The Solo Battles come with multiple levels of difficulty. Besides the rewards for winning against the CPU decks for the first time, there are additional challenges to complete to earn extra rewards (Shop Tickets). One of this challenge is to win a battle using a deck where all the Pokémon cards are of ◊, ◊◊ and/or ◊◊◊ rarity in Expert mode. This effectively means that you cannot play any Pokémon ex nor any ☆ Pokémon with a fancy artwork.
In this article, we’ll suggest you some decks you can build to beat this challenge, depending on the packs you opened, even on a budget.
Reminder: you only need to win once to complete the challenge, and you don’t need to complete multiple challenges in a single battle. Do not handicap yourself by attempting to complete the weakness challenge along with the rarity challenge when you could use entirely different decks, better suited for each mission.
If you opened mostly Charizard packs...
Blaine deck
The Charizard pack contains the best R Pokémon and it’s very easy to build a budget Blaine deck, which doesn’t contain any card over the ◊◊ rarity. The deck is very straightforward: attack with R Pokémon and power them up with Blaine when it can secure a knockout. Ninetales is the most powerful card in the lineup—the sooner you can use its Flamethrower attack, the quicker the match will end. Should you be missing some cards, Heatmor and Potion are playable alternatives.
Fighting deck
This F deck plays the universally accessible Sandshrew line and the powerful Primeape. Its Fight Back attack goes from 40 damage to 100 damage if Primeape has damage on it, so you can also take advantage of the CPU’s attacks on Mankey or Primeape to deal tremendous damage.
Other cards and decks to consider
- If you have 2 Alakazam and a Kangaskhan (both ◊◊◊), you can build an Alakazam deck. Charge the Abra evolutionary line up in Energy while Kangaskhan buys time in the Active Spot, until you can abuse Alakazam’s Psychic attack to wipe the CPU’s biggest Pokémon.
- The Dome Fossil evolutionary line is a good addition to F decks as it doesn’t conflict with the search from Poké ball.
If you opened mostly Mewtwo packs...
While the Mewtwo pack offers a lot of deckbuilding options, it truly shines only once you acquire ◊◊◊ rarity cards. Unlike the makeshift decks made with cards from the Charizard pack, the following suggestions will include at least two copies of a ◊◊◊ card.
Dragonite deck
With the universally available Snom line, you can build a Dragonite deck similar to their competitive counterpart. The strategy is to stall by bringing Frosmoth to the front, using its Powder Snow attack to put opponents to sleep, while you load up a member of the Dratini line. Once ready, bring Dragonite to the Active Spot to wreak havoc on your opponent.
Koga & Arbok decks
Koga and its partners, Weezing and Muk, along with the universally available Arbok, make for efficient budget decks against the CPU. Weezing can stall effectively, while Arbok can trap a Pokémon in the Active Spot and knocks it out with its Corner attack.
The Arbok Pidgeot variant doesn’t run the Koga engine, but enhances Arbok’s potential with Pidgeot’s Drive Off ability to pull an unprepared Benched Pokémon into the Active Spot.
If you opened mostly Pikachu packs...
Single Point Lightning deck
Taking inspiration from the 1 Point Lightning deck that naturally doesn’t run any card above ◊◊◊, you can use the best non-ex L Pokémon you have and play them as their rate is generally very good. Lt. Surge opens up power plays with Electrode and Electabuzz after you retreat Pokémon that are currently holding Energies.
You can easily improve this core by including other good L Pokémon that you opened, such as Raichu and Magneton as well as a second Lt. Surge over the Zebstrika line, Electabuzz and/or Pincurchin.
Water deck
The Pikachu pack includes one of the most deadly Supporter in Misty, which can attach multiple W Energy to a Pokémon in a single turn to be able to use their most powerful attacks straight away. From there, grouping your best W Pokémon to make a deck is a good strategy.
The deckbuilding is very flexible, allowing you to use any ◊◊◊ or lower rarity Pokémon you have available if you don’t have those suggested above.
Use Rental Decks
You can obtain Rental Decks by collecting specific cards. They’re limited to 10 use (but you’ll only need one successful use to complete this challenge) but they can hold their own against CPU decks.
Some of these Rental decks do not include any card above ◊◊◊:
- Nidoqueen & Nidoking D: collect 1 Nidoqueen and 1 Nidoking card (Pikachu pack)
- Kanto Fossils FW: collect one of each Fossil and one of each of their Evolution (all Genetic Apex packs)
- Blaine deck R: collect a Blaine card (Charizard pack)
- Lt. Surge deck L: collect a Lt. Surge card (Pikachu pack)
- Brock deck F: collect a Brock card (Pikachu pack)
- Koga deck D: collect a Koga card (Mewtwo pack)
Choose an effective type to counter the CPU and take on the challenge!
