Tournament Reports - Pokémon TCG Pocket Week 27

After the full card list was revealed, the Celestial Guardians format quickly became one of the most anticipated ever in Pokémon TCG Pocket. Among many new and unique card designs, two in particular stood out and promised to reshape the metagame.

First, the obvious one: Rare Candy, accelerating Stage 2 decks and giving them a real shot at competing in a metagame long dominated by Basic and Stage 1 Pokémon ex. It also opens the door for Stage 2 lines that barely saw the light of day before. The second is Oricorio , whose Safeguard ability completely shuts down many pillars of the old Big Basic ex meta (Giratina ex, Darkrai ex, Arceus ex…), practically forcing every deck to include a non-ex attacker just to deal with it.

So, how much did these cards and all the new additions from Celestial Guardians actually impact the metagame? Let’s look at the two biggest tournaments of the week.

FrogEX Weekly Cup #17

Player count: 395 players

Prize pool: $50

The first tournament of the FrogEX Cup’s second season saw the most diverse top cut ever, with 22 different archetypes in Day 2 (out of 73 players). This level of diversity was made possible by the impact of Rare Candy, powering up new strategies and reigniting classics.

With such an open field, any deck could take the win. Ultimately, Joe from Team FrogEX claimed victory with Charizard ex + Incineroar:

Charizard ex from Shining Revelry, also called Shiny Charizard ex, despite being one of the most iconic cards from the expansion, never made an impact in its original format: the old Charizard ex from Genetic Apex was actually more successful. But one card changed everything: Rare Candy. Before, it took three turns to evolve into Charizard ex and start attacking with Stoke, which was simply too slow. Now, Rare Candy makes it possible to evolve on your turn 2. It turns out it was the difference between an irrelevant deck and a winning one. You can now even attack with Charmander’s Ember for early pressure, then evolve, use Stoke to accelerate, and follow up with consistent 150-damage attacks from turn 5 onward. While it leaves Charizard ex vulnerable for a turn, the new Supporter Lillie can heal most or all of the damage it could have taken, making this already bulky attacker very hard to remove.

Joe’s version included another Stage 2 Fire Pokémon from Celestial Guardians: Incineroar ex. Like Charizard, it can attack on-curve by turn 3 with Fire Fang, and later deal massive damage with Scar-Charged Smash. The logic here is simple: you may not always draw both Rare Candy and Charizard ex at the right time, so adding a second line increases your odds of getting something online early. Joe even skipped Torracat entirely to avoid conflict with Pokémon Communication: Litten evolves only via Rare Candy.

A steady flow of 150 damage from turn 5, only stoppable by hitting 180 in one shot, proved strong enough to take the tournament. Joe beat the most popular deck in the finals: Solgaleo ex, piloted by SamAC.

Solgaleo ex deck also needs Rare Candy to get going. It can hit for 120 with Sol Breaker by turn 4. It’s paired with Skarmory, the archetypical aggressive Basic Pokémon that holds the line until Solgaleo ex is ready. Celestial Guardians brought new Tool cards: SamAC included Poison Barb to boost Skarmory’s Metal Arms damage, and chip opponents for more when they hit back, similar to Rocky Helmet. Meanwhile, Giant Cape helps Solgaleo survive Charizard ex’s Steam Artillery; otherwise, its weakness plus recoil damage would make it a one-hit knockout.

All the archetypes from this top 8 are worth a mention, with decks being the most represented with 1 base Decidueye ex deck and 2 base Meowscarada decks. We'll highlight souhai719's list which featured both Pokémon:

This list follows the same logic as the Meowscarada-Beedrill builds from earlier formats: two Meowscarada and one big Pokémon ex. The ideal setup is to start with the two 1-point Meowscarada and finish with the heavier 2-point attacker, optimizing your prize trade. Alongside Pokémon Communication, Sprigatito’s Cry for Help gives you a decent shot at grabbing Meowscarada for a Rare Candy evolution on the next turn. Still, souhai719 chose to include the Stage 1s for both lines. Why?

Unlike the Charizard ex Incineroar deck seen above, which can often run the game with just one Charizard ex (and at worst prepare a backup Stage 2 if it gets knocked out) this list needs to set up all of its Stage 2 Pokémon to follow a clean 1-1-2 point sequence. Including the intermediate stages increases the odds of getting there consistently.

The deck also includes Leaf Cape, a new Tool that takes Decidueye ex out of Steam Artillery’s range. Combine that with Erika, and the Grass attackers become very tough to remove in most matchups.

Still in top 8, blahoun revived an archetype that went generally unnoticed at the time of its release: Arceus ex Crobat.

Crobat could deal 30 damage per turn just by using Cunning Link from the Bench, but it struggled to keep up with bulky Basic ex and had very low HP for a Stage 2. Rare Candy changed that. Now it can hit the field as early as turn 3 and start swinging for 80 with just one Energy for its Darkness Fang attack. Since Crobat isn’t an ex, it can easily knock out Oricorio. Speaking of which, blahoun included a single Oricorio in the list, even though the deck runs only Darkness Energy, because it can completely wall many ex decks while Crobat chips away from the Bench. After a round 1 loss, blahoun went on a tear, especially against Giratina ex-based decks: a piece of data that might be very important going forward.

Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #27

Player count: 1047 players

Prize pool: $400 (sponsored by XPCollect)

With Charizard ex winning the previous major, more players brought it here. But the metagame developed further, and we saw emerging patterns that shaped Day 2.

You thought Darkrai ex / Giratina was dead? Think again. Despite Rare Candy hype and the threat of Oricorio, Darkrai ex was the most represented deck in Top Cut and ex aequo in Top 8. The scariest part? They don't even need to play differently from before.

Hanamon, who went undefeated until Top 8, didn’t include a single Celestial Guardians card—not even a counter to Oricorio. Turns out, Safeguard only blocks attacks—not Nightmare Aura’s passive damage. Even if it takes longer, Oricorio’s 50 damage Zzzap attack is not enough while Darkrai slowly grinds it down. A notable change in the default list is running 2 Rocky Helmet and just 1 Giant Cape, as it drastically affects Oricorio's HP if it attacks... which is forced to do, since Nightmare Aura will sooner or later deal with it.

That doesn’t mean Magnezone / Oricorio can’t compete: in fact, bau reached the finals with it.

A Rare Candy-free Stage 2 deck is still possible in this economy! Magneton makes itself a more important asset than Rare Candy by accelerating Energy on itself thanks to Volt Charge all the while attaching Energy from the Energy Zone to Oricorio. The deck comes with no fantasy attached, running only these 2 Pokémon. Let's mention another new addition from Celestial Guardians in Guzma, a supporter that strips all your opponent's Pokémon Tool, a perfect answer to the Rocky Helmets and Poison Barbs that would jeopardize Oricorio's HP. A winning choice: in their run, bau defeated all 4 Darkrai ex Giratina decks they faced, wiping out 3 of them in the top cut nonetheless! However, it lost the finals to an archetype it has already lost to in swiss rounds. An archetype that might become the next Darkrai ex...

habuver won Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly Cup with a deck built on multiple engines: Snorlax with Barry, Greninja with Rare Candy, Giratina ex... with Energy in the Energy Zone. The result is a stall archetype similar to Darkrai ex Giratina but with several advantages:

• Snorlax, a 1-point, 140 HP tank, is also a strong non-ex attacker. By turn 4, it can take down high-HP targets with Barry. Crucially, unlike Darkrai ex, it can damage Oricorio and knock it out. It’s also unaffected by Red and bulky enough to survive a hit from Solgaleo ex.
• Greninja requires more cards to play than Darkrai ex (Froakie and Rare Candy), but it can snipe any Pokémon on the field to set up Cyrus plays, and it only gives up a single prize. Importantly, it doesn’t force you to run Energy…
• …which opens the way to power up Giratina ex as early as turn 3 using Broken-Space Bellow and Energy. Chaotic Impact remains one of the strongest attacks in the game (the most powerful from a Basic Pokémon ex) and poses a serious threat to almost anything. Since Snorlax doesn’t attack on turn 1, and Greninja rarely attacks at all, skipping a turn to use Broken-Space Bellow doesn’t slow you down much. You can commit Energy to either Snorlax or Giratina ex depending on the situation. Snorlax puts a huge pressure on the opponent as it can attack very early in the game, sometimes even twice in a row.

With the inclusion of two Pokémon Center Lady to keep all the big damage beater longer on the field, every commitment in spending Energy to these Pokémon is going to be rewarded with their lasting power.

Where Is the Celestial Guardians metagame at?

After the initial hype coming with Rare Candy, the second half of the week brought the metagame back to a harsher reality: Darkrai ex is still alive and well. The types that initially seemed to benefit most from Rare Candy, like , were quickly outpaced by decks that apply pressure more reliably than just by evolving earlier and damage in a more reliable way. Meanwhile, those leaning on Oricorio have yet to prove long-term viability. While Celestial Guardians is a medium-sized set containing 155 unique cards, the power level of older cards remains not only relevant, but in many cases stronger than the newly released options once the excitement settled.

That said, the meta shakeup is real. Celestial Guardians breathed new life into Stage 2 decks that had previously fallen off, simply lacking the Rare Candy to keep up with the usual Basic Pokémon ex power plays. So far, the most successful builds tend to pair at least one Basic Pokémon ex with a strong Stage 2 attacker, often skipping the Stage 1 entirely and relying on drawing both the Stage 2 and Rare Candy together. Ironically, this may hurt the overall health of the format long-term, with games potentially hinging too much on which player gets the right combo first. It also risks reinforcing already-strong support engines, as seen in the Snorlax–Greninja–Giratina ex deck.

Still, there’s plenty left to discover in this format. The big question remains: can the raw power of Darkrai ex and Giratina ex truly outlast the innovations brought by Celestial Guardians, no matter how promising they seem? Players have three weeks to prove otherwise, with creativity as their best weapon.