Pokemon TCG Pocket is releasing a new expansion in the form of Eevee Grove, just a little under one month since the launch of the previous one, called Extradimensional Crisis. Though Eevee Grove is bound to reshape the meta in some way, with Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s new Sylveon Ex or Penny being candidates for two different meta cards in most decks, only a handful of cards have been revealed so far. Among them are Eevee Ex, which is mostly there to allow players to have four Eevee cards in a deck, as well as one card for each Eeveelution. Unfortunately, one Eeveelution, as loved as the Pokemon itself may be, is most likely dead on arrival.
It’s unclear at this stage whether every Eeveelution will have an Ex version, as there are Flareon Ex and Sylveon Ex in the set, whereas the other evolutions for Eevee are regular rares (albeit with Illustration Rare versions, in the case of Leafeon). Either way, some of the new Pokemon TCG Pocket cards are clearly more powerful than others, or at least they can be used in the meta to a degree. The new Eevee Grove Leafeon is, unfortunately for its fans, not in a good state, and it may be outright unusable.
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Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Eevee Grove Set is About to Kill The Most Long-Lived Meta Deck
The upcoming Eevee Grove set for Pokemon TCG Pocket may be the final nail in the coffin for a longstanding, yet hated, meta deck.
Pokemon TCG Pocket’s New ‘Worst’ Card in Eevee Grove is Already Clear
The new Leafeon from Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Eevee Grove has 90 HP, it has no abilities, it has a Retreat Cost of 1, and it can attack for a colorless Energy with Leaf Blast. Leaf Blast should be the main allure of the card, as it deals 10 damage plus an additional 20 damage for each Grass Energy attached to Leafeon, meaning that it can deal 30 damage with its first use and ramp from there. The problem is that Leafeon would need at the very least three or four Grass Energy attached to deal any form of impactful damage, but it doesn’t have the bulk to survive long.
It’s worth noting that cards like Guzzlord Ex and Team Rocket Grunt can single-handedly destroy Leafeon’s game plan.
As such, the best course of action would be to pair it with any other cards that can accelerate Energy generation, but the problem is that there are not many for Grass decks. An option would be to pair Leafeon from Eevee Grove with Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Leafeon Ex from Space-Time Smackdown, which generates a Grass Energy per turn whenever it is in the active spot. However, Leafeon Ex is very much not bulky either, and it can only attack for 70 damage with three Energy, making it a very subpar option.
A Leafeon Ex strategy would make it need to soak up damage to speed up Energy for Leafeon, potentially giving the opponent two easy points.
The other, more sensible option would be to pair Leafeon with Serperior from Mythical Island, as its Jungle Totem ability grants all Grass Pokemon double the amount of Grass Energy. In this case, for example, a Leafeon with three Energy could attack for 130 damage with Leaf Blast, but this needs a lot of setup for little payoff, exposing the user to a high risk of inconsistency in performance.
Why Pokemon TCG Pocket Players Shouldn’t Consider Playing Leafeon
Considering that Leafeon Ex decks in the past didn’t perform well, and Serperior decks only had a few powerful exceptions for a short period of time, the new Leafeon would need a lot of help to work. At that point, for the investment, there are simply much better and more consistent options, meaning that this version of Leafeon is most likely out of the meta before it even releases. The Buzzwole Ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket that came out with Extradimensional Crisis is a good example of a Grass deck that can be very powerful for little investment, and while not perfect, it shows how the new Leafeon is most likely a filler card.