Images courtesy of The Pokémon Company

Ranked play is a massive deal. In every game with ranked matches, the feature draws the most hardcore players. These best-of-the-best players can duke it out in such an arena to see who is the best in their chosen game. Pokémon TCG Pocket is no exception to this rule. And now that the game has added Ranked play, we can now suss out the very best deck in the format – at least until the next release shakes the game up even more.

As such, we have quite possibly found the best deck for Pokémon TCG Pocket Ranked play. The deck uses Druddigon and Darkrai ex to exert pressure on your opponent before Giratina ex finishes them off. We call the deck “Rank & File” because of its prevalence in the premiere Ranked season.

Are you prepared for this deck? Let’s dig in!

Pokémon TCG Pocket Deck: Rank & File

Pokémon: 6

• Darkrai ex x2
• Druddigon x2
• Giratina ex x2

Items: 4

• Poké Ball x2
• Potion x2

Pokémon Tools: 2

• Rocky Helmet x2

Supporters: 8

• Red x2
• Professor’s Research x2
• Cyrus x1
• Sabrina x1
• Leaf x2

Something Smells “Ranked”

“Rank & File,” as the name suggests, is a commonly seen deck in the Pokémon TCG Pocket Ranked metagame. As such, players need to prepare to see this deck all over for the time being. Alternatively, if you prefer winning, unless you have an easy way to beat this deck, you might consider joining in with the deck!

The deck works like this: you’ll typically want an opener with Druddigon as your Active Pokémon and either Darkrai ex or Giratina ex in Benched positions; ideally, you’ll have all three available to you right away. Your goal is to stack Darkness Energy onto Darkrai ex, dealing 20 damage to your opponent’s Pokémon with its Ability, Nightmare Aura. Then, you’ll use Giratina ex’s Ability, Broken-Space Bellow, to put a Psychic Energy onto Giratina ex, ending your turn.

Chip damage from your Active Druddigon and your Benched Darkrai ex will suppress the opponent. This strategy will continue until you have enough Psychic Energy on Giratina to use its attack and sweep up. It’s a tough strategy to beat, speaking historically, and simple enough to pilot from the Pokémon side of things. That’s some of why this deck has risen to popularity.

The Relentless March of Support

The Trainer cards in Rank & File make the deck run more smoothly. You’ll almost always rely on the ubiquity of Poké Ball and Professor’s Research – that’s true of most decks out there today.

However, it’s more than just the Pokémon or getting to them that will win you ranked matches. Rocky Helmet, for example, is a card that you almost always want to put on your Druddigon as soon as you can so that its Rough Skin Ability stacks to deal 40 damage per hit it suffers. Potion can ensure any of your Pokémon survive just that little bit longer. Leaf means you can retreat any of your Pokémon easily, while the duo of Cyrus and Sabrina will easily disrupt your opponent when you need them to. Finally, you can use Red to finish off any Pokémon-ex and potentially clinch victory!

“Filed” Under “Expenses” (Rank & File In-Game Deck Costs)

Here’s the full breakdown of costs in the in-game currency for the Rank & File deck listed above:

• Shop Tickets: 12
• Pack Points: 2,700
  • Genetic Apex: 70
    • Sabrina: 70
  • Mythical Island: 280
  • Space-Time Smackdown: 1,210
    • Dialga: 1,000
    • Palkia: 210
  • Shining Revelry: 1,140

Whoa, this deck can cost a lot of Pack Points! At 2,700 Pack Points for 14 cards, that boils down to nearly 193 points per card. Granted, ideally, you’ll already have everything available to you if you’ve been playing since launch. However, as that’s less and less of a reality for new players joining the game, it gets harder to claim this. That’s why we go over Pack Point breakdowns and trajectories, folks; it’s a gift!

For this deck, the ideal trajectory for you is to start at the newest mini-set, Shining Revelry, to grab both copies each of Giratina ex and Red. Space-Time Smackdown‘s Dialga subset is the next stop, where we aim to grab both copies of Darkrai ex. Next, we go to Mythical Island and get both copies of Leaf and both Druddigons.

Here’s where the trajectory may get a bit weird. By now, you might have enough Pack Points from your Darkrai ex adventure to get cards from the Palkia subset. As such, we advise you to go to Genetic Apex instead and snag that lone copy of Sabrina before heading back to the Palkia subset of Space-Time Smackdown and getting both Rocky Helmets and your lone Cyrus.

By this point, you’ve probably also accrued enough Shop Tickets to get your playset of Potion, Professor’s Research, and Poké Ball. Congratulations! You now have the current strongest deck in Ranked!

The True Cost of Pack Points

Finally, here’s a translation for how many opened packs translate to Pack Points, and how many Pack Hourglasses (and Gold) besides:

Every twelve Pack Hourglasses translate to one pack, and every pack yields five Pack Points. Each point of Gold can be used as two Pack Hourglasses as well. So, for a 2,700 Pack Point transaction, you’d need 540 packs, which yields a need for a whopping 6,480 Pack Hourglasses, or 3,240 Gold.

In short, that’s a lot of money, if that’s your goal for how you want to play Pokémon TCG Pocket. If you can pony up the funds for 3,240 Gold in this game, more power to you! But we just want to state that this is how much everything ultimately costs.

Have Fun Grinding Ranked!

And now, let’s open the floor to you, dear readers. Are you excited to use this deck for Ranked Pokémon TCG Pocket play? Are you planning to use a different deck? Sound off below!

Also, if you’re looking for another worthwhile experience in PTCGP but outside of Ranked, consider checking out some of our deck techs, such as our Triumphant Light deck tech on Arceus ex and Dialga ex.