Pulsing Aura, the new expansion for Pokemon TCG Pocket, is finally here, and first impressions are that this Fighting-themed set isn’t pulling any punches. Powerful new Pokemon, game-changing Trainer cards, all-new effects and Abilities, and soon enough, a new meta… if you ever feel like you’re just starting to get a feel for Pokemon TCG Pocket before another monthly update flips the script, then don’t worry, you’re not alone. I’ve been playing Pocket regularly since launch, but even I sometimes struggle to keep up with the breakneck pace at which the game moves, with old favorites rising and falling as the new cards and mechanics shake up the scene. That’s why I wanted to put this article together, offering a little insight into the new Pulsing Aura set from the perspective of someone who has been playing the Pokemon TCG since Base Set (later competitively) and Pocket since day one, so I’d like to think I have some idea what I’m talking about!
As its title suggests, Pulsing Aura brings lots of new support for the Fighting type, a buff that’s been a long time coming, but you only have to look at Pocket’s history of overcorrections to see what led us to this point. Take a bow, Misty… a Supporter card added in Pokemon TCG Pocket’s very first set, Genetic Apex, which allows for game-breaking tidal waves of Water Energy if Lady Luck sees fit to bless you with a decent amount of successful coin flips. What followed was set after set where Water types tended to be mediocre at best, the dev team seemingly concerned that Misty could easily turn a strong Water card into a busted one. In turn, the release of Rampardos—a deadly dinosaur Pokemon capable of putting out huge damage for just one Energy—in Space-Time Smackdown saw similar ripple effects not only for Fighting but for the fossil archetype in general, with neither receiving an awful lot in the way of support… until now.
Fighting fans will finally be eating well with all the new options presented in Pulsing Aura, but there’s much more to this new set than just those scrappy, slappy guys. Feast your eyes on this lovely lot, start workshopping how best to build around some of these promising Pokemon with a little help from yours truly, and don’t forget to add any new cards you’re chasing to your in-game Wishlist… you never know when some kindly Trainer might just throw a share or a trade offer your way! With that, let’s dig into some of the cards, starting with… a little sprout? Sure, why not?
Budew
Baby Pokemon have made a huge splash since their introduction in Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Wisdom of Sea and Sky set. Each carries a zero-Energy attack with typically potent effects such as Energy acceleration for your Bench or disrupting opponents with early status effects or card locks, with this little cutie falling into the latter camp. Budew’s attack shuts down any Abilities on the target until they leave the Active spot, and there are a host of meta staples that simply cease to provide value once their Abilities are negated. Suicune stops being a draw engine; Oricorio loses its immunity to EX Pokemon; Hydreigon can’t power itself up instantly; damage reduction and retaliation Abilities (Furfrou/Druddigon) no longer provide protection. There are just so many instances where Budew could be useful that I would expect it to find a home in plenty of decks, if not now then potentially in the future. In any meta where the top decks are relying on Abilities in the Active spot to make their plays, this thing is going to be incredibly powerful.
Gallade
While each new Pokemon TCG Pocket set does cater to fans of all different types, there always tend to be one or two that seem to get more love than the others. Since Pulsing Aura is named after Mega Lucario, it makes sense that this would be Fighting’s time to shine, and this set has a bunch of strong new options for big gains for your decks. Some of these I’m sure will hit the meta, but I’ll start with more of an outlier, if one I think has a ton of potential. With many decks running Stadiums to support their key cards and a potent new one specifically buffing Fighting in this very set, the conditions for boosting Gallade’s damage to 140 shouldn’t be hard to meet, with both new and existing Fighting support capable of ramping it higher still. It does run afoul of the ever-present Mega Altaria, its Psychic weakness making it a one-shot to a fully loaded cloud dragon, so we’ll have to see how popular Altaria remains as the new meta takes shape to gauge whether or not Gallade will have a place. But with the ability to score three points by taking down quite a few popular Mega Pokemon in one blow after a buff or two from its allies, Gallade is a card I’m really looking forward to putting through its paces.
