Temporal Forces brings an incredible variety to the Pokemon TCG at the right time. With powerful new ACE SPEC Pokemon cards, and several new deck archetypes to content with, players everywhere should be excited for the changes coming in the Temporal Forces meta. In this guide, we’re going to look briefly over each of the prominent decks to come out or be significantly upgraded in Temporal Forces.

*Updated March 21, 2024

Ancient Box

Starting out we have Ancient Box. Ancient Box is likely to be the strongest deck to come out of Temporal Forces, already getting a top finish at a major tournament in Japan. It’s main strength lies in its massive damage output combined with being a single prize deck, making it easy to get a favorable prize trade.

While Koraidon is this deck’s main attacker, really it’s Roaring Moon that’s the star of the show, hitting really hard as long as you have enough Ancient cards in your discard.

Read our Ancient Box deck list and guide to learn more.

Gouging Fire ex

A lot of people have written Gouging Fire ex off as a meme deck, but I really don’t see why. Gouging Fire ex is really strong, and there’s plenty of support for fire type Pokemon that’s going unused in the game. This example deck pairs Gouging Fire ex with Iron Valiant ex, but I think there are a plethora of ways you could build this deck that would be very strong.

Read our Gouging Fire ex deck list and guide for more info.

Iron Valiant ex with Iron Crown ex

Iron Valiant ex has been one of my favorite decks archetypes since it debuted in Paradox Rift. I think Iron Valiant ex in general is underrated as it offers plenty of versatility and power. With the removal of Path to the Peak and powerful new cards like Reboot Pod and Iron Crown ex, Iron Valiant ex is going to look more like the deck it was intended to be when it released, and you won’t need to just pair it with more powerful attackers anymore.

Read our guide on how to play the Iron Valiant ex deck.

Lugia VSTAR

Lugia VSTAR is not a new archetype to come out in Temporal Forces. But it is worth including in this list because Temporal Forces marks the decisive return of Lugia VSTAR to the Pokemon TCG meta. Let’s just say rotation is good for Lugia, with new and powerful additions from Temporal Forces bolstering its effectiveness without the rotation hurting it much.

Most notably, Lugia VSTAR is helped by Mist Energy and Master Ball, making finding crucial Pokemon more easily while also adding a defensive layer against other top tier decks out there.

Arceus VSTAR with Giratina VSTAR

If you missed this combo, you might be happy to hear that rotation plus Temporal Forces are bringing the Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR deck back into the fold, only with some impressive improvements this time around. First of all, the biggest improvement to this deck is in the form of Maximum Belt. This ACE SPEC card enables Arceus to hit much harder than it has ever been able to before, and makes it particularly advantageous to use against powerful, high HP decks like Charizard ex. Arceus can also use this belt to hit for more, as can Iron Leaves ex.

Meanwhile, Iron Leaves ex acts as a powerful counter to popular decks like Roaring Moon ex that are weak to grass type Pokemon.

Future Box/Iron Hands ex

Iron Crown ex is one of the strongest cards to come out of Temporal Forces, and it gives Future Pokemon decks a lot to work with. Above, we see one version of an Iron Crown deck that focuses on powering up Iron Hands with Iron Crown’s Cobalt Command ability. This makes it much easier for Iron Hands to take KOs and extra prizes, and is particularly powerful against single prize decks that will be even more popular after Temporal Forces.

Great Tusk Mill

Mill and stall decks have been doing very well in the recent Pokemon TCG meta. Great Tusk has the potential to be one of the strongest. While not leaning so heavily into the blocking and anti-retreating strategy as Snorlax Stall, Great Tusk benefits from having an attack that discards your opponent’s cards directly. Powering it up with Hero’s Cape is a strong advantage, and against ex or V decks you can use Mimikyu to help slow your opponent down.

Last but not least, Eri is a strong new card in Temporal Forces, helping you keep your opponent on their toes while you battle against their deck, trying to deck them rather than take all six prizes.

Read our guide on how to play the Great Tusk mill deck.

Raging Bolt ex

Last but not least we have Raging Bolt ex. Raging Bolt is something of a wildcard right now – its attack seems pretty cool but we don’t have any examples of a competitively successful version of this deck. Of course, that won’t stop people from playing it and trying to take advantage of a near limitless damage output.