Pokémon TCG Pocket wasn’t designed with competitive play in mind, but the community successfully made it happen. Over 200 TCG Pocket tournaments have been organized on Play LimitlessTCG, with prize pools sometimes reaching hundreds of dollars. As we prepare to welcome the new set Mythical Island, let’s take a look back at the Genetic Apex format and how it has evolved.
Soft Launch Era: Testing the Waters
Five weeks before its global release, Pokémon TCG Pocket had a soft launch restricted to New Zealand. Despite the geographical limits, players worldwide found their ways to play the game... and organize tournaments. Early competition, such as the first four Pocket Legends League editions and the r/PTCGP pre-launch tournament, showcased a rather good deck diversity in events that already attracted several hundreds players.
Two archetypes quickly rose to prominence: Mewtwo ex and Pikachu ex. Over the course of October, Pikachu ex became the deck to beat by the official launch.
Gqqq - Pocket Legends League #4 winner
The Early Days: Pikachu ex Dominates
In the first two weeks after the global release, Pikachu ex was effectively the frontrunner of the metagame. It's a successful deck for many reasons:
- It's easy to build: Pikachu ex decks are relatively simple to construct, especially for players willing to reroll their account when they start the game.
- It's consistent: Its main damage output doesn’t rely on evolving.
- It has both strength and stamina: Pikachu ex can deal up to 90 damage starting on turn 2 while boasting respectable HP. Paired with Zapdos ex, another high-HP attacker requiring no evolutions, the deck was both aggressive and sturdy.
Saitama - Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #2 winner
This consistency overwhelmed other archetypes, leaving Mewtwo ex as the only real competition. Mewtwo ex is nearly unbeatable if it could set up Gardevoir on curve, making it one of the "least worse" decks to go first with (as you can evolve earlier). However, Mewtwo ex struggled with Pikachu ex’s speed and Sabrina’s ability to snipe its fragile Ralts line before it could come online. That is, until someone cracked the code.
Breaking the Stalemate: Mewtwo ex strikes back
Week 2: in a field clogged by Pikachu ex decks, one player made waves at Pocket Legends League #6 by going undefeated with a Mewtwo ex deck playing a single regular Mewtwo.
es602howtolose - Pocket Legends League #6 winner
Mewtwo ex decks had been experimenting with other Pokémon, like Kangaskhan, to bring a tanky Pokémon in the Active spot to buy time while setting up the Gardevoir + Mewtwo ex combo. At the same time, they also wanted to avoid adding too much Basic Pokémon that could reduce the chances of getting a Mewtwo ex or Ralts with Pokéball. It turned out that 1 "Baby Mewtwo" was the sweet spot:
- It could tank at least 2 Circle Circuit
- It had a reasonable retreat cost of
- Being a type, it could be used as an attacker: its Power Blast attack is exactly one-shotting Pikachu ex
The results were immediate. In week 3, Mewtwo ex decks won the three major tournaments, two of them using this exact same list. With this adaptation, Mewtwo ex dethroned Pikachu ex and opened up the metagame for more diversity.
Opening the Metagame: A Revolution
Fire decks had always been there but were inconsistent in tournament results. Charizard ex, while powerful, requires two evolutions and relies on Moltres ex’s Inferno Dance—a coin flip effect— for energy acceleration. The deck was good into Mewtwo ex as Charizard ex resists one Psydrive and could one-shot everything with Crimson Storm while being faster to accelerate Energy. However, it struggled against the overwhelming presence of Pikachu ex, which was way too fast to handle. And thus, Charizard ex hardly found success in long tournaments.
For a long time, Arcanine ex was deemed as just a decent card on paper, but it needed one person who successfully used it in tournament to reveal its strength. With its Inferno Onrush attack capable of one-shotting Pikachu ex, Arcanine ex required only one evolution and less energy than Charizard ex. Tauros demonstrated this in week 2 by reaching the finals of the Pocket Legends League, though he ultimately lost to the Mewtwo ex list we talked about.