Zoroark EX
Pokemon TCG Pocket players who have been around since the start will remember just how dominant Pikachu EX was at launch, so the potential of this new Zoroark EX should be obvious. The mechanics of both Pokemon’s attacks are identical bar their type requirement—30 damage for each of your Benched Pokemon, up to 90 with a full Bench—and while Pika fell off in part due to how much it hated going first, Zoroark swinging for a single Energy means it actually delights in going first. Attacking for one Energy also means you can quickly start powering your Bench while Zoroark EX throws out big chunks of damage, with one obvious partner being Darkrai EX to turn your 90 damage into 110 with its additional pings to the Active spot every time it gets an Energy. Hyper-aggressive decks often do well in TCG Pocket as they can easily punish anyone unlucky enough to not hit their gameplan on curve, so I certainly think we’ll be seeing a lot of Zoroark EX both in this set’s new meta and in future ones as even stronger teammates emerge for this tricksy fox Pokemon thing.
Field Blower
With just 20 deck spaces available in Pokemon TCG Pocket, it can be extremely difficult to find room for extra support cards once all of your Pokemon lines and staple Trainers are in place. That’s precisely what makes something like Field Blower such an interesting proposition, with its amazing versatility effectively allowing it to perform the jobs of multiple other cards at once, and all of its effects will prove useful in different matchups. If you’re running Guzma or Klefki and are matched against someone with no Tools in their deck, those cards are effectively bricks; a Field Blower in their place would still be able to mess with any Stadium plays they may make, or even knock off something on your own side of the field if needed. Both Tools and Stadiums are popular picks in many decks, so a card that lets you interfere with those as required seems like it has a lot of potential, wouldn’t you say?
Urshifu
A two-for-one deal next, since Pulsing Aura adds both the Water-type Rapid Strike Urshifu and the Dark-type Single Strike Urshifu, each with the same stat line and Ability but with their own unique attacks. It’s that shared Ability that actually stands out here, adding the Fighting type to these cards purely for the purpose of hitting an additional weakness, and there are a bunch of cards in Pulsing Aura to make this extremely potent. First is the wave of new Fighting support (which I mentioned with Gallade but we’ll look into more closely shortly), helping Urshifu punch well above its weight when running into powerful opponents while still only giving up a single point if they manage to take it down. The other obvious combo with Urshifu is the new Stadium card Bounded Field, which modifies weakness damage calculation from +20 to x2 (Megas are excluded from this, understandably, since it would make them too risky to play), leading to some potentially crazy numbers and huge game steals. Yes, that Retreat Cost is disgusting—the silver lining perhaps being the opportunity to make use of Heavy Helmet for extra survivability—but the sheer range of support available means we may well see one or both of these make its mark on the meta in due course.
Flygon EX
This one might be a bit of a stretch as Dragon-type Pokemon with their dual Energy requirements are notoriously unreliable in Pokemon TCG Pocket. But as someone who has massively enjoyed various different Tyranitar and Flygon sandstorm decks in the actual TCG over the years, I really want to try and make Flygon EX work. The power to put 10 damage into all of your opponent’s Pokemon between every single turn while Flygon is up-front is going to rack up quickly and present all manner of nasty Cyrus plays, while swinging for 140 should let it finish off a lot of common threats after just a few sand ticks. The real sticking point is the Energy cost, with neither Grass nor Fighting having ramping options that work here, meaning that you’re at the mercy of Energy RNG in getting online on curve. If you’ve ever tried to run a multi-Energy deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket, you no doubt know just how bad it feels to get unlucky with Energy—it often just feels like Energy distribution is perfect when your deck misfires yet when you hit everything you need off-rip, the game just throws you like 12 of the same Energy type in a row. Will that happen when you play Flygon EX? Yeah, probably. Will it be meta? No, probably not. Am I going to build it anyway? Absolutely.
