With a grand total that’s just short of 70 new cards in Eevee Grove, Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s latest expansion was not likely to completely change the meta, but some of its additions are indeed powerful and useful enough to justify big meta shifts. For example, one of the best decks now is Incineroar Ex with Hau in Pokemon TCG Pocket, as the new Supporter allows Incineroar Ex to deal 80 damage with one energy and up to 170 with three, making short work of most meta threats out there. While new cards have skyrocketed to the top of the meta, such as Sylveon Ex and Flareon Ex, other old ones remain firmly there thanks to some buffs.
Against all odds, Darkrai Ex and Giratina Ex remain a powerful combo, for example, though the deck has dropped in usage even below the rates of Extradimensional Crisis. This is most likely due to the rise of Flareon Ex and Silvally decks, which can consistently one-shot or take out both cards, but it shows how even one new card can impact multiple Pokemon TCG Pocket decks. A deck that stays at the top of the meta for the third set in a row is Solgaleo Ex, which got a buff in Eevee Grove.
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Solgaleo Ex and Shiinotic is an OP deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket because it’s very consistent and reliable, often getting Solgaleo Ex online and ready to attack on turn two or three for the user, depending on RNG. This is not always the case, but it’s why the deck runs two copies of Shiinotic, so that players can thin the deck every turn and fish for key pieces of the combo. Then, Solgaleo Ex can get in the active spot thanks to Rising Road, and dish out 120 damage while taking 10 back for recoil. This is the biggest drawback of the deck, but Eevee Grove nullifies it.
The reason that Solgaleo Ex is often cited as one of the most annoying decks in the game is precisely that it’s very fast and consistent, giving very little time to set up a match.
How Leftovers Buffs Solgaleo Ex Decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket
One of the new cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Eevee Grove set is the Leftovers Pokemon Tool, which heals the Pokemon it is attached to by 10 damage at the end of the user’s turn. This basically lets Solgaleo Ex attack “for free,” in the sense that it does take 10 recoil damage, but it’s immediately counteracted by Leftovers at the end of the turn. In the long run, this is better than Giant Cape, which increases the Pokemon’s HP by 20. On top of that, not many cards can deal enough damage to Solgaleo Ex to one-shot it, even without Giant Cape. The pros and cons of using Leftovers are:
- Solgaleo Ex is more reliably at full HP after a Sol Breaker
- Pokemon that one-shot Solgaleo Ex already do so without Giant Cape
- Using Leftovers means giving up Poison Barb, which deals passive damage to the attacker each turn
- Shiinotic benefits from Poison Barb more than Leftovers due to its 90 HP
The likes of Incineroar Ex with Scar-Charged Smash or Flareon Ex’s Fire Spin will deal a lot of damage to Solgaleo, which is also weak to Fire, but its 180 HP makes it impossible for them to KO it in one hit unless it already has damage on itself. This means that Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Solgaleo Ex should almost always get two Sol Breakers out before it’s KOed, which in turn means one or two KOs on its own.
Strategies like Sabrina plus Decidueye Ex in Pokemon TCG Pocket to force a big hitter out and then deal damage with Pierce the Pain also run the risk of not being effective, as Leftovers heals Solgaleo Ex to full each turn if it doesn’t have other damage on itself. This combo single-handedly makes the deck even more annoying and powerful, and unless the meta changes drastically, this may remain an option going into Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s A4 set in July.