Ancient Box Deck List and Strategy Guide

Temporal Forces is here and it’s clear that a new best deck has come with it – Ancient Box! It looks like a compelling strategy and also means that Lost Zone Box isn’t the only single prize deck to worry about right now in the Pokemon TCG standard meta. In this deck list and strategy guide, we will be looking at a top performing deck that did well at the Champions League in Japan piloted by Naoto Takahashi.

42nd Place World Championships 2024 - Diego Cassiraga

• Ancient Box Deck List

  Pokémon: 16

  4 Roaring Moon TEF 109

  4 Flutter Mane TEF 78

  3 Walking Wake TWM 63

  1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38

  1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46

  1 Pecharunt ex SFA 39

  1 Iron Bundle PAR 56

  1 Great Tusk TEF 97

  Trainer: 38

  4 Professor Sada's Vitality PAR 170

  4 Explorer's Guidance TEF 147

  1 Boss's Orders PAL 172

  4 Earthen Vessel PAR 163

  3 Nest Ball SVI 181

  3 Ultra Ball SVI 196

  3 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186

  2 Super Rod PAL 188

  2 Counter Catcher PAR 160

  2 Night Stretcher SFA 61

  1 Pal Pad SVI 182

  1 Secret Box TWM 163

  1 Superior Energy Retrieval PAL 189

  4 Ancient Booster Energy Capsule TEF 140

  3 PokéStop PGO 68

  Energy: 6

  6 Darkness Energy SVE 7

Card Type

Ancient Box Deck Strategy Guide

Perhaps the best thing about this deck is its simplicity. All you need to do when piloting this deck is get as many Ancient cards in your discard pile so you can power up your baby Roaring Moon. The more you have, the more damage it does.

While that’s your main attack, it isn’t the only weapon at your disposal. Indeed, you also have the new Pecharunt ex. While Pecharunt ex is mostly in this deck for its subjugating chains ability, you can also use it to attack. Assuming your opponent has taken prizes, you can do a significant amount damage with it as well.

Flutter Mane slows down your opponent

Another powerful Pokemon at your disposal is Flutter Mane. You won’t be trying to attack with Flutter Mane, but will instead use it to combat popular abilities in the meta like Iron Thorns ex that would otherwise be detrimental to your endgame.

Flutter Mane can be a handy card to have in the active spot early on while you are powering up your attacker. Sometimes you might trap an opponent with an otherwise effective Pokemon in the active spot like Squawkabilly ex or Teal Mask Ogerpon ex.

Breaking down Roaring Moon

While original Lost Box decks used Roaring Moon as a secondary attacker, th emost competitive builds right now focus on Roaring Moon as the main attacker. It dishes out extra damage for each and every Ancient card in your discard, meaning you get extra firepower for cards like Sada’s Vitality. That might not sound like a lot given the base damage is only 70, but you actually have a pretty insane damage potential. Given the sheer number of ancient cards in your deck, if you managed to get all of them into your discard, you could be doing over 300 damage with Vengeance Fletching! That’s pretty insane from a single-prize Pokemon!

Sada’s Vitality makes up the bulk of your draw engine

Sada’s Vitality is easily one of the strongest supporters in the game right now, acting as the backbone of energy acceleration and draw support for many meta decks. The ability to accelerate energy while simultaneously drawing cards is not something to be underestimated. Use it in this deck to quickly get baby Roaring Moon powered up .

In fact, Sada’s Vitality is so core to this deck’s functionality that this deck list runs three copies of Poke Gear, increasing your chances of getting a Sada’s when you need it most.

Secret Box is the Secret Sauce

Original Ancient Box decks tried running Ancient Drum thinking the added draw support would be a game changer. Since then, however, players have realized the effectiveness of Secret Box. Secret Box esentially gives Ancient Box everything it needs to get moving while having the added advantage of letting you discard cards. Play your cards right and this can help get even more Ancient cards into the discard.

Because Roaring Moon likes to just cut through everything in its path, you don’t need to worry about switching Pokemon from the bench too much with cards like Prime Catcher.