When Pokemon TCG Pocket first launched, the meta quickly came to be dominated by a very small handful of decks. One of those, centered around Misty and water-type Pokemon, came to be hated early on due to its potential to overpower opponents early on based entirely on how well some coin flips went.
Now, three expansions later, you would think other cards would have swooped in to replace or counter Misty decks. But instead, Pokemon TCG Pocket’s latest expansion just added a new card that makes Misty decks stronger than ever, and a lot of players are kind of over it.
For context, it’s not that Misty decks are necessarily the most powerful in the game. It’s that the luck-based nature of Misty makes losing to them feel very, very bad. Misty is a Supporter card, with the unique ability to allow the user to pick a water-type Pokemon, and flip a coin until they land on tails. They then attach a water-type energy to that Pokemon for every heads they flipped. This could result in a player attaching 0 water-type energy, effectively wasting a deck spot on the card and a supporter card play. Or they could attach 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 energy, or more, if luck is on their side that day. A well-flipped Misty could allow a player to win on turn one in certain situations, before the opponent even has a chance to make a move. Or, in more common scenarios, the user gets enough bonus energy to bring extremely powerful cards online before their opponent can build a meaningful defense.
All that’s fine and dandy, but what’s made Misty worse are the numerous cards in subsequent expansions that have made it even more powerful. Mythical Island added Vaporean, which has an ability allowing players to essentially move all that bonus energy freely around between their water-types. Space-Time Smackdown brought Manaphy in, which adds even more water energy to the board. Both expansions saw new, powerful water-type Pokemon that can make use of that energy, such as Palkia ex and Gyarados ex. As a result, water decks have been at the top of the meta consistently for multiple expansions in a row.
And now, with Triumphant Light, there’s another card out there making Misty decks even more hellish: Irida. Irida, like Misty, is a Supporter card, but its effect is that it can heal 40 damage from each Pokemon that has any water-type energy attached. Up to this point, grass-type decks have been the healing experts. But with Irida, water-type decks can make significant comebacks as long as they’ve collected and spread out enough energy…and between Misty, Manaphy, and Vaporeon, they’re very likely to do so.
For what it’s worth, some Pokemon TCG experts are offering a pretty logical explanation for Irida. In TCG Pocket, decks are limited to 20 cards That means if you want to add something like Irida, you need to take something else out. Water decks are simply swimming in good cards – at a certain point, players must weigh whether or not it’s actually worth removing Misty for a card like Irida. Some players are speculating that developer DeNA added Irida in an effort to crowd Misty out and force players to make tough choices about which Supporters to include. But that doesn’t mean plenty of wise deckbuilders haven’t found ways to include both.
As the player above points out, Pokemon TCG Pocket is gearing up for a regularly-scheduled event, where rewards will be doled out for going on win streaks in the game’s online competitive mode. The best reward, a gold profile badge, will be given out for winning five matches in a row. This is surprisingly difficult to do, and even moreso when many decks you’ll be facing can sweep you away within the first few turns if they flip coins correctly, and have backups like Irida to save them even if the flips go bad for them.
Expect to see a lot of water decks during this event and for a long time to come. In fact, at this point, it may just be worth playing one yourself if you’re not already.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