Bombirdier
The Pokemon TCG Pocket devs often like to offer their own predictions on which cards will shake up the meta by making them the Crown Rare chase cards of the set (although they’re not always right, are they, Arboliva?), so it seems the team has as much faith as I do in Bombirdier, one of Pulsing Aura’s two new Crowns. There’s a standard Rare variant of this new Dark support card too, of course, so getting two copies shouldn’t break the bank, although hitting specific cards in larger single-pack sets like this—with more than twice as many cards as smaller sets like Crimson Blaze—can be a little frustrating early on. Still, at least trading and sharing are options these days. Bombirdier is a relatively unassuming card, at least until you read its Ability and realize just what a massive buff reduced Retreat Costs can be for Dark decks. All of a sudden, Nihilego can get out of the Active spot for free, while Hydreigon, Naganadel, and Darkrai can retreat for one Energy (or for free, with two Bombirdiers on the Bench), enabling much more fluid, strategic movement in Dark decks. It doesn’t hurt that the bird’s one-Energy attack can one-tap Baby Pokemon or start chipping others for 30 if you get a rough start, but it’s the sheer utility of its Ability that makes Bombirdier one of the standout cards in Pulsing Aura.
Fighting Support
You’ve had your two-for-one entry, and now I get to go one louder with three new Fighting support cards for the price of one, since they all do pretty much the same thing, and perhaps more excitingly, they all stack. We saw new Stadium Arena of Antiquity and Supporter Korrina in the Pulsing Aura reveal trailer, and Fighting fans were quick to start crunching the numbers to see just how ludicrously hard Rampardos could wallop EX opponents for a single Energy. But wait, there’s more! The new Fighting-type Meloetta functions like the Fire Oricorio from Fantastical Parade, boosting any attacks of the same turn used in the following turn. It’s important to note that Arena/Korrina only grant boosts against EX Pokemon, while Meloetta offers a flat +30 to all Fighting moves after it swings, but all of these being able to work together or as needed to reach key breakpoints and score KOs serves as a huge buff for the Fighting type in general, and it’s long overdue.
Let’s return to the probable reason why that’s the case, the one-Energy powerhouse that is Rampardos, and crunch the numbers again to see just how high its theoretical damage ceiling actually is. So, the turn after Meloetta hits Inspiring Dance (+30), you push Rampardos active into a rival EX. With two Fighting Coach Lucario on the Bench (+40), Arena in play (+20), and Korrina used as your Supporter (+30), that’s a total of 250 damage for a single Energy under absolutely optimal conditions… enough to one-shot almost anything in the game. Sure, the likelihood of pulling all that off in real matches is pretty slim, but it’s pure overkill in most situations anyway, and should rather be seen as an example of just how much the Fighting type now has with which to work.
Mega Lucario EX
It’s rare that the flagship Pokemon featured on the pack of a new set doesn’t make a sizeable impact on the competitive scene (sorry Mega Gengar, you’re just too slow), and I would expect Mega Lucario EX to follow suit. The classic Pokemon X/Y Mega Lucario (as opposed to Mega Lucario Z added in Pokemon Legends Z-A) is able to start swinging for just two Energy but puts even more power into its punches once you add a third. This means the new cover star can function as both an explosive opener and as a late-game closer if powered up behind the various one-Energy Fighting strikers and snipers often found in the Fighting Box archetype. All the new Fighting support we’re seeing in Pulsing Aura gives Mega Lucario EX ways to take down rival EXs with ease and even Megas fairly consistently, with the various Bench-hitting options Fighting can use setting up Cyrus plays to score that all-important first blow in a Mega-versus-Mega battle. The new Riolu also does its part in making this card feel strong too, emulating Fighting Box favorite Sudowoodo to put extra damage into EXs before they can get online, then evolving into the Mega to start swinging for big-boy damage. Unlike Gallade, Mega Lucario EX actually has the bulk to survive a full-force blow from Mega Altaria and can, with the right support, pick up the KO in response to close out the game, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on how well Pokemon’s aura king holds up as the new meta shakes out.
