The best Palkia ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket uses the same method as many meta-breaking water-type decks - flooding energy into a high-cost ex card to unleash late-game abilities far earlier than they should normally happen. Palkia's ability is about as high cost as they come - four energy and discarding three every time it's used - but it does huge damage to both the enemy active Pokemon and all their benched teammates. There is definitely a play here, if you can set it up. With that in mind, we'll explain how to make the best Palkia ex deck in the current PTCG meta, as well as what cards go with it and how to play it strategically.
How to make the best Palkia ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket
The best Palka ex deck in the wake of the Pokemon TCG Pocket Space-Time Smackdown is built with the following cards:
- Palkia ex x2
- Manaphy x2
- Eevee (Mythical Island/Continuous Steps Variant) x2
- Vaporeon (Mythical Island/Wash Out ability Variant) x2
- Misty x2
- Cyrus x1
- Professor's Research x2
- Giant Cape x2
- Pokemon Communication x2
- Poke Ball x2
- Sabrina x1
There's a little space for experimentation in the build, depending on how you want to focus your efforts. After all, several of the highest-ranking Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks are Water-types with a similar focus, so there's space to mix them up. Try adding Starmie ex and Staryu in place of Eevee and Vaporeon if you want a more aggro/early game focus, for example, instead of energy control. Alternatively, try items like the Giant Cape to increase Palkia's endurance and ensure it survives long enough to win the game for you, rather than getting taken out too early.
Ultimately though, you shouldn't mess with the core principle - rapid energy generation for Palkia, so it can unleash its main Dimensional Storm as early as possible. Misty and Manaphy are pretty integral to this idea, so keep them in the deck at all costs.
Palkia ex deck strategy and tactics
Once you're playing with this Palkia ex deck, the strategy here is relatively simple: ideally you want Manaphy in your opening hand and Palkia on the bench, so you can start channelling energy to the Palkia straight away. Use Misty to speed that up even further, and use Vaporeon to swap energy around between cards to get yourself over that final hump.
The actual moment that you bring Palkia into play will depend on the situation. Discarding 3 energy every use means that you'll probably want at least 5 ready before bringing it out into the active spot, but sometimes circumstances don't allow it. Of course, once you've used Dimensional Storm, you can then use Cyrus to force a wounded, weaker Pokemon into the active spot and try to finish it with the weaker Slash attack.
To summarise, the best Palka ex deck in PTCGP also includes Manaphy, Eevee and Vaporeon, and quickly supplies Palkia with energy to use its devastating Dimensional Storm as early as possible. This makes it one of the most powerful decks to emerge from the Space-Time Smackdown expansion, rivalled only by the Pokemon TCG Pocket Darkrai ex and Weavile ex deck.
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