Pokemon TCG Pocket has plenty of rewards to receive for those who engage in Solo battles against AI opponents, and while Rental Decks often do the job, there’ll no doubt come a point where you wish to build your own deck. Many of the best decks available aren’t free-to-play friendly, though, and that’s where this Ninetails and Rapidash deck comes in.
A redrafted version of the Rapidash deck that is given to you when you first engage in Pokemon TCG Pocket’s battles, this deck should get you a little further than before, without breaking the bank. Here’s our Ninetails and Rapidash free-to-play deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket.
Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Ninetails and Rapidash free-to-play deck
As a free-to-play deck, this Ninetales and Rapidash deck is not the strongest one that you could be using in Pokemon TCG Pocket. Meta decks involving Mewtwo ex, Venusaur ex, and more are hard to beat in terms of strength, but they’re also hard to build without splashing the cash or having some unparalleled luck.
Though, if you’re mainly engaging with Solo battles, you don’t need a meta deck to beat your AI opponents and claim your rewards. That’s where this free-to-play deck involving easily acquired cards comes in!
For this Ninetales and Rapidash deck, you need the cards listed below, but there is room to swap cards you don’t have out for alternatives. More on this below!
- 2x Ninetales
- 2x Vulpix
- 2x Ponyta
- 2x Rapidash
- 1x Growlithe and 1x Arcanine ex OR 2x Magmar – or you can use Fossil Cards instead
- 2x Poke Ball
- 2x X Speed
- 2x Professor’s Research
- 2x Blaine
- 2x Sabrina
The main cards that you require for this deck are two sets of Ponyta/Rapidash and Vulpix/Ninetales, as this is what our deck revolves around. You will then have room to take along two more Pokemon, and I advise taking the most powerful Fire-type you have available to you — excluding Charizard ex. In my case, this is Growlithe and Arcanine ex. Magmar is also a really good pick for this deck if you have two of them to spare as they can benefit from Trainer Card, Blaine, but they aren’t as powerful as I’d like!
- I exclude Charizard ex here because they’re a Pokemon that you won’t see much of a benefit in bringing without a Moltres ex or another Energy-acquiring Pokemon to hand.
Another alternative altogether that you can consider are Fossil Cards. These are Item Cards that can be played as though they are a basic Pokemon with 40 HP, and while they can’t retreat, they can be discarded whenever you please. This can make them worth using when setting up and ensuring you have a Ponyta or Vulpix to build.
If you have Moltres ex available, they’re undoubtedly a better Pokemon to take than Arcanine, given that they can kit out your other Pokemon with plenty of Energy while in the Active Spot. There’s also Eevee and Flareon, if you have neither Arcanine ex or Moltres ex to hand.
Alternatively, you can always consider Normal-type Pokemon such as Meowth or Ditto as filler cards; Meowth allows you to draw a card while in the Active Spot, and Ditto can copy your opponent’s attack if it has enough Energy.
As for your Trainer Cards, Giovanni is useful to this deck as the 10 additional damage he provides during a turn can be the difference between attacking an opponent’s Pokemon and knocking it out. For example, Ninetales’ attack, Flamethrower, does 90 damage. This can knock out most basic Pokemon, but being able to do 100 damage with the help of Giovanni can see Ninetales knock out 100 HP ‘mons such as Seaking (featured in the Lapras ex event), Articuno, Lilligant (a vital card in the Venusaur ex deck) and more.
Blaine functions similarly to Giovanni by allowing Ninetales or Rapidash to do 30 additional damage. This puts 120 HP Pokemon under threat of being knocked out with a single attack from Ninetales, and sees Magmar doing 80 damage (rather than 50) and Rapidash doing 100 damage (rather than 70).
Our other Supporter card, Sabrina, forces the opponent to switch their Active Pokemon, which can help us out in a pinch. If you do not have multiple copies of Sabrina, Blaine, or Giovanni, you can instead bring along a combination of Red Cards or Potions to fill out your Trainer Cards.
Don’t forget that you can craft cards you don’t have using Pack Points, and I highly recommend using these to craft Trainer Cards. They’re versatile cards that you will use in multiple decks!
For more on Pokemon TCG Pocket, take a look at what the rarest cards in the game are, as well as how to add Flair to your cards.