It’s been a long, long time since we’ve had a competitive grade Pikachu deck. Thanks to Surging Sparks, however, that might be about to change. Pikachu ex is looking very strong, with the right combination of attack power and insane ability that could really have this deck seeing play at the top level of competitions.

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Pokémon: 17
3 Pikachu ex SV8 33
3 Magneton SV8 35
3 Magnemite SV8 34
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
1 Squawkabilly ex PAF 75
4 Teal Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 25
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
1 Iron Hands ex PAR 70
Trainer: 31
2 Crispin SCR 133
2 Iono PAF 80
3 Carmine TWM 145
1 Boss's Orders PAL 172
1 Briar SCR 132
3 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
2 Ultra Ball PAF 91
4 Nest Ball PAF 84
2 Counter Catcher PAR 160
1 Defiance Band SVI 169
1 Switch SVI 194
1 Super Rod PAL 188
1 Gravity Mountain SV8 106
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157
4 Energy Switch SVI 173
2 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
Energy: 12
6 Grass Energy SVE 1
3 Lightning Energy SVE 4
3 Metal Energy SVE 8

Pikachu ex has so much going for it it’s almost hard to decide where to begin in discussing the potential of this powerful new deck. So, to make it easier on us, let’s just dive into Pikachu ex – the card itself.

Pikachu ex – card breakdown

Other than being a pretty cool looking card, Pikachu ex has it made in the competitive department.

Let’s talk about the obvious thing that’s strong about Pikachu first: it’s attack.

Topaz Bolt

Topaz Bolt is straightforward enough – it dishes out 300 damage. That’s an insane damage output for a basic Pokemon. However, it’s not without its own share of downsides. For starters, this attack requires an odd mixture of energy: grass, lightning, and metal. Normally that would be pretty hard to achieve but there’s plenty of ways to get it done (which we’ll get into in a moment).

Meanwhile, Topaz Bolt forces you to discard three energy from this Pokemon. That means not only do you have to accelerate three energies of different types, you then have to do it all over again the next turn.

That might sound like a lot of downsides but let’s talk about some ways to minimize this downside in the next section. Before that, let’s look into “Resolute Heart” and how this ability could be a game changer for Pikachu ex.

Resolute Heart

So here’s the thing: most decks that run basic Pokemon as their main attackers expect for those attackers to get knocked out the turn after they attack. Essentially, those decks are looking to come out the gate strong, and punish their opponent’s before getting knocked out themselves.

However, Pikachu ex turns that paradigm on its head thanks to Resolute Heart. With this powerful ability, Pikachu ex cannot be knocked out in one hit from damage from an attack. This makes it deadly against other two-prize decks like Raging Bolt ex that will find it nearly impossible to keep up with the prize trade.

It’s a bit technical why this ability is so good but it all has to do with enabling a favorable prize trade, and it’s the real reason Pikachu ex will likely be top tier after it is introduced into the Pokemon TCG meta.

Energy acceleration options for Pikachu ex

Let’s get the elephant out of the room first: there’s no easy way to accelerate energy onto Pikachu ex. If it required just three lightning energy, that would be relatively easy to achieve. But instead you will need to accelerate three different types of basic energy onto Pikachu in order to get it’s attack off.

While there are relatively few cards that are even capable of achieving something like this, we are getting a powerful new energy acceleration Pokemon for lightning type in this set: Magneton.

Overvolt Discharge was built for Pikachu ex

While many players will be looking to build Pikachu ex without Magneton, I doubt any other method will be as effective as Overvolt Discharge for getting Pikachu ex up to speed.

Basically, assuming you’ve been able to get the necessary energies into your discard, Overvolt Discharge guarantees those energies are accelerated onto your Pikachu ex. The only downside here is that your Magneton gets knocked out in the process.

However, because Pikachu has the potential to avoid getting knocked out for a turn, assuming it stays alive, this might not actually matter. You’ll be racing for the two prize knockouts, meaning giving up a single prize is worth it if you can take a KO every turn with Topaz Bolt.

Crispin

While Magneton is undoubtedly your main energy acceleration engine in this deck, Crispin is also going to be very helpful in getting your Pikachu powered up. The nice thing about Crispin is you can relatively easily power up your Pikachu without giving up a KO.

While most times (especially early in the game) giving out a free prize shouldn’t be an issue in this deck (indeed it actually sort of helps you), there may be times later in the game where you need to shore up your losses.

Crispin lets you search your deck for two different basic energy and attach one of them to your Pokemon. Not only does this grant you the energy you need, it makes it easier to beef up your Pikachu.

Ogerpon ex plus Energy Switch enables turn one KO

Lastly, my custom build of this Pikachu ex deck uses the powerful Teal Mask Ogerpon ex to help with accelerating energy. Ogerpon ex is great because not only does it help you get more energy into play, you draw a card whenever you accelerate an energy using Teal Dance.

Using Crispin along with Teal Dance and an Energy Switch makes it tangible to get a turn one knockout with Pikachu ex – something which will really help set this version of the deck apart from the competition!

While getting this to work will be relatively difficult, you do have a handy Pokegear card, making it a little more feasible to find Crispin on your first turn.

While this makes a turn one KO feasible, I would still choose to go first as that will help you set this deck up more reliably.

Getting energy into the discard

Now that we’ve covered the main way to accelerate energies onto your Pikachu ex, let’s look at a few ways to get energies into the discard. While Crispin is a handy way to get energies from your deck into your hand, you’ll also want to ensure you have the energy you need in your discard to get things rolling.

