There are several good cards to collect in Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Eevee Grove set, with collectors having the full range of Eeveelutions with the Illustration Rare to look forward to, and those interested in deckbuilding have even more nice cards to find. Some are not hard to get, such as Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s new uncommon Tsareena, which can be great for control decks that try to make the opponent discard cardsto reduce their winning options. Flareon Ex and Sylveon Ex are both seeing a lot of competitive play, but there is another card from Eevee Grove that is sitting at the top of the meta, even if just for a while.
Although there is not much of a connection between the Celestial Guardians set and Eevee Grove as a mini expansion, the latter does continue to add a few more new Alola-themed cards, like Togedemaru, a new version of Incineroar and its pre-evolutions, more Salandit and Salazzle, and other cards. This may not be the focus of this new Pokemon TCG Pocket set, but it does make some Celestial Guardians cards more powerful than ever, thanks to the new Hau Supporter, which is perfect for those who want to build a deck around Alola’s starter Pokemon.
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One Pokemon TCG Pocket Eevee Grove Card is Already Out of the Meta
Pokemon TCG Pocket’s new Eevee Grove expansion is about to add one card that is dead on arrival in the current meta.
Why Pokemon TCG Pocket Players Shouldn’t Sleep on The New Hau Supporter
Hau is a new Supporter card in Pokemon TCG Pocket that follows in the footsteps of Red and Giovanni, in the sense that it allows players who use it to make their Decidueye Ex, Incineroar Ex, and Primarina Ex deal 30 more damage with their attacks. This applies to all of their attacks, and it doesn’t have other asterisks attached, like Red’s damage being only active against Ex cards. Hau works with the following cards:
- Decidueye Ex (Celestial Guardians)
- Incineroar Ex (Celestial Guardians)
- Primarina Ex (Eevee Grove)
It’s worth noting that Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Decidueye Ex’s Pierce the Pain attack may not be affected by Hau because it deals a flat amount of damage to any opposing Pokemon, whereas Hau only affects the opposing active Pokemon.
This means that, with Hau, all these Pokemon deal a lot more damage, which makes them much stronger in the current meta. The attacks are modified as follows:
- Incineroar Ex – Fire Fang: 1 Energy for 60 damage, Burning the opposing Pokemon for at least 20 more damage at the end of the turn, for a total of 80 damage
- Incineroar Ex – Scar-Charged Smash: 3 Energy for 110 damage if Incineroar Ex has no damage on itself, otherwise the attack deals 170 damage
- Decidueye Ex – Pierce the Pain: 2 Energy for 100 damage to any opposing Pokemon with damage on itself, or 130 damage if the active Pokemon is chosen
- Decidueye Ex – Razor Leaf: 2 Energy for 110 damage
- Primarina Ex – Hydro Pump: 1 Energy for 70 damage, or 110 damage if Primarina Ex has 2 or more Water Energy attached
- Primarina Ex – Sparkling Aria: 3 Energy for 130 damage and 20 healed damage on Primarina Ex
These numbers are high enough to make Incineroar Ex’s Scar-Charged Smash one-shot most Pokemon in the format if it has damage on itself, which is why it’s rising in usage across the board, often paired with the new Flareon Ex. On the other hand, Primarina Ex powercreeps Venusaur Ex out of the meta already, but with Hau, it can also deal much more damage than Venusaur Ex ever could.
Decidueye Ex doesn’t get as many benefits from using Hau due to Pierce the Pain mainly being a sniping tool for Pokemon on the bench, but Razor Leaf dealing 110 damage with Hau can still make for a good combo. All this made Hau an immediate meta pick in Pokemon TCG Pocket decks, but it may not last for a long time.
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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 Eevee Grove set caps off the “Celestial Guardians era,” and the A4 expansion for the game will launch as soon as the end of July, in just one month. Since Celestial Guardians added Decidueye Ex and Incineroar Ex, and Eevee Grove added Primarina Ex, it’s very likely that new versions of these three critters that are also Ex cards won’t be added for the foreseeable future. Right now, it makes perfect sense to have Decidueye Ex, Incineroar Ex, and Primarina Ex, but with over 1,000 Pokemon in the Pokedex, and with the focus moving away from Alola, it wouldn’t make much sense to add new versions of these cards.
Decidueye, Incineroar, and Primarina Are Unlikely to Get More Ex Cards in Future Pokemon TCG Pocket Sets
What follows is that, while using Hau now is a good idea, great even, it may only be feasible for a small window of time. Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s future releases may add expansion rotation, for example, making older cards not legal to play in competitive matches. More importantly, with no new versions of Decidueye Ex, Incineroar Ex, and Primarina Ex (with a focus on the fact that these should all be Ex cards, rather than any card dedicated to these Pokemon), Hau will be meta for as long as it’s not powercrept out of it, and the same goes for the cards it supports.
For example, Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Giovanni makes the user’s Pokemon deal only 10 more damage, but it has no requirements, and thus it may have a longer “shelf life” than Hau.
One could argue that this is true for every card in the game, but Supporters associated with specific Pokemon can be more problematic. There are cards that benefit from this, as the new Tsareena in Eevee Grove is arguably stronger than its previous iteration, and it still benefits from Celestial Guardians’ Mallow Supporter. However, regular copies of Decidueye, Incineroar, and Primarina don’t benefit from Hau unless they are Ex cards, and with only a handful of new Ex cards added with each set, the three Alola starters may not get a new one for a very long time.