Team Rocket ex

Lewis chai

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Standard 60

TCGplayer $45.17 / Cardmarket €29.66

Deck Primer

Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex is going to be an insanely popular deck. Fun, powerful, and themed around one of Pokemon’s most iconic duos, this deck will be seen everywhere from the Pokemon TCG Live ladder to your local game shop. But how exactly does it work? What makes this killer deck tick?

Below, we’ll break down every single card in Rocket’s Mewtwo ex and how it can help you dominate the playing field.

Mewtwo ex:

Unlike most top tier Pokemon attackers in the game right now, Mewtwo ex’s ability is more of a hinderance than an advantage. Called “Power Saver,” this ability singlehandedly dictates what much of your deck is going to look like. I’ll give you a hint: you’re going to need a lot of Rocket’s Pokemon. In order to ensure you reliably hit that four cards on the field designation, you can’t be fooling around with a ton of non Rocket’s Pokemon on your bench.

Luckily, Destined Rivals comes chalk full of powerhouse Rocket’s Pokemon. We’ll see what some of those are in a moment. But until then, let’s look at what makes this Mewtwo ex really stand out: it’s combo of high HP, high attack power, and the fact it is a basic Pokemon ex.

There’s not a single meta relevant basic Pokemon ex right now with HP that remotely comes close to Mewtwo ex. That insane 280 puts it out of reach of many, many attacks. And the best part is you don’t need to evolve it to reach that high HP the way you do with most other equivalent Pokemon: it comes with that stat directly onto the bench

For everything that Mewtwo ex has going for it, it’s this attack that makes it a strong card. For just the cost of removing two energy, Erasure Ball is hitting for 280. That’s enough to OHKO basic Pokemon ex, many stage 1 Pokemon, and can help you keep pace with strong stage 2 Pokemon ex.

Team Rocket's energy:

Because Team Rocket’s special energy counts as two energy, you essentially just have to remove one energy to get this powerful attack off. However, you can’t get this special energy back after you use it, so it might make more sense to discard basic energies that can easily be accelerated from the discard via Rocket’s Spidops.

Team Rocket's Spidops:

Not only can Spidops accelerate energy from the discard which can then be used in turn to power up Erasure Ball, it also has a decent attack in its own right. Assuming you have six Rocket’s Pokemon in play, this attack is swinging for 180. This can be especially helpful when swinging into Pokemon with grass weakness.

Interestingly enough, Rocket’s Mewtwo ex operates a bit like a toolbox deck. Sure, the primary strategy is aimed around Mewtwo ex but it’s far from your only option for attacking. Beyond Spidops’s very handy attack, you also have three additional Pokemon to help give you an edge.

Tera Type Pokemon may have dominated the game for the past few sets. However, Rocket’s decks have a powerful tool to use against them. That tool is none other than Rocket’s Mimikyu, and this card very simply lets you use your opponent’s Tera Pokemon’s attack against them. This could be insanely helpful against the likes of Dragapult ex, letting you get a little damage spread. Tera Type Pokemon may have dominated the game for the past few sets. However, Rocket’s decks have a powerful tool to use against them. That tool is none other than Rocket’s Mimikyu, and this card very simply lets you use your opponent’s Tera Pokemon’s attack against them. This could be insanely helpful against the likes of Dragapult ex, letting you get a little damage spread.

Lilie's Clefairy ex:

This deck can also take advantage of Lillie’s Clefairy ex as another toolbox attacker, giving you a distinct edge against Dragon-type Pokemon like the massively popular Dragapult ex or Raging Bolt ex. Keep in mind that Rocket’s Energy won’t work on this Pokemon, but you can easily play Energy Switch to get the energy you need to get this Pokemon’s attack off.

Team Rocket's Articuno ex:

Rocket’s Pokemon also gain a fairly hefty buff against the current Pokemon TCG meta thanks to Articuno. Articuno’s Resistance Veil prevents your Pokemon from being targeted by effects from your opponent’s Pokemon. While this won’t stop them from getting hit by damage dealing attacks, it should stop them from being targeted by effects that enable your opponent to “place” damage counters, like in the case of Dragapult ex.

Supporter cards:

So far, if you’re not excited for the potential of this deck I don’t know what to tell you. But what if I were to say it gets even better from here? Well, as it so happens, it does. Indeed one of the biggest advantages of playing a Rocket deck is the fact that it gets access to a powerful range of supporters that only work within their own walled-garden.

Rocket’s Ariana grants Rocket decks one of the strongest draw support effects in the game.
Team Rocket’s Archer unlocks powerful hand disruption.
Team Rocket’s Giovanni acts as an upgraded Boss’s Orders with both gust and switch built-in.
Proton lets you add any three Rocket’s Basic Pokemon to your hand and can be used going first.

Trainer/Item cards: To make it easier to find the right supporter when you need it most, you have Team Rocket’s Receiver: a card that lets you search for any Rocket supporter from your deck and add it to your hand.

As if all of that weren’t enough, Rocket’s decks have a built in draw support card specifically for them. It’s a stadium called Rocket’s factory and it lets you draw an extra two cards once per turn when you play a Rocket’s supporter.

There’s an insane amount of native support for this exciting new deck coming out in Destined Rivals. But is it all power and no downside? In reality, this deck does have a few notable downsides to it. Will they be enough to knock this deck out of contention for being top tier?

Luckily, these weaknesses can partially be mitigated via a few handy tech cards included in the list above. Let’s look at what they are.

The biggest weakness is the fact that you are so heavily reliant on using Rocket’s Pokemon. While there are plenty of solid Rocket’s Pokemon (as you’ve seen), it makes it a little difficult to use any of the very powerful supporting Pokemon available to other decks.

For example, while this deck list runs Fezandipiti ex, trying to fit in both a Fez and a Mew ex the way other basic Pokemon decks do with relative ease would be a relative risk, making it less likely you’ll get Mewtwo ex’s attack off or leverage one of your supporters. There’s no real way out of this particular weakness so I won’t try to sugarcoat it. With Mewtwo ex, it’s all or nothing on Rocket’s Pokemon.

While there isn’t a Rocket’s Pokemon with insane bench sniping, you do have Team Rocket’s Sneasel. While this attacker won’t let you attack the opposing active Pokemon and the bench, it could help make evening out the math a little easier.

While swinging for 280 is impressive for a basic Pokemon ex, you aren’t able to OHKO everything you face. Stage 2 Pokemon or the soon to be released three prize pokemon will be out of your reach. While this list does tech in Maximum Belt to hit as hard as 330, it’s going to be hard to reach those high numbers consistently in every battle. Additionally, Maximum belt can only be used once, making it hardly a surefire OHKO solution.

Ultimately, however, no single deck does everything, and sometimes the best way to play a Pokemon TCG deck is to just lean into its strengths and ignore the weaknesses. With that approach in mind, I think Mewtwo ex is going to be a very strong deck, and a welcome and refreshing strategy in the current metagame.