Luckily this deck has many ways to help you do this. Let’s start with Earthen Vessel first.

Earthen Vessel gives you the energy you need

Earthen Vessel is a must in this deck, which is why I’ve included four copies in my example deck list. What I like to do with Earthen Vessel in decks like this is to use it to load up my hand with different energies that I will need in order to accelerate from the discard via (in this case) Magneton.

Cards that unlock benefits when discarding your energies

Once these energies are in my hand, the best way to get rid of them is via the following cards:

Carmine: I like Carmine in this deck because it helps speed things up. Going first with Pikachu ex is definitely the favorable approach. While Pikachu ex can feasibly take a turn one KO, it’s easier to get ahead in the prize race if you go first.
Squawkabilly: Squawkabilly feels like a must in this deck, letting you discard your hand (and energies you need in the discard) and draw six new cards.
Radiant Greninja: Concealed Cards needs no introduction, letting you discard an energy and draw more cards.

In addition to these cards, you have many others that can discard energies, although they don’t have the dual effect of drawing cards. Ultra Ball and Earthen Vessel are both capable of discarding energies and you should look to combo them when possible.

Just remember: you have Crispin available in this deck so keep that in mind when taking energies out of your deck. If you are going to need to play Crispin, you’ll need to check to make sure you have the right energies in your deck. Don’t discard them all!

Damage modification lets Pikachu ex OHKO anything

Pikachu ex needs to be taking KOs every time it attacks. You absolutely don’t want to be using it to swing into one prizers, and you can’t really afford to swing and miss into bigger HP Pokemon.

For one prizers, use Iron Hands ex to take knockouts. For Stage 2 Pokemon like Charizard ex, either ensure you are behind in prizes so you can swing with Defiance Band (hard to do against Charizard ex but more feasible against Dragpult ex) or just play the new Gravity Mountain Stadium card. This will put even the mighty Charizard ex within range of Pikachu’s Topaz Bolt attack.

Coming back from behind to win with Pikachu ex

Lastly, one thing that’s going to make Pikachu ex very attractive much in the way Charizard ex has been popular is that Pikachu ex has the potential to be an excellent comeback deck. While Overvolt Discharge seems like something of a drawback, in reality you can use it to consistently stay behind your opponent and unlock powerful added advantages.

We’ve talked about how this helps with Defiance Band, but it also helps you take advantage of Counter Catcher to ensure you are swinging into a favorable target. You also have Briar. Using Overvolt Charge, you can more reliably ensure your opponent is at exactly two prize cards, making a comeback win with Briar much more feasible.

Pikachu ex matchups

Let’s briefly cover some of the matchups you are likely to face and how to deal with them.

Terapagos ex

This should be a relatively favorable matchup for Pikachu ex. The main issue you might have is that Terapagos ex has Dusknoir at its disposal. Any deck running Dusknoir can nullify your Pikachu ex’s Resolute Heart, making it harder to get that favorable prize trade that makes Pikachu ex so good.

Otherwise, if relying solely on Terapagos, Pikachu ex can OHKO it even with Bouffalant in play – something which Terapagos ex can’t replicate without Dusknoir.

Dragapult ex

The Dragapult ex matchup feels relatively favorable as long as you go first. You’ll definitely want to look to get your Magneton’s ability off as early as possible. This way it makes the damage modification easier to achieve between both Defiance Band and Gravity Mountain. The main issue here is that if Pikachu ex survives a Phantom dive thanks to Resolute Heart, it’s going to be easy pickings against Phantom dive the next turn.

That being said, you can still keep a positive prize trade as long as you can avoid the four prize turn Dragapult ex likes to take. If Dragapult ex is a particular concern for you, you could tech in a Bianca’s Devotion to help heal your pikachu ex back up.

Raging Bolt ex

One of the reasons I think Pikachu ex should be an exciting deck to explore in the Surging Sparks season is that Pikachu ex has a very favorable matchup against Raging Bolt. Pikachu can’t OHKO a Raging Bolt but Raging Bolt ex can’t do the same, forcing it to work around Pikachu ex via Prime Catcher

In this matchup, you might want to be careful about how your bench is set up, avoiding unnecessary two prizers and forcing your opponent to instead attack into Pikachu ex. This should be easy enough to achieve if you focus on Magneton and drop Teal Mask ex from your board.

Charizard ex

Charizard ex and Pikachu ex feel like they would trade evenly. Both have pros and cons that feel like they will even each other out. On the one hand, Pikachu can survive any hit from Charizard ex with resolute heart. On the other, Charizard an nullify Resolute heart with Dusknoir.

Pikachu can also swing for knock out against Charizard ex, but it relies on two seperate damage modifiers to do so, making it a little more challenging.

I think one main advanatage you can leverage early on in this matchup is to lean into Iron Hands ex. Use Iron Hands ex to take out single prize Pokemon while you wait for Charizard ex to hit the field to knockout.

Realisticially, you probably are only going to get one mega hit off against Charizard ex between Gravity Mountain and Defiance Band, so make that one hit count!

Pikachu ex has everything it needs to be a top tier Pokemon deck. However, how well it does at competition will depend on how many players pick up this powerful concept, and how friendly the meta ends up being against it. I think it has a good chance given the new decks coming out in Surging Sparks, but only time will tell for sure!

Stellar Tera Pikachu ex Deck List and Guide

Pikachu ex Deck List