Celebi
When trawling through Pulsing Aura’s 155 new cards, I was fairly sure I was going include Celebi here purely on the potency of its ability. But after hitting the Crown Rare variant myself in my first ten-pull, I just knew that the little time onion itself had made unto me an offering to secure its spot. This new Celebi is effectively a board-wide Memory Light, granting each of your evolved Pokemon access to all attacks from pre-evolved forms just by sitting on the Bench. Despite its Colorless attack cost, it’s not something that’s going to be splashable everywhere, of course… decks only running Basic Pokemon get zero value from it, but Memory Light’s frequent appearances as a tech option in certain decks just go to show how well this strategy can work with the right cards. It mainly leverages combos where earlier forms have energy acceleration (Meltan), useful snipes/status effects (promo Froakie’s Bubble), or just extra strategic options (Rampardos using Cranidos’ attack to finish a weakened enemy without suffering recoil), but there’s a world of possibilities out there to explore. If you’re building a deck and it feels like the attacks of your early- and mid-stage Pokemon might also be useful in the late-game, Celebi could be a great way to open up those options while keeping your Tool slots free for other useful bonuses.
Honorable Mentions
There’s a bit of chatter around quite a few other new cards from Pulsing Aura so while the ones detailed above are my personal picks likely to prove themselves in the new meta (and Flygon, because Flygon), things in Pocket can sometimes shake out in unexpected ways, so it’s honestly just as likely that one or more of these will shine instead/as well. Victini is one for enjoyers of Fire types and coin flips, and its Ability letting you re-flip all coins from your Fire attacks has plenty of obvious use cases—Moltres EX should be able to more consistently power your Bench, and getting maximum value out of the new Emboar’s Flare Storm, to name but a couple. Mega Audino EX is another card a fair few people seem excited about. I kept it off the main list due to its Fighting weakness making it a potential liability if Fighting steals the show in the new meta, but there’s no denying that you could easily make it pretty much invincible against low-damage decks. Pair Audino with other healing cards and effects like Indeedee EX, Dusknoir, the new Brambleghast, and the host of healing Trainer cards and you’re resetting Audino to full health every turn. You obviously can’t out-heal being one-shot by Mega Lucario or Rampafter with just a little support, though, so we’ll see. Mega Sceptile EX has to be worth a shout-out as well, since it’s effectively a Grass-type counterpart to the really-rather-good Blaziken EX, trading Burn status for Poison and Fire’s tempo support via things like Flame Patch for Grass type’s better access to survivability tools, so it’ll likely be strong. Same goes for Magnezone EX, although as a minor upgrade to the existing Magnezone, it remains to be seen whether players will think it’s enough of an improvement to justify giving away an extra point when defeated.
As for the new Trainers, Parasol Lady will surely find a home in Water decks that run bulky non-EX Pokemon (Rapid Strike Urshifu might enjoy this, or potentially even Mantyke once it has done its job to remove an easy target from the field) as one of the few scoop options currently in the game. Cabbie is another good one, getting you a guaranteed Stadium card, which could prove invaluable in decks that rely heavily on Stadiums for support. In fact, Fragrant Forest will be a perfect target for this effect, functioning like a guaranteed Mesagoza but only for finding Grass Basics—something that naturally loses value the longer a match goes on without it up, so finding it fast will be important. Finally, I mentioned Bounded Field earlier, another new Stadium that sets weakness damage to x2 for both sides of the field (with the exception of Mega Pokemon). There’s no denying this is a strong effect, but this feels to me like more of a ‘win more’ card that only works when you already have the upper hand in the match-up and turns into a brick when you don’t. Unless you’re building around it with a rainbow deck full of various types carrying Colorless attacks for maximum coverage, I don’t think too many decks will gain much from this Stadium, but it’s so potent that there’s no question it’ll see some play.
If I missed any of your favorite new cards, hit us up on our socials to let us know who you rate and what you’ll be building, and I really can’t wait to find out just how right (or wrong) I was with some of these picks as the new meta takes shape over the next month. In the meantime, may all your pulls be fire and your Wonder Pick guesses on-point, and I’ll see you on the ladder, Trainers!