Tauros - Pocket Legends League #6 runner-up
Despite this promising performance, Mewtwo ex decks with baby Mewtwo were eventually seen as a better answer to Pikachu ex and the broader metagame. As the meta shifted in favor of Mewtwo ex, Arcanine ex lost relevance, as it was specifically designed to counter Pikachu ex. But decks weren’t done yet!
Instead of focusing solely on countering Pikachu ex, Hayato combined Arcanine ex and Charizard ex into a single deck dubbed "Arcazard". Arcanine ex remained the go-to answer for Pikachu ex; meanwhile, Charizard ex excelled against Mewtwo ex and other archetypes, giving the deck broader coverage. This ambitious strategy, which utilizes all Pokémon ex in one list, paid off as he went undefeated in Swiss rounds and made it to the top 8 of Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly.
Hayato - Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #4 top 8
Since then, Arczard performed very well in tournaments, confirming the viability of this strategy.
The Big Four era...?
Water decks, initially expected to dominate the format due to their strong performance in Versus battle mode (Pokémon TCG Pocket’s built-in matchmaking system), were completely tossed out by decks overrepresentation. While Misty's effect could single-handedly wins games, it proved to be not consistent enough in a Best of 3 ruleset. With Pikachu ex decks making up over 30% of the metagame, Water archetypes like Starmie ex and Articuno ex couldn't hope to succeed.
But the recent shifts in the meta created an opening for decks to re-emerge. They had the type advantage against decks and a decent matchup against Mewtwo ex, only losing hard to Pikachu ex. By week 4 and week 5, Water decks began seeing more play in tournaments. Even outlier strategies such as Blastoise ex and Greninja-based builds managed to make it to day 2.
Obamna - Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #5 top 4
Combined, Pikachu ex, Mewtwo ex, Fire decks and Water decks accounted for over 75% of the metagame—a sign of stabilization of the format. Fringe strategies, such as Dark types (Weezing, Arbok) and Wigglytuff ex, also found more success, placing more consistently in top 8. But it seems that we were a bit too optimistic.
Back to Square One
The resurgence of Water decks had an obvious consequence: strengthening Pikachu ex. By weeks 6 and 7, Pikachu ex decks reasserted their dominance. Over the course of eight weeks, the deck never lost its hallmark consistency or aggressiveness. Counter strategies often faltered due to their reliance on evolutions—a critical weakness against Pikachu ex’s unmatched quick gameplan. Many variants even included Raichu to amplify damage output with a single attack. And so, Pikachu ex swarmed the field once again, sharing dominance with Mewtwo ex.
Starlight33 - Ursiiday's Pocket Weekly #7 Winner (last big tournament of the format). This list is identical to saitama's winning decklist, 5 editions ealier.
Takeaways and wrap-up
Things had to change for them to stay as they are. The best decks were identified rather quickly, but players' creativity made Genetic Apex an evolving and interesting format. Over time, several archetypes emerged as viable contenders, and even strategies like Marowak ex and Venusaur ex occasionally sneaked into top 8s. But ultimately, it came back to Pikachu ex and Mewtwo ex.
One thing stands out: the dominance of strategies built around strong Basic Pokémon ex. All the top 4 decks relies on these powerhouses (Pikachu ex, Mewtwo ex, Legendary Birds), which raises the question: did Pocket overlook something in the game design? This choice certainly limits diversity, and Pokémon types with fewer Basic Pokémon options feel underpowered or relegated to rogue status. Until a competitive Basic Pokémon ex is introduced for them?
The ex distribution was also very uneven, with standing out as a glaring omission: despite having many Pokémon representatives, it has none of these.
Looking ahead to the next set, Mythical Island, only two Basic Pokémon ex have been announced so far: Mew ex, which helps an already favored type, and Celebi ex, a type. If Celebi ex elevates Grass decks into higher tiers, it would confirm that the availability of Basic Pokémon ex is a determining factor in the viability of archetypes. You might then have to be patient for your favorite typing to finally get the top level results that you want to achieve.