Celebi and Serperior Break the Pokémon TCG Pocket Meta

A new dominant deck has emerged in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket. The recently released game Mythical Islandits first expansion that adds more than

A new dominant deck has emerged in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket. The recently released game Mythical Island saw its first expansion that adds more than 60 new cards (not including alternate art cards) for use in decks. While 60 cards aren't enough to create a ton of new deck archetypes, the set did manage to create one new deck that has dominated early competitive play. The new deck features Celebi and Serperior and is the first Grass-type deck to emerge as a potentially meta-defining deck.

Not only is it the new incredibly powerful Celebi ex deck, but it also sets a new standard for dealing with damage thanks to some important synergies. If players can build the deck correctly and flip the coin correctly, Celebi ex can easily hit every Pokémon in the game, including cards it would otherwise be at a disadvantage against. This new deck has set the new standard within Pokémon TCG Pocket, with the meta already shifting to find ways to counter this impressive deck.

Why Celebi and Serperior Break the Game

Celebi Ex can deal maximum damage to opponents

Celebi ex appears to be an energy-dependent, oscillating card. The card's“Powerful Bloom” attack allows the player to flip a coin for each Energy attached to the Pokémon and deal 50 damage per head to the opponent's Active Pokémon. Under normal circumstances, players would have to attach 4 energy to Celebi to deal an average of 100 damage, which seems like a very high energy cost compared to Mewtwo's ex's Psybolt or Charizard's ex's Crimson Storm. However, when paired with Serperior, Celebi becomes an absolute terror.

Serperior's “Jungle Totem” makes all Grass energy attached to a Grass-type Pokémon count as two energy. This is a powerful energy accelerator equivalent to Gardevoir, but it's even more useful because Celebi ex (and other prominent Grass-type Pokémon) doesn't require energy discard. With Serperior on the bench, Celebi ex with four energies attached deals an average of 200 damage per turn. What is more, Celebi ex can deal up to 400 damage per turn if a player performs a statistically improbable series of coin tosses.

Celebi Ex is the new Pokémon TCG Pocket deck

Celebi Ex is already winning tournaments

Players quickly realized the possibilities of Celebi ex and Serperior and immediately began building variant decks designed to maximize the card's potential. The deck emerged victorious in two major events this week, despite having a weakness for Fire-type decks like Charizard ex.

Similar to Charizard's ex decks, Celebi ex takes a while to set up, as Celebi requires a stash of Energy to be a one-hit KO machine and Serperior is a Stage 2 Pokémon. Both winning decks turned to a Pokémon unique and previously neglected to help provide an initial defense – Exeggutor ex.

With 160 HP, Exeggutor ex can withstand multiple initial attacks from opposing Pokémon, only needing one energy to use its “Tropical Swing” attack. Although Exeggutor ex still has a weakness against Fire-type attacks, the Erika trainer card can heal 50 damage from a Grass-type Pokémon.

Especially in the early rounds, Erika helps keep Exeggutor ex in play long enough for decks to get Serperior evolved and ready to help, as well as putting more energy into Celebi ex. If Exeggutor ex can stay in play for just a few turns, a player should be able to set up Celebi ex to come and finish off an opponent.

Pokémon TCG Pocket's Powercreep has officially begun

The game already has an innovative combination

Already, Pokémon TCG Pocket Reddit pages and X accounts are showing off the Celebi ex/Serperior combo dealing ridiculous amounts of damage to opponents. Thanks to the new combination, players also discovered that Pokémon TCG Pocket has a maximum damage limit (via X), as the game only tracks up to 990 damage per turn.

It's clear that this deck will be prominent in the game for a long time, to the point that the entire game will have to change to find counters for the new deck. On the positive side, Celebi ex/Serperior is powerful, but not absolutely unbeatable. Cards like Sabrina can disrupt a player's setup, forcing them to switch to a pre-evolved Serperior or Celebi too early.

There are also many strong Fire-type Pokémon that can KO Celebi ex in one turn, including Arcanine ex. Mythical Island also added Volcarona, a Fire-type Pokémon that can deal 80 damage to any of the opponent's Pokémon at the cost of discarding two Energy. Players can use