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Pokemon TCG Pocket: Best Articuno ex deck guide

Pokemon TCG Pocket players might benefit from the best Articuno ex deck guide since it is currently one of the best meta decks in the title. With a bit of luck, this deck can start dealing damage while destroying your benched Pokemon as early as Round Two. The Articuno ex deck is also called a High Roller deck since it relies on Misty and High Rolls to start doing damage.

In this guide, we will discuss the strategies behind the best Articuno ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket that you can use to dominate your opponents.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.


Articuno ex deck guide: Which cards should you use?

The following cards make the best Articuno ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket:

CardQuantity
Articuno ex2
Staryu2
Starmie ex2
Misty2
Giovanni2
Poke Ball2
Professor's Research2
Sabrina2
Red Card2
Potion2

This deck heavily relies on Support Cards to keep Articuno ex alive and buff it, while the Red Card is a way to throw a wrench into your opponent's plans. Staryu and Starmie ex act as alternative choices if you do not get a High Roll with the coin tosses on Misty.

Alternatives:

This is one of the few decks that can work well with just two Articuno ex cards and 18 other Support Cards. As such, you can remove Staryu and Starmie ex and put in cards like Hand Scope and X Speed instead. Hand Scope will allow you to peek into your main pile to plan your moves, while X Speed can be used to swap positions with your other Articuno ex in case it is running low on health.

Read more: Pokemon TCG Pocket Pikachu ex deck guide


Articuno ex deck guide: Strategy and how to play

Articuno ex is one of the most annoying decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket currently. The main strategy of this deck is to use Misty, get a High Roll (at least two heads), and attach the respective number of Water-energy on Articuno. Add that to the naturally generated energy, and you have three Water-energy to start spamming Blizzard.

Blizzard deals only 80 damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon card, however, it also deals 10 damage to each of your benched cards. Essentially, it destroys your backline and supporting Pokemon thereby rendering you helpless.

Since you will be able to use this strategy as early as round two or three, it is currently one of the best Pokemon TCG Pocket meta decks in the game.


Pokemon TCG Pocket Articuno ex deck: Best starting hand

Best starting hand for Articuno ex deck (Image via TPC)
Best starting hand for Articuno ex deck (Image via TPC)

The best starting hand for this deck would be Articuno ex, Misty, and Professor's Research. Articuno ex automatically goes on the Active Slot, and you can use Misty to try and get a High Roll on the next round. Professor's Research can help draw the other supporting cards, and you can look to set up and start dealing damage immediately.

If you have Staryu or Starmie ex in your deck, you can put them in your bench. Then, you can swap them out with Articuno ex on the Active Slot if Misty fails to get a High Roll. Similarly, you can also swap them if the opponent has something like Exeggutor ex that can deal a lot of chip damage.

Also read: Pokemon TCG Pocket: How to open card packs for free


How to play the Articuno ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket

Trainer and Item Cards in this deck (Image via TPC)
Trainer and Item Cards in this deck (Image via TPC)

The main strategy of an Articuno ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket is to get High Rolls with Misty and start dealing damage as early as possible. It's a strategy that is very simple to execute, although it greatly relies on luck.

Here is the flow that you should look to achieve with this Articuno ex deck for best results:

  • Place Articuno ex in the Active Slot.
  • Use Misty to try and get a High Roll, and attach all Water-energy generated to Articuno ex.
  • Use Professor's Research to try and draw Misty if you do not have it.
  • Start spamming Blizzard to deal 80 damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon and 10 damage to each benched Pokemon.
  • If you do not get a High Roll with Misty, use Support Cards like Potion and Sabrina to keep Articuno ex alive.
  • If you have Starmie ex in your deck, use it to stall while you build Articuno ex. You can also deal damage with Starmie ex.
  • Use Giovanni to hammer the last nail in the coffin by dealing 90 damage to Active Slot and 20 damage each to benched cards.

If you do not get at least two heads with the coin toss from Misty, the deck becomes slow and prone to counters from opponents. In such a case, your strategy automatically gets delayed and the match gets prolonged. Otherwise, this deck is truly annoying and you should prepare to see a lot of concedes while playing this.

Read more: Pokemon TCG Pocket card tier list


Counters to Articuno ex decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket

Pikachu ex decks are the natural counters to Articuno ex decks (Image via TPC)
Pikachu ex decks are the natural counters to Articuno ex decks (Image via TPC)

Strategically, the best counter to Articuno ex decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket is Lightning-types, especially the Pikachu ex and Zapdos ex decks. Since Articuno ex is naturally vulnerable to Lightning-type, it will always take +20 damage from these cards. As such, a fully set up Pikachu ex will deal 110 damage (120 with Giovanni) to Articuno ex and two-shot it.

However, given the massive number of support cards in this best Articuno ex deck, it mostly fails when Misty does not get a High Roll and you have to slow the game naturally. If your opponent is running a Charizard ex deck with Moltres ex, they can destroy you if they manage to hit Crimson Storm before you finish the game.


For similar articles, keep following Sportskeeda's Pokemon TCG hub.

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