Deck Articles

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

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
Lt. Surge